32. Thirty-One

“What the hell were you thinking?” Maxime paced in front of me, his anger palpable.

I wasn’t surprised. Once he found out Xander and I had switched places, he was bound to be pissed. It only got worse when I removed my earpiece and threw away the script he’d spent hours coaching me through.

I could barely bring myself to care though. I still felt numb as I sat on the end of the bed in the hotel.

After the shot, everything was a blur. People rushed in and ushered me away, throwing a jacket over me to hide the worst of the blood. I was hustled into a car where I was told to strip. My bloodstained clothes went into a garbage bag, and I had to clean off with baby wipes. There’d been chunks of Kevin in my hair. Someone had given me a comb to get them out and then sprinkled my hair with a weird powder I had to brush through it to clean it.

As soon as I got to the room, I had to shower and change again, and now Maxime was shouting at me.

It didn’t feel real. Nothing did. I knew I was disassociating, and that was dangerous. My hold on reality was weakening by the second. I needed my collar. I needed Boone. Without him, I felt like I might float away.

“Did it work?” I heard myself asking. “Did they get the site offline?”

Maxime stared at me like I’d lost my damned mind. Maybe I had. “Yes, I have confirmation that the mission was a success, despite your interference. Agent Valentine is furious though. He threatened to revoke immunity for both you and Xander for your shenanigans.”

Shenanigans. He made it sound like we’d switched the sugar and salt in the kitchen and not switched places during a black ops mission. One we never should’ve been a part of.

He opened his mouth to continue his tirade, but the Bluetooth in his ear lit up. “I have to take this call,” he announced and tapped the device in his ear. “Yes? Of course, sir. I’ve already forwarded the list of victims and their last known locations to the appropriate crisis response teams.” He glanced at me. “Yes, sir. He’s right here. I already told him…” He frowned, scowled, and then yanked the device off his ear. “He wants to speak to you directly.”

I assumed it was Algerone, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to him, but something told me I didn’t have much of a choice, so I took the Bluetooth and stuck it on my ear. “Hello?”

“Although I would’ve preferred you stuck to the plan, I can’t deny the results,” Algerone said.

“Switching was my idea,” I lied. “Don’t let Valentine punish Xander for it.”

“I’d say Valentine is regretting his choice to close himself in a room with Xander about now,” he said with a small chuckle. “He’s learning what a handful you three can be. So am I.”

“About our mom...” I looked up and met Maxime’s eyes as he wrung his hands. I considered telling Algerone the truth, that his most trusted assistant was indirectly responsible for separating us from our parents when we were babies. If he hadn’t been so jealous, what kind of life might I have had? I doubted I would’ve spent five years in the hospital going through hell.

Then again, I might not have ever met Boone. If I was going to blame Maxime for the bad that’d happened because of his decisions, I had to accept that he’d done good, too. He wasn’t evil. He was complicated, just like the rest of us.

Besides, what good would it do dredging all that up now, twenty years later? The past was dead. Let it stay buried where it belonged.

“Xion? What about her?”

I turned back to the call. “Do you know where she’s buried? I’d like to go pay my respects once this is all over.”

“I’ll send you the address. And a car to take you, if you’d like.”

I nodded. “I think that’d be fine. Also, about the offer you made. I’m going to pass on being a part of your operations. I don’t think I’m cut out for this sort of work. I hope you understand.”

There was a brief pause before he spoke again. “I’d still like to be a part of your life, Xion. However you’ll let me.”

“I’d like that,” I said quietly. “But it’s going to take some time.”

“Of course. Take all the time you need.”

I hung up and and held the Bluetooth in my hands.

“You didn’t tell him,” Maxime said as if he were shocked.

“It’s in the past. I’m tired of yesterday’s ghosts being tomorrow’s monsters. It’s a vicious cycle, isn’t it? How the past haunts us? How it dictates who we become? But those ghosts don’t have any more power than what we choose to give them. I’m done being a slave to angry ghosts. From today forward, I get to choose who and what I become. Today, I’m free.”

I slapped the device into Maxime’s hand.

He stared at it a moment before whispering, “Thank you.”

“Just don’t forget, Maxime. I know. If you or Algerone ever try to pull another stunt like you did before, so will everyone else. Try to take Boone away from me again, or me away from him, and I’ll burn it all down. I don’t care if I burn with it. Is that clear?”

He nodded once. “Crystal.”

The door to the room opened, and Boone entered carrying his gun case and looking utterly exhausted.

Crossing that hotel room to get to Boone felt like crossing a minefield. Every step, I expected something to explode to tear us back apart or for me to get there and find he was just another hallucination. I didn’t believe he was real until he caught me in his arms.

Boone kissed the top of my head and held me tight. “It’s over, Pup. It’s all over.”

I shook my head. “I’m just getting started.” When he looked at me strangely, I kissed his lips softly and explained, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life, and I get to spend it with you.”

Boone smiled and kissed me back. “I can’t imagine a happier beginning than that.”