Chapter 6 - The Man Who Wrote Our Marriage
Owen ended the call before we could ask what he meant.
Marcus immediately called back.
The number was dead.
I looked at my husband.
“What key?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I really don’t.”
Rook told everyone to move.
Raven Six cleared the dining hall in under two minutes. The guests were escorted to secured rooms while Eleanor, Marcus, and I were taken through a service corridor beneath the hotel.
I did not want Marcus beside me.
Rook insisted.
“If Owen called him, he’s part of the threat picture.”
Marcus gave a humorless laugh.
“My wife already figured that out.”
We reached an underground parking area.
A black SUV waited.
The first explosion hit before we got inside.
Glass blew from the stairwell doors.
Rook shoved me behind a concrete pillar.
“Down!”
Gunfire cracked through the garage.
Marcus pulled Eleanor behind a parked car.
Raven Six returned fire.
I saw one attacker moving along the far wall.
Then Marcus saw him too.
The man raised his weapon toward me.
Marcus ran.
Not away.
At him.
He hit the shooter from the side just before the shot fired.
The bullet tore into a concrete column.
Rook’s people closed the distance.
Seconds later, the attacker was on the floor.
Marcus stood over him, breathing hard.
The man laughed.
“Asset Twelve.”
Marcus froze.
“What did you call me?”
The attacker looked at him.
“Sloane said you’d come home eventually.”
Rook tore open the man’s jacket.
A symbol was tattooed over his ribs.
A small black square divided into four sections.
Eleanor whispered, “Halcyon.”
I looked at her.
“You know it.”
She did not deny it.
Rook dragged the attacker away.
“Move. Now.”
Inside the SUV, Marcus stared at his hands.
“Asset Twelve.”
Eleanor said, “Don’t.”
He looked at her.
“You know what that means.”
She faced the window.
“Mom.”
Nothing.
“Mom!”
She finally turned.
“Victor recruited you after Owen disappeared.”
Marcus’s face emptied.
“I was sixteen.”
“He told me it was the only way to keep you safe.”
“What did he make me do?”
“You carried messages. Signed forms. Sat in meetings you didn’t understand.”
“And Elena?”
Eleanor looked at me.
“Years later, Victor told Marcus that marrying you would finally give us leverage over Celeste.”
The SUV went silent.
Marcus whispered, “You told me her mother killed Dad.”
“I believed it.”
“You used me.”
“I was trying to save my family.”
He laughed through tears.
“You destroyed it.”
Then Rook’s driver slammed on the brakes.
A truck blocked the tunnel ahead.
Rook looked at the rear camera.
Another vehicle sealed the exit behind us.
His voice became very calm.
“This is not an ambush.”
I looked at him.
“What is it?”
A figure stepped from the truck ahead.
Victor Sloane.
Rook answered.
“It’s a pickup.”
When Marcus hit the attacker, I saw how quickly he moved. Not like an accountant or foundation executive. Like someone trained.
Later, inside the SUV, I asked him.
“Who taught you to fight?”
He stared at the floor mat. “Victor’s people.”
“How old?”
“Sixteen.”
“What else did they teach you?”
His silence made Eleanor close her eyes.
“Surveillance,” he said finally. “How to follow someone without being seen. How to memorize a room. How to tell if a car has been sitting too long.”
I thought about the first month we dated. Marcus always chose the seat facing the door. He remembered license plates. He noticed strangers twice. I had called him observant.
“How much of that did you use on me?”
“At the beginning? All of it.”
My stomach turned.
“And later?”
“Later I kept doing it because I was afraid somebody else was watching you.”
“That doesn’t make it romantic.”
“I know.”
The fact that he no longer tried to make himself sound better was the only improvement I could give him credit for.
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