I took my glasses off so I could rub my eyes. I was a few steps away from my front door and just a couple more minutes away from crawling into bed next to my girl. She’d stopped by the station a couple of times to see if she could help. Titus put her to work scanning the matching hits from the program, and she was the one who had tracked down their locations using their check-ins and photos on social media. We made a great team, no matter what side of the law we were working for, but I hadn’t had enough alone time with her, hadn’t been able to taste her or feel her the way I wanted. When I didn’t have enough of her, the chill that she chased away found its way back inside of me. Winter filled me up and frosted over all the things inside of me she’d worked so hard to thaw out. Without her, I was frozen, covered in frost and ice. With her, I was human, a man who ran hot and fast. She made my emotions wild and I loved that I couldn’t control them or her. The way she made me feel was a problem I never wanted to solve because I’d had years of isolation, no check on my emotions.
I was reaching for the front door when a throat was cleared loudly behind me. It was testament to how tired I was and how good their training was that I hadn’t heard their approach.
The men in black suits. Noe had started calling them K and J, just like in the movie, whenever I brought them up. It was fitting. They still wore the same severe suits they’d had on when they took me away from my sister all those years ago. They’d aged, but then again, so had I. It was clear the current state of the world wasn’t easy on whatever no name branch of the government they worked. They looked as tired as I felt and possibly defeated.
“Gentleman.” I kept my voice steady and calm. I wanted to throw the door open and hide behind it. I wanted to run away from them but knew they would chase me. I’d been expecting a visit. There was no covering up the fact I was up to my old tricks and no longer working with a broken mind. I was back, which meant they wanted me to return to the fold. They had no use for a grieving brother and disenchanted son. But when I was a man with an agenda, a genius with a thirst for revenge, they couldn’t show up on my doorstep fast enough.
“You’ve been busy, Mr. Stark. All kinds of stories of your escapades floating around the Internet. We’ve been watching.” That was said by the shorter of the two, the one who threatened to throw me in jail alongside my father if I didn’t snap out of my grief over losing Savina.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Figured you would be.”
The taller of the two watched me carefully. He put his hands on his hips, pushing back his jacket and showing the gun and badge clipped onto his belt. He was trying to remind me that they called the shots, but they were on my turf. This was my city, I was the one with the upper hand here. “We have a classified project we want you to come on board for. What do you know about EMPs?”
I snorted. “Electromagnetic pulses? I know that paranoid end-of-the-world-preppers and conspiracy theorists think that an EMP can bring about the collapse of our society. I know that, theoretically, a pulse can turn a developed country into a third-world nation. I know there isn’t enough known about the long-term implications of weaponizing that kind of technology, but you’ve never cared about the implications much, have you?”
Both of them stiffened and exchanged a look. I wasn’t the scared, malleable teenager they’d conned into being their puppet anymore. Their agenda wasn’t mine, and I didn’t feel like I owed them anything any longer.
“It’s in your best interest to come with us, Mr. Stark. If you don’t, we can make life very difficult for you. Don’t forget you are still guilty of hacking into a secure government mainframe. That is a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. We can throw you in prison.” That was a threat that used to scare me, but not now.
I crossed my arms over my chest and leveled them both with a hard look. “Did you kill my mother? Did the government make the call to have her lab destroyed when she wouldn’t give you what you wanted? I went looking for those answers and never found them. I’m much better at getting into the places you want to keep me out of now. You guys made sure I was trained to be the best. I can find the truth. I can drag that information out into the light, make sure everyone sees it. People are hungry for proof that our systems are flawed.”
The taller one started to look uneasy as the shorter one puffed up his chest and warned, “We can make you disappear, Stark. No one would even know you’re gone. Just like last time.”
He was wrong. Last time, my sister missed me so much she died and this time, well, this time I had someone who wouldn’t let me go without a fight. The door behind me flung open and suddenly a small, warm body was pressed into my side. I glanced down at Noe as she wrapped her arm around my waist. I took her weight and curled my fingers around her upper arm in a side hug.
“I’d notice if he was gone. The cop he’s been working with would notice. The guy who has this entire town in his pocket would notice. His friends would notice.” She narrowed her eyes at the men dressed in black suits and growled, “His father would notice if he stopped visiting, and I’m sure his sister’s spirit would notice if he was no longer stopping by to put flowers on her grave. She sure as shit felt it when you pulled him out of her life. You can’t have him. He’s mine.” Her fingers curled into the fabric of my shirt and she pressed even more fully into my side.
The short agent scoffed and pointed a finger at her. “We know who you are, Ms. Lee, formerly known as Alyssa Cartwright. You aren’t much of an obstacle standing between us and what we want.”
She looked up at me, dark eyes a shade lighter than the midnight sky overhead. Her lips were pursed in a sour look so I couldn’t resist a chuckle as I bent down to touch them with my own. The suits had no idea who they were dealing with.
She had never been Alyssa Cartwright. That girl never got a choice, never got a say. That wasn’t who she was. She’d put that girl behind her. She never wanted to hear that name again, just like she never wanted to see Aaron again. Those two belonged in a deep, dark hole that would never see the light of day. She was Noe Lee and she was a force to be reckoned with. She wasn’t afraid of the men who had taken me and broken me. She would do whatever it took to keep me right by her side. These idiots should be very, very worried.
She pulled away from me and pointed at the tall agent, body tense and fury making her spine stiff. She was stunning, all that fight and defiance that had first attracted me to her directed in my defense. “I know who you are too, Agent Franklin. You aren’t married but you do have a long-term partner. No one in your agency knows you’re gay, because you’re right, that knowledge would more than likely slow your fast-track to the top. No one in your agency knows that you’ve been trying to adopt a child from Russia, but I do. I know all about it. If your superiors had that information, they would shut it down considering they don’t want any of their agents to have any ties to Russia at the moment. It wouldn’t look good if that got out; imagine how the media would twist that story. Spy sells State secrets in exchange for a no-questions-asked adoption.”
The man went pale, so white that he appeared to glow in the dark. He swayed on his feet and refused to look at his partner who was now blustering and walking toward Noe.
“Ms. Lee, I suggest you keep your mouth shut.” He reached for her but before his hands landed, I was between the two of them, a hand on the center of his chest as I pushed him back.
“We know all about you too, Agent Grimes. We know about your gambling debt. We know about the first wife you beat and put in the hospital even though your buddies in the agency covered it up. We know about the money you stole from the warlord you took out during your last tour in Afghanistan, money that was supposed to go to fund schools and infrastructure. Money that was supposed to be used to rebuild the villages we destroyed. Money you pocketed. We know about the second wife who mysteriously disappeared when you went diving in Australia. The DoD covered that up as well. I’m guessing you have dirt on someone higher up than you, maybe the asshole who ordered the hit on my mom.” I gave him a shove that sent him stumbling back into his lanky partner. “While you’ve been watching me, it gave her,” I hooked a thumb in Noe’s direction. She bared her teeth in a feral smile that would make even the brassiest of balls draw up in fear. “All the time she needed to watch you. I’m not going anywhere, and if you think you can fuck with me again, we’re pulling the curtain back. Not just on you, but on how this all started. I know your people were responsible for what happened to my mom. You stopped me from proving it before, you won’t stop me now. I’ll start a scandal before you step off this porch. No one is ever impressed by the wizard. They love Oz, but no one ever wants to see who’s actually behind the curtain.”
The agents exchanged a look. The tall one was worried. The short one was impotently furious. He looked like he wanted to lunge at me, but he knew I could kick his ass. We had the same kind of training, but I was three times his size and had years of built-up resentment. “This isn’t over Stark. You owe your country.”