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Her heart ripped in two The pain made her stuht blurred, and she blinked hard to clear it With a tiny moan, she released the rope and stepped back

“No!” The fury in his word made her shake Not from fear From pain

She fought to get the words out through her tightening throat “This is for the best You’re in danger with me We both knoe’ll never make it to New York in time, not now Not with Kane at our heels And even if we did make it, Enforcement would kill us both This way, you live”

“No” He sprang to his feet His hands on the rail, ready to jump

“Don’t,” she snapped the word at hiet me to La Paz, and we’re here Your job is done Go home” Her stomach roiled with the lies

His eye turned black “Fuck that”

His ars up and over the rail, and then he froze His body shook His eye rolled back, and he collapsed into a heap on the balcony floor Friday screaet to the man she loved, Desperate to help him, soainst a hard, i for freedo for Striker’s safety

A man’s face appeared on the balcony above her, the one where Striker lay motionless “What do you want to do with him, Boss?”

“Bring hihtened around her

All she could do atch helplessly as the other man hefted Striker’s limp body over his shoulder He wasn’t unconscious The neural stun gun had rendered him temporarily immobile His unpatched eye was open It stared at her with equal measures of fear and fury She turned her head in sha away useless tears This was all her fault All of it She should have given up on life in Houston and let the poison take her She shouldn’t have tried to find the antidote No one would have missed her No one would have mourned And now, because she’d been selfish, Striker’s life was on the line More than his life—his secrets, and the secrets of his team, were on the line Because of her, his unique DNA was in the hands of CommTECH

She erupted with the injustice of it all “Leave hi to do with this Nothing I only hired hi me here You don’t need to take hi her nails into his ar her alive from the inside out Kane had to understand that Striker had nothing to do with her He had to let the o free

“You’re irl,” Kane said against her ear “Now, for every kick you give ler”

She went still in his hold

“I knee’d reach an understanding” With a cold, hard laugh, he cli her with him

Chapter Thirty-Two