No Love Lost (Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten Book 5), стр. 21

But he wouldn’t. That had been their problem. He’d raged at her time and time again and it never seemed to quell his anger. He shoved down the need to rehash their old issues. Why should he bother when they had so many new issues to get through? “I would rather talk about what happened today.”

She pulled the cork and went to work finding glasses. “I’ll write up a report. I think it’s safe to say Levi is back in good with the big bosses.”

He took a long breath and forced himself to sit on the couch.

It wasn’t comfortable. It was kind of lumpy.

“Yes. I think we can safely say whatever was on the files we picked up here in Paris was enough to get them to overlook everything Levi’s done in the last couple of years.” Like work with drug dealing generals and shoot operatives who didn’t agree with him. The Agency had picked teams and it looked like everything had come up Levi’s way.

She poured two glasses of the wine. “I know what he has. The question is will the Agency admit they have it.”

“What is that?”

She put the glass in front of him, moved her duffel to the floor, and sat down across from him. “There was a ton of information about who McDonald worked with. Some real. Some placed in there for blackmail purposes, like me. But the other thing you need to understand is that Levi has the formulary for McDonald’s drug.”

He felt the hairs on his arm stand up. That drug had taken everything from the Lost Boys, and he’d prayed they’d destroyed it utterly. “Tell me it’s not the final formulary.”

“No, but I worry that’s out there somewhere.”

He happened to know otherwise. “I’m going to tell you something that I hope you don’t feel necessary to share with the Agency when you get back.”

Her eyes widened. “Get back? I don’t think my job will be waiting for me at the end of this. Once you get burned it’s very hard to rejoin, and I wouldn’t ever move up again. You know that. They offered to let you return but you walked away. I always wondered if that was more about giving me the finger than not wanting your job back.”

“It wasn’t about you.” Seeing her had been the only reason to remain at the Agency, even though he’d known how unhealthy it was to stay around her. “It was about…everything. It was about what happened in Africa. It was about what happened in Mexico. It was about my brother.”

“If it was about your brother then it was about me. You can’t separate the two of us in your head anymore.” She stared at the wall behind him, her eyes a bit glassy. She suddenly shook her head and her eyes cleared. “I won’t be going back to the Agency. I don’t know what I’ll do, but even if I managed to get rid of Levi, there will always be people there who hate me. After what happened this morning, I don’t think I can trust anyone there. So you can tell me anything. Despite our trouble, I’ve always been on your side.”

She’d worked hard to try to get his job back. He knew she was one of the reasons the Agency hadn’t come after him harder when he’d left. Big Tag had been another, but Kim had actively worked to keep him safe. He could trust her in this. “I helped Big Tag destroy the final formulary. We found it at the secondary base here in France. I came in a few hours after they freed Theo. Big Tag thought it would be good to have an Agency operative there so he would have accountability. He picked me because he knew I would do what he wanted. He knew I would help destroy that woman’s work and I would cover for him. Not even the rest of the group knew I was there until later. It’s all gone.”

“Well, the first versions of it are now in Levi’s hands, and I assure you, he means to perfect it all over again.” She sighed and took a sip. “Like I said, I’ll write it up tonight.”

“I would rather you told me. I was surprised. The fucker finally managed to shock me. When I realized something was going wrong, I thought it would be me he arrested.”

“Only because you fundamentally misunderstand what Levi wants out of this war we’re in.”

“Oh, I understand. He wants you. He wants to be able to say he took you from me.”

She laughed, though the sound held not an ounce of true amusement. “You genuinely think he’s doing this to prove he’s better than you? That’s why you were surprised?”

“He hates me.”

“No, babe. He hates me and that’s why he fucks with you. You think this war is between you and Levi and that I’m some pathetic prize one of you gets at the end, but you’re wrong. I’m not blaming you for thinking that way. I did for a long time, too. But I hate to burst your bubble. You’re incidental to this war because it would have happened whether or not you showed up.”

His first instinct was to argue with her. This was obviously something between himself and Levi. After all, he’d been shot by the fucker and left for dead, not her. But arguing wouldn’t solve anything. “Why do you think that? You know he’s hated me pretty much from the moment we met.”

“You were a prick to him, but then he was annoying and trying to show off for me,” she replied. “Though I didn’t realize it at the time.”

He’d met Kim when she was in training. She and Levi had been members of the same class. They’d been in a seminar that Ezra hadn’t intended to teach. He’d only been working for a few years longer than their training class. “He didn’t understand geopolitics the