“What the hell?” Nakia and Imani lowered their shields, too stunned to believe what they were seeing.
Sergey charged toward Mac with his knife drawn. Mac coolly fired a clean shot to Sergey’s chest.
Sergey dropped hard to the floor with a stupefied expression.
“Can you ladies forget what you just saw?” Mac asked them softly without turning to look at them.
“Ah, I don’t think I can explain what I saw,” Nakia mumbled breathlessly. When she’d first seen Mac, she had thought he was a Clark Kent look-a-like, but now without his sunglasses and the most brilliant pair of blue eyes she’d ever seen, she had to revise her opinion. There was no Clark Kent there; he was all Superman.
“Does Colt know?” Imani asked hesitantly.
“Know what?” Mac grinned as he finally turned to look them.
Imani stared at him as though waiting for him to continue speaking, but when he said nothing further, she turned to Nakia.
Nakia shrugged. “I have an alter-ego too, so…”
Imani sighed and rolled her eyes. “Okay, we’ll keep your secret, but I have so many questions.”
“You know what they say about curiosity.” Mac smirked and turned with his cellphone to his ear.
Within an hour, Mac had cleared the dead bodies from the safe house and turned them over to the other FBI agents he had at the main house. Mark and the other guards at the house found the maid that had betrayed them. Unfortunately, she tried to run, and they killed her. They also confirmed that the two people who Sergey had killed were Sarah and Matt. Imani was still in shock even after another few hours when the doctor who examined Colt and Justin had come and left. Alex sat on the floor playing with his trucks and cars after having eaten his afternoon snack.
“I understand Sarah’s hatred, but Matt? What could he possibly have gotten out of this? I mean he’s still a partner at the firm, isn’t he?”
Nakia knew that Imani was only asking rhetorical questions, but she still felt obligated to play along and answer as best she could. “I don’t know, Imani. I guess it’s the usual reasons. Jealousy. Greed. Who knows why people do half the evil shit they do? I’m just glad it’s over.”
“Is it, though? Is this ever over?” Imani’s gaze glistened with tears. “I stupidly made a weapon to protect Colt, and all this shit happened. They won’t stop trying to get me to make weapons for them, you know.”
Nakia felt bad for her friend because she knew that what Imani said was truth. She could also understand why Justin thought this too. “Yeah, you have a point. Men of power always want more power.”
“The only peace I’ll ever have is when I’m dead,” she said sadly. “And probably not even then, because some asshole will try to get the information from my children.”
Nakia didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.
“Colt and I will have to disappear.”
Nakia hated seeing the lost desperate look on her friend’s face, but she had no idea how to comfort her. She could only hug Imani and try to ease her pain.
“Good thing we have Justin and you to help us.”
“Well, you have Justin,” Nakia answered slowly and released her. “Justin asked me to leave before all of this went down.”
“What? Why? He loves you.”
Nakia laughed bitterly. “Apparently not as much as I love him. Good thing I never unpacked.”
“I can’t believe this. Justin must have been upset after the bombing and kidnapping, because he would never let you go otherwise. God, this is my fault.” Imani started pacing, and her cheeks were soon wet with tears. “I should never have made those weapons.”
“This is not your fault. This is no one’s fault. Justin doesn’t want me anymore, and I have to accept that.”
“No, Nakia. You’re wrong,”
“I just need to get my bag.”
Imani grabbed her hands to try to stop her from leaving the room. “Don’t go.”
“Imani, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I love him, but he doesn’t love me. Knowing that the one person that my heart beats for doesn’t feel the same…” Her voice cracked, and there was nothing she could do to stem the tears that rolled down her cheeks. “I was married to Ralph for five years, and I never shed a tear when he cheated on me or when we divorced. I never thought I could feel this way about anyone.”
“I know what you mean. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if Colt said that to me.”
“And I pray you never find out. It was great getting to know you, Imani.” Nakia gently removed her hands from Imani’s. “I hope we can remain friends?”
“Yes, of course.” Alex started getting fussy. Imani lifted him in her arms.
Nakia leaned in and kissed them on their cheeks before going into the bedroom she and Justin shared. She gathered her few belongings that weren’t already packed, and within ten minutes, she was driving away.
Justin had been awake for a few hours having slept most of yesterday and the night away. He and Colt were still stunned by the developments while they’d slept. While part of him was glad that it was finally over and neither he nor Colt had the difficult decision to kill their brother, another part of him wanted to bring the bastards back to life to shoot them again.
He was also reeling from the fact that not only had he lost one brother, but given Imani’s decision to live in exile, he was about to lose his other brother too. Their parents had taken Matt’s and Sarah’s deaths hard. They didn’t try to hide the fact that they blamed Imani. Given the frosty attitude of the rest of the family, Justin wasn’t surprised that Colt didn’t think twice about leaving. He would continue working as a partner of the firm, but Justin would become the managing partner. However, all of that paled in comparison to Nakia leaving.
He still wasn’t ready to think about Nakia not being there. Although he’d told her to go in a moment of panic, that pain he was going to try to delay as long as possible. For now, he was simply going to pretend that she was out and was coming back at any moment.
“You’re an idiot you know?” Imani hadn’t stopped glaring at him since they’d woken up.
“It was getting too dangerous around here. She almost got killed twice because of me,” he tried to explain.
“And you think she’s safe now? She’s somewhere out there on her own. She disconnected her phone and email for Christ’s sake. She’s alone! How the hell is she safe?”
“I know. I’m an idiot.” He felt like shit. And because Imani wasn’t happy with him, Colt wasn’t happy either. It was one of the only times in his life he remembered his brother being truly pissed with him.
“Couldn’t you have tried harder to not hurt my wife? You know she’ll blame herself for this shit!” Colt growled and held his hand up when Justin tried to defend himself. “Go and get your woman before I kick your ass.”
“I seem to remember when you were in the shit house that I was a little gentler with the pep talk,” Justin told him drily. “I love you too, bro.”