“Don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Jackie answered. “He’ll have to be careful with how he handles the information, but that’s right up his alley.”

Jackie and I grinned at each other, and I knew that whatever she’d decided when she quit Capital Confessions, there had always been a part of her that craved this. We were a bloodthirsty pair; maybe it was the genes.

My gaze swept the rest of the group. I couldn’t read Matt, but Will and Gray looked resigned, as though it wasn’t their fight, but they would fight it anyway for the women they loved. They’d both had their dirty laundry aired in Capital Confessions, so I figured they had their reservations—justifiably so. Blair looked worried, and knowing my cautious sister like I did, I figured she was already thinking of all the ways this could backfire and blow up in our faces.

And there were many.

For a moment I just looked at my family, my sisters, the men they loved, and thought of the lives they’d built, the challenges they’d overcome. They had bright futures ahead of them, and as much as I knew they hated our father, it wasn’t their fight. Gray and Blair were just starting out, trying to put their baggage behind them. Will’s political future was huge, and Jackie had worked so hard to build her career in an industry that wouldn’t understand her involvement in chipping away at a prominent senator’s power. It would embarrass his party, possibly implicate some of his many political allies. It wasn’t worth it. She had way too much to lose.

I didn’t.

I enjoyed my job at the CIA, but it was just a job. No matter how this played out, we would never really feel safe if we stayed in town, if we didn’t shed our identities. And I knew that my father was just one crooked politician in a long line of many, but I needed to feel like all of this had meant something. That the years Matt and I had suffered had some purpose. I needed this.

“I think you guys should sit this one out.”

Jackie made a face. “Are you joking? After everything? I started this.”

“I know.” My gaze shifted to Will. “If you get tied up in this, how is it going to look for Will’s political career?”

She closed her eyes.

“How’s it going to look for your career? You love what you do. You’re good at what you do. Really good. So is Will. You guys are already making a difference in this town. Don’t screw that up.”

Jackie opened her eyes, and I saw the resignation there. “What about you?”

I shrugged and my gaze connected with Matt’s. “I think I’m ready to try living in the shadows for a bit. I’ve done the spotlight thing and hated it. I’m never going to get to be ordinary. Never going to get to put this shit behind me. Neither one of us can. So instead of trying to force our future into something we can’t have, I’m going to go out on my terms.”

Blair shook her head. “I don’t want all of this to be on you.”

Gray squeezed her hand and I knew that in my absence, Blair would never be alone.

“It is on me. I need you to accept that. Let me handle this. I’ll talk to Sean. I’ll leak the info. And then we’ll leave D.C.”

“Are you sure about that?” Matt asked.

“Yeah. I am.”

Matt

“Are you really going to go through with this?” I asked Kate after everyone had left, when we were alone in the hotel room, still trying to come to terms with her plan, with all that she was willing to risk and give up to be with me. “There might be another way.”

If I were in her place, I’d do the same thing, no question. But it was still hard to be okay with it, to accept that she was going to be closing this chapter of her life and moving on to a future that was a giant unknown. She was putting everything on the line for us, and that scared me more than anything. What if she hated the life I had to offer her? What if we couldn’t stay safe?

She shook her head. “There isn’t. You know that. We’ve looked at everything, and he’s always one step ahead of us, and if anything, he’s shown us that he’s not afraid to do whatever it takes to destroy us. We can’t win. This is the only way to try to make a difference. The only way to take him down.”

“Even if it means we have to run?”

She nodded. “I think it’s best. And I don’t really think of it as running. It’s the only play we have here. The only thing that makes sense. It’s just good strategy.”

She was right. Even as I hated it for her, I saw the acceptance in her eyes and knew it was the only hope we had of having a future together.

“I can work on getting our final documents together. New identities, passports, that sort of thing. Most of it should be complete by now.”

“Have you thought about where you want to go?” she asked.

“What do you think about Indonesia? Bali?”

“Bali?”

“Yeah.”

She grinned. “That seems a little more like a vacation spot than somewhere we’d go on the run.”

“It can be both. Our money will last there. We can get a little place, and it’ll be beautiful. I’m done staying in disgusting hovels. I lived on the run taking jobs that made my skin crawl, saving money for my future. I want to put down roots somewhere comfortable.” I squeezed her hand, shifting on the bed so that she lay on top of me. “Unless you want to reconsider things? It’ll be scary at times, and it’ll be rough.”

“Is this the last time you’re going to ask me?” she asked with a grin.

I laughed. “Fine. Sorry. Yes.”

“I am completely sure. This’ll be good for us. I know it.”

“Okay, then.”

Kate leaned down, pressing her lips to mine. “I love you,” she whispered between our mouths.

I found her hand, linking our fingers together. “I love you, too.”

I reached up, tugging on the hem of her T-shirt, pulling it over her head. My hands drifted up to the clasp of her bra, fumbling with the hooks for a second before I stripped the fabric from her body.

She stared down at me, a playful expression in her eyes that immediately had my dick hard. Or maybe that was just how good it felt to have her rocking over me.

My hands came down to the button of her jeans.

“You have entirely too many clothes on,” I murmured.

I unbuttoned her pants and dragged the zipper down, tugging the denim off of her body. Kate moved away, shedding the remainder of her clothes, and then she was straddling me again, naked, bending forward to kiss me.

My hand stroked down her back as we kissed, tracing the sharp line of her spine, cupping her ass, squeezing, my mouth drifting down to her neck, my teeth scraping the skin there. She shivered, her fingers reaching for the waistband of my boxers, pulling the fabric down. I lifted my hips to help her, until I was naked, my eyes slamming closed at the feel of her against me—slippery and wet. We rocked back and forth as Kate rubbed herself over me, again and again, her head thrown back, fucking gorgeous.

A thin line of sweat formed on my brow, my hands clenching the sheets, the urge to slide into her tight heat nearly overwhelming. And then, as though she took pity on me, she reached between us, taking my cock in her hands and circling it, positioning her hips over me, sinking down slowly, the head teasing her entrance as she covered me in her arousal. Little by little, she lowered herself until she’d taken all of me, and then with my hand at her hip, she began to ride.

We didn’t speak, didn’t do anything but give in to the sensations overtaking our bodies. When I came, I came hard, her body clinging to mine, my arms around her, and then Kate simply collapsed on top of me, her head resting on my chest, her lips over my heart, pressed against the initial I’d had etched there, all those years ago.

Chapter Twenty-two

Get ready for our biggest story yet …

—Capital Confessions blog

Kate

I strode into the Capital Confessions offices feeling like I was about to fire the opening shot in a war. This was it. Everything that had happened up until this point had led us here; this was my final showdown in the O.K. Corral.