Page 164 of Creeping Beautiful

Nick wasn’t taken captive that night.

He set himself free.

Free to be himself. And oh, yeah. You think Indie’s scary? You think I’m scary? No. I was restrained. Indie was restrained. Even James Fenici was restrained once he fell for Harper Tate.

But Nick and Carter? Those boys are the real face of the Company killers.

Regardless, I’d have figured it out even if the Shadow didn’t make that mistake, but that just hurried along my understanding of the situation.

But here’s the thing I never understood about the Company. They do this to us. To me, to James, to Nick, to Donovan. They turn us into these killers, and mind-fuckers, and psychopaths. They chew us up and spit us out. And they never see us coming, do they?

They keep those doubles safe and give them a cushy life in big houses or too-long yachts. They send them to the best schools. They give them everything and make them soft so they are ready for their upcoming Manchurian Candidate political careers.

They do this, while all the while, they are making us expendables hard.

How did they not see this coming?

If my father were alive, I’d fuckin’ slap him. Shake him hard by the shoulders. Scream in his face—Why don’t you see us coming?

Anyway… I’m off track again.

I didn’t know how deep this Indie betrayal went. The only thing I knew was that Carter was involved and I had to protect Maggie. So I sent that text to McKay. I was gonna just lie to him. Tell him straight up that Maggie was dead and then quietly disappear with her. But I couldn’t.

I mean, I could. I have no problem lying when it suits me.

But lying straight to McKay felt like crossing a line.

I’m gonna be clear about this right now. I love Core McKay. My father didn’t need to lecture me on how much I owe McKay. He’s mine. Just like Indie is mine, just like Maggie is mine.

There is no future without McKay in it.

I didn’t want to lie to him. But I didn’t want to give him the whole truth in case Carter was tracking his phone. So I just told him it was over and tossed my burner just to be sure.

McKay doesn’t need a phone to find me. We are connected. If he wanted to find me, all he had to do was look a little harder.

And he didn’t.

So I didn’t call him again for almost two years. By that time, Maggie and I were settled in. I wasn’t going back until Carter made his next move.

I knew one day Indie would turn up. Carter is after me. I’m the one who ruined his life. I’m the one who fucked it all up when I helped James and Sasha take down the Company in Santa Barbara. I’m the one who took him away from Donovan.

But I am not an easy man to kill.

And if he can’t kill me, well, then he’ll just take my life. He’ll take my power, he’ll take my McKay, and my Indie, and my Maggie, and… well, I don’t know about Donovan. I have no idea how he feels about Donovan these days.

When Maggie was released from the hospital, I took her to my home in Baton Rouge. It wasn’t a great plan. Hell, I actually expected McKay to come looking for me. I figured… a week, tops, and he’d find us. And we’d figure shit out from there.

But McKay never came. And Donovan never came. And Indie never came. And Carter never came.

So hell, Maggie and I, we took off. There is only one way to escape the attention of Company assassins and that’s by boat. Yachts have always been the Company’s way of secretly getting from place to place. The ocean is deep, the world is wide, and there are plenty of places to get lost.

We got lost in many different parts of the ocean. We got lost on rivers too.

But I have eight-hundred leftovers doing my bidding. So I had twice as many eyes on McKay this whole time. I knew Indie popped back up almost two weeks ago. So Maggie and I flew home to Louisiana to wait and see.

Probably should’ve kept some of those eyes on Donovan as well, seeing as how Indie showed up at his place first. But it would’ve done us no good. She was still under Carter’s control back then. That visit was probably part of his plan.

I’m playing a long game of my own. One so twisted and perfect, the Admiral would shake my hand back.