Angels, Pop Stars, and...More Spies? Oh My!

Epilogue

Epilogue

July 17th

Washington DC, USA

I found him sitting on the pool deck. Joshua stared out into the distance, a thoughtful look on his face. I slowly walked over to him, sitting down. He didn't look at me. He continued to stare ahead at the crystal blue waters. Somewhere in the White House, President McGallen was in a press conference with Margaret. Preston hasn't left his room since we came back. Ariana has been too traumatized to even speak, which is very rare in her case. Even Skylar has been quiet since our arrival back in DC. I was briefed by the CIA. They asked questions, took a mandatory polygraph, asked me to fill out paperwork. Then moved on. I tried to move on, but seeing Joshua so jostled and upset isn't easy. I dipped my feet into the cool pool water, placing my sandals next to me on the cement deck.

"How do you forget?"

I glanced at Joshua. He was watching me now, waiting. His gray eyes looked haunted. After finding out what his mother looks like, I deduced his gray eyes as a recessive trait in his family gene pool.

"Excuse me?"

Joshua cleared his throat, looking down at his clasped hands in his lap. I rested my head on his shoulder, taking one of his hands in mine and giving it a reassuring squeeze. He trembled slightly.

"How do you forget?"

You don't. I bit my lower lip, thinking of a way to tell him...oh, screw it.

"You don't. You always remember your first kill, even if it's your last." I answered.

He nodded, wrapping an arm around me and kissing the top of my head. I wrapped my arms around him tightly. He loved me enough to protect me when I was in danger. I love him so much. I just wish it didn't have to be his mother he had to shoot.

"Do you...?"

I nodded.

"Yes. I was fifteen, a junior spy. I was training on an unofficial mission in Morocco when my trainer and I were attacked. He died. Shot seven times. The attacker was advancing on me, ready to shoot. Out of pure adrenaline, I grabbed his gun and killed our attacker with one shot."

The memory played back in my head like a movie. I remember all the adrenaline I had running through me. How everything had suddenly become me and the gun. Everything was drowned out. I had aimed and shot. I remember seeing the light leave his eyes as he crumbled to the ground, lifeless. The recoil I felt from the force of the gun. The loud bang it produced. Tom's body in front of me, as lifeless as our attacker's. I still have the occasional nightmare about it. Most agents don't kill in their entire career. Well, I blew that out of the water. 

"Does it ever get easier?"

I'm not going to lie to him anymore.

"No."

~THE END OF BOOK 2~