I would tell you how we got rid of the body but I don't want to bore you.
Just know it involved separating body parts into six trash bags, mutilating a head, and mixing in some lye all before dropping them in different parts of the river where there were no cameras. Let's just say the CIA won't be finding him any time soon.
Nor will I tell you the details of how Ashton had to use his long and slender fingers to retrieve the sea sponge up my uterus. Two men's unwanted fingers in my vagina; what a fun night. By the time everything was taken care of it had was at least three in the morning and my patience was wearing thin.I was in the middle of taking off my makeup in the bathroom's mirror when Ashton leaned against the counter to my right, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
"Are you going to tell me why what Jacs said got into your head or are we just going to pretend like that didn't happen?" I could hear the accusation in his tone.
Fighting back the urge to scoff, I subconsciously flexed my hands, fighting off the ache in my palms. It was my most obvious tell but I didn't care."You already know it all. I know you've done your research," I answered blandly, whipping off the last of my makeup and tossing the towelette into the trash.
"I'll tell you exactly what I know; Athena Zelin, age twenty-five. There's a rumor she has a tattoo on her right hip. Her mother died of cancer when she was thirteen and she was the first woman to die in Hell Week after she drowned with one other Seal; both were top of their class. Her father shot himself in the back of the head six years later. That what's on public record, at least," Ashton looked down at me under his intense gaze.
I couldn't tell if his emotionless eyes were going to yell at me or remain impassive. I cracked under pressure when I shouldn't have. He doesn't trust me anymore.
If he ever did.
"The sealed record says your father was in an accident when you were fifteen, three months later you needed to have a titanium rod put into your shattered radius. Seven months later you had two broken ribs. You faked your enlistment papers, got kidnapped by the Ops in Hell Week then for some reason three years later your platoon dies in a bombing incident. Again, at least that's what the papers say. Your father died of a gunshot to the back of the head a week later. Two days later you're in Saudi Arabia with a handler. Almost three years later your handler is dead and there's a traitor at the capital building demanding asylum with a list of thirty-seven names. Connect the dots for me, Athena. Because right now I only know the destination, not the journey and that seems to be the part that's messing with you."
I flexed my jaw while looking at myself in the mirror. What have I become? A vengeful monster, that's what. 'Are you proud of what you've become?' a voice echoed in my head loudly.
No.
But it's my reality now and I had to own that.
"My father took my mom's death hard. We both did. He got into a car accident and shattered his right leg completely. He was on painkillers and he got addicted to OxyContin. Sometimes he got pissed off when he was having withdrawal and he'd take it out on me. That's why I stopped running track; a broken arm then the ribs, it just wasn't meant to be. I had to get out of there. I couldn't wait until the end of senior year so I started training and then I enlisted." My face was painted with no emotion, like a blank canvas trying to stay pristine and ignore the black paintbrush jabbing at it. My real estate agent father had created an anger inside of me and it never went away.My mother had left me with nothing and my father turned against me. Everyone that loved me was gone. When my ribs healed, I started training to be a Seal. That was the only way to get away and do something that actually impacted the world.
