Agent 7. The Shadows: Part I

▪️◼️Chapter Twenty Five◼️▪️

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ALINA
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I inhale sharply as I sit up in bed. A loud noise startling me awake.

"Matteo?" I call out in a disoriented panic. Soft morning light is pouring in from the windows as the quiet murmuring of voices fill the air. I quickly search the bed to find it empty.

"Matteo?" I call out again, my voice is hoarse from exhaustion.

I turn my focus to the living room where I find Matteo-hands balled into fists at his sides-glaring up at the television hanging on the wall in front of him. My eyes follow his gaze.

"о мой Бог" I gasp. "How is this possible?"

On the television, a live news broadcast is interviewing Oleg Borkov as he announces his run for Presidency. I shake my head back and forth in utter disbelief.

I watched him have a heart attack. And then I witnessed Matteo put a bullet through his head shortly after. Mayor Borkov is dead. I still have his blood beneath my nails and on my clothes to prove it.

This... this doesn't make any sense.

Matteo, hearing my voice, turns toward me.

I flinch back when I see the rage in his eyes. Angry doesn't begin to describe his disposition. He's terrifying. Venom oozes from his every feature. His shoulders are broad and his biceps are taught as if prepared for a fight. If smoke could billow from his ears, it would. He isn't the gentle and caring man from the wee hours of the morning. He's once again a trained killer.

He takes a step toward me and I freeze unsure if his anger is directed at me or the dead man who is very much alive on the television screen.

"Are you behind this?" He seethes, pointing to the screen behind him. His words hiss off his thinned lips. My brows raise as I desperately shake my head, no.

"I don't understand. What's going on?" I need him to make sense of all of this. I internally beg for him to help me understand.

Quickly, before I have a chance to scurry away, Matteo is at the edge of the bed grabbing me up by my arms. He is rough as he gets in my face. "Tell me how this is possible, Alina!" He demands, enraged. "How is the man I sent you to kill, the man I did kill, alive?" He explodes.

My breathing falters as I struggle to form words. I'm just as perplexed as he is. "I-i, I don't know! I was there when you shot him Matteo. I-i don't know how this is possible!" I need him to believe me, I don't understand any of this, either. We were both there, he held me in his arms as he took the Mayor's life. I felt the vibration of the gun through Matteo's chest.

"You're lying," he seethes. "Why else would The Agency have put a hit on you? You, Vladimir, and Borkov must have been conspiring together this entire time!" He growls viciously. "Was it for this?" He tips his head towards the television screen behind him. "The Presidency?"

I gasp, dropping my hands loosely at my sides, in horror. "The people you work for put a hit on me?" I ask, incredulously. It's as if a heavy weight has fallen onto my chest and I have no way of getting it off at hearing such a confession.

I watch Matteo's body go rigid yet he says nothing. His silence is all the confirmation I need. My stomach roils.

"A-and you were the agent sent to kill me?" My voice quivers. I lift my eyes to his. It isn't really a question, because deep down I already know the answer.

For a brief moment a pang of guilt flashes across his features. I see it in the way his onyx pupils dilate against the vibrant golden green of his eyes. All too quickly they retract, as if it never happened, and he settles me with his usual blank expression.