Pursuit (Book Two in the VENOM Series)/ON HOLD

Chapter 2

Josiphina

With two shaky hands, I thumbed through the content of the “Confidential” file. I was seated at the far end of the conference table, with John O. Brennan, the official head of the CIA.

    David was next to me, reaching for my hand under the table. But i couldn’t hold it now.

    Not now…

    “Here it is,” I said, tossing a blue SD card onto the center of the table. “I looked at it back at the cabin. It’s a list of all of them. Everyone in VENOM, and of course, the Nazis.”The table went dead silent. That SD card was everything right now. If something were to happen to it… “Don’t worry, I’ve already made several copies.”

    Seven people were that were holding their breaths all exhaled, and the attention was again restored to the man across from me in the leather chair, with his hands folded across the table, and his eyes squinted in consideration.  

    “There’s eleven of them. All agents. Most are German, but some, like CJ, are not.” An agent named Bruce had taken the SD card and put it into a computer, displaying the information on a screen. “You’ll notice Danver isn’t one of them. He was just a pretty face, payed to sit there in a desk and pretend. They probably figured he would die first. Turns out, they didn’t get his background checked well enough. He was a mole. Been there for thirty-four years waiting for this. Since he was in charge of checking and hiring the agents. He picked doubles. Ones he knew would never be completely loyal. Because of him, COBRA is falling apart.

    “He died three days ago, fighting back.”

    I bowed my head and said a silent prayer. My long sought enemy turned out to be my even longer sought friend. He tried until the very end to save us all. He tried to save us from the torture, and CJ…

    Zach.

    “I don’t feel so good,” I whispered to David. “Can we leave. Please.”

    “Yeah,” he whispered back. “You’ve been through a lot. C’mon.”

    And just like that we slipped quietly away, hand in hand, leaving the rest of the world to its struggles. It was just like it had been, at the start of second semester, my Junior year. But it wasn’t. Not even close.

************

    That night I lay in my bed, once again, all alone. I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, his face popped into my head, like an explosion, like a fire that I couldn’t put out.

    Zach.

    He sacrificed everything for me, and what did I do? I ran away from him and cried. Every single time. He told me to run, and then he died. He died.

    I looked around miserably at the red curtains and the king size bed they had given me. Closing my eyes, I could almost hear CJ’s voice in my head. Shoot her. I leaped out of bed and ran over the soft carpet, my feet making a soft patter sound. I threw open the shutters of an ancient window and let the breeze flow through my hair.

    “Couldn’t sleep, either?”

    I whipped my head around to face David, standing there with nothing on but boxers. I didn’t care. I ran up to him, and threw my arms around him, taking in the scent of his Axe. Nothing in his spy training prepared him for this approach, but eventually he wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me closer.

    I didn’t say anything for a long time. It just felt so good to be there in his arms, and I felt home. Like I was always meant to be here. Even before I knew boys, I knew David. Or, at least, I knew there was someone like him. Someone I dreamed about right before I fell asleep, like a fairytale. He was there.

    Suddenly, I was beside him on the bed, my hand in his hair. I kissed him softly once. He was mine. Twice. He was mine. Three times. He was mine.