Chapter 276

Chapter 276
"I don't need to throw you off. Whatever you and your friends are thinking of doing won't stop what's coming, so I'm not too worried about that. I just came to tell you about this because some pathetic part of me still cares about you. I should probably also mention that the eldest and youngest Tsar siblings were there if that's of any relevance to you," she retorted.

Which means Storm, Winter and Carter either went looking for blossom, found her and joined whatever she's doing, or they were looking for her at the ball.

"I guess I should thank that side of you then. Since it's my moral duty to, I need to ask you to leave the organization you just joined," I told her.

She scoffed. "Not even Silo could convince me to, and once upon a time, you could've, but you have no power over me. I think I'll do with my life whatever the hell I please.

"You are better than this Rio. This kind of life is not who you are," I argued.

"Don't try that shit on me. You don't even know who I am," she spat.

"Except I do," I reminded.

FLASHBACK

We were on our way back from a mission in Ireland, and my tracking system alerted me that Rio was at a location that was on our way home. I managed to sneak out in the middle of the night and head to her.

Luckily for me, she was also done with her mission.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised to see me outside the door.

"I was heading home and found that you happened to be along my route, so I thought I should check up on you," I told her.

"It was two years ago Xander. You don't need to keep checking up on me like this," she pointed out.

"And yet you like that I do," I countered.

She shrugged. "Can't deny that much."

"What have you been up to?" I asked.

"Oh you know, just busy with missions," she lied.

"You mean just stirring up trouble," I corrected as she handed me a glass of gin.

"Me? Trouble? Imagine those two words in one line," she said, feigning innocence.

"Which poor soul has fallen in love with you now?" I asked knowingly.

"All the wrong ones apparently," she replied before gulping down the gin.

"Rio..." I trailed off.

"I don't understand why you keep checking up on me if this isn't going anywhere," she pointed out.

"It's too complicated. Besides, I check in on everyone," I argued.

She sighed before heading to the door and opening it. "Just go Xander."

"Are you sure that's what you want?" I asked.

She nodded. "It is."

It never is.

Every time I'm close to walking out the door, she always begs me to stay, and I do because I know that's what she needs, or at least in the past it's what she used to need. Now I'm not entirely sure, so she may be onto something.

"No Xander, you don't know me. You know the old misguided me who was hopelessly in love with you, but I can guarantee you that I have seen the light. I know my true potential now, and I'm not going to let anyone, especially you and my brother, to keep me from it. The two of you will just have to learn to live with it, and if you know what's wise for you, then you'll stay out of our way," she said icily.

"So this is really it? You're just going to walk away from an organization that gave you everything, for one you barely know anything about?" I questioned.

"See? That's the problem with you and Silo. The two of you have just always seen me as this damsel who needed to be saved all the time and who didn't know just what she was getting herself into, except I'm a lot smarter than the two of you would like to believe. I know what I'm doing and I know where I'm needed. Take this as my last warning to you. Stay out of our way," she said as she stood up to leave.

"Fine, but answer one thing for me. Is Lane a part of whatever you're a part of?" I asked.

"I don't know Xander. That's your job to find out, and given the fact that your wife is getting all chummy with him, I'd hurry if I were you," she said before walking out.

I didn't go after her because I knew that it was useless to. She'd said her piece and she was officially only an enemy if we ever cross paths with her. What she informed me about with regards to blossom, had me all kinds of curious, but I wasn't going to share the new information with anyone just yet.

Alerting them that my wife is with our target without a game plan in my head could only serve to possibly get her killed.

Or get her compromised from what she's doing.

I'm not stupid, so I know that she's with Lane on behalf of the agency somehow. What I don't know is just what her mission is, and just how deep in she's willing to go. Without that kind of information, we could all be in danger.

Especially since we wouldn't be too sure on whether she's the one on this mission.

We'd gone through the rest of the flash drive, but nothing on it made sense. Jayme, Brady, Thales and Franco have been trying to run algorithm tests on it to figure out the sequencing of the data, but I'm beginning to think that there's no sequence to begin with.

Which makes me wonder just why Hugo gave it to blossom.