by Beth Abbott
“I’ll see for myself how well Vanya has looked after Roman when I pick him up.” Niko scowled. “If I don’t think she’s up to it, I’ll find someone I think is capable.”
“Please yourself.” Ilya shrugged. “But make sure you don’t let Roman be a distraction. You need to understand where your priorities lie.”
Niko almost spat in her brother’s face. She was a mother, so there was no question where her priorities would be.
“Ilya, I have done your bidding on and off for the last three years, and never let you down once.” Niko injected a hurt tone to her voice. “I would have thought that by now you would have started to appreciate everything I’ve done for you, especially all the extra work I’ve done to get this deal set up. And yet you sit there questioning my loyalties and priorities. Sometimes, brother, I think you just say these things to be cruel to me. Mama and papa would turn in their graves hearing the way you speak to me.”
Ilya glanced up at her, and for a moment Niko wondered if she’d pushed him too far.
Eventually he sighed and stood up, walking over, and pulling her into a hug.
“Moving guns and drugs is no different to moving women, Niko. I can’t have you treating the human cargo any differently. And if I see you fucking up, I can’t treat you softly or my men will think I’ve turned into some kind of pussy, and either you or I will wind up dead.” He said quietly, kissing the top of her head. “I know you work hard, Niko. And you’re a good mama to Roman.”
He pushed her away and went back to sit at his desk.
“Now, fuck off out of here and do some work.” Ilya growled, not even bothering to look at her.
Niko turned and walked out without another word, but inside she was fist-pumping.
She’d gotten through her brother’s hard shell, and proven, if only to herself, that the old Ilya was still in there somewhere, even if he was well buried beneath two hundred pounds of evil bastard!
Chapter 12 – Hannah
Hannah closed the conference room door quietly, clicking the lock behind her, and reaching for the remote control which would silently close all the blinds, leaving her cut off from the rest of the office.
She was so pissed off she could hardly speak, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out who or what was pissing her off the most.
She was angry with Logan, that was for sure, and she was sure as hell pissed at JT. But she was also pissed at herself, and she just needed a time-out to get all her thoughts in order and figure out why.
Hannah pulled one of the big chairs up to the window and climbed on it, so she could sit on the wide ledge. The best thing about this building was that it had a great view through windows with one-way glass, and she could people watch all day if she didn’t have a million other things to do.
Ok, she thought, start with Logan.
The guy knew nothing about Nikita Federova other than that she had a seriously dominating brother, and life experiences had taught Hannah that you should never jump to conclusions as to why a person did something, without knowing the full facts.
What was it her mom used to drum into her? You can never understand a person until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Well, something like that anyway.
She couldn’t understand why Logan was being so judgemental. He’d never met Nikita, yet he’d already pegged her as being the devil incarnate.
Everything screamed that his response to Nikita was symptomatic of some form of PTSD type reaction. Something was being dredged up from his past, and he was allowing it to cloud his thinking. And while she sympathised, she truly did, she still needed to be reassured that he was fit to go on the operation. Too many lives were at stake to risk sending someone on a mission who was going to flip out on them, and risk everything turning to shit.
In accordance with her own mantra, Hannah didn’t want to prejudge Logan without the facts, but the difference between her and Logan was that Hannah had tried to find out what was going on first, before jumping to conclusions.
JT knew what Logan’s problem was, that was for sure, and that was another reason for her anger.
For more than ten years she’d worked with JT, side-by-side, day after day, and even night after night, when the circumstances had called for it. And yet, when she’d gone to him with a genuine concern about one of the team, a concern that could spell danger for everyone involved, he’d played the ‘confidentiality’ card, as though she couldn’t be trusted.
What the hell was the point in hiring her to do a job, and then only allowing her to do half of it?
Asshole! Yeah, she was pissed at JT alright.
But that led her back to the question of why she was pissed at herself.
She wasn’t known as the Queen of Badass for nothing, and here she was, acting like a self-pitying child. Where was her spine? Where was her fearlessness and her gumption? Where was that spitfire personality that everyone told her she had?
Well, for the moment at least, it looked like all of her strength of character had left the building.
Hannah let her head fall forward so that her chin was almost resting on her chest.
She knew exactly why she was so upset.
It was because she was disappointed, that strange emotion which could sometimes be stronger than all the others put together.
All these years she’d swanned around as though she was one of the directors. She was used to sitting at the top table and being the ‘go-to’ person that everyone, including JT, turned to for help.
Hell, everyone had treated her like she was a director for so long, it was hard not to feel like she actually was one. She’d given more than ten years of her life to Alpha Company.
And yet this morning, when it had come right down to it, JT had put her very firmly back in her place.
She was an employee, no different to Logan, and while she had been with the company longer and obviously had seniority, JT obviously didn’t think her important enough to share information with her that could prove vital to the mission.
It occurred to her that when she’d been hired at Alpha Company it had been as JT’s assistant. Over the years she’d headed up her own department and her role had evolved into something way more than she’d ever anticipated. Yet her title had remained the same, and JT had reminded her of that this morning, without even having to say the words.
Ok, so he’d promised to let Drew take a look at Logan, and then report his findings back to JT. But then, he would ask Drew, wouldn’t he? Drew was another of the directors.
Hannah wasn’t. And when she’d referred to herself as an employee of the company, JT hadn’t batted an eye, or contradicted her.
She’d half expected him to stop and point out that she was so much more than an Alpha Company employee, but he hadn’t. And hadn’t that been a slap in the face.
Fuck!
Hannah felt the tears run down her cheeks before she even knew they were in her eyes.
What sort of pussy did this make her, if the first time one of the directors told her ‘No’, she just wimped out and went into a sulk?
Hannah pulled her sleeve down and wiped her cheeks.
She was just tired, that was all. She’d been working flat out for more than six months, trying to get everything ready for this operation. Not only was she balancing some of her Alpha Company assignments with working to get the Guardians up and running, but she was also having to nurture the relationship with the informant, trying to get them to trust her.
That was like living on a knife-edge, worrying that at any minute they could decide the risk was too great, and pull out altogether.
At the same time, she was trying to build up a credible background for the Guardians, with a big enough digital footprint to be believable to a bunch of scum-sucking traffickers. If she screwed up in the tiniest way, just the slightest mis-step, the Russians could back out, the deal could be off, and the women would be lost to them. Disappeared into the wind.
Hannah sniffed loudly.
It was all going to work out just as she’d planned it, and nobody, not JT, and definitely not Logan, was going to fuck it up for her or make her doubt herself. Too many lives were at risk to let that happen.
Hannah gave herself a mental shake.
Maybe after this mission was over she’d take a break, and possibly think about doing something else for a while. There were dozens of organisations begging her to work with them. Foreign governments, universities and colleges, research foundations, they all came knocking on her door at least once every quarter, hoping to catch her momentarily disillusioned.
It was a good job she’d left her phone on her desk, she thought, as if one of those calls came in right at that moment, she’d be seriously tempted to take their offer.
Hannah let herself believe that for all of five seconds before she broke down and snorted a laugh.
Who the fuck was she trying to kid? She could never walk away from Alpha Company, at least, not while Danny was still working there.
The one and only reason Hannah was happy to get out of bed every morning, was that she knew she would get to spend most of every day close to, if not with her man.
Dammit, she needed to pull herself together before he came up to check on her. If Danny found out that she had been reduced to tears, and in particular that JT had been the cause, Hannah didn’t give the Captain very good odds of not ending up flat on his ass before the afternoon was out. Her gorgeous husband was laid back about everything, short of someone upsetting his wife or kids.
Hannah glanced out of the window and down at the street, where crowds of people were just going about their everyday business.
The world she lived in, had lived in all her life, was just so far apart from what most people would regard as normal, that she was starting to doubt whether much of her life was actually grounded in reality.
She was married to the most wonderful man on the planet. A guy who would probably make any woman’s ‘Fantasy – would do!’ list. She had three beautiful children who were proving to be every bit as smart as their parents, and she had the most satisfying job imaginable, helping the good guys rout the bad guys and saving the world on a daily basis.
At least, she’d always felt that way, until today.
As she looked down at the road, she noticed a figure coming out of the coffee shop across the street. Logan! Well, the dark copper hair was pretty hard to miss.
Before Hannah had a chance to look away, a woman came out of the door behind him, with a child of about five or six. Logan turned back as they reached the road and said a few words before wrapping the woman in a bear hug.
The kid pushed his way between them, and Logan leaned down and picked the boy up, making sure he was in the middle of the bear-hug.
Hannah continued to watch, but her blood was starting to boil again.
Logan finally broke the embrace, kissing the woman and child on the cheek before crossing the road, presumably to return to the Guardians offices.
Part of the reason these six guys had been recruited onto the team was that they were all single, with no romantic entanglements, and nothing to stop them disappearing for months at a time at very short notice. At least, that was what they’d claimed.
So, who were the woman and child, and what was their connection to Logan?
Hannah frowned.
Had Logan lied about his status, just so he could make it onto the Guardians team?
Possibly. Maybe?
He needn’t have bothered, as being single hadn’t been a deal-breaker. But it had certainly been prominent in the ‘desirable’ category on the recruitment criteria list.
She wasn’t going to jump to conclusions, as it had been far from a passionate parting kiss, but even so, it didn’t look as though Logan was as unattached as he’d claimed to be.
Was it surprising that it was getting harder by the minute to trust the guy?
Chapter 13 – Hollywood
Hollywood stood by the window of his central London hotel room, staring down at the river Thames and the embankment, slowly sipping a neat bourbon. As views went, this one didn’t completely suck, and he wondered how much the Guardians were paying for his and Kellen’s hotel rooms.
Five stars, prime location, and unlimited mini-bar and room service, it was probably setting the company back a pretty penny for the junior suites they were staying in.
The team was heading out on Monday and would leave most of their gear behind in storage at the Guardians’ offices.
When they came back, assuming they came back, the company would rent each of them an apartment, so they would have a permanent base for whenever they were in London, but there hadn’t been much time available to sort that out yet. In the meantime, Hollywood had been happy to ‘make do’ with having someone else clean his room every day, and not having to cook a meal.
Evan and Logan were already based in London, so it had been easy for them to be relocated into apartments provided by the company. Yuri and Kris had been moved into a building already owned by their previous employer, Gregor Diminov.
While it would have been nice to have a place of his own for the last few days, it wasn’t really essential, not with them shipping out on Monday.
The knocking on the door had him stepping away from the window. Only one person had come knocking since he’d moved in here, and he had no doubt who would be on the other side of the door.
He glanced through the peep-hole to confirm his suspicions, and then slid the chain off the door before pulling it open.
“Missing me already?” He smiled as he turned back into the room, allowing Kellen to follow him in, or have the door slam shut in his face.
“Yeah, you know it.” Kellen’s laugh was unmistakable. “Cos you just know being with you for ten hours a day is never enough.”
“Well, I didn’t take you as the lonesome type.” Hollywood shrugged. “I guessed that you could find yourself some female company easily enough if that’s what you were looking for. Especially with that Texas drawl you’ve got going on. British chicks love an American accent.”
Kellen eased his large frame down onto the sofa as Hollywood opened the mini-bar.
“Drink?” He waved his hand at the various bottles. “I have everything except bourbon.”
“A beer will do just fine.” Kellen shrugged, propping his feet up on the coffee table. “What’s with you and the bourbon? You’re not known for hitting the hard stuff.”
“It’s just one miniature bottle.” He pointed out. “I’m using it as a stress reliever.”
Hollywood handed his friend a beer before topping up his own glass with what was left in the small bottle, and then sitting down in the armchair across from Kellen.
He watched his long-time friend looking around the room for a full minute before his patience ebbed away, and he realised Kellen was playing him.
“Ok, so you’re gonna make me ask, I can tell, so I’ll put us both out of our misery.” Hollywood smirked. “What’s on your mind, buddy? You’re not usually prone to fits of neighbourly visiting.”
Kellen turned his steel grey eyes on Hollywood with a slight smile.
“Perceptive as usual, Mr. Hillwood.” Kellen downed his beer before putting his bottle down on a coaster on the table and sitting back. “I like Hannah.”
Hollywood wasn’t exactly sure he’d heard Kellen correctly, thinking if he had, his friend was heading for a shit-load of trouble.
“Ok, now say that again, and try not to make it sound like it did the first time.” He suggested.
Kellen chuckled, his eyes sparkling in undisguised humour.
“I said that I liked Hannah.” He repeated. “I did not say I had the hots for her, nor did I say that I wanted to get in her panties. Well, I’m not saying I w
ouldn’t go there if Danny wasn’t on the scene, but then what guy wouldn’t?”
Hollywood had to admit that Kellen had a point. Hannah was one hot little mama, even if she was half his size. But he had a serious moral issue with going after married women, so while he had looked, and noted how pretty the little blonde, blue-eyed pixie was, his admiration for Hannah was more with regard to her intelligence and capability, than it was for her sexy little body.
“I feel the same way.” Hollywood agreed. “I think she’s awesome, in a totally platonic friend/colleague kind of way. So, where are you going with this?”
“Logan.” Kellen said simply.
“Aah.” Hollywood nodded. “He really got under her skin today. I’ve never seen Hannah get upset like that about anything. She’s always so cool and collected. But he pushed her buttons, big-time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s off the team by tomorrow.”
“D’you think?” Kellen frowned. “I was kinda starting to like the guy, but the way he went off about that Russian chick was ridiculous. Hannah was right. We don’t know the facts behind why the woman does what she does. She could be trapped in that situation because her brother totally controls her. Logan just jumped straight to the conclusion that she was a money-grabbing, power-hungry whore, who was pure evil for being involved in her brother’s business.”
“Which she still might turn out to be.” Hollywood pointed out. “We don’t know who she is yet. Logan might be right on the money.”
“He might, yeah. But if he goes in with a closed mind, and starts treating the woman like shit, well, I agree with Hannah. He could fuck up this whole operation within thirty seconds, simply by scowling at Nikita Federova.” Kellen shook his head in exasperation. “I’ve spent the last ten years trying to avoid getting killed while working for Uncle Sam. I don’t want to get snuffed out now, just when I’m starting to earn some real money, doing something I choose to do because I consider it worthwhile.”
“I confess that the same thought has passed through my mind a few times today.” Hollywood admitted. “But then, I keep rationalising that Logan wouldn’t have stayed alive as long as he has, working in special ops, no less, without being able to keep his shit together.”