by Lexi Blake
He slammed a photo down. It was grainy and shot from long range. “Interpol keeps tabs on Denisovitch. I have a friend there. He sent this over.”
Nelson. There he was plain as day, standing with Denisovitch in what looked to be a park overlooking a river. Saint Petersburg. He recognized the baroque buildings and canals of the famous city.
He stared at the picture for a moment, a cold hate in his gut. In all his years as an operative, his years in the Green Berets fighting some of the worst dictators and terrorists imaginable, he had never really hated anyone. He’d killed them, sure, but it had been a job done with the efficiency of a pure professional. Emotion was where Nelson tripped him up. Emotion and ego. He was honest enough to admit that to himself.
He had to think instead of react. His first instinct was to get on a plane to Russia, track down Denisovitch, and throttle the man until he told him where Nelson was. He was running on emotion and not logic. He had been since that moment when Charlie had shown up on his doorstep. Hell, maybe he’d been running on emotion where it came to Eli Nelson for much longer than that. He could still remember watching the fucker put bullets into Sean while Ian maneuvered into position. He could still hear the man taunting his brother, telling Sean all of Ian’s secrets.
And he remembered feeling like he was sixteen years old all over again.
Take care of your brother. The last words his father had said to him before he’d walked out of their lives. You take care of your brother and your mother. I can’t anymore.
Yep. He wasn’t capable of thinking logically at this point. He needed a clear head.
He stared at the picture for a moment. “Adam, I need to talk to the whole team. Liam’s not here, but could you bring the rest of them in? Including my sister-in-law.”
This affected Grace as well. He couldn’t leave her out. If he was going to put everyone in danger in order to find out the truth, they needed to have a say.
He was a long way from the Agency. He wondered if Nelson was counting on that. He wondered if his family connections would bring him down.
Adam let out a long breath as though truly happy he hadn’t gotten his ass kicked. “All right then.”
He turned and walked out.
“Damon, could we have a moment? This is a family matter.”
Baz frowned. “We made a deal.”
Knight stood up, putting a hand on his partner’s shoulder to bring him up. “Of course. We’ll wait in your office.”
Baz was arguing his case as they walked out of the room.
Jesse walked in, looking back at the bickering agents. “What happened to them?”
“They don’t ever like being left out of the loop,” Ian replied.
“What are you thinking, boss?” Simon asked in that crisp accent of his.
He was thinking that it was time to finish everything, to bring down Nelson and figure out what he was going to do with his wife. “I’m wondering why we got this. The last time he surfaced, it was a coordinated effort to get us exactly where he needed us to be.”
There were another couple of photos Adam had left on the table, and Jesse took one in his hand, looking down on it. “This is that rogue dude thing?”
God, he needed to put new employees through a test to make sure they didn’t sound like idiots when they talked. “We prefer to use the term rogue operative, though he’s been disavowed by now. Now he’s just a traitor.”
“He’s hanging out with Kris’s…Charlotte’s uncle? The mob dude?” Jesse yelped a little as Simon slapped him upside the head. It was a move Ian had perfected on Adam. He knew there was a reason he liked the Brit.
“I’ll do it every time you sound like a stoned surfer,” Simon drawled. “You’re not in the Army anymore. You have to sound like you have a brain in your head. You’re not simply here to follow commands. You have to think on your feet.”
Jesse frowned at his mentor and rubbed the back of his skull. “I need to learn to duck more because this really does kind of seem like another version of the Army. So your enemy is becoming friendly with Charlotte’s enemy?”
“They want me to think so.” But Ian’s brain was working. Something didn’t add up, and he wasn’t sure which way to go. He could go the route that took him down logic road, or he could…find another way.
“The mob du…the Russian mob gentleman and the rogue operative traitor?” Jesse asked.
“Catch up, mate. He’s moved past both of them, and he’s right back to wondering if his wife isn’t working him over.” Simon neatly summed up what was running through his head. “It’s awfully coincidental that she would show up and then suddenly Nelson is hanging out with her family. If it’s really all that sudden.”
“Unless he’s kept an eye on her and now she’s out in the open,” Jesse argued. “I’m really finding it hard to believe that she would work for five years to get into a position where she could help Alex and Eve so she could get back into Ian’s good graces, take a bullet to the chest from me, and it was all so maybe she could trick you again.”
A flash of her still body whispered across his brain, blood staining her chest. Blood on his hands, his shirt, his everything. “Oh, but she took a bullet to trick me before.”
“Yeah, she took a bullet from a man who didn’t want her dead. I wasn’t in on that plot. I was aiming for Alex’s heart.” Jesse ducked Simon’s swinging hand. “Asshole. I thought he was the bad guy. Every single member of this team has smacked me for shooting my brother, but he wasn’t my brother at the time and I didn’t even get him. I got Charlotte. Which is kind of my point. Do you think she’s madly in love with Nelson and is willing to sacrifice her life?”
It was a little bit of a conundrum. He couldn’t imagine Nelson and Charlie together.
“I think Charlotte is damn good at her job. If she thought the risk was worth the reward, she would take it.” But Jesse’s words were worming into his head. It was a different situation. She could easily have just shown up at his place without the song and dance routine in St. Augustine. She’d put a good two years into that operation. What did she really get out of it?
“If it means anything, I believe her,” Simon said. “I think she’s done just about everything to protect that sister of hers. Her sister admitted that she was the one who wrote to Nelson.”
Of course she would if they had gotten their stories straight. Ian had lost the opportunity to question them separately since he’d been far too angry to think rationally.
There was logic to what Charlie did to him.
He went through the photos Adam had left. Four pictures of two men Ian would deeply like to murder, and in a horribly visceral way.
How much of Charlie’s story had been complete bullshit? The scars on her body were real. He’d seen the pictures of her mother’s murdered body.
Was Charlotte so cold that she would work with the same syndicate that murdered her mother and tortured her for years?
Logically, he knew it could happen. She could have been indoctrinated. It had happened many times before. She could be a deeply good actress.
“What’s he doing? He looks like he’s going to kill someone,” Jesse whispered.
Fuck. Jesse was turning into Adam 2.0. He had to shut that shit down. He narrowed his eyes and gave the new guy his most intimidating stare. “Are you volunteering? It’s been a couple of hours since I killed someone and I’m starting to get the itch.”
Jesse grunted a little. “See. Just like the damn Army.”
“I’m bringing Sean into this. He was in Florida with Charlie and this affects him, too.” Ian found the phone and dialed his brother’s cell.
“This is Sean. Hans, are you trying to cook the duck or make it your bitch?”
He hated interrupting his brother at work, but he needed advice. Actually he really hated needing fucking advice. What was he? A “Dear Abby” fan? God, Charlotte had taken his dick. “Sean, it’s Ian. I need to conference you in on something.”
The sound
s of a busy kitchen came over the line. “Sure. Give me a sec. Don’t you stop stirring that sauce. I swear to god I’ll murder you if it scorches.”
The door opened and Adam escorted Grace inside, each taking empty seats.
“Doesn’t this affect Charlotte, too?” Alex asked. “Shouldn’t she be in on this?”
“She’s taking a time out.”
“Hey, Sean,” Adam said, leaning toward the speaker phone. “You missed out yesterday. Big Tag made a porno with his wife.”
Grace gasped. “Adam, you are not supposed to talk about that.”
“Shut up, everyone.” He was going to stop this soap opera in its tracks. “We have something serious to talk about. Sean, can you talk?”
“Yep. Adam kind of had my attention at porno,” Sean’s voice said over the speaker phone. “Grace, love, you don’t need to be looking at big brother’s junk, though I’m sure it took up most of the screen.”
“He wasn’t naked, Sean. Charlotte was,” Grace said.
“Oh, well, that’s totally different.”
Ian took firm control of his temper. “Eli Nelson is working with the Denisovitch syndicate.”
Thank god that got everyone quiet.
Grace picked up one of the pictures as she sat down at the conference table. “This is Russia. I thought he was supposed to be in India.”
“Yes, I believe that’s what Charlotte said. Charlie wants me to think he’s in India, and Nelson obviously wants me to head to Russia.” That was a problem for him. He just needed to figure out why it was a problem. He could go one of two ways.
Eve studied one of the pictures. “He’s relaxed. He isn’t worried or tense. Do you see the slump of his shoulders?”
Yes, the fucker seemed to be having a lovely time plotting with the Russian mobster. “Yes. I see that.”
“Denisovitch, the first one, Charlotte’s dad, he was the Russian Nelson set up as the terrorist out to buy the uranium from the Irish mission,” Adam explained. It had almost cost Liam his life, and it had certainly cost him his brother. “Or he was at least working with Denisovitch in order to make the threat credible. Did he assassinate his partner so he wouldn’t have to share the money? Was Mikhail in on it?”
Ian shook his head. “I don’t think so. From all the intelligence I’ve gathered over the years, Mikhail was deeply loyal to his brother. If he’s in bed with Nelson, it’s for one of two reasons. One. He doesn’t know that Nelson was the assassin who killed his brother. He believes Nelson’s story, which is very likely that Charlotte killed her own father and stole his money. Two. My intelligence is wrong and all three are in on it together.”
It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been wrong.
They all started talking at once again. It gave Ian a headache. He looked out the window that showed the office. Grace hadn’t drawn the blinds up because she needed to be able to see if someone walked into the lobby, but it also gave Ian a great view of the accounting office. Phoebe had left her blinds open, too, and there sat Charlotte with her strawberry hair flowing down her back and her eyes on Phoebe. Chelsea was glum beside her sister, her eyes on the ground. He’d expected that Phoebe would be doing what she always did, focusing on her computer and nothing else, but she was talking. Animatedly. She was smiling and gesturing around.
She reached up and pulled down a bobblehead. He’d noticed she kept a collection of bobbleheads in her office on a shelf. Harry Potter bobbleheads.
Charlie turned, her face a mask of horror as she looked out the window. Their eyes caught, and she sent him the same pleading look she used when her ass was too sore to take another single slap.
He’d thought he was punishing Charlie with silence. No. She was going to get a whole afternoon of Harry Potter talk.
Ian couldn’t help it. He let his head fall back, and he laughed. It was perfect. It was beyond any punishment he could have come up with.
Charlie put a hand on the window, her lips curling into a sad little smile before she turned back and listened to her lecture.
What the hell was he going to do with her? Ask her if she’d slept with the men she claimed to be her worst enemies? The man who was his worst enemy?
Or realize that it didn’t matter. That she could have slept with a thousand men and he would still fucking want her.
He could take her. He could make her submit. He could make sure she never strayed or did another damn criminal thing again. He would keep her barefoot and so fucking pregnant that she couldn’t even think about running from him or building another criminal enterprise.
God, he might be going insane. He needed to think, but there never seemed to be the time. He needed advice.
“Eve, what do you think about Charlie? You spent time with her in Florida. You’ve been watching her since she’s been here.”
All eyes went to Eve. “I think she’s telling you the truth. I think she loves you and she’s been working to get back to you. If you want to know what I think about Zhukov…”
He shook his head, interrupting her. He didn’t want to hear that shit. He needed to make those decisions on his own. “Don’t give me personal stuff. Tell me if I can trust her when it comes to giving me intelligence on Nelson.”
“Yes,” Eve replied. “I think she’s trying to be honest, at least with you and the people you consider family. She’s looking for a home. She was willing to die in order to save Alex, and it wasn’t because she loved Alex. She wanted to prove herself to you. I trust her with my life.”
“Sean?” He trusted Eve’s opinion, but he trusted Sean’s intuition.
Sean sighed. “If she only wanted to cause chaos, why not just show up?”
“Because I would have shot her.”
“No, my brother, you wouldn’t have. You would be in the same damn position,” Sean said, his voice holding a nauseating sympathy.
Ian held up a hand. “All right then. We have some decisions to make. I didn’t want to make them without talking to the whole team because we’re gambling here.”
“You think Nelson wants us to believe he’s staying in Russia,” Jake said. “He’s played it this way before. He wanted us to go to England. I say we don’t play into the fucker’s hands. He wants us in Russia. We go to India.”
Adam pointed to the picture. “He looks like he’s got a tan. He sure as fuck didn’t get it in Saint Petersburg. Let’s go to the beach.”
“You’re not going to the beach, mate.” Simon sat back in his chair, an almost predatory look in his eyes. Yeah, sometimes he reminded Ian why he’d hired the Brit. “I’m going. How am I going to explain the idiot? Oh, I know he’ll fit in there better than I will, but we don’t exactly look like gay lovers.”
Jesse’s eyes went wide. “Whoa. That was not part of my contract.”
Simon was overthinking this thing. “Don’t worry about cover yet. Let’s get boots on the ground and figure out what we need. Just grab some beachwear and your kits.”
“How much time do I have?” Simon asked.
“We leave as soon as the MI6 boys can get the private jet fueled. It’s all I can give you. I need eyes on the ground there. Adam, I’m going to need paperwork and visas.”
Adam nodded. “I keep a spare set for every one of us in case of emergency.”
“I’m going to call some of my contacts at the Agency and see if I can find out if they have anything on Denisovitch.” He would have to talk to Ten again to see if he was holding out on him. The Agency usually didn’t give up information until it was asked for.
Alex looked over at his bride. “Hey, baby, what do you say we take that honeymoon somewhere a little colder than Hawaii?”
Sometimes Alex could read his mind. “Damn, man, I’m not asking you to do that.”
“But you would feel better if I went to Russia and got us some surveillance on Charlotte’s uncle. I don’t like the fact that your worst enemy is potentially conspiring with hers. It could mean bad shit for two people I care about,” Alex replied.
/> “And I’ve always wanted to see the Amber Room.” Eve smiled steadily. “I’ve heard they have beautiful churches as well.”
“You need visas, too.” Was he really going to let them go to Russia? Alex was a brilliant agent, but he’d worked in the FBI, not the CIA. “No. This is stupid. You don’t speak Russian.”
Alex shrugged. “We don’t need to. We’re tourists.”
Eve smoothed back her hair. “My grandfather was from Russia. I’ve always wanted to see the motherland.”
“I have a friend at the consulate,” Adam said.
Jake slipped a low five. “Magda. Yeah, she was a good friend.”
Adam’s brow furrowed. “Don’t ever let Serena know.”
“You’re afraid your wife would be pissed about a Russian hookup?” Simon asked.
Jake groaned. “No. Magda was in good with a Ukrainian syndicate. They’re in direct competition with Denisovitch. She’ll help us fuck with them. Do you know what Serena would do if she found out we know real Russian mobsters? She would never stop asking questions. She would want us to take her to the Ukraine and meet with them. Can you see that meeting?”
Adam went a little green. “I have nightmares about it.”
“Are you sure you want to do this? We could just stay out of his business.” Grace spoke for the first time. Her hands were in her lap, tightening around each other.
He reached out to his sister-in-law because Sean wasn’t here. It was something he wouldn’t have even thought about doing before, but Grace was his family. He was going soft. “Grace, he won’t let it lie. Those pictures are proof. He wants us to see him. He’s got something in mind. We have to figure it out.”
“Little one, Ian’s right,” Sean said, his voice low and sweet toward his wife. “He won’t let this go. We’ve hurt him too much. He can’t let up and neither can we. This is a game only one group can win. We have to make sure we take him out.”
“I want to do something,” Jake said.
“Take care of your wife.” He wasn’t about to put Jake in the field when Serena was pregnant. Adam was safe enough behind his computer. He could still do his job.