Valentina giggled and leaned into him as he led her off the dance floor. She caught Yuri’s gaze on the way out, and he inclined his head, indicating he’d heard everything and would follow them.
They headed outside the club into a busy commercial district. She looked around, pretending to be amazed by the sights, but she was studying the layout of the area as well. She’d entered through a side entrance with everyone else and hadn’t seen the main entrance. “Your friend doesn’t want to meet us in the club?”
Jakob glanced over at her. “Not until things settle down after last night. Have you been to many of these shops?”
Valentina shook her head. “Just a few places on the way to the club. A lot of the areas are still off limits to my people. Will you get into trouble for bringing me here?”
“Nah,” he said, waving off her concerns. “It’s mainly the Inner Circle who are uptight about those things. None of us are permitted in their tower. You’re allowed in ours, provided a resident is with you.”
She gave him a small smile. “Thank you for escorting me.”
He grinned and puffed out his chest. They walked a bit further down the corridor and halted outside a small store. It was still open, but there weren’t many people inside. He put his arm around her and pulled out his commlink, holding it to his ear. “Hey, Maggie, it’s Jakob. Can you let Charles know I have someone new he should meet?” Jakob paused to listen for a moment. “Yeah. Oh, really? That long?” He frowned, indecision clearly warring on his face. Valentina leaned into him again and ran her fingertips across his chest. Biting her lip, she let him see the invitation in her eyes.
He swallowed, his eyes darkening with lust as his looked down at her. “No, that won’t work for me. I’ll be busy later. Where is he? I’ll take her to him.”
After another lengthy pause, Jakob disconnected the call. “Okay, change of plans.”
Valentina blinked up at him. “Is everything all right?”
Jakob swept his gaze around the area. She knew without looking that it was mostly deserted with a few idle stragglers. Yuri would hang back to avoid detection and only intervene if she needed assistance or if she stopped responding.
“Yeah. Everything’s fine. My friend’s just tied up. We’re going to stop by to see someone else really quick. My friend will meet up with us afterward.”
“Oh,” she murmured, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I’m not sure about this. You haven’t explained why you want me to meet with your friend. I thought you wanted to spend some time alone with me.”
“Trust me, I do. At this point, I’m ready to say to hell with my friend,” he admitted, putting his arm around her waist and pulling her closer. “But it won’t take long. They’re just a few levels down from here, and it’s close to my quarters.”
Valentina looked up at him and gave him a small smile. “Good. I’m really looking forward to getting on with the rest of our evening.”
“You and me both.”
Sergei gritted his teeth. He’d kill the fucking bastard.
He glared at the security tablet Brant was holding. Valentina was in the elevator with that mudak, and he kept putting his hands all over her. Jakob started to slide one of his hands under her very short dress, and she tossed back her hair and laughed, moving away from him as the elevator door opened.
“It looks like they’re exiting on the ninth level,” Brant said and pressed a button to switch the view from the security feed to the outside corridor where Valentina was walking.
“Good,” Sergei said and entered the floor number on the panel in the priority elevator. That particular level connected to the construction breezeway. If Valentina ran into a problem, she’d have easy access to escape, though he didn’t intend to let her go far without him. They’d been following her since she left the club, using the tower’s surveillance system to avoid detection.
“This is why she didn’t want you on comms,” Yuri said, leaning against the wall of the elevator. “You worry too much. Valya can handle herself.”
“I’m not worried about her handling herself,” Sergei retorted, staring at the numbers displayed overhead as they descended. “I’m worried about how much handling he’s doing. I’d simply like to kill him before she does. She’ll do it far too quickly for my liking.”
Brant frowned and looked up from the tablet. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not have to explain any more bodies in the towers. We still have a mess from last night.”
Sergei arched an eyebrow. “Who said anything about a body being discovered?”
“I’m not helping you clean up the blood,” Lars advised him.
“We could take him out of the towers first,” Nikolai said, studying Brant’s tablet with a frown. “My recruits have gotten quite skilled at cleaning up.”
Sergei’s eyes narrowed on the video again. Fuck. Jakob practically had her pinned up against a wall and was trying to kiss her. Valentina was brushing off his more overt advances with a small smile, but he knew she was getting irritated. Her fingers were flexing as they did when she wanted to draw a weapon. He cocked his head and considered it. If Jakob pushed her too far, Valentina might get creative with him when this was over. The possibility had merit.
Kayla leaned over Brant’s shoulder to look at the screen and laughed. “I knew it would be more fun coming with you guys than sitting in the club. Valentina looks like she can handle herself.”
Carl wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’d probably have a similar reaction if that guy touched you like that.”
She lifted her head to look up at him and grinned. The door opened and Sergei walked out, heading in the direction Jakob had taken Valentina. Brant slowed and said, “Hang on. They’re going into one of the distribution centers.”
Brant spoke quietly into his commlink, most likely ordering his people into position and alerting Alec to their location. Sergei was surprised when Valentina agreed to leave the club with Jakob, but Yuri said the guy was acting suspicious and mentioned the name Charles. Unfortunately, it was the best lead they had regarding how the weapons were being funneled into the towers.
Sergei turned toward Brant. “Is there another entrance to the distribution center?”
“Yes. I’m having the rest of the team stationed nearby. They’ll move in on my command.”
“This guy is persistent, I’ll give him that much,” Yuri said with a chuckle and pressed his finger against his earpiece as though he was being thoroughly entertained.
Sergei frowned. He was going to have to start ignoring Valentina’s requests not to listen in on her comms. While her concern about him possibly losing control was understandable, not knowing what was happening was chiseling away at the last of his patience. Reaching into his pocket, he plugged in his earpiece.
Nikolai shook his head. “Valya won’t be pleased if you interfere in this, Sergei. She specifically didn’t want you to listen.”
“I don’t give a damn,” he snapped, pulling out his commlink and threading his energy through the electronic device to connect into Yuri’s earpiece. With a snap and crackle, Valentina’s voice sounded in his ear.
Nikolai sighed and turned toward Brant. “Is your building adequately protected against fire?”
Brant nodded and frowned. “Yes, we’re still cleaning up the mess from Kayla’s last fire suppression incident in the lower warehouse.”
“At least you know what to expect,” Nikolai muttered. “This isn’t going to end well.”
Valentina walked into the distribution center and swept her gaze over the area. There were dozens of workers operating various consoles while automated robotic mechanisms moved large crates to various areas of the cavernous room. Shelving units reached nearly to the ceiling, creating towers of supplies where stolen weapons could easily be hidden. This was definitely promising.
“Impressive, huh?” Jakob asked, his arm still wrapped around her. At least it wasn’t on her ass anymore. His hands had gotten a little too close to one of th
e knives strapped to her inner thigh while they were in the elevator. “I bet you don’t have anything like this on the surface.”
Valentina smiled sweetly and made a small noise of agreement, but she was ready to shove her knife in his throat to keep him from talking. He seemed to have the remarkable delusion that the Coalition primarily lived in dirty, run-down huts on the surface. While their existence wasn’t as posh as life in the towers, their people controlled a vast expanse of the viable territories around the globe.
He led her to another door and knocked.
“Whose office is this?” she whispered loud enough for Yuri to overhear on her hidden comms.
Before Jakob could respond, the door opened to reveal another man estimated in his early thirties with long, dark hair tied at the nape of his neck. He was wearing some sort of gray uniform, similar in style to those in the outside room. But his bearing led her to believe he was in some sort of supervisory position. His eyes narrowed, but he stepped aside to allow them to enter the small office.
Valentina followed Jakob inside, not bothering to hide her curiosity as she looked around. It was some sort of administrative office, but there was only one door in and out. Other than a large desk, a few consoles with security feeds being displayed, and a few shelves and bins in the corner, there wasn’t much to it. She turned back to the man to find his eyes on her and not appearing very friendly.
“What are you doing here, Jakob?”
Jakob hesitated and then gestured to her. “This is Valentina. She’s Pavel’s replacement. I thought Charles would want to meet her, but he’s busy for a while. I thought you could meet her instead.”
“You’re an idiot,” the other man snapped. “You bring some woman here you don’t know anything about?”
Valentina frowned and leaned closer to Jakob. “Um, Jakob, are you sure he’s a friend of yours? I know you wanted me to meet him, but maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”
Jakob put his arm around her again. “Don’t worry, Valentina. It’s fine. Walter’s just a little uptight.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Walter muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “How many more of our names are you going to give her?”
Jakob released her and grabbed Walter’s arm, pulling him a short distance away. In a quiet voice, but still easily overheard, he said, “Look, I met her at the club tonight. We started talking, and I found out she’s taken over the construction inventory for Pavel. He’s gone, man. We need to find another source. She can help us.”
“That’s a little convenient, don’t you think?” Walter demanded, still eyeing her suspiciously. “They find a weapon yesterday and suddenly she’s there tonight?”
Valentina bit her lip, doing her best to appear uneasy. “Jakob, maybe you should take me back to the club. I don’t want to cause any problems.”
Jakob blew out a breath and didn’t respond. Instead, he focused on Walter again. “I was the one who approached her. There were a ton of people there tonight. Most of them I’ve never seen before. They were all curious about what happened yesterday. I saw plenty of Omni security there, but she’s not one of them.”
“Look at her, Jakob,” Walter argued. “Quit thinking with your dick. Ask yourself what someone who looks like her is doing with someone like you. I’m surprised half the Inner Circle wasn’t hanging all over her dressed like that.”
Jakob sputtered an objection, but Walter ignored him and approached her. “I need to search you. I’m sure you understand. We don’t know you, and we need to be cautious.”
Well, dammit. The knives and microphone might be a little hard to explain, and she didn’t want to kill anyone without getting some answers first. Feigning fear, she backed away from him. “Jakob told me he wanted to stop and see a friend. I don’t know what’s going on, but I want to leave. I didn’t agree to any of this. Jakob, please don’t let him touch me.”
“Walter, knock it off. Look at that dress. There’s no way she’s hiding anything.”
Walter hesitated, scanning her up and down and making her glad she’d chosen two of her smallest knives to bring along. She lowered her gaze, trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible.
Jakob walked over to her and draped his arm around her shoulders again. “Don’t worry. Walter’s mostly harmless. Come on, I’ll take you out of here.”
She leaned into him and whispered, “Thank you.”
Jakob started leading her to the door, but Walter stopped them. “Wait. Just… bring her back.”
When they turned around, Walter leaned against his desk. “Valentina’s your name, right?”
She bit her lip and nodded.
“How well did you know Pavel?”
Valentina tucked her hair behind her ear. “I didn’t. Not really. I was transferred here a week ago, and I only met him twice. If you were friends with him, I’m sorry. But I don’t know much about him.”
“Where did you transfer from?”
She frowned, allowing her fingers to rub against the hem of her dress in a gesture of unease. These questions were more pointed than she expected, but Sergei had helped her craft a plausible explanation for her presence within the towers. The trick was weaving enough truth into a story to lend believability to the lies.
“I managed inventory accounts for two of Chairman Nikolai Berkutov’s camps. When I heard about the new tower being built, I submitted an application requesting a transfer. Someone told me my chances of being accepted would be higher if I joined the construction crew, so that’s what I did. I was hoping to become Pavel’s assistant. But after he died, I was asked to temporarily fill in for him since I have experience with inventory management.”
Walter studied her for a long time. “You want to live in the towers?”
“See?” Jakob said, not bothering to hide the smugness from his tone. “I told you she’s perfect. Even better than Pavel.”
Walter glared at him. “Would you shut up?”
Valentina bit her lip, looking back and forth between them. “Why are you asking me all these questions?”
Walter turned back to her and frowned. “I’m happy to explain, but I need you to answer just a few more questions. Okay?”
“All right,” she said quietly. At least Walter appeared to be buying her unsure and demure routine.
“What do you know about the Inner Circle?”
She blinked at him, thoroughly confused. “What?”
“Have you heard of them?” Walter prompted again, watching her reaction.
Valentina frowned, deciding to stick as close to the truth as possible. She had no way of knowing if this Walter had ways of verifying her information. “Yes. I know they live in the other tower, and it’s closed to everyone else. Your leadership is made up of Inner Circle members, right?”
Walter nodded. “A few of them lived amongst your people. Did you know any of them?”
She shook her head, getting the impression he was looking for any holes in her story. His caution was promising. “None of them lived in any of the camps I was stationed in. I’ve seen one or two in the construction tower and some in the club tonight, but I don’t really know any of them.”
“Some of our people made an arrangement with yours,” Walter began, taking a step closer to her. “We expect some rather dramatic changes to be happening soon, and we’d like to continue the deal we originally struck with Pavel. He was acting as an intermediary and helping us with… a sensitive project.”
Valentina tilted her head, pretending to misunderstand. “Intermediary? Oh, you must be talking about Sergei Sokolov. I believe Pavel reported directly to him.” She frowned. “I’m not familiar with any sensitive projects though. Have you been working with Sergei on this?”
Walter waved off her comment. “No. He’s not important. Not yet, anyway.” He straightened and pushed off the desk, walking over to her. “If you’d be willing to take over Pavel’s arrangement with us, we could make it worth your while.”
She frowned. “I don’t und
erstand. What do you mean?”
Jakob turned toward her. “Valentina, we need your help moving some equipment into the towers. If you’re handling the inventory now, you can help us.”
Valentina bit her lip. “Into the towers? But I oversee our construction materials. What could you possibly need from our supplies?”
Someone knocked at the door, interrupting them. Valentina buried her irritation as Walter walked over to open the door. She caught sight of a dark-haired woman wearing a similar gray uniform. The woman leaned close to Walter and whispered something fervently in his ear. His body tensed, and he spun around, slamming the door behind him.
He walked over to his desk and yanked open a drawer. Withdrawing a gun she recognized as belonging to her people, he pointed it directly at her. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of the more harmless electrolaser guns. She knew this particular weapon well—it was designed to kill.
Walter took a step toward her. “Who are you? Why is OmniLab security all over this level? Start talking or I’ll shoot.”
Dammit. This was why she hated working with amateurs. They were always so quick to pull out the weapons, even when they weren’t proficient with them. To make matters worse, she really wanted both of them alive to find out what they knew. Five more minutes and they would have confirmed the presence of weapons, without her needing to look down the barrel of one.
Jakob took a step toward Walter and glanced over at her. “Are you sure security’s outside?”
“One of you led them to us,” he snapped, still aiming the weapon at her. “Are you with OmniLab security?”
She held out her hands to show they were currently empty. Walter’s hands were slightly unsteady, indicating he didn’t really want to harm her. He was just afraid and needed a little reassurance. Even so, caution was warranted. Some of the most dangerous individuals were those who were nervous and handling a weapon.
“No, I swear it. I don’t understand what’s going on outside, but I told you the truth. My name is Valentina, and I have spent my life working for the Coalition. I am loyal to my people.” She lowered her hands and repeated the same thing, but this time, in Russian. With Jakob wearing the translating device, he would understand what she was saying.
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