Hostile Ground

by Cara Carnes

  “Like those women,” Addy said. “They were his. Weren’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  Disgust twisted her gut. Damn him. Damn Kostya. When would her nightmare of a past stop surfacing?

  “Is that why you helped free them?” Gage asked. “Because they were his. Maybe that’s why he went after you.”

  “It’s possible, but unlikely. This was hardly the first time I’ve enlisted Gavriil or another trusted person to undermine one of Father’s transactions. He commands his empire from a throne while blinded to what goes on around him. Power blinded him long ago.”

  “Yet he came after you,” Addy said. “Maybe he isn’t as dumb and blind as you thought. He’s a monster.”

  “Maybe so.” Kristof looked around the room. “We’ll share the intel we have, but I don’t want The Arsenal involved with any of this. You have enough problems to handle.”

  “Which brings us to our next point. The auction. Will he be there?”

  “I doubt it. He has no reason to attend,” Kristof said.

  “We should have secondary plans in place in case we need to pull Kristof from the auction,” Addy said.

  “I’ll have Jesse work on some.”

  “We’ve secured the tunnel. We’ll need a full walk-through of everything else at this location,” Gage said.

  “Not a problem,” Maksim said.

  “We should relocate,” Addy said. “Somewhere off the radar and smaller, easier to defend if there’s another attempt.”

  “I agree,” Mary said.

  “I have a place no one but Maksim knows about,” Kristof said. “He’ll give you the information so you can see if that’ll work.”

  Gage nodded. “I’ll handle that. You three get some rest while you can. We’ll go over anything we missed when you wake.”

  Addy turned and headed out of the room. Kristof caught up with her just outside the door. He turned her to face him. “Don’t. Please. I need time.” Time to reconcile what she’d just learned with what’d happened at the camp. What’d happened since she’d been in Russia.

  “I’m sorry I never told you.”

  “Are you really?” She glared up at him. “Or are you sorry I found out at all?”

  “I’m ashamed that bastard’s blood runs through my veins.”

  She could empathize with that since she’d thought the same thing about Peter many times. They were alike in more ways than she’d realized. Maybe that’s why he understood her so well, saw what she hadn’t even recognized in herself. Had he hidden his true self beneath the vile shit he’d done through the years?

  “We aren’t to blame for what our family does. You said that to me that night. Remember?”

  “I remember everything about that night,” he whispered. He ran his fingers down her arm. “I wanted to kill that bastard before I ever met you. Seeing the things done at that camp and knowing he was the instigator…that’s been the fuel feeding the fire within me.”

  She tucked the admission away to contemplate later. For now, she needed to focus on the mission. “Promise me you’re done keeping secrets. You can’t protect me. I don’t need your protection. I need your honesty.”

  “I wish you were wrong, but I realize now you’re right. I must do this your way if I stand a chance to win the other war I’ve declared.”

  That again. Addy looked down. “We can’t go there. Not when everything is so up in the air.”

  “Fair enough.” He touched her cheek. “But we will go there.”

  The latch shut with a soft click behind Kristof. He kept his gaze on the shelf of glass figurines. Exhaustion plagued him almost more than the pain in his shoulder, but he ignored both. There’d be no rest until he’d addressed the latest trouble.

  “You should have told them everything.”

  “They know enough. The rest doesn’t matter.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Not to them.”

  Maksim shifted his stance. “They’d want to know. She deserves to know. You gave them just enough to mire yourself in their eyes even more. If they knew why—”

  “That’s not an option. They’ve done enough, especially after tonight.”

  Addy had put drones in his house while he slept. She’d chosen to put his personal safety above her need for rest. If they hadn’t been there—if she hadn’t insisted on it—he’d be dead.

  “The files you promised them? How much do I give them?”

  “Everything.” He paused and turned. “If we fail, then at least someone will know what we did. Then we could perhaps have the justice Mama and Olaf deserve even if we’re dead.”

  Maksim nodded. “She took it better than I expected.”

  “No.” Kristof’s insides clenched. “My Addy took the blow. She’s the one who suffered from what I shared. The operative Addy won’t ever let someone see that hurt.”

  “She takes her blows as you do yours.”

  “We were cut down and stitched back together by the same sadistic bastard. I’d expect nothing less, and that’s why they will leave Russia when the missiles are secured. They aren’t a part of this war with Father. We’ll take whatever intel Edge comes up with, but no more.”

  “They’ll dig deep. Edge will likely find what you hid from them—the why behind it all.”

  “They’ll be long gone before that happens. This war will come to a head before they land at The Arsenal.” Kristof wished putting a bullet in his Father’s brain would be the solution, but the bastard’s syndicate was diseased.

  His empire would thrive even after his death unless Kristof took it down as well. Two decades of work had perhaps done more damage than he’d realized, but that didn’t mean they were at an advantage. Too many pawns remained on the board in the wrong position. Even more hadn’t chosen a side.

  “Now’s the time to walk away if you wish. You’ve done more than I’d ever imagined possible for me, Maksim. I wouldn’t fault that choice.”

  “My only place is beside you. To the end.” Maksim clasped his face and squeezed. “He’ll pay. One way or another, we will win.”

  10

  Addy glared at the crowd milling about in small clusters within the makeshift auction site. The abandoned mansion in the middle of nowhere was an optimal location and a strategic nightmare. Its massive size, when combined with the unexpectedly large turnout, stretched The Arsenal’s perimeter surveillance and left one—her team—to cover the breach once missiles were on location.

  The fact Yesim had not brought them at the start of the auction surprised Addy. He was either a naturally brilliant planner or someone was helping him with tonight’s event. Her gut said it was the latter with a splash of the former, but it didn’t matter. They would have the missiles by the end of the night.

  “You’re too tense,” Kristof whispered in her ear as he roped his good arm around her. “People are watching.”

  “Pfft. They’re watching my legs and tits.” She crossed her left leg over her right knee and quirked an eyebrow as a man three feet in front of her offered a rotted-teeth grin. “Your constant attention on me doesn’t help.”

  “I wouldn’t ignore such beauty sitting beside me,” he said as his fingers ran down her bare arm. “The red suits you.”

  Tingles beaded beneath the light stroke along her upper arm. The tight, red dress pressed her breasts upward, leaving a generous swell and deep cleavage in full view, while the hem ended at her upper thigh and left the weapon strapped to her outer thigh visible.

  “We have movement from the southwest via the dirt road,” Cracker said in the com. “A cargo truck.”

  The music from the speakers mounted along the second floor quieted. Wall sconces within the area flashed off, then on again—signaling the start of the final phase of tonight’s auction. Yesim took the stage once again, a smug grin on his face as everyone returned to their seats in the open area just inside the mansion.

  “Need visual confirmation that our package has arrived,” Jesse said in the com.

  “Dispatc
hing surveillance drone,” Zoey said.

  Jesse, Cord, and Mary were all in the Operations center at The Arsenal. The fact all four were present eased some of Addy’s worries. Even though their boots-on-the-ground teams were stretched thin, there was nothing those four couldn’t do. They’d activated enough drones to down a third-world army.

  “Visual confirmation of three packages unloading from near a southwest entry,” Nolan said.

  The initial plan was to fill the auction area with sleeping gas and steal the weapons before they entered the building, but that wouldn’t work because of the massive holes and broken windows throughout the target area.

  Which meant Plan B was now in play—buy the weapons and take Yesim and his crew down after the auction ended and the crowd dispersed. While it wasn’t optimal, it got the missiles back and ensured the splinter cell would be taken down.

  “Wait,” Rhea said. “This isn’t good. There are only three.”

  Addy tensed and focused on the conversation in her ear rather than Yesim’s chatter via the microphone. Rhea was on vacation with Fallon, which meant she’d been conferenced in for tonight’s takedown.

  “There should be more—at least six based on all the Cuba data,” Rhea said. “Did they break them up into two groupings? Maybe?”

  Addy leaned into Kristof and ran her fingers through his air. His musky cologne filled her nostrils as she leaned in and whispered against his ear. “Our package is light, half what we expected.”

  Kristof smiled as he caressed her face. “There was either a private purchase or our friends broke up the sale. Everyone I expected to see is in attendance.”

  “We continue with Plan B,” Mary said. “We’ll need the status of those other weapons from Yesim.”

  “Understood,” Addy said as she pulled away from Kristof.

  Four armed men rolled the missiles into the empty area beside the makeshift stage. People stood and converged on the area for the allowed inspection. She and Kristof stood but remained detached from the clustered group. She reached into her purse and adhered the microchip sized tracker to the tip of her middle finger. Heat from her body would activate the device immediately.

  “Tracker is live,” Jesse said.

  Yesim sauntered over when Kristof approached the missiles. “They are the finest around and will do much damage.”

  “I’m sure they will,” Kristof said. “I’m disappointed there aren’t more. My client wanted a large arsenal. Perhaps I should wait and seek a product elsewhere.”

  “You will find nothing like these.” Yesim leered at Addy’s breasts. “You must be Iriana. You have made me much money in the fights.”

  Addy grinned and took a step toward Yesim. She stroked a missile’s tip and thrust her chest forward as she stretched a leg outward as if about to take another step. The man’s gaze swept downward. A smile formed on her lips. “Fighting…excites me.”

  Kristof chuckled. Yesim leaned his head back and laughed.

  Perfect.

  She faced the weapon and stroked it once again as she leaned forward and hugged the tip. Yesim’s gaze was on her ass when she looked over him. The tracker nested into place near the tip’s base at the bottom.

  “You can’t touch the weapons,” Yesim chastised.

  “I’m sorry.” She stood and ran her hand down Kristof’s chest. “Nothing turns me on more than power. You will buy these tonight?”

  “I will.” Kristof stroked her hair. “You can play with them all you want later. Perhaps our new friend here would like to watch.”

  Addy moaned. “You’re too good to me.”

  Kristof smirked. “Come, let’s take our seat. I want this done.”

  Yesim laughed again. “We will speak later if you win.”

  “I need to bleach my eyes when this is over,” Shep commented in the com.

  Addy laughed softly. They’d seen far worse in Hive ops, but she knew none in her team enjoyed when she was undercover. The slightest misstep could end in death. Or worse.

  “Bidding begins at one million,” Yesim said into the microphone.

  Kristof remained silent as the price hiked in small increments. He shifted in the seat and sighed heavily. Addy kept her attention on her nails in an attempt to project boredom.

  “Twenty million,” a female voice said from the other side of the room.

  “Okay, who the heck was that?” Zoey asked.

  Addy’s gaze tracked the voice to a woman with long dark hair at the end of their row.

  “Fatima Adamian,” Kristof said. “She’ll be a problem.”

  “No shit, Sherlock,” Zoey quipped into Addy’s com. “She just hiked it up by fifteen million.”

  “Forty,” Kristof boomed. He angled sideways in his seat and lifted a hand in greeting to Fatima.

  The woman’s gaze narrowed. “Fifty.”

  Kristof raised his eyebrows and grinned. “Seventy-five. I can go all night. You know this, Fatima.”

  “Stamina was never your problem.” The woman flopped backward into her seat and shook her head at Yesim.

  “Thank goodness we have those funds we procured from Carlisle Industries. It suits these bastards right to use their own money to get the weapons back,” Zoey muttered. “Once the wire transfer is done, HERA will track the transaction and we’ll snatch everything at the other end.”

  Yesim looked about the room a moment, then slapped his hands together. “Sold.”

  The bastard’s gaze slithered across Addy when she and Kristof stood. Everyone else started filing out of the auction area. By the time they’d paid the transaction and gotten the missiles loaded up the area would be clear of everyone except Yesim and his men.

  Then the fun would begin.

  Anticipation hummed within Addy’s veins as they made their way to the corner near the missiles. The tracker hadn’t apparently been necessary, but the safety precaution would help if something went FUBAR along the way. Never underestimate the opponent. It was her mantra—one that’d kept her alive in impossible situations through the years.

  Yesim’s gaze trekked over her again when Kristof halted in front of him. Addy kept her attention on the six armed combatants around them. Shep was on the second level with Gage. Two versus seven weren’t the greatest odds, but the drones would handle the rest.

  Jesse’s Plan B was specific, and one Addy didn’t like for one reason—she had to leave the target zone in order to preserve Kristof’s reputation within the underground. She couldn’t participate in the takedown because it would taint Iriana and Kristof.

  If there were more missiles out there, her undercover identity might be needed if Kristof was required to facilitate a meet with whoever had the missiles. Why knock down the doors and kick ass if you can stroll through the front door instead?

  Addy knew her team and the others would get the job done without her. She’d done her part and would drive away like the obedient trophy doll she was tonight.

  “I trust your men will help me load them back into whatever vehicle you brought them in,” Kristof said as he swiped on his phone.

  “Of course. For a fee.” Yesim grinned as he held out a scrap of paper.

  “Of course. You learned quickly. I’m impressed.” Kristof keyed in the information into the app Zoey had loaded onto his phone a couple hours ago.

  “I heard of your trouble at the club,” the man said. “You have made many enemies.”

  “As will you if you do this as often as I.” Kristof punched a button and then shoved his cell into his pocket. “Iriana, be a dear and phone Pyotr. Tell him to go to the back and drive the truck.”

  Pyotr, aka Nolan, was already around back, but Addy dutifully complied. She kept her gaze sweeping the area as she spoke into the phone, then ended the call and put it back in her purse.

  “Come, lover. Let’s go play with your new toys.” She ran a hand down his chest.

  “You can play here,” Yesim offered.

  “Another time. I’m afraid I’ll have to call a
round and find more weapons since you had less than I needed.” Kristof wrapped a hand around Addy. “After I play.”

  “I will ask around. Perhaps I can get more,” Yesim offered.

  “That would be good.” Kristof turned and headed toward the main exit.

  They were halfway down the steps when Fatima approached. Her full lips thinned into a grim expression. “Kristof, we must talk.”

  “Now’s not a good time, Fatima. I’ll phone tomorrow.”

  “It’s important,” the woman said.

  “Very well. Get in.” Kristof motioned toward the vehicle.

  “What the hell is he doing? She’s not a variable in any of this,” Zoey said.

  “She can wait,” Addy said.

  “I can’t.” The woman’s voice spiked. “Please, Kristof.”

  “Get in.” Kristof opened the car door. The woman scurried in. Kristof followed. Addy entered last and slammed the door.

  Son of a bitch. They didn’t have time for whatever this was.

  “Target zone one clear,” Mary said as the car pulled away from the curb.

  “You came alone tonight,” Kristof said. “That was reckless.”

  “I had no choice.” The woman cut her gaze to Addy. “Perhaps we should wait until we are alone.”

  “Whatever this is you say it in front of Iriana or you get out now.”

  “I need those weapons.”

  “That’s not happening,” Addy said. Who the hell was she to Kristof and why had he let her in the car?

  The woman shifted sideways and took Kristof’s hand. “They have my father.”

  “Narek Adamian, an Armenian weapons dealer. He’s been put on quite a few radars the past few years but hasn’t been touchable so far,” Mary said. “Let’s hear her out and figure who knows about these weapons.”

  “Who has him?” Kristof asked.

  “I don’t know. I would’ve already unleashed the fires of hell on them if I did!” The woman flopped back in her seat. “Give me those weapons. You owe me. They won’t release him until I turn over the missiles.”

  “First, you owe me more than you will ever be able to repay. Second, you don’t have the funds for this. Do you?”