by Cara Carnes
“You okay?” Beast asked, his voice still booming in the otherwise quiet room despite his lowered volume.
“Yeah. It’s amazing what eight hours of sleep can do,” she said with a forced smile.
“How’s Kristof? I can’t imagine putting a bullet in your own father is easy,” Shep said.
“He’s with Olaf, I think. I haven’t seen him since we got back.” Addy shrugged. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy, but Kostya was a sadistic bastard. He deserved what he got. Kristof knows that more than anyone.”
“Still couldn’t have been easy,” Gage said. “I’m thinking he hasn’t gone down that thought trail yet. He’s too hung up on Olaf’s recovery.”
There’d been so much going on that none of them had taken time to mentally unwind. Kristof needed time to decompress before going to The Arsenal. He’d do anything for his cousin, but she suspected uprooting his life in Russia wasn’t going to be easy.
“How’s the cousin doing?” Thunder asked.
“Not good, but he’ll be stabilized soon. Severe dehydration and a few infections. Malnourishment. Poorly healed broken bones in his arms and left leg,” Zoey said. “He’s got a long road to recovery.”
“He’ll get there,” Addy said. “Kristof won’t accept anything less, I’m sure. Besides, he’s got a reunion with Stacia to look forward to.”
Zoey pulled her lower lip into her mouth and looked at Addy. “Are we sure that’s a good idea? I mean, Stacia seems happy where she’s at from what I’ve heard.”
“That’s not our call,” Johnny said.
“She’s my priority. I vowed to protect her,” Zoey argued. “That doesn’t go away just because of all this.”
“Putting myself in Olaf’s situation, I wouldn’t take it too well if some stranger decided to keep me from you once I finally escaped my hell,” Gage said as he looked over at her. “I’m thinking you wouldn’t appreciate that either.”
Zoey blinked. “Well, yeah, but that’s different.”
“How?” Nolan asked.
“Man’s got a point,” Beast said as he glanced down, then over at Addy. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking it’s way more complicated than that. Olaf…” She bit back the words forming. The man deserved the privacy Kristof tried to give him.
“What was that conversation in the vehicle about?” Cracker asked. “The one between Kristof and Olaf. It seemed intense.”
It was. “Olaf’s got a long road ahead of him. I’m not sure he’s ready to have Stacia back in his life.”
“Been there, done that,” Jesse said via the com. “Thinking we’d best bring Olaf here and help him mend. He needs someone like Doctor Sinclair to navigate that road he’s about to head down.”
Jesse could likely help too. Addy nodded her agreement.
“We’ll need to sit down with Lavrov and get his input on it, but I agree. Olaf should come back with us,” Marshall said.
In time, yes. But Addy didn’t think it was in Olaf’s or Kristof’s best interest for that to happen immediately. They needed to decompress a bit and get a bit of closure on what all had happened before they left Russia.
Face it, Ads. You want time alone with Kristof.
“We need more time like this, Addison. Just you and me.” Kristof’s whispered words haunted her in their simplicity. The soft utterance had boomeranged her brain with what-if scenarios ever since.
He was right. They did need time alone. But when? How?
“That’ll be a challenge, but we can make it work,” Mary said. “We’ll need to find out what Kristof’s plans are now that his father’s out of the picture. I’m sure he has a plan.”
“He does.” Maksim halted in the doorway. “Forgive my intrusion. I was looking for Addy.”
“Come in and have a seat,” Nolan said. “How’s Kristof?”
“Stubborn.” The man grunted the word as he sat in the space Shep made between him and Addy. “He’ll rest once Olaf is awake and more alert. I’m sure you all have figured it out already, but he blames himself for his cousin’s condition.”
“Why?” Cracker’s brows furrowed.
“He thinks he should’ve rescued him sooner,” Addy whispered. “At least, that’s what I’m assuming.”
“You’re right.” Maksim said, his gaze on her. “I’ll need your help getting him focused on what matters. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”
Addy tightened. What the heck did that mean?
“Does Kristof have a plan?” Mary added.
“He does.” Maksim folded his arms around his legs in the same position Addy maintained. “Part of our planning involved a reward system of sorts for a few high-level people and groups. If they either remained neutral or took our side instead of Kostya’s when the final battle began, they’d get a portion of Kostya’s operation once he was eliminated.”
“So, the strong get stronger,” Zoey said. “That sucks. But I have to admit, it’s brilliant.”
“The perfect motivation,” Marshall said. “So that’s how he’s proceeding?”
“That’s my assumption. His sole focus at the moment is watching Olaf sleep.” Maksim’s gaze swept the room. “Kristof is my closest friend. I’ll admit I’m worried. He’s been so focused on…”
“We understand,” Jesse said. “A few of us have been down the road Olaf is about to take. Kristof was just as much a prisoner as his cousin was in some respects. It’ll be a tremendous adjustment for them both to move forward. We’ll help however we can.”
“That’s appreciated.” Maksim cleared his throat. “I hope you understand why I’ve been so open about this with you. It’s not my nature to betray a friend’s privacy.”
“Sometimes that’s the only play that’ll work,” Shep said. “We’d do the same thing for Addy or anyone here if needed. You likely know or sense that we can help them both.”
Maksim nodded.
“We’ll help,” Addy said.
“On a more mission-oriented note,” the man said, “Gavriil has the rest of Kostya’s organization handled. He made contact with a few of those Kristof had intended to coordinate his final phase with and enlisted their help. There are only two high-ranking leaders who got away, but Gavriil expects them to be taken care of soon.”
“And by taken care of you mean…” Zoey’s eyes widened.
“That’s not our business,” Mary said. “We appreciate knowing that’s taken care of, Maksim. If we can help find anyone, let us know. Otherwise we’ll assume you and Gavriil will handle that portion until Kristof is available.”
“Certainly. I trust you have the weapons and everything else from the compound properly secured or destroyed since you all razed the area with such efficiency.” Maksim grinned. “I’d suspect Kristof will order his men to do the same with the remainder of Kostya’s holdings.”
“Why? They can be sold. Or, I don’t know. Maybe one of the ones who is helping would want them,” Zoey said.
“Kristof was quite clear when this began,” Maksim replied. “The houses will be destroyed. All personal property will be as if it never existed, except for whatever he and his cousin choose to keep.”
Which meant Kristof’s allies would be dividing up business assets and anything of monetary value within his illegal operations. Addy expected as much. She’d done the same thing with Peter’s personal property. Everything had been trashed. All Hive intel and assets were turned over to The Arsenal. Mary and Vi had disposed of most of it.
“I’m not sure what the itinerary for this meeting is, but can we start with the elephant in the room?” Johnny asked. “Spade?”
“Right.” Red tinged Zoey’s ears. “That’s not a discussion point at this time.”
“Bullshit,” Cracker said. “That bastard went AWOL on us and jumped into Mandrake. He’s at the freaking compound and we’re told to stand down from taking his betraying ass out. That’s not cool.”
“He doesn’t get a pass just because he was once one of us,” Thund
er said. “If anything, this shit just proves he never was.”
“And you all need to shut up and trust us to know what the hell we’re doing,” Zoey said, her voice loud.
Silence descended in the room. Gage chuckled. “Should’ve warned y’all this was a sensitive topic to poke. Little Bit’s protective of Spade right now.”
“Why?” Shep asked, his gaze narrowed. He whistled. “There’s something we don’t know.”
“There’s something none of us knew but Zoey,” Mary said. “She’s read a few of us in and we’re one hundred percent behind her decision in this matter and trust her to see it through.”
“Not sure that’s enough for us to rest easy about this,” Nolan said. “We don’t run The Arsenal like that.”
Addy sighed and rubbed her temples. “Look, we’ve all been in enough black-in-black ops over the years to read between these lines. We knew exactly what was going on the second Zoey ordered us to stand down from Spade.”
Marshall’s eyebrows rose. “Not sure anyone’s been in that many black-in-black ops except for maybe Nolan, me, and you.”
“We were in a couple with Addy at Hive,” Beast said. “Most of the time we weren’t, though. We just knew she was in one because she wasn’t with us.”
“That shit sucked,” Johnny said. “But I’m thinking it was harder on her.”
“Which means it’s hell on Spade if that’s what’s going down,” Shep said. “He’s alone.”
Addy breathed a relieved breath. Shep always saw the other side of an argument faster than anyone else in her team. She looked across the room at Zoey. The tension escaped her shoulders as she sagged into her chair.
“We trust your decisions about this, Z,” Nolan said. “Just know that we’ll help however we can.”
“I-I may need your help. I need to reach out to Spade, see where things stand.”
“Shouldn’t you have done that before you ordered us to let him escape?” Marshall asked.
“Brother, stand down,” Jesse said.
“All I’m saying is that he could’ve been debriefed before he escaped.” Marshall air quoted escaped and kept his gaze on Zoey.
“Look, Addy’s right. You have all read between the lines on this,” Zoey said. “All I’m going to say is that there wasn’t enough time to debrief anything. The situation is risky enough for him as it is. I mean, he was literally the only one to walk away from that compound.”
“There were a couple more that got away,” Nolan said. “At least two, maybe three.”
“Good.” Zoey nodded. “That’ll help. And they weren’t in the same area he was so…”
“You suck at keeping shit from anyone, Little Bit,” Gage said with a smirk.
Zoey sighed heavily. “I know. Trust me, I know.”
“You’re doing great,” Mary said. “With that said, Mandrake isn’t out of the spotlight. We’ve yet to confirm whether this was simply the rest of the Cuba group acting alone or if there’s a coordinated involvement with the entire organization.”
“I hope to hell it’s not the whole group,” Beast said. “That’s a big elephant to take down.”
“We’ve taken on worse,” Mary said. “Either way, we’ll lay low for the next few days. Once you’re all back here, we can circle back and see what’s surfaced by then.”
“I’m more worried about who outside Mandrake surfaces,” Addy commented. “Any word from Bob since the compound went down?”
“We’ve heard some chatter from a couple of international groups,” Mary said. “Nothing confirmed.”
Great. The last thing anyone at The Arsenal needed was an international black-ops team coming after them. Was the Secretary of Defense behind Mandrake and the biochemical weapons smuggling? Or was he just trying to cover someone else’s ass?
“I hate political red tape,” Thunder grumbled.
“We all do,” Marshall said. “I’ll reach out to a few of my contacts, see if they’ve heard anything.”
Addy wondered what contacts the man had. The eldest Mason never offered much in the way of names and rarely admitted to doing anything in the background, but she suspected he did. Frequently.
“You should probably do the same,” Marshall said as he looked over at Nolan.
Interesting.
It was always the quiet ones. She chuckled as she looked over at Beast. They’d both suspected the two eldest Masons had far more reach than they’d ever admit to. Both had blacked out years in their service records.
Dallas had been with The Collective during his dark years. Where had those two been?
“The secondary cache we found thanks to Olaf’s intel was larger than we expected,” Jesse said. “Four biochemical weapons of unknown origin and several prototypes of some sort. Rhea’s going through data we pulled via the drones, but we’ll know more once they’re in our possession.”
“They’re going to The Arsenal?” Thunder asked. “I thought all that shit was going somewhere else.”
“It will once we’ve determined its origin,” Mary said. “If there’s more of that floating around, we’ll need to hunt it down.”
“You’re all wheels up for Texas in forty-eight hours,” Jesse said. “Olaf should be safe to transport by then, but we’ll double check once he’s fully awake and rehydrated.”
Forty-eight hours wasn’t a lot of time, but it felt like an eternity in many ways. She wanted to be home.
What about Kristof?
She’d always known how this would end. She’d return to Texas. He’d stay in Russia. Sure, he was going to The Arsenal, but did he intend to stay? How would that work?
Why did her insides ache at the thought of walking away from him in two days?
You’ve got two days. Make the most of them.
The thought echoed in her brain. Kristof wouldn’t want her hovering right now. He wanted to spend time with Olaf. That was where he needed to be.
“Dismissed,” Zoey said.
Maksim touched her arm. “A moment?”
“Sure.” Addy rose and followed him into the kitchen. “What’s up?”
“Kristof needs to rest. Decompress.” Concern reflected in his gaze. “He won’t listen to me, but he’ll listen to you.”
“I’m not sure that’s true.”
“I am.”
Okay then. Addy sighed. “I’ll try. No promises.”
21
Addy entered Olaf’s room and quietly shut the door. Leaning against it, she observed the two men as they chatted back and forth. She admired Kristof for using sign language as opposed to simply speaking even though Olaf could hear.
Olaf’s gaze locked on to her. His cracked lips slid into a big grin. Is that her? He pointed at her.
Kristof glanced over his shoulder. “Addy. Come in and meet my cousin.” He signed the words as he spoke them.
“Glad to meet you,” Addy signed.
“You know sign language.” Olaf grinned. Her stomach tightened as she noted the holes where teeth should be. Four, maybe five missing in the front.
She made a mental note to chat with Zoey about dental work once Olaf was feeling better. He deserved a fresh start after what he’d endured. She sat on the edge of the bed. “I do. I learned from the same man who taught Kristof.”
Olaf’s eyes widened. “You were there. In the camp.”
“I was.” Addy wondered how Olaf didn’t know that if Kristof had mentioned her. How much had he told his cousin? And what? “I’m glad you’re awake. Your cousin hasn’t left your side.”
“He looks worse than I feel.” Olaf glared at Kristof. “You should rest.”
“There’ll be time for sleep later.” Kristof leaned back in his seat. “I was just telling Olaf about you and your team. And The Arsenal.”
Good. Addy had been worried that he’d see The Arsenal as too much like the assholes Kostya used to guard his compound. Mary and Jesse had both expressed the same concerns and had already spoken with Doctor Sinclair on how best to transition Olaf.<
br />
“Thank you for helping us. For freeing me.”
“Glad we could help,” Addy paused. “A few of my friends would like to chat with you. They’ve been through something similar. We run an organization that helps freed captives.”
Jesse had stepped up and offered to mentor Olaf’s transition. A few of the Warriors Path participants could’ve likely assisted, but none of them were as far into their recovery as Jesse. They also weren’t as open about what’d happened to them and how he combatted the aftermath.
“In the US?”
“Yes.” Addy glanced at Kristof when he tensed.
“I won’t go there.” Olaf shook his head.
“You should listen to her and her friends,” Kristof said. “They’re smart. They’ve been there.”
“You know why I won’t go.” Olaf crossed his arms and looked away.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interfere. You don’t know me, but I promise we can help,” Addy said. “But that’ll wait. Are you hungry? Cracker made some soup earlier. I’d take whatever he cooks when he’s on rotation. The rest of us aren’t that good in the kitchen.”
“Kristof is,” Olaf said. “Maksim said he’s really good.”
“He lies,” Kristof said. “I don’t burn the food like he does. That doesn’t make me good.”
“It does as far as I’m concerned,” Addy said, laughing.
“Addy’s friend is the one who rescued Stacia,” Kristof said, his voice low. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded picture.
Addy’s heart squeezed tight when Olaf’s gaze returned to them. Tears shimmered in his eyes.
“She’s well?” Olaf asked.
“She is.” Addy nodded as Kristof held out the one picture Zoey had given him. She’d meant for it to be a punishment for Kristof.
They’d had no idea who Stacia was, why she was important enough for Kristof to risk helping them get the missiles back. Guilt filled Addy. She should’ve asked more questions, dug deeper. Did Zoey have more pictures? She pulled out her phone.
Do you have more pics of Stacia? Something we can show Olaf?