Elimination

by Jackie D.

  “No one thinks it’s a good idea,” Tyler said. “But we need to do something. We’re running out of time.”

  She hadn’t been sure what to expect when she’d laid out all the information in front of him. She double-checked her list, relieved to see she’d covered everything. She knew Calvin Hart to be brilliant, a good strategist, and someone to be trusted. She also understood that his position opened him up to vulnerabilities the rest of the team didn’t have to deal with. His presence in any given situation was an asset in the right situation, or a liability in the wrong situation.

  “Let’s approach this from a different angle. How would you handle it if it were Styles or me in your position? What would you advise?” Tyler tried to put an upbeat tone to her voice, wanting to snap him out of his haze.

  He nodded, seeming to think about his response. “I’d say we need to put Nikolai off until the night of the gala. I’d say to stall him until we could get everyone in place. I’d have Prey convince him to meet somewhere else, divide his forces. Bring the mole to the other location with him when he comes to get me. That would be the only way we’d have a chance at grabbing O’Brien, catching the mole red-handed, and helping Prey either disappear or grab Nikolai.”

  Tyler sighed. “I figured you would say that.”

  He looked at her. “You don’t like that option?”

  Tyler shook her head. “I think it’s our only option. It’s just still not a very good one.”

  “No, it’s not.” Calvin pinched the bridge of his nose. “What did the others say when you ran it by them?”

  “I haven’t yet. Brooke isn’t going to like it.”

  He patted her on the back. “She’ll go along with whatever you decide.”

  Tyler wasn’t sure how any of this would end. If she was going to say something to him, it had to be now.

  “I’m going to marry her.”

  He looked a little surprised at first, but then a smile crept across his face. “I figured it would happen.”

  “You’ll be there?”

  He nodded and then walked toward the door. “I wouldn’t miss it.” He turned and looked at her. “I’ll wait for your update. Until then I’ll stay in heavily secured locations or in my hotel. I have a big day to attend. Let’s be sure I’m around to get to it.”

  Once he left, she allowed herself a moment of relief. She’d never needed his permission to marry Brooke, but she wanted his approval. Now all that was left to do was ask Brooke. She wasn’t sure which was more nerve-wracking, not knowing what Brooke would say, or not knowing if they’d all make it out of Russia in one piece.

  * * *

  Dylan did her best to push the previous night’s activities from her mind while she sat in the control room waiting for Tyler to return. Emma sat across from her with the other computer analyst. She was hard at work, pointing to something on the computer screen with a pencil she’d just pulled from her hair. She kept seeing flashes of Emma’s skin in her mind, the way she’d felt and tasted, the way she’d called out her name.

  “Prey!” Caden kicked her chair, causing her to spin around.

  “Yeah,” Dylan said, trying to shake herself out of the daydream.

  “What the hell, Prey? I said your name like five times.” Caden cocked an eyebrow. “Everything okay?”

  Dylan rubbed her face. “Yeah, just lost in thought. What’s up?”

  “When do you come back stateside?” Caden tossed a tennis ball in the air.

  She felt Emma watching her now, but she didn’t look. “I don’t know. I don’t know what my next assignment will be. Hell, it depends on how this one turns out. If by some miracle I’m not dead and my cover is still in play, I’ll get to finish my mission. If not…” She shrugged.

  Caden shook her head. “Man, I couldn’t do what you do. I wouldn’t be able to handle not knowing when I’m coming or going. Not to mention it makes it impossible to have any kind of real life.”

  Emma’s eyes were still on her, but Dylan focused on Caden. “It has its challenges, for sure. There are also a few perks. I get to live in different places, learn new cultures, be a different person all the time.” She hadn’t meant to say the last part and hoped Caden wouldn’t focus on it.

  “Plus, there’s no shortage of cute women at your disposal.” Caden smirked and wiggled her eyebrows.

  Jennifer threw a pen at Caden. “Ignore her, she’s not housebroken yet.”

  Caden looked as if she was going to say something when the buzzer sounded, alerting everyone to someone being at the property. Brooke was visibly relieved and sank down into her chair when they saw that it was Tyler. Dylan looked at Emma. They hadn’t discussed anything about what the future might or might not look like for them. They’d woken up, had sex again, then went about their day. They’d eaten, worked out, showered, and come here. Dylan had been expecting a significant discussion. She’d expected Emma to want answers to establish expectations. But neither of them initiated the conversation, though the silence hung heavy between them. Dylan would typically have been thrilled. This was exactly how she liked things—comfortable, with no expectations. She should be relieved, but instead, she felt sad. Dylan searched Emma’s eyes, and they held the same uncertainty she was feeling. They needed to have a conversation, but it would have to wait. Their attention turned to Tyler when she came through the door.

  Dylan watched Brooke again. Her eyes raked over Tyler, not out of lust, but confirmation she was okay. When she seemed satisfied, she sat back in her chair and let out a long breath.

  “I have a plan I think will work, but it’s going to take some manipulation on your part, Dylan.” Tyler threw the baseball cap she’d been wearing onto the table and removed her sunglasses.

  “My job usually does,” Dylan said. “What’s up?”

  Tyler grabbed a marker from the table and went to the whiteboard. “Step one, convince O’Brien and Nikolai that we’re dead. Step two, convince Nikolai that you’ve arranged for Captain Hart to meet you under the premise that you haven’t killed Brooke, but instead have her captive. Step three, tell Nikolai you can’t get him there before Thursday evening without raising suspicion within the military ranks. Hart has dozens of meetings he’s scheduled to attend and people would question where he is. Step four, have Nikolai bring the mole with him so he can watch Captain Hart be flipped. Step five, we get the mole, Nikolai, and O’Brien. O’Brien will still be at the party. This will divide his personal security, making her easier to access. This will also give you an opportunity to actually take Nikolai. He wants to flip Hart, but you were hoping to flip Nikolai. We’ll outnumber him, and you’ll never get an opportunity like this again.” She capped the pen and turned to look at the room. There was plenty left to figure out, but the bones of the plan were clear.

  The room was so quiet that Dylan thought she might have momentarily lost her hearing. If it wasn’t for the soft humming of computers, she could’ve convinced herself of it.

  Caden spoke first. “I don’t know if you should be promoted or if you’re going to get us all killed.”

  Tyler put her hands on her hips. “Yeah, it will definitely be one of those two outcomes.”

  Caden shrugged. “Well, I’m in.”

  Tyler looked at Dylan expectantly. “You know Nikolai. Will this work?”

  Dylan pushed her chair out and walked to the whiteboard. She uncapped a pen and started making notes next to the outlined steps. “I’ll need to take pictures of each of you as proof of death. Next, I’ll need some kind of note from Hart, in his handwriting, dictating where and when to meet. I’ll give that to him Wednesday afternoon. He’ll send guys there ahead of time, so we’ll need to be prepared for that. Nikolai won’t want to draw needless attention to himself, so he won’t make a move on Hart before the agreed upon time. You’ll have to take O’Brien near a service exit. We’ll need blueprints of the hotel.”

  “I’ll get the blueprints.” Emma started typing furiously on her computer.

  “H
ow many guys will he send ahead of time?” Tyler was staring at the words on the whiteboard as if the answer was already there.

  Dylan wrote next to the step. “Five, maybe six. He won’t take any chances if he’s going out in public like that.”

  “There you go.” Emma pointed to the large screen next to the whiteboard.

  Caden came up between Dylan and Tyler. She pointed to a service entrance that led to the parking garage. “How do we get O’Brien here without sounding any alarm bells?”

  “I can do it,” Emma said. Everyone turned and stared at her, but she continued. “I’ll make sure she sees me with Dylan before then, so she’ll recognize me. I’ll find a way to get her there.”

  Dylan pointed to the map. “It’s too risky. There’ll be armed security coming and going from the service entrance. They check in every fifteen minutes. That’s a tight time frame. There’s no way you can get rid of all four of them and get O’Brien there without raising suspicion. Not without being spotted and taken out. They’ve got your pictures, after all.”

  “But I can,” Brooke said. There was a short intake of breath from Tyler, but Brooke continued. “I’ll handle the men on the garage side first, then take the two inside. They won’t see me as a threat, so I have the element of surprise. Emma can get O’Brien to the door, and we’ll toss O’Brien into the van and get the hell out of there.”

  Tyler turned and stared at Brooke. Her jaw muscles were clenching, and she rolled her shoulders. “Okay.” Tyler turned her attention to Dylan. “That leaves me, you, and Caden at the meeting location with Nikolai.”

  Emma pointed to the screen again. “Here. There’s a shipping facility a half mile from the hotel. I saw in Nikolai’s work-up that he uses this place for business. He’ll be comfortable there. It will cause him to be less suspicious.”

  Dylan nodded. She’d been there before.

  Caden crossed her arms, still staring at the screen. “Tyler and I should be able to take out Nikolai’s guys. Captain Hart will need to get Director Walker talking, and the captain will have to record it.” She turned and looked at Tyler and Dylan. “This will be your one chance to get Nikolai.”

  Dylan chewed on her lip. “If we can flip him to our side, we’ll have an inside track on some of the world’s most heinous criminal activity. It would be an absolute game changer. If he refuses, I’m sure the CIA can drop him in a hole somewhere. No one will be around to witness us taking him, so no one will be looking for him. He’ll know that. He values his own life above anything else. Nikolai would rather be a CIA asset than die alone and forgotten.”

  Caden moved closer. “Do you think we can pull it off?”

  Dylan ran her hand through her hair. “We have to try. We may never get an opportunity like this again.”

  Dylan could hear the confidence in her voice, but it didn’t reach her stomach. If this didn’t go as planned, it could very well mean the end of her. It could mean the end for all of them. She had this one glimmer of opportunity, a chance she’d never thought she’d get, and she had no choice but to take it. She looked at Emma, who had turned a ghostly shade of white. She wanted to tell her everything would be okay, that she’d be okay. Instead, she said nothing. It wasn’t a promise she could make in a game with stakes this high.

  “So, we know for sure Walker is the mole?” Tyler asked Caden.

  Caden snapped and pointed at her. “That’s right, you weren’t here. Yeah, the call with Deputy Director Martin only lasted a few minutes. We told him that we’d stood down and have been waiting for further instructions. Walker was all up in the mix though, asking who we were working with over here, if we had any assets, if we’d made any contacts. It was super weird and totally out of the norm. Even Martin looked confused.” She chuckled. “For being head of the CIA, he sure isn’t very sneaky.” She pointed to Dylan and Emma. “We made sure to keep them out of the frame. He doesn’t know we’re working with anyone else. He also thinks we’re at a safe house northeast of here. We made sure of it. Emma doctored a few of the computer files to make it seem legit if he were to go poking around. He expects us home next week, after we’ve done some sightseeing.”

  Dylan walked back over to the desk and picked up her phone. “Are any of you really good with makeup?”

  Brooke raised her hand. “I am.”

  Dylan pointed to them. “Good, I need you to make some really convincing corpses.”

  Dylan did her best to push down her unease. This was a good plan, or at least it was the best option they had. If it all worked out, it would be a win all the way around. So why did it feel like a massive loss?

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Emma felt sick to her stomach as she looked at the four women lying across the compound in various poses. Dylan was snapping pictures of their bodies. They used ketchup on either their chests or backs to try to replicate gunshot wounds. She wondered if O’Brien would believe that Dylan had managed to kill all of them. All these years, she’d played cat and mouse with these women, and now it would be over. Assuming everything went to plan. Of course, she’ll believe it. She wants it to be true, so her mind will fill in the gaps. She watched Dylan. Was that what Emma’s mind was doing? Did she want things between them to be real so badly that she was filling in the blanks?

  Emma shook her head, pushing away the thoughts. She couldn’t think about any of this right now. These next few days would require her full attention. They couldn’t afford any mistakes. Emma was going with Dylan to Nikolai’s house tomorrow. Carol would be there, and Dylan wanted to make sure she saw her again. It would be easier to lure her away during the gala if she recognized her.

  “Damn! We really do look dead!” Caden laughed and pointed to the pictures on the phone.

  Jennifer slapped her arm. “It’s not funny. This is terrifyingly realistic.”

  “It’s just a picture, Jen.” Caden wrapped her arm around Jennifer and kissed the top of her head.

  Emma was still watching the casual intimacy Jennifer and Caden shared when Dylan snapped her out of her reflection.

  “You ready to go?”

  Emma nodded because she didn’t trust her voice at that moment. She walked toward the others to say good night.

  “You okay, Emma?” Brooke looked concerned.

  “Me? Yes, just mentally preparing.”

  “Okay,” Brooke said, but her eyes indicated she wasn’t convinced. “We’ll see you in two days. If you want to go over anything before then, just call.”

  “Thank you,” Emma said. She didn’t know if she should hug Brooke, so she didn’t.

  She said the rest of her good-byes and walked with Dylan to the bus stop. From there, they’d get the car and go to the apartment. Emma’s stomach tightened at the thought of being in Dylan’s bed again. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be in Dylan’s bed again, she did. She just didn’t know if that was a path they should continue down with all the uncertainty surrounding their lives. She wanted to talk to Dylan but didn’t know how. She’d never been in anything like this. She wouldn’t even know where to start.

  They made idle chitchat for the next hour, biding their time until they were in the safety of Dylan’s apartment once again. When they finally got there, Dylan turned on music and went to the fridge, retrieving the wine they’d previously started.

  Dylan handed her a glass. “Here’s to hoping this works and we don’t die.”

  Emma clanged the glass out of habit. “Do you really think one of us could die?”

  Dylan sat on the couch and motioned for Emma to do the same. “You do know how serious this all is? How dangerous these men are?”

  Emma sipped her wine. “Yes, of course. I just don’t like to think about it.”

  Dylan shrugged. “Thinking about it helps me stay focused. If I understand the worst outcome is a real possibility, I can prepare.”

  “Does that just go for your work or your personal life too?”

  Dylan scooted back, putting some space between them. “Do
you want to talk about what happened?”

  “I think we should.” Emma decided she’d be completely honest in this conversation. Not just because it was how she preferred to do things, but because she might not get another chance.

  “I don’t regret what happened,” Dylan said.

  Emma raised her eyebrows. “Good to know.”

  “No, I mean—” She sighed, seeming frustrated. “Damn it, I’m not very good at this. I don’t regret what happened because I like you. I like being around you. I like the way you talk, the way you smell. I like the way you laugh, how smart you are, and how you’re a little awkward yet surprisingly brave at the best moments.”

  Emma felt her body tingle, a reaction she was growing used to when it came to Dylan. She touched her hand. “You like me?”

  Dylan laughed. “Yes, Emma, I like you. I wish we could be more. I wish we’d met under different circumstances. I wish things could be different. But the truth is, when this is over, I’ll have to disappear. Even if we don’t flip Nikolai, the next pakhan will be looking for me. He’ll want answers. If we do flip Nikolai, I’ll need to get as far away from him as possible. The CIA will tuck me away somewhere until they need me again. It’s not fair of me to start something with you when I know that I can’t be there for you after this.”

  Emma’s first instinct was to pull her hand away, but she left it there despite the hurt she felt. “Are you even going to ask me what I want?”

  Dylan picked up her hand and kissed it. “It doesn’t matter what either of us want. It can’t happen. Not beyond this mission. That’s the life I accepted when I agreed to this job.”

  Emma knew Dylan was making sense. Everything she was saying was true. Unfortunately, the message wasn’t being received by her body. Her hand was still warm from where Dylan had kissed it. Her fingers ached to trace Dylan’s strong features. Her body wanted Dylan, regardless of what her mind said.