“Your team.” She swallowed. They had a plan for her already?
“Let’s say a family is vacationing in Egypt. They do all the tourist things, they follow the rules, they’re safe. Except these two dumb ass twenty-year-old cousins. They wander off, get themselves kidnapped by a religious group with a cause. State Department tries, but can’t do anything. The family can’t or won’t pay the ransom, maybe there isn’t one. Someone refers them to us. We do our homework on the people who took the kids, the kids themselves, and anything else going on, then we go in with a tactical team and get them back. The goal is no injuries or fatalities, everyone goes home safe.”
“What if the boys did something? Like...carve their initials into a monument?”
“That’s where it gets tricky.” Isaac shrugged. “It’d be up to the Big Boss in that case.”
“What do you think he’d do?”
“If two stupid kids defaced a monument in Egypt?” Isaac scrubbed his hand across his jaw. “A few years ago he’d have told us to give them to police. Right now? I’m not so sure.”
“You aren’t just mercenaries, then.”
“We try not to be. Bottom line, we do a job for a fee. We just try to pick our jobs carefully and operate in tandem with law enforcement when and where possible.”
“Where do I fit on your sliding scale of morality?”
“Sugar, cream, anything?” Isaac pulled the pot from the machine and poured the dark brew into a waiting mug.
“No, thank you.” She pressed her hands to her sides, willing them to stop shaking. “Are you going to ignore my question?”
“What we do here is not my call to make.” One side of his mouth screwed up and he shrugged.
Tanya stared at the curtains over the breakfast nook doors.
The team had a plan, but they were still undecided about her. She couldn’t blame them for that. In their shoes, she’d be hard pressed to believe her own story. It was one of those cases where they had to be there to understand. She didn’t know how to make them see the truth without revealing everything. And that wasn’t an option. Not with what she knew. They were still mercenaries. How did she know they wouldn’t try to profit off what she knew?
Isaac took a step closer, the coffee in hand. She didn’t back down though she wanted to cower in the corner.
“Talk to me,” he whispered.
“About what?” She forced herself to smile and take the coffee.
Before Quade’s death, she could feign the girlfriend act for Orlando. She could have fooled this man. But Quade was dead, Rob wasn’t answering his phone, and she didn’t know what to do unless she called that one, last number. Nothing they’d gone over had covered this situation. There was no contingency plan for this scenario. She was lost and alone, something she hadn’t been for a very long time.
She could feel Isaac’s stare on her as she sipped his offering. The coffee was good, not great, but it would do. When she made it back upstairs she’d start a list and figure out her options. The clock was no doubt ticking down while she sat here sweating under the watch of this too perceptive man. Underestimating him was currently her greatest mistake.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“You’re a lot more attractive without the mask on,” she said.
“Thanks, but you aren’t going to distract me by talking about my good looks.”
“Couldn’t help myself.”
“Come on. Don’t feed me that bullshit.” Isaac cracked a smile and poured himself a cup of the coffee. “What are you really thinking about?”
Damn.
Now was not the time to be interested in a man. Maybe it was how she’d met him, when her guard was down, but she couldn’t help but feel like he believed her without the facts. Which would be stupid, and yet, her ability to evaluate people was one of the reasons why she was here in the first place.
If she were to dissect Isaac, the first thing she’d point out was his intelligence. He was smart, without lording it over people. His good humor never quit. He was easy on the eyes. A girl could find a lot of things to do with a guy like that. But she couldn’t keep her head screwed on straight as things were. Tangling with him, even for fun, was a bad idea.
“I’m wondering when you are going to tell me I have to come clean and tell you about Orlando’s secrets.”
“I’m not.” He shrugged. “That’s not my job, and unless it interferes with our ability to get you wherever you want to go, no one else will either. You’re entitled to your secrets.”
Tanya stared at him, unsure what to think.
Isaac edged closer until their bodies were almost touching.
“You can trust us,” he whispered. “We’re not just paid to be on your side in this, you know?”
She wasn’t so sure of that.
Isaac might want to save her, but in the end, she feared all she’d do was get them killed.
Friday. Boston, United Kingdom.
Every time Isaac closed his lids, her eyes were there. Staring at him. Begging him for help. Which was why Isaac was haunting the hallway instead of sleeping like a sane man.
He glanced at the clock creeping past five o’ clock. The sun was already bathing the world in light. Kyle would be plugged in for his powwow with the higher-ups. It was clear this gig was not straightforward, and they needed to know what the others had found out. Maybe one of them had uncovered the key to what was really going on with this woman.
There was always the risk that their background check hadn’t gone deep enough. It was impossible to uncover all of a person’s secrets with one. So the team back home would have to cast their nets a lot wider.
The shadows under Tanya’s door shifted.
She hadn’t slept and neither had he. He’d sat here, across the hall with his door open, attuned to her every movement since he’d given up on the idea of rest. If he could have thought of a reason to knock on her door he’d have done it already.
Isaac checked his watch. Kyle might be done his meeting by now. It wouldn’t hurt to find out what they’d decided and do something useful. Besides, once he had news, he could update Tanya and check out what she’d been up to all night.
That decision made, he stepped in a zigzag pattern across the floor, doing his best to miss the squeaky bits.
Almost all the light under Tanya’s door disappeared.
He paused in the middle of the hall, staring at the shadow.
She was right there. What was she doing? Was it a good idea to trust her? Where was this gig going?
He swayed toward the door, drawn by something other than good reason. Truth was, he’d looked into her eyes, and knowing what he did of her history and his own experience with Orlando, he wanted to help her. It wasn’t entirely rational, which likely meant he was thinking with his dick, but there it was. Tanya needed help, and damn it all, he wanted to help her.
Isaac tapped on the door, just the faintest of noises.
It opened immediately, Tanya peering up at him with one, dark eye.
He swallowed and internally shifted against the invisible pull drawing him closer to her. It hadn’t been there yesterday, but as they talked, through dinner and their conversation last night he’d become more than just invested in her wellbeing. He cared. Tanya was more than she appeared, but the flashes of fear were very real.
“Hey, just checking to see if everything’s okay. You want breakfast yet?” he asked.
“Coffee, please?”
“You can’t live on coffee.” He nudged the door open with his shoulder so he could at least get a proper look at her.
Tanya let the door drift open. She’d pulled her hair up into a messy bun, but otherwise was still dressed in the same sweater dress, leggings and boots from yesterday. The difference was behind her eyes. The fear was still there, almost like it was plaguing her.
Bits of paper littered the floor.
She pushed the door a few moments too late. It thumped against his shoulder without t
he needed weight to move him.
“What’s all this?” he asked.
“Nothing. Coffee, please?”
Isaac knelt and snagged a piece of paper. The script wasn’t anything he recognized. Some sort of Cyrillic alphabet. He turned the paper this way and that, trying to identify something about it.
“Taking notes?” He glanced up at her.
Tanya had the door closed, her hand braced against the wood. The way she stared at him now had tinges of panic in it. She didn’t want him to see even this much.
He picked up another piece and another.
She’d found a notepad somewhere and ripped it into bits. The scraps were arranged around the floor and on the furniture in some sort of pattern he didn’t comprehend.
Their secrets were still beyond his level of comprehension.
“What’s going on, Tanya? Talk to me.”
She turned to face the wall, her head bowed.
Isaac wasn’t the sort to get overly involved with a client. Sure, he might enjoy a roll between the sheets for the thrill of it, if they were all consenting, understanding adults about it, but he didn’t allow himself to care. Something about Tanya though, it’d hooked him. Her story, his own distrust of Orlando, the way they’d found her, how she was so clearly on the verge of panic. He knew he needed to help her, but how?
“Tell me, please?” He stood and took a step toward her.
“You wouldn’t understand,” she whispered over her shoulder.
“Try me.”
“It’s too...crazy to believe.” Her gaze wasn’t here, it was somewhere else. She was seeing something. Her mouth opened and her brow creased. She shook her head, her whole face twisting up into a mask of horror.
“Tanya? Hey, what is it? What’s wrong?” He cupped her shoulders, squeezing her gently. Was this a panic attack? Did he need to ground her to the here and now?
“I don’t know what to do.” Her whisper-voice broke.
“I’m here. Nothing’s going to happen to you.” He slid his arm around her waist, squeezing her a bit tighter.
“You won’t believe anything I say.” She turned her face away from him, her voice thick with emotion.
“Maybe I’ll surprise you?”
“What if I told you Orlando was a bad person?” she whispered.
Isaac swallowed.
“I’d tell you that was old news, cupcake.” Isaac jostled her a bit, wishing she’d look him in the eye.
Tanya lifted her head and frowned over her shoulder at him. Disbelief was written in the furrows of her brow. He could understand why. Orlando had a slick way about him, and what he knew was valuable enough people excused many wrongs. It didn’t make him good.
She stared at him and the world seemed to wobble, as if he were being weighed in the balance against whatever burden she was carrying. Would she let him in on the secret? He hoped so. Little by little, without a shred of evidence, he was coming over to her side on no other basis than his dislike of Orlando and that wasn’t smart. She just needed to give him one bit of proof.
“Do you know what it is he does?” she whispered.
“I can guess.” He’d heard enough of the rumors.
“What if I told you he was selling secrets now? That he wants to do everything he can to target the people who used to call him an ally?”
Isaac grimaced. Money caused so many of the problems his team was sent to fix. In the bigger picture he wasn’t surprised that someone like Orlando would shift his allegiances. But the prospect worried him on a couple levels. First, their boss had dispatched their team on the ground of Orlando’s previous contributions. After that it got more alarming.
“I’d say I wasn’t surprised, but I don’t see why that would matter to you, if you were just his girlfriend.”
Tanya turned. He let her go, but didn’t give her any more space.
“Why leave now? Why not before?”
“Because he’s a bad man.”
“And you didn’t know that when you got in bed with him? Figuratively speaking, of course. So what’s the deal? What are you really afraid of? Please, give me one good reason to believe you.”
“I don’t owe you any explanations.” Tanya recoiled. “I didn’t hire you. I didn’t ask for this.”
“No, you didn’t, but here we are.” Isaac planted his hand against the wall and leaned closer. “You don’t owe us anything, but what we decide to do from here on out depends on you. Now, for whatever fucked-up reason, I want to believe you. I want to trust you. But you have to give us something. So, either you trust us enough to be honest, or we decide what happens next. If I were in your shoes, I’d want to be in on that choice.”
Tanya flinched and glanced away.
She was unraveling.
He could see it in the cracks of her serene mask. The way her brow had furrowed. Even the teeth marks on her lower lip where she’d been biting it.
“Won’t you just toss me back to Orlando?” she asked.
“Haven’t you been listening? Didn’t you make a note of it?” He tossed the bits of paper still between his fingers on the ground. “We were paid to get you out of there safely. We’ve done that. Everything from here on out? It’s up to you. If your life is at risk, if you think he’ll hurt you, tell us.”
Tanya stared at him, her lips pressed tightly together. No secrets were coming out of that mouth. Not right now.
5.
Friday. Berlin, Germany.
Orlando tapped his fingers on the desk.
“I understand technical difficulties, but this is getting a little ridiculous, don’t you think?” He glanced at the chair sitting in the pool of sunlight.
Some days, he could almost picture Elda sitting there. Hear her laugh. Today was one of them. Her words tickled his ears, but there was no sounds, other than the street traffic outside or Edwin in the next room.
The young man was doing his damnedest to step into Tanya’s shoes, but she’d made handling his life look effortless.
“I miss her when I’m not hating her, the bitch.” He sighed. “Four fucking hours, yesterday. Four. She’d have handled it while I was out or sleeping. Edwin’s a God damn moron when it comes to technology, and don’t say I’m being mean. He knows it.”
Orlando turned to stare out the window.
He should have had a quick conference call with the UK team, but their drawn-out technical issues were beginning to seem contrived.
“It’s like they’re trying to not speak to me,” he muttered.
He’d suggested a simple, damn phone call and their tech person kept insisting video proof was their standard. At what point were they delivering a service, versus giving him the run around? What were they hiding? Had Tanya bargained with them?
No, she couldn’t. He’d emptied her spending accounts the moment he realized she’d left.
It was disturbing to realize that the woman who’d become his every-waking-moment companion was not the person he’d believed her to be. Tanya had always seemed a bit vapid, but she was quiet and attuned to his needs to the point she made another assistant worthless. She knew him inside and out, and he’d never truly scratched her surface. He’d simply assumed that after an upbringing such as hers, she’d be malleable. His mistake.
The wobbling telephone icon flickered, and the fuzzy image of two men’s faces filled the screen.
“Finally. Let’s see what bullshit answer they have for me, hm?” He leaned forward. He recognized the men, but didn’t know their names.
“Sorry, it’s been near impossible to connect.” The man in the background leaned forward. The patch on his shoulder designated him the Team Leader.
“Did you recover our person?” Orlando didn’t give two flips about what their issues were. He only wanted results.
“What was that? I didn’t hear what you said?” The man tipped his head toward the screen, cupping his hear.
“Tanya. Did you find her?” Orlando said slowly. He didn’t want to use her name, but he als
o didn’t want to resort to charades.
“You’re breaking up.”
The other man on the screen frowned and jabbed at the keyboard.
Orlando sighed and rolled his eyes.
Either they were being truthful, or he was being given the runaround.
At some point, Tanya would use what she knew against him. That was how these things worked. The question was, who did this team work for now?
The office door opened and Edwin—a young, nervous man—stepped through.
Shit.
Orlando had wasted his whole morning.
Did he continue to expend time on Tanya, who might be a threat?
Or did he move forward with his plans?
If she hadn’t used the intel all ready, he still had a window of opportunity. It was a risky thing to bank on without some guarantee.
His resources in the UK were limited. It was a small tract of land, with too many vying to control it, so he’d left it for the mainland. While not usually a problem, it left him at the mercy of this damn team.
“I’m going to have to call you back.” Orlando hit the End Call button.
Time to move forward.
He could spin this. There was a way.
“Show them in.” He flicked his fingers at the new assistant.
“One thing, sir. Robert called for you?”
“Later.”
If that were still Tanya, he wouldn’t have to speak.
He’d need to tap his Interpol contact, Robert, to handle her if this team didn’t deliver her. There were things in motion she could interfere with, and his plans were on the roll. Bob was highly motivated. Oh, the things he’d do to protect his wife.
Orlando pasted a pleasant smile on his face.
Three men were escorted into the office. One was a translator and unimportant. The other two were the men holding the purse strings.
“Afternoon, gentleman.”
The translator spoke his German in Arabic.
They covered the pleasantries and sat with the desk between them.
“So, what do you have to offer me?” Orlando leaned back in his seat.
Tanya was going to cost him a tidy sum. His intent to sell to the highest bidder was no longer viable. This group was too obvious, and if Tanya was who he thought she was, he’d have to think outside the box. This could be fun. It’d been ages since he’d had fun. Hell, he might even thank her when this was all over.
Dangerous in Action (Aegis Group Alpha Team, #2) Page 5
