The Darkest Corner

by Liliana Hart

  “You’ve got to snap out of it, mate,” Axel said softly. “She’ll come around when she comes around. I still think you’re out of your damned mind, but it was your choice to make. Your chance to take. She’ll either take the bait or she won’t.”

  Deacon gritted his teeth to correct him. They all still thought he was following Eve’s orders, seducing Tess and luring her in so she’d stay. But that’s never what he’d planned. It just gave him the excuse he’d never had before to make his move and claim her before it was too late.

  “This job is a game of chance,” Elias piped in. “We’ve got her monitored. She’s got a listening and tracking device inside her purse, and we’re monitoring her cell phone. Dante went early this morning to the retirement center dressed as a utility worker to plant listening devices at the grandmother’s apartment while she was at her yoga class, and we planted another device at Miller’s house, though that was a lot trickier because she never leaves. If Tess decides to tell anyone the information you told her, we’re going to know about it and we can deal with it accordingly.”

  Deacon went cold inside. He’d promised her they’d no longer violate her privacy, and now they were doing it worse than they had before. If she found out, she might never forgive him. He looked around the room at the men he considered brothers. Even Levi, who’d only been with them a matter of days. There was an immediate bond when men were joined together for heroic tasks, sometimes unattainable tasks.

  Eve had been right about Levi. He’d finished the psych testing and had managed to do it standing, while still holding onto his sanity. Then they’d taken him out in the field on a couple of test ops to see what he was made of. And Deacon could say with certainty that Mossad agents were not like normal men. They were trained unlike anything he’d ever seen before, and Levi’s skills, even when he was at half-strength, were exceptional.

  Colin’s head was buried in his computer screen, and Elias and Axel were tracking map routes and trying to close in on possible routes the Russian terrorists might have taken. It was a slow and time-consuming process.

  “The Russians excel at confusion,” Levi said. “We’re collecting mounds of data and separating the possible from the impossible. But the data shows a pattern, and that pattern is that they’re unpredictable. They hit the College World Series in June, and regular intelligence agencies still aren’t a hundred percent sure that the Russians were behind it. They don’t have the intel that we have access to. And to throw confusion into the fray, ISIS immediately stepped up and claimed the attack.

  “We’re following the major players who have spearheaded the current Russian Mafiya, and we know that they have plans much bigger than that of one single stadium’s destruction. It’s just gathering information at this point and narrowing down the possibilities.”

  “I think I can help with that,” Colin said. “Mikhail Petrov is dead. Border Patrol stopped his eighteen-wheeler outside of San Antonio early this morning. The investigation is still ongoing. He was importing pottery and furniture into Texas. The only problem was when Petrov was stopped, the police found three underage girls in the cargo area.

  “Petrov was also transporting several ounces of an unknown substance, which was his main purpose for coming across the border. It had originally been packaged and airdropped into Venezuela. It turns out Petrov is an acquaintance of Joaquin Ramirez.”

  Joaquin Ramirez made Pablo Escobar look like a choir boy when it came to drug trafficking. He ran one of the most ruthless cartels in the world. He had deep pockets and a global reach. As of yet, he was untouchable.

  “Convenient,” Deacon said. “It makes sense for him to be friends with Ramirez.”

  “Pretty much,” Elias said. “The SEALs made several trips to Venezuela to try and make a capture. He’s a slippery bastard.”

  “Petrov was able to retrieve the package, and then Ramirez used his considerable resources to get Petrov into Mexico and set up with the correct papers and an eighteen-wheeler. Ramirez is known for his love of underage girls. He has a party every year and makes all the families gather at his villa. The locals call it Parte de las Lagrimas. The Party of Tears. Ramirez makes the daughters of the villagers parade through the streets, and then he selects several to stay with him as personal guests for an ‘initiation.’ I guarantee those three girls in the back of Petrov’s truck were gifts from Ramirez.”

  “How’d he die?” Deacon asked.

  “He went ballistic when they started searching the cargo hold,” Colin piped in. “I guess he remembered he was supposed to be transporting the chemical weapon, and that if he didn’t succeed his comrades would slice off his balls and shove them down his throat. Petrov opened fire on the officers and they fired back. A hazmat team contained the unknown substance, and Homeland Security took over. Eve and The Shadow showed up on-site and removed the substance from Homeland Security for testing. It has been confirmed as XTNC-50, and now Homeland Security is throwing a fit, wanting to know who the hell just took over for them. They’ll be tied up in red tape for a while and still not get an answer.”

  “What about the girls?” Deacon asked.

  “They were sent back home to their families,” Colin said.

  Deacon pushed back from his chair and started pacing the length of HQ. “They’re not going to stop until they have that stuff exactly where they want it to be. They’re hedging their bets. The tanker coming in from the Bering Sea. An eighteen-wheeler from Mexico. You can bet they’ve got other avenues of backup transport lined up.”

  “There’s still no word on Egorov, but Levkin has been spotted less than fifty miles from here,” Colin said, bringing up a photograph on the big screen. “An ATM caught him on camera. The card he used is issued to a Peter Paulson. A quick run on Paulson didn’t bring up anything. He’s been using cash. And there’s no record of hotel or rental cars. But when you put all the data in the computer, the statistics are high that they’re using Dallas as their gathering place. It’s a great central location. A major city, but not L.A. or New York, which are usually under tighter scrutiny.”

  “We’ve got confirmation that Yevorovich is on the tanker. He’s our next target. The tanker is slowly making its way towards U.S. waters, its course set for Alaska.” Deacon stopped moving and switched the screen to a satellite image. “After doing a little digging, I found that a plane has been chartered and is scheduled to take off from Bethel airstrip in Alaska on Saturday. Reservation was made by John Jameson.”

  “They’re so clever on the aliases,” Dante said. “Where was the destination in the flight plan?”

  “Dallas,” Deacon said.

  “Home sweet home.” Elias shook his head. “So what’s the plan?”

  “We’ll HALO in and land on the tanker like Eve said.” Deacon put an image of the tanker on one screen and its blueprints on the other. “We’ll plant the explosives and make sure Yevorovich is dead before we’re extracted. We leave in two days. I want our focus to be on pinning down Levkin. He’s the weakest link. Egorov has too many political connections to bail him out if he’s caught. He won’t talk.”

  “He’ll be the most dangerous,” Axel said. “He’s the one we need to find. Nothing will stop him from his end goal. Egorov has ambition. He’s willing to die for his cause, but he wants his name to go down with the greats. Putin will canonize him. His family will be held in high esteem. His children will never want for anything. His life is a sacrifice worth everything.”

  “Then let’s find him,” Deacon said. “They have to be communicating somehow. They can’t be planning an attack of this scale without some kind of communication. We just have to find the link.”

  “We’ve got company,” Colin interjected, nodding toward the outdoor monitor.

  All the guys turned to see Tess standing with her back ramrod straight as she knocked on the door to the carriage house. The look on her face was pure determination.

  “Ooh, I think you’re in trouble,” Elias said.

  “In m
y country, when a woman looks at you like that, it means you should sleep with the dogs.” Levi had been quiet up until that moment, and Deacon scowled at him.

  “Not helping,” Deacon growled.

  “How long are you going to make her stand there?” Elias asked.

  Tess looked around and then spotted the camera. She pulled off her sunglasses and gave the camera a meaningful look of expectancy.

  “All right, all right,” Deacon said. “I don’t see any of you rushing to let her in.”

  “We all know better, mate,” Axel said with a grin. “You’re the one Eve gave the orders to. Lure her in, using whatever skills you have. And thank God for it. I wouldn’t want to face that redhead’s temper.”

  “Right,” he said. The weight of Eve’s orders was heavy on his shoulders. The outcome of this particular situation wasn’t shaping up how he’d planned. But he had no choice. He went to let Tess inside.

  TESS HAD COME to a decision.

  She didn’t know if it was the right decision, and her stomach had been in knots over it for the past three days. It wasn’t the safe decision. It wasn’t the normal, boring, responsible decision. She’d gotten a taste of reckless behavior on the back of that motorcycle, and reckless was starting to look more and more appealing.

  Her foot tapped impatiently as she knocked on the door to the carriage house. Once Deacon had told her about the cameras, she felt like an idiot that she hadn’t noticed them before. She’d gone through every room in the house, noticing where the tiny devices had been installed. They had coverage of the entire first floor, including the embalming room.

  The second floor was full of empty bedrooms and an upstairs living area with a huge fireplace, but when she looked for them, the cameras were there. Now that she knew the truth of who and what they were, she understood the need for the cameras. It also made her realize she’d been glad for her ignorance the last couple of years. It was an entirely different feeling living under a looking glass. Her home would be a target if they were ever discovered. It wouldn’t mean much for Eve and her men because they could hide anywhere. But for Tess it would be catastrophic. Her home, her family, and her community could come under fire.

  She looked up at the camera and tipped her sunglasses down her nose, raising her brows in question. Maybe Deacon had changed his mind and didn’t want to mess with her after all. Or maybe he wasn’t home. Maybe he was off on some super-secret mission to save the world and she hadn’t even noticed his disappearance.

  But almost as soon as she’d had the thought she heard the deadbolt unlock, and the door opened. Three days had seemed like an eternity, and her breath caught as he stood before her. Good grief, he was beautiful. He had a couple of days’ worth of beard, and his hair was tied back out of his face. His eyes were shadowed.

  Her gaze traveled down in pure appreciation. He was wearing an old gray T-shirt that was tight across the chest and shoulders, and a pair of jeans that had seen better days. When she looked back up at his face, he arched a brow and smirked.

  Busted.

  “You told me to knock when I’m ready to talk,” she said. “I’m ready to talk.”

  “You want to come in?”

  “Not really. Maybe if we can talk somewhere in private? Without a million cameras staring down at us, or people close enough to hear what we’re saying. This place has turned into one of those weird reality shows overnight. I can’t even get my coffee in the mornings without wondering how many eyes are staring at me. It’s not a good feeling.”

  “It’s because you talk to yourself all the time,” he said. “You do it out of habit.”

  “I thought you weren’t watching me,” she said, her anger building once again.

  “I’m not,” he said smoothly. “I haven’t set eyes on you in three days. It’s been a really long three days, by the way.”

  Placated, she took a deep breath and released it. “Right. Well, it helps when I talk things out. I’m one of those people who can remember something forever if I hear it. If that makes sense.”

  “Why don’t we go to the third floor?” Deacon suggested. “It’s the only place we’ll have complete privacy. Unless you’d like to make another trip to the lake.”

  The look he gave her was so sensual and full of desire she thought she might combust on the spot. She didn’t think she’d ever thought about sex so much in her whole life as in the last three days. She’d never been so aware of her own body. Her own needs. She was afraid he’d opened up some kind of Pandora’s box where her sexuality was concerned.

  Sex had always been rather perfunctory up until now. Between Miller and the novels Tess liked to read, she’d always heard people talk about a great sweeping passion and sex as some kind of religious experience, but she always figured that kind of pleasure wasn’t meant for some people. Everyone else in the world was perfectly fine, having perfectly average sex, and perfectly mediocre orgasms.

  Boy, had she been wrong.

  “Yeah,” she said, hoping like crazy he couldn’t tell what she was thinking about. “Third floor. Good.”

  Great, Tess. Now you sound like a caveman. She rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, before he could suggest something else or tell her to forget the whole thing altogether.

  She led him through the kitchen and up the three flights of stairs. And when she got to the top landing outside her door, she unlocked her door and held it open for him.

  “I don’t suppose you’re going to finish my bathroom anytime soon?” she asked, nodding to the construction zone. “I notice there hasn’t been any progress.”

  Her suite of rooms took up the entire third floor, but the big oak bed dominated this room. It was impossible not to stare at it as they came inside and he closed the door behind them. Six hundred square feet could feel awfully small when Deacon Tucker was taking up space in the room. She’d bought the bed at a garage sale, knowing it was more than she needed and that it would be hell to get up three flights of stairs, but she’d done it anyway because she’d liked the intricate carving on the headboard and the sturdy posts at each corner.

  “I didn’t want to risk the chance of running into you. You scared me when you threatened me with your mother.”

  She hmmphed and said, “It was an empty threat. She left town day before yesterday. She canceled her appointments and took off. She left Crystal the key and told her to have at it.”

  “Crystal’s the girl with the half-shaved head and piercings?” he asked.

  “That’s the one.”

  “I can’t imagine she gets a lot of business,” he said, smiling.

  “She does great nails. And she actually does a decent job on hair. But getting anyone to take the chance is the hard part. People pretty much judge a person on sight in Last Stop.”

  “I’ve noticed,” he said.

  She directed him down the two steps into the living area. She didn’t have much furniture, only a chair and ottoman and a chaise lounge she liked to read in. His gaze lingered on the bed and then he moved into the sitting room. It didn’t matter. The bed was still visible since there was nothing but a half wall separating the two spaces.

  “Whew, it’s a little warm in here,” she said. “I should probably open a window and turn on the fan.”

  “Good idea. If you want, I can run the central air vents up here so you’ve got something stronger than that wall unit.” He sat down on the edge of the chaise and said, “Where’d your mother go?”

  “I don’t know. But my grandmother said she seemed upset by the fact that you paraded me through town on your motorcycle like a common trollop. Those were my mother’s words, apparently. She was a little jealous that she didn’t get to be the one paraded through town. And it probably didn’t help that she was holding out hope all this time for winning the bet. It wouldn’t sit right with her for her only daughter to beat her out of the pot. No one beats Theodora Sherman. At anything.”

  “At least she didn’t take your life savings this time,” he point
ed out drolly.

  “No, but she left town with Tamara Robinson’s husband. So she was stealing either way.” She shrugged and tried to play it off, though she wondered when she’d grow past the age of being mortified by her own mother’s behavior. “It’s just how she is.”

  “That doesn’t make it right,” he said. “And it doesn’t make it hurt any less. Narcissistic people don’t think about the destruction they leave in their path.”

  “Before she left, I thought maybe she was going to stick around this time and stay straight. But now that she’s gone again, I keep thinking maybe she’ll stay gone for good this time.”

  Tess walked over to the big square window that looked out over the town. “I feel like I should feel terrible for even thinking it, but I don’t.” She took a deep breath and then said, “I’ll help you if you truly need my help with the language. At least for now. Now that I know some of the truth, I won’t ever be able to un-know. So even if I moved, I’d be wondering if the world was going to end.”

  His lips twitched. “So you’re joining with us because you’re nosey?”

  “I’m curious,” she corrected. “And I’m looking for a change. I figure this is about as much change as a person can get without dying or switching sexes.”

  She sat on the edge of the club chair, and then stood back up again. What had she been thinking to agree to meet with him in her room? She hadn’t thought about anything but stripping him naked since the moment they’d walked through the door. Maybe that was what her subconscious had been planning all along. She’d never actually seduced anyone before. Maybe it was high time she did.

  “You’re worried about something,” he said. “What is it?”

  “You said I could be of use because I speak and read the dialect of Russian you need. I want to make sure there’s no chance of anyone tracing anything I do for you back to my grandmother. She told me today she was glad to leave that life behind her. She made a fresh start when she came to America. Reading between the lines during our conversation today, I think my grandfather brought more of the old country with him than she’d have liked, but he’s been dead since I was a baby and she said she finally had peace and a life she enjoys living. I don’t want to change any of that for her. And I don’t want Eve thinking she’s some kind of connection or a useful tool. She’s an old lady, and she can be a mean one when she wants to be. I’d put my money on her over Eve Winter any day.”