by Cara Carnes
“She already has it.”
Maybe. The Arsenal was a good group—one of honorable men and women who’d do anything necessary and never backed down from a problem. He’d once hoped to be that for his mama.
“He offered me a visit with Olaf,” Kristof said. “When I bring him the money.”
“Is that wise?”
“It’s been too long since I’ve seen him. I must take the risk, even if it’s a trap.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No.” Kristof turned to face his friend. “You must remain within the shadows.”
5
Moans sounded from the apartment next door as the distinctive slam of a headboard against the neighboring wall filled the living room. Addy chuckled. Thunder pressed the stopwatch to an end when silence descended.
She smirked at the behemoth-sized man clutching the small timer in his meaty hand. Her ordnance expert was a gentle giant, the kind-hearted, quiet presence within her team. His light brown eyes shimmered with amusement as he tossed the device down on the table.
“Forty-seven point two seconds. Damn. Our man’s backsliding,” he said.
“Are you guys seriously still timing him?” Zoey looked around the small apartment and shook her head. “That’s disgusting.”
“Him not getting help for his problem is disgusting,” Shep commented. “This is sheer entertainment. It’s not like we have cable or can go out.”
Gage chuckled and shook his head as he sat on the ground beside Zoey, who’d commandeered the busted rocking chair nearest the kitchen. Marshall and Nolan sat on the floor beneath the small kitchen counter and faced Addy, who’d sat with her back against the sliding glass door.
Beast, Thunder, Shep, Johnny, and Cracker huddled on and around the sofa against the side wall. Addy studied the woman typing on her laptop. She hadn’t expected Zoey to come to Russia, but she was glad she had because of the love and adoration in Gage’s gaze when it settled on the woman.
Gage and Zoey had been through a lot. Addy was glad they’d found one another. Intensity resonated with the man’s gaze whenever it landed on her. She looked away, but the bite of unease made it through her because she recognized the emotion now residing in Gage.
Worry.
The sentiment boomeranged around her.
“We’ve got to get the daily briefing going, but before we do,” Marshall paused and looked across at her, “a few of us are worried, Addy.”
“I’m fine.”
“That shit in the warehouse was intense,” Beast said. “The things before were too. You can’t keep doing it.”
“We all knew I’d be immersed in Lavrov’s world until we got into the auction and secured the missiles. I knew what to expect. We all did.” Addy kept her gaze on her team. “Just a few more days and this is done.”
“At what cost?” Johnny asked.
“We’ve all done worse.” Addy wrapped her arms around her knees. “Way worse.”
“You have history with him. Way before Jud showing up at The Arsenal,” Gage said. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Our paths intersected a few times when I worked at Hive.”
“Mary and Vi never mentioned it,” Zoey said.
“They didn’t run the ops,” Addy said. The less she offered, the better. Nothing good came from dredging those waters. “Leave it be.”
“Why?” Nolan asked. “That’s not how we operate. His name wasn’t in the data you provided when Mary’s shit went down. I had Cord run through it to check.”
“He wasn’t a target. He helped Hive out a few times. You know they were semi-tied to The Collective. He worked there with Jud.”
“How long have you known him?” Marshall asked.
“Too long. Not at all.” Addy shrugged. “We rarely spoke.” Except for the three short years she’d had him as her companion, her trusted ally.
“Seems deeper than that from how he talks to you,” Cracker said. “I don’t remember ever working with him, and the five of us worked with you more than anyone else at Hive.”
“He was part of the black ops, wasn’t he? The off-book shit Peter made you do alone.” Anger harshened Beast’s voice.
“Wait. What off-book shit?” Zoey’s eyes widened. “That was definitely not on the board when Mary’s stuff went down. I went through it with Cord.”
“The targets were.” Addy met the woman’s gaze. “Please. There’s nothing to worry about. I have it handled. I don’t want Mary or Vi worrying about or obsessing over shit that died with Peter. It’s all buried. Let’s leave it there.”
“We’ll leave it there if you’ll answer Marshall’s question,” Gage said. “How long have you known Lavrov?”
“We met at a training camp Peter took me to in Russia. It was one of those black-ops locations that trained and vetted agents and the like. Kristof was there.”
“So, what? Fifteen, sixteen years ago?” Nolan prodded.
Damn. Addy heaved a sigh. Persistent, protective pseudo family for the win. “Why does it matter?”
“Because you’re holding it in and we don’t want him using whatever you’re hiding against you,” Shep said. “I thought you trusted us, Red.”
Red. Addy squeezed her eyes shut and leaned her head back against the glass.
“Peter falsified my records when I joined Hive. I don’t know why, but he did.” She looked at Marshall. “He took a leave from the military when my parents died. We went to the funeral and then we got on a plane and flew to Russia. He dropped me off at that place and left. He’d come back every now and then after he left the service and formed Hive, mostly toward the end.”
“He left you.” Marshall repeated the words. A flush rose in his face. “Son of a bitch.”
“How old were you?” Zoey whispered the question.
“Seven. I turned eight a few weeks after.” Addy swallowed the rest. She’d given them too much to chew on, more than she’d ever intended. She understood her new crew, though. They never stopped digging. She’d feed their need to know and they’d have her back because they were damned good people who wouldn’t ignore a problem.
Not that this was a problem.
“What kind of training could a seven-year-old do?” Zoey paled. “I…I…”
Gage reached up and squeezed her hand. Thunder answered the question first. “Places like that back then educated the young kids and started their physical training. Fighting. Shooting. Anything a field operative would need to know. Didn’t think young girls were in them, though.”
“There were a few,” Nolan said. “Typically separated from the men for a while, until they were old enough to train together and learn spy craft.”
Spy craft. What a neat term for the worst experiences imaginable. Addy met the man’s gaze. She should’ve known operatives as good as them would be familiar with places like that.
“Why was Kristof there?” Zoey asked.
Addy laughed. “He’s probably just as lethal as anyone here. Hell, he’d give Jud a run for his money, I bet.”
Cracker and Shep both cursed.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Beast asked.
“The Arsenal was our clean break, a reboot. Nothing good comes from opening that shit up. It’s done. Leave it be.” Pandora’s Box had nothing on her past.
“They’ll want to know about the off-the-book missions,” Marshall said.
Mary. Vi. Her friends. “Why? What good comes from it? You can’t tell me we know everything you all have done.”
“No, but we’ve seen how that worked out,” Gage said. “Me. Dallas. Jesse. Fallon. You aren’t alone.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?” Beast asked as he cracked his knuckles. “This makes me wonder what happened when those coms went off.”
Jesus. The coms. Again. “There’s nothing between Kristof and me. There never has been, nor will there ever be. He didn’t hurt me, nor would he. We’ve run a few ops together. That’s it. I swear.”
Si
lence loomed as the people around her regarded one another.
“Wait. If you were seven when you went there,” Zoey said. “The math doesn’t add up. How old are you? Birth records and Hive data showed you’re thirty-six.”
Damn geeks and their math. “I’m thirty-two. Peter added four years.” And changed the birth date but that didn’t matter.
“That bastard.” Zoey breathed the words. “I-I don’t even know what to say.”
“He died too quick,” Johnny said. He turned the skull ring on his finger. “Too easy.”
Addy needed to redirect the conversation. She’d never done well when attention focused on her. Blending in to the shadows had been ingrained within her too long to accept the well-meant worry and attention those around her offered.
Family.
Her insides burned. “I get why you’re worried. I appreciate it, but I’m okay. Really. To be honest, I’m better than I’ve ever been. Peter’s dead and we buried all that shit at Hive and before with him.”
“You were fifteen when you started at Hive,” Zoey said. “What the hell could someone that young do?”
More than they’d ever know. She hadn’t worked with other operatives for the first three years under the guise of needing “training.” Addy glanced up at Marshall. The man’s gaze locked on hers.
“Leave it be, Z,” he ordered.
“Okay, Red,” Beast said. “If that changes, we’re here. You aren’t in this alone.”
“Just a few more days and this is done,” Nolan added. “We wouldn’t have put you in as primary if we’d known about this.”
“I was the only choice. Iriana’s worked with Kristof in the past. If anyone dug, there’d be enough background to vet her.”
“Backgrounds can be made up,” Zoey said. “Though, just saying…Iriana is one seriously bad-ass bitch. Like a female Jud.”
Everyone laughed.
“The women are at a house on the other side of the city,” Marshall said. “My team is watching the perimeter, but there’s been no movement so far.”
Addy flashed the man an appreciative grin. He continued forcing the conversation forward, away from her.
“Do we have a lead on who has them?” Thunder asked.
“Not yet.” Zoey glanced at her screen. “HERA’s running all the faces from that location, but we aren’t finding anyone in the systems so far.”
“You won’t,” Addy said. “If it’s one of the largest syndicates, they’ll have someone on the payroll to keep their people out of any systems.”
“Some use low-level grunts for specific tasks, too,” Shep added. “They don’t have run-ins with law enforcement and stay away from the operations to avoid being tagged.”
“When are we extracting them?” Nolan asked.
“He wanted seventy-two hours,” Addy said.
“We’ll give him half that time,” Marshall said.
Addy nodded. Zoey and Marshall continued the debrief of what they’d learned over the past twenty-four hours, which wasn’t much. So far, Yesim and his splinter cell had remained hidden except for the location in the complex across the street and the handful they’d picked up at the underground fights.
No sign of the weapons.
“Someone has to be helping them,” she said.
“I agree,” Gage replied.
“Yesim was the second-in-command before he broke away from his syndicate,” Johnny added. “Maybe it’s time we see what the local law folks know.”
“Too risky,” Addy said. “So far we’ve stayed under radar. We’re too close to auction day to risk it.”
“And if that goes sideways?” The man looked at her.
“Then we deal like we always do. We aren’t leaving without those missiles.”
“What do we know about the Gavriil Kristof mentioned?” Marshall asked.
“Gavriil Kozlov, current head of the Kozlov syndicate. He took over shortly after his father died a couple years ago,” Zoey said. “HERA is digging, but so far there’s no recent chatter. They’re mainly into drugs and prostitution rings. Weapons. Gavriil actually started growing the legitimate side of the business when he took over.”
“Kristof texted. We’re meeting up with Gavriil tonight.” Addy forwarded the info to Zoey. “Hopefully we’ll learn more from that conversation.”
“He’s given us more visibility into his work than I expected,” Thunder said.
“We’ve learned more about the inner workings of the syndicates in the past two weeks than anyone’s figured out in years,” Zoey said. “HERA’s chewing through it all to fill in the gaps.”
“Are we taking him down after this is over?” Addy asked.
“Should we?” Marshall shot back.
“No.” She swallowed, letting the answer settle a moment. “I don’t like any of the shit he does, but we’re getting the missiles back because of him.”
“We would’ve gotten them back either way,” Nolan countered.
“With a lot more bloodshed,” Beast said. “Red’s right. We should walk away this one time. Save what we know for the next time he’s in our crosshairs.”
“Agreed,” Marshall said. “As long as he doesn’t cross us or hurt Addy.”
“I’m taking him down. Maybe not now, but it’s going to happen,” Zoey said. “He’s gotten off too many times by being helpful.”
The few hours of sleep Addy managed after the debrief had worked wonders. She’d chosen a dark blue corset and snug leather shorts with laces along the thighs. She looked more like one of the dancers at the strip club than an enforcer. Sometimes the best way to blend in was to stand out.
Ivan and three of Kristof’s minions broke off from their entourage and sat at a table in front of the stage. Awareness beaded along her skin as Kristof settled his hand at her waist.
“In case I forget to mention it later, you look beautiful this evening, Iriana,” Kristof said. “Though, I’m more partial to red. The blonde doesn’t suit you.”
“Funny, I was thinking the same about you earlier. The dark doesn’t do you justice.” Why had he changed his dark blond hair?
Amusement glinted in his gray eyes. “Careful. I could almost take that as a compliment.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“You remember,” he whispered in her ear. “That’s all the encouragement a man like me needs.”
Her pulse quickened. She remembered too much. Music boomed from speakers set about the small club. Women in assorted stages of nudity danced on three stages. A few wandered about the side booths.
“You’d have better luck with one of them.” She motioned to the strippers as she scanned their surroundings.
A man with dark blond hair watched them from a corner booth. His full lips upturned into a grin when their gazes locked. Though both arms were draped around a woman on each side of him, his focus remained on Addy.
“Is that who we’re meeting?” She glanced at Kristof, who was still a few inches taller than her despite the heels she wore.
“Yes.” Kristof’s curt reply surprised Addy. He drew her closer to his side. “Let’s get this business done.”
Right.
“Take all the time you need,” Shep said into the com. “At least this joint has more interesting scenery than the warehouses and piers and vacant houses.”
Addy didn’t bother scanning her surroundings again. Shep blended in better than a chameleon in any habitat. Kristof stopped near the booth and offered the man a curt nod as he slid in beside the blonde on Gavriil’s right side. Opting to keep her attention on the club, she slid in beside the brunette on the other side of the booth.
“Kristof, you’re on time. Dare I suspect this enchanting beauty is the cause?”
“Iriana, this is Gavriil Kozlov.” He unbuttoned his suit jacket and poured a drink, which he held up for her to take.
Addy offered a smile and took the beverage they both knew she wouldn’t drink. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“The
pleasure is all mine. Many have told me about the beauty who fights better than most men. I see the fascination now.” Gavriil wound his fingers through the brunette’s hair.
The blonde shifted and wrapped an arm around Kristof’s waist. He poured a drink and leaned back in the booth. “I trust you have the rest of your employees under control.”
“Yes.” The man’s face darkened. “Your gift was unnecessary. My secretary will likely remove you from our Christmas card list.”
Right. Kristof had the man’s heart delivered to Gavriil.
“It was less of a gift than you were going to receive. Don’t let it happen again.”
“It won’t.” Gavriil picked up his drink and took a sip. The brunette offered him a pull of the joint she held up. “I trust you’ll handle the cargo without my involvement.”
“I will, like always.”
“Always? How many times have they handled ‘cargo’? Jesus they make me sick,” Zoey said. “Marshall, you’ll likely have visitors soon.”
“They just pulled up,” someone said.
“Tag that vehicle,” Marshall ordered.
“On it,” someone replied.
Addy shifted in her seat and sipped the drink she held. Conversation on the com continued in her ear. The women were being moved. Then what? Would they be returned to whoever they’d been stolen from? What was Kristof’s definition of handling the situation?
“New targets have a tail,” someone said. “Quarter klick back, south.”
“Roger. Drone has the vehicle,” Zoey said.
A tail? Addy narrowed her gaze. As if sensing her concern, Kristof’s eyebrows rose. Addy pulled out her phone and tapped out a message.
Tail on your cargo crew.
Kristof chuckled and pulled out his cell. He cursed and tapped out a message to someone. Addy would kill to know who, but they’d been unsuccessful in cloning his phone so far—much to Zoey’s chagrin.
“Forgive me. We have an issue with the pickup.”
“Oh?” Gavriil asked.
“It seems I wasn’t trusted to handle the situation,” Kristof said. He slid his cell back into his pocket. “Thank you, Iriana. Your attention to detail is appreciated, as always.”
