Anya sank into the couch as a young woman approached. “Can I get you anything?”
“Bourbon,” Anya croaked as she lay down and closed her eyes. Seeing Sebastian made her remember the early days. Because of her size, she’d hid her belly beneath loose clothes until two months before her due date. She disappeared but continued to send reports to her officers from the field. A middle-aged woman, a neighbor in the hovel Anya had hidden in, helped her deliver not one but two squawling babies. It had taken three days for Anya to devise a plan. Three days to determine the best chance for herself. The best chance for her babies. She secretly delivered them to the U.S. Mission Berlin, which operated as a sort of embassy in West Berlin during the Cold War, with a message that their father was a soldier at the wall with the last name Murphy.
A few months later, she returned, meeting with a secret contact within the embassy. She’d learned of two babies who had been dropped off. She’d learned of their return to America, of the Murphys wanting nothing to do with them, and of their placements in homes. Separate homes in California.
Satisfied, she buried the memory of two red-faced infants as she continued her work for the Stasi, posing in a variety of roles to garner information, sometimes at the expense of lives. She asked few questions, only doing what she was told, operating on auto pilot until the day Sasha made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. She left the Stasi and began working as his right hand, selling weapons to many of the contacts she’d established over the years. With a growing pocket, she grew accustomed to luxuries, an even greater degree of anonymity, and the power her gender brought her when necessary.
“Madam?”
Anya opened her eyes and accepted the crystal glass as the pilot asked them to take their seats and buckle up. The plane taxied down the private runway and lifted into the air. Anya breathed a sigh of relief, memories of the past left in ribbons in the French countryside. She didn’t have time for regret or nostalgia. She only had time for escape, for she would need every bit of luck and skill to avoid the traps Nick and Jake might lay to catch her again.
Chapter Thirty-Three
It’s too early to be up,” Megan groaned as Kaylan held open the door to the coffee shop on Tuesday morning.
“If you hadn’t stayed up watching Netflix until all hours of the night, you wouldn’t be this tired.”
“Wrong.” Megan pointed at her roommate. “If we hadn’t run out of coffee, I wouldn’t be this tired.”
They slipped behind a woman in spandex still rocking back and forth from her morning run. “I hate morning people.”
Kaylan laughed at her roommate’s grumbling. “Cheer up. We’ll get some coffee in you, grab a bagel. We’ll both get to work on time. And I’ll even swing by and grab some coffee tonight before I come home. Deal?”
“Can you grab creamer? And some cookies? And maybe a pizza?”
“Why don’t you just make a list?”
“I’ll text it to you once I set up a caffeine drip.”
They stepped up to the counter and Kaylan scanned the menu options. “I’ll take a vanilla latte and one of your poppy seed bagels, please.” Kaylan pulled money from her wallet as Megan slumped against the counter top.
The shaggy-haired guy behind the register winced. “That rough a night, huh?” The spacer in his ear made his lobe dangle at an odd angle. Kaylan watched it swing as he addressed Megan. “What’s your poison?”
Megan selected something strong and sweet with a pastry, and the two stepped out of the way.
“So what’s new at the aquarium?”
“It’s cleaning day. We inherited a seal from the San Diego zoo. I guess he wasn’t getting along, but I think he just wanted some attention.”
The barista called their names and Kaylan and Megan grabbed their orders and slipped into a table in the corner. Kaylan took a sip of coffee. “I’m rubbing off on you.”
“In what way?”
“A myriad of lovely things, but you are adopting strays now, too.”
“I won’t be bringing a seal home, Kaylan. At least not of the flipper variety.”
Kaylan offered a knowing smile. “Uh huh.”
Megan glared. “What do you mean ‘uh huh’?”
“I’ve seen the way you and Jay flirt.”
“Please. That is fighting not flirting.”
Kaylan just shook her head. “For you, it can be the same thing. Be careful with Jay, Meg. Y’all are in two different places now.”
“I know. He doesn’t love Jesus.” She took a gulp and gasped. “Too hot.”
“Hopefully someday.”
“Hopefully.”
They ate in silence. Megan became more alert with every sip. Kaylan relaxed into her chair, enjoying the time to people watch. It’d become a hobby since she moved to California. People fascinated her, but an unusual breed seemed to flock to the West Coast, and that fascinated her more. Whether they came for the sun, the surf, or the freedom of expression, they came in droves, quickly making the sunny state their home. She’d added to their number, but she missed the Southern ways of Alabama.
The bell chimed above the wooden door, and a man in a suit stepped into the sunny, casual interior of the coffee shop. Kaylan bolted upright in her chair, causing Megan to swallow hard. “What’s wrong?” Her gaze swung to the man.
“Is that . . .”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Please tell me this is a coincidence.”
But Kaylan only shook her head. Nick didn’t believe in coincidences, and consequently, neither did Kaylan, especially not where nosy Russians in designer suits were concerned. “Call Caden, Meg. We need to go.” They stood to leave, grabbing their coffee.
Vlad’s gaze swung to them as they hurried to the door, and Kaylan’s suspicions were confirmed. Either he was a pro at hiding his emotions, which she suspected was true, or he wasn’t surprised to see them at all, which Kaylan suspected was also true. He stood up and blocked their path to the door.
“Zdrastvutye, Kaylan and Megan. What a beautiful morning it appears to be.” He stopped in front of them and clasped his hands behind his back.
Megan hung up and nodded at Kaylan. Kaylan watched her swallow the fear swirling just beneath the surface before turning to face Vlad. She rolled her eyes. “Another morning person. I knew I didn’t like you.”
Kaylan smothered a smile, despite the situation. She tried to move past him, but he blocked her again. “What are you doing here, Vlad?”
He glanced at his Rolex. “I’m awaiting an important phone call.”
“And you had to do it at this coffee shop? By our house?” She tried to pass him again, but he stepped closer.
He smiled slowly, and Kaylan was once again reminded of the Cheshire cat. “Why, yes. Still diving into American culture and all. It’s best to experience it in a normal American neighborhood and visit the places the locals inhabit.”
“I think you need to inhabit someplace else,” Megan suggested, but her tone spat ice. “And you need to move. We called in the cavalry, they’ll be here any minute.”
“A pity I won’t meet them. Besides, I should be gone soon.” He held up his phone, the screen as black as his intentions. “The next phone call will let me plan my departure as well as what needs to take place in the meantime.” His friendly mask disappeared. “I suspect we will be seeing one another very soon, Miss Richards.” With a final glance at his watch he turned on his heel and joined the line.
“That is not good,” Megan muttered under her breath as they hurried out the door.
Kaylan nodded, anxiety weighing heavy. She was careful not to give Vlad a parting glance as they exited the coffee shop and walked to their cars. “I’ll call Caden and tell him we got out of there and are leaving. But the men he dispatched will probably show up to question this guy.”
“What’s with this guy, Kayles? Why does he keep showing up?”
“I think it has to do with wherever Nick and Micah are right now. And unf
ortunately he made it personal.”
“I don’t want to do this again.”
Kaylan pulled her in for a quick hug. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. Caden will probably give us a protection detail now. The guys will be home soon. Then hopefully it will all be over. We just have to hang in there.” Kaylan reassured herself with the words.
Wherever they were, the guys had left in a hurry to finish something big, something that somehow included Vlad. That he remained behind filled Kaylan with dread. She fired a text at Natalie to remind her to be on the lookout. Something wasn’t right, and Kaylan wouldn’t rest easy until the guys returned and Vlad left. Sooner rather than later, she hoped.
*
Anya deplaned in Iceland on a small runway. A couple of smaller commercial planes and a handful of private planes sat on the tarmac. Despite the wintry February weather, only a light snowfall mixed with rain fell to the ground. She thanked the powers-that-be for the warm coat she had thought to purchase before leaving France. She shifted her bag on her shoulder and hurried to the small building that took care of baggage and booking. Her contact would meet her there with the necessary means to get to Canada and then to the Caribbean. She would breathe easier when she shed this coat and walked into balmy weather. Literally. The cold air clawed at her lungs. She coughed into her glove. Struggling to level her breathing, she stepped through the glass doors into warmth.
“Elsa, it has been years.” Gregor’s bottle-dyed hair hid one aspect of his aging but could not hide the toll it had taken on his face and hands. Wrinkles abounded. Anya ran her fingers over her face, scared for a moment that the aging was contagious. Years of treatments and surgery kept her features somewhat smooth, but the past few months in jail had aged her.
“Good to see you. Do you have what I need?” She slipped into another old alias, recalling her cover and the memories with Gregor in the early years of her work with Sasha. His grasp of finance and quick climb into the ranks as one of the most trusted financial advisors in Iceland made him a prime candidate to gather information. And a prime source for funneling shipments.
He extended an envelope. “The envelope you mailed me a year ago. Passport, bank records, all never used and waiting for such a time as this. Just like you asked.” His mouth turned to a thin line. “I trust no one will know I aided you?”
“You will not be suspected.” He’d been out of the game a long while, and Anya had been careful over the years to erase any tracks that might lead to him.
“Your plane to Quebec leaves in two hours. I trust you have plans from there.”
“Da. All is arranged. Spasiba, Gregor.”
His pale gray eyes grew watchful as he studied her. “We will not meet again in this lifetime, I suspect.”
She forced her muscles to smile. “Dasvidanya, Gregor. I’ll see you in hell.”
He chuckled. “The only place for people like us.”
She couldn’t resist the hand she rested on his cheek for only a moment. His eyes held a hint of surprise that Anya felt deep within. He might be the last familiar face she would see, maybe ever. She turned on her heel and hurried away. She was growing sentimental in her old age. But sentimentality had no room in escape.
Chapter Thirty-Four
How many more boxes do you have?” Megan huffed as they entered Kaylan and Nick’s apartment on Wednesday night.
“Hey, I’m just bringing things over little by little. I don’t have that much.”
“Millionaires have less than you.” Megan rested her hands on her hips and took a deep breath as Liza entered with another box.
“Girl, what’s wrong with you?” she asked, laughing as Megan took another deep breath.
“Megan needs to go running with me more often. That’s the problem.”
Liza dropped the box on the couch and straightened. “Then how do you stay ramrod skinny without working out?”
“Who says I don’t work out? I don’t exactly have a desk job, you know.”
“Uh huh.”
Kaylan laughed. “All right, all right. Let me pop the pizza in the oven while we unpack these, and then we can hang out or call it a night.”
“Titus isn’t home, so I don’t have any plans.” Liza shook her head, her kinky black hair swaying with the movement. “You just wait ‘til you and Hawk get married. Your universe will start centering around him, and unless you are hanging out with us, you won’t know what to do with yourself.”
Kaylan closed the oven. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Megan sighed. “One half of an old married couple already, ladies and gentlemen.”
“Just wait until it’s your turn, smarty.” Kaylan shoved her friend. “Let’s clean out these boxes so we can eat when the timer goes off.”
Kaylan lifted the flap and pulled out a few blankets and picture frames. Liza held up a photo album. “What’s this from?”
“Haiti.” Kaylan smiled, the memories always a little bittersweet. Not even the earthquake could shake the joy of the people she’d fallen in love with or the place that felt a little like home, but an ache still filled her as she remembered the images her lens hadn’t captured, the images that sometimes still haunted her dreams.
“Mind if I . . .”
“Be my guest.” Kaylan joined Liza on the couch as she began to flip through photo sleeves.
“Oh, look at that little darling with stickers all over her face. Isn’t she cute?” Liza pointed to the photo. “Is that your friend, Sarah Beth?”
“Yeah. And little Sophia. She loved to let us braid her hair. Sarah Beth was her favorite.” Megan plopped down next to them on the couch and leaned over Liza’s shoulder. “She’s actually the one who got help when Sarah Beth and I were trapped.”
“How old is she here? Three?”
“I think she was four or five.”
Shock flashed across Liza’s face. “Shoot, she is small.”
“A lot of the kids we worked with there are smaller than their age. That’s pretty common in Haiti. Because of a lack of proper nutrition, some kids can look two or three years younger than they actually are.”
Liza flipped through more pages. “How do you fix that?”
“Slowly. One person at a time.”
As Liza turned pages, she remembered moments with Abraham and some students from the local seminary and little Reuben and his soccer games.
“Who is that handsome baby?”
Kaylan leaned in to see the photo Rhonda had snapped of Kaylan, Tasha, and baby Kenny after their first meeting with the moms. Tasha’s eyes glowed. It was the night Eliezer had come, the night Tasha told Kaylan she believed in Jesus. “That’s baby Kenny and his mom, Tasha. She died in the earthquake.” Talking made it easier to purge the sorrow and remember the good. Honesty could do that to a person.
The timer dinged as Liza turned the last page. “So much for getting everything unpacked,” Megan said as she stood and stretched.
Kaylan popped open the oven, the scent of pepperoni and cheese wafting through the apartment. “Good thing we have fuel to help us unpack the three boxes we brought in.” Kaylan rolled her eyes at her roommate. “You whine a lot.”
“Just keeping you on your toes, Kayles.” Megan grabbed a few paper plates and napkins and set three place settings on the small table right outside the kitchen nook. Liza joined them at the table.
A ring tone cut through their chatter. Kaylan glanced at the caller ID. “Hey, Natalie. What’s up?”
“That creepy Russian guy showed up while I was at the grocery store today. I mean, what is that about? I live like three hours away from you!”
“Did you call Caden?”
“Yeah. There are a couple guys following me around everywhere now, thank goodness.”
“Good.” Kaylan looked out the apartment window and noticed the car parked near their building. She knew Caden had guys close for her, too. He wasn’t taking chances after this morning. “He dropped in on Megan and me yesterday morning at our loca
l coffee shop.” Kaylan hit speaker and set the phone on the table.
“He’s creepy and threatening, but all he did was make small talk and say he was experiencing culture and something about waiting on a phone call. Complete and total nonsense. I told him he could find far better ways to integrate into American culture than stalking me at my grocery store. That didn’t seem to faze him much.”
Kaylan smothered a smile. “That was brave.”
“Are you kidding me? I was shaking in my really comfy Converse. I’m ready for this to end, Kayles. Is Nick there?”
“No.” She glanced up at Megan and Liza. “Hopefully he is in the process of ending all this as we speak. I’m so sorry I got you involved in this, Natalie.”
“Yeah, well. The guys following me are pretty cute. Who knew brothers could be so much trouble.”
“I could have told you that.”
“When he gets back, tell him I’m cashing in on his first act of brotherly protection. He has an annoying, creepy Russian that I would like out of my state.”
“I’m sure he will be more than happy to take care of that for you.” If he could. Kaylan worried what Vlad’s threats actually meant. His words to Kaylan and Megan kept replaying through her mind. Something was off. He wouldn’t leave until he accomplished why he came.
“Keep me posted, Natalie. Why don’t you come spend the weekend with me and Megan?”
“Oh, you know. I have such a crazy social life, I’ll have to clear everything.” Her sarcasm made Megan laugh.
“I’ll be there. See you sometime late Friday night.”
“Deal.” The call ended, but the worried look on Liza’s face only increased.
“Girl, you tend to tick off the wrong people. You’ve got some sort of danger magnet attached to you.”
Kaylan stood and grabbed their empty plates. “I think it is actually attached to Nick and I attract the trouble by default.”
“We need to hire you a permanent bodyguard.”
“I’d settle for Nick being home, but the guys Caden got will do for the time being.”
“That, too.” Liza rose to unpack the rest of the boxes. “I heard they might be home pretty soon. No promises though. I don’t want them to come home until they finish their business. All of them are too distracted otherwise.”
Surrendered (Heart of a Warrior Series Book 3) Page 21
