Chapter 8 #2
Alexei shrugged. “Have nothing I not see before.”
Sean didn’t immediately yell at Alexei for that comment or tell him to fuck off.
Kyle would’ve, but then, his little brother had been guiding Alexei through the cultural nuances of America for years, telling him what was acceptable and what wasn’t when it came to social interaction.
Even now, there were words or phrases or actions Alexei didn’t understand because he hadn’t grown up with the context, hadn’t been raised to consider it a normal turn of phrase or response.
English came easier to his sisters than for him because they’d been so much younger than he was when they’d immigrated.
Valentina had barely been twelve months old when their asylum request was granted.
Her English was better than her Russian now, but their parents had still raised her to speak both languages.
Tatyana had arrived in Boston young enough that she soaked up English more easily than Alexei, who, at eleven years old, experienced a hefty dose of what he knew now was culture shock.
He’d been an American for almost twenty years now.
Long enough that Alexei couldn’t use the excuse of not knowing any better and get away with it.
He still tried.
“What?” Alexei asked, putting a little bit of confusion into his voice. “Jamie say team not go anywhere alone.”
Sean stared at him. “Does that honestly work for you? The whole dumb foreigner act?”
“Not know what you mean.” Sean’s look of pure disbelief made Alexei shrug unrepentantly. “Be surprised.”
“Look, Dvorkin. I’m not your enemy.”
“You handler.” Unspoken was spy, but Alexei was pretty damn certain the other man would know what he meant. “Have own agenda.”
“The only agenda I have is the MDF’s. I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize it. I’m certainly not going to get in contact with the Reborn IRA if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Alexei took a sip of his coffee to hide the fact that he was worried about Sean doing exactly that.
Kyle used to laugh at Alexei for worrying about everything that could go wrong.
Jamie’s penchant for having a backup plan for his backup plan was one of the first things Alexei had learned and liked about his captain.
“You complicate mission.”
“I honestly didn’t know Tomas would be there,” Sean said, sounding tired and a little frustrated. “I did what I had to do to keep our cover intact. It makes things a little more complicated going forward, if only because the MDF needs to get in contact with the CIA about my cover for this mission.”
Alexei narrowed his eyes. “CIA always problem. Not trust.”
He almost got Sean to bite with that little statement. Sean opened his mouth before closing it again with an audible snap. When he did finally respond, what he ended up saying surprised Alexei.
“Thanks, you know, for stopping Tomas from punching me in the face,” Sean said.
“Is no problem,” Alexei replied a little warily. “Not mind punching assholes.”
“Rubbing his face into the table seemed like overkill for your cover, though.” Sean paused for a second before firmly shaking his head. “Actually, no. I take that back. Tomas deserved everything you did to him.”
“Why he hate you? Because you leave?”
“Maybe. Probably. My cover at the time was built for Cillian’s camp, not Emmet’s. Cutting my losses was interpreted as a betrayal, judging from what Tomas said.”
Alexei pointed at the information Sean was digging through. “Should probably write up own report for Jamie on old cover. Need to know.”
“It’s on my list of things to do today.”
Sean went back to reading through the documents in the file. Alexei got up to pour himself another cup of coffee, taking the last dregs in the pot and grabbing a packet of cookies from the cupboard before returning to the table to watch Sean work.
“You really don’t have to stay,” Sean muttered a few minutes later.
“I’m watch.”
“Suit yourself, but you’re not watching me when I take a piss.”
Alexei shrugged and slouched in his seat, getting comfortable.
Sean could argue all he wanted, but Alexei was going to keep a close eye on him whether he liked it or not.
Which meant Alexei didn’t drift away from his spot very often over the next few hours, though he never did follow Sean to the bathroom.
He spent the morning reading up on the same information Sean was working on, figuring he should know who they were dealing with in case he needed to break someone’s face again.
Alexei ignored the commotion of Jamie and Kyle leaving to put on another show that he didn’t need to watch and which would only make him lose his appetite during lunch.
Everyone else must have felt the same way because he saw Donovan, Trevor, Annabelle, and Madison running through a complicated set of hand signals on who had to go and who got to stay.
Donovan and Madison ended up losing the argument and walked defeated out of the house after their charges.
Trevor and Annabelle’s victory was short-lived though. Thirty minutes later, Katie came out of the office on a call, sounding pleasant enough for whoever was on the other side of the line if one ignored the look on her face that said shit was going down.
“Lunch today will be fine. It’s not short notice at all. Great, we’ll see you soon,” she said to whomever she was speaking to before ending the call.
Alexei looked over his shoulder as he leaned his chair back to balance it on two legs. “Not sound good.”
“Put on a suit, Alexei. You too, Sean. We’re having lunch with Jansen,” Katie said.
“That was quick,” Sean said in surprise, already closing down his work. “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours, and they gave us a week.”
Alexei let his chair thunk back to the ground. “Shit.”
Katie nodded. “Get ready, all of you. I’ll build your shields on the drive over.”
“Build mine now because I’m drivin’, and I don’t need to rear-end no one if I react badly,” Annabelle said, already double-timing it up the stairs.
Alexei followed Sean to the room they were sharing on the first floor.
He’d opted to bunk with Sean in order to keep an eye on the other man and hopefully steer his attention away from the way Jamie and Kyle were enjoying their role a little too much to simply call it a cover.
Honestly, the things he did for his little brother.
Alexei stepped around the memory mattress rolled out on the floor by the bed in favor of pulling a suit out of his side of the closet.
He got dressed quickly, not bothering with a tie because they were annoying, and added a couple of gold chain necklaces instead.
Alexei strapped the same ceramic knife onto his forearm before clipping a holster to his belt at the small of his back and securing his tactical handgun in it.
“You’re supposed to let Trevor and Annabelle be your protection,” Sean reminded Alexei as he finished buttoning up the jacket on a dark blue suit.
“Can protect self.”
“You’re not supposed to.”
“You made me Marine. Not go unarmed,” Alexei retorted.
That still rankled. He understood why they didn’t want to give away that he and Kyle used to be Strike Force operatives, but the fact that none of them were even Recon Marines under their covers was annoying.
Downgrading his fighting skills for a cover was bound to backfire.
In the middle of a fight, Alexei wasn’t sure he’d remember to pull his punches.
His training was instinct and muscle memory at this point and near impossible to stop.
“Fine,” Sean said in exasperation.
Alexei made an impatient gesture at him to finish up. A few minutes later found them nearly running into Trevor on his way down the stairs. Dressed in dark jeans and a blazer over a collared shirt, armed—with more weapons than Alexei was allowed—Trevor jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
“The girls are finishing up. They shouldn’t be long,” Trevor said.
“Did Katie inform the others?” Sean asked.
“The boss knows. He’s not happy. Heard her telling him to go to lunch and let us handle the meet alone since he’s not supposed to come anyway. I think they’re still arguing.”
“Bet he not like,” Alexei said mildly, even as his comms rang through his ears with a tone reserved for only one person. He answered, switching to Russian as he turned away from the others. “>”
“>” Kyle demanded.
“>” Alexei said.
“>”
“>”
“>”
“>”
“>”
“>”
Alexei cut the connection before Kyle could yell at him some more. When Kyle didn’t immediately call back to continue the argument, he assumed his brother was getting Jamie under control. Kyle, they’d all learned, was very good at that.
Annabelle came down the stairs a few minutes later.
Katie arrived seconds later in a business-appropriate sheath dress and a pair of high heels that honestly looked like they could double as weapons, no longer yelling at their captain.
She spared thirty seconds to finish fixing her hair into a loose chignon before double-checking that her 9mm was in her designer tote bag.
“Ready?” she asked as Trevor held the front door open for her
“Let’s go,” Annabelle replied.