Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Echo One, that’s a good copy.”
Echo One. Ana’s lips would’ve twitched into a smile at A.J.
’s use of her call sign if she weren’t so nervous as to whether Porter would show with the forger, her father’s old friend.
When she’d worked with A.J.’s team last year, she’d been on the outside looking in, wondering what his team knew and how they knew it.
It was an entirely different feeling to truly be part of his unit.
A.J.’s team was down a man, the real Echo One, and there was way too much ground to cover.
They were surrounded by miles of woods in the middle of nowhere.
A.J., Ana, Harper, and Roman had arrived on-site last, but Chris and Finn had spent almost the entire day at the cabin ensuring no one showed up ahead of time to set any traps.
Hopefully, The Huntsman wouldn’t follow Porter to the meet. Well, assuming Porter actually escaped from him on Monday.
But no, Porter was a trained operative. He’d been in the Army nine years before joining the Bureau. She had to keep telling herself that at least.
Ana went to the window at the back of the cabin and opened the blinds a few inches.
It was nine at night, and there was still a sliver of visibility outside, but the room was growing darker, and Ana needed a bit more light to see.
The guys, on the other hand, had their night-vision goggles if needed.
Besides, leaving the blinds closed wasn’t going to do much to keep her safe, anyway. If Ivan did show up, he’d most likely have thermal imaging to locate her inside and could take her out with a sniper rifle if that was his plan.
She moved to the front of the cabin, which was one open space. The kitchen, sitting area, and bed occupied the same room. No place other than the bathroom for anyone to hide, and she’d already checked there.
There was no one hiding beneath the floorboards, either. They’d used thermal imaging to be sure there were no heat signatures.
Chris, who Ana had learned was Echo Three, was in a tree stand on overwatch on the east side of the property. Roman, Echo Four, was in another tree stand on the west side. Finn had the north side.
A.J. was on Grant’s BMX bike, well-hidden in the thickly wooded forest on the south side of the property, prepared to be mobile if needed.
Harper was in an SUV one mile out, but she was in Ana’s ear on comms as well.
And Ana, well, she was the sitting duck waiting for Porter. She didn’t feel that way, but A.J. was worried about her. And despite having all four directions covered, there was still a lot of land for a sharpshooter.
“He’s late. Did we get all the prep work done for nothing?” She recognized the voice as Finn’s.
“Oh come on, the twelve hours out here you got to spend with me today was some good bonding time,” Chris’s voice came over the comms, humor in his tone. “I got to learn just how much you hate critters.”
“And if you screw with me about that later, you’re gonna get it,” Finn returned.
“He’ll be here,” Ana said when the line went quiet. “Porter said ninety-six hours from Monday, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be to the tee.” She peeked through the slit in the blinds and looked out front toward the road that led to the cabin.
Their private flight to Budapest, courtesy of the President (and yeah, that was crazy), was scheduled to leave later that night, so hopefully Porter would arrive soon since POTUS was doing them a huge favor.
Was the President even aware Ana was accompanying the team on that flight?
Knox may have been Bennett’s son, but surely the President wouldn’t risk his neck by aiding a fugitive to “escape” the country?
Well, unless. Ohhh. President Bennett wants the ledger.
Of course. And from the sounds of it, people were willing to do anything and everything to get their hands on the list. Her parents had to have known the power it wielded, and yet, they’d risked stealing it .
. . putting their lives, and Ana’s life, on the line. And for what? Money?
“This is Three, we have incoming,” Chris announced a few seconds later. “Black Jeep inbound.”
“Roger,” A.J. answered.
“I have eyes on the driver and passenger,” Chris added. “Confirming both targets are inside the vehicle. Target two matches the description you provided.”
Target two. Anthony Vincenzi. An Italian, not Russian, forger. It made sense her parents sought someone who wasn’t Russian to work with over the years, she supposed. Part of her looked forward to seeing him again. One of the last people from her past still alive.
“This is Four. I have a visual. They’re exiting the Jeep,” Roman said over comms. “Target two’s hands are tied behind his back. Blindfolded and gagged. Looks like he didn’t willingly come here with Porter.”
“Anthony doesn’t know to trust Porter,” Ana responded and stepped a few paces back from the door in preparation to see Porter and Anthony.
“At the door now,” Roman alerted her as the door handle turned.
“Echo One, be safe,” A.J. softly added.
“I’m here. You can enter,” she called out, and then the door swung inward.
“You alone?” Porter nudged Anthony inside, and he fell to his knees as Porter shut and locked the door behind him.
“Yes,” she lied because what if Porter had betrayed her, and A.J. and his team’s concerns were justified?
Porter stepped around Anthony and pulled Ana in for a tight hug. She was so damn glad he’d made it, but part of her held back when he hugged her. That nagging part of her that wondered if she could trust him was preventing her from squeezing him as tightly as he clutched her.
Porter eased back and gripped on to her forearms. “I wasn’t sure if you’d make it. I saw the news, but I didn’t expect the media to get wind of the story about your parents. I’m so sorry.”
“We both knew it was a possibility.” Ana struggled to keep her voice steady. “But, Porter, your safe was empty. Someone was in the house when I got there.”
“No, that can’t be right,” he responded, eyes going to the floor.
“Did anyone have the key to your safe?” she pressed when he kept quietly stewing.
“No, of course not.” His answer sounded genuine, but . . .
The clouds of doubt thickened, slowly invading her thoughts and seeping into her pores now that she stood face-to-face with her boss.
“Whoever was at your home leaked the surveillance footage of me entering your place to the media.” She brought a hand to her holstered gun.
“Who signed off on my undercover operation? Could he or she have gone into your home? Are they betraying us? The Bureau?”
Porter focused on Anthony, and Porter hooked his arm beneath his armpit and pulled him to a standing position, then removed the blindfold. “It’s complicated.” Defeat, not anger, echoed in his tone.
“Uncomplicate it for me.” She inched closer to the two men, her normally steady hand beginning to shake at the idea the man who’d been a father figure to her for years may have betrayed her.
Once Porter removed the gag, Anthony asked in a soft voice, “Anastasia, is that really you?”
“Yes, it’s me.” She stood directly in front of Anthony but kept Porter in her sights, doubts about him still filling her mind.
Anthony appeared disheveled. His plain blue button-down shirt was partially untucked from khaki pants.
Dirt stains on both. Faded white slip-on shoes she doubted he would have ever worn fifteen years ago.
Anthony’s brows tightened as if seeing a mirage. Plus, the visibility in the room was limited. “I tried to find you after your parents died. I looked and looked. I gave up once I learned most Volkovs were gone in the U.S., assuming the Russians got to you as well.”
Her shoulders shuddered at his words, at the warmth in his eyes when framing his focus her way. He may have been a criminal, but there was concern for her in his worried expression. “I was in hiding,” she whispered. “But I need your help.”
“Do you trust this man?” Anthony side-eyed Porter.
Maybe I don’t?
“Echo One, listen very closely,” Harper abruptly announced in her ear. “I just received word from Mama Bear.” Mama Bear was the call sign Chris had chosen for Jessica Scott for their mission. “She pieced together the footage from the movie theater shooting. Target One did not take the fatal shots.”
Ana should have felt relief, but her stomach muscles clenched tight as she waited for Harper to continue.
“But he did confront your parents moments before they were killed. He was standing next to the agent who took the shots. He even exchanged a few words with your dad—I can’t hear what was said, but only then did your parents raise their guns.
” Harper paused and Ana struggled to maintain a blank expression, to not squeeze her eyes closed.
The fact Harper was no longer using code names meant the truth mattered more than anyone possibly listening in to their encrypted comms. “He lied to you, which means he may have lied about even more.”
“Everything okay?” Ana jolted at Porter’s question.
“No,” she hissed and went for her gun. “No, I don’t trust him.”
Porter stepped away from Anthony, immediately drawing his Glock from a hidden holster beneath his shirt. “What are you doing?” he asked, alarmed. “Put the gun down.”
“You lied,” she whispered. “You were next to the man who shot my parents.” Tears of more betrayal than she could stomach welled in her eyes. “What’s really going on? Are you framing me? Did you send the hitman after the sources to set up the Volkovs? And me?”
“No.” Porter shook his head but kept his gun on her. “I have nothing to do with that, I swear.”
“Stand down. This wasn’t the plan, Echo One,” Roman’s voice cut through the line, quickly followed by the roar of A.J.’s BMX bike flooding her ears over the comm. Most likely on his way to her.
“You walked me down the aisle at my wedding. How could you?” A part of her wanted to shoot him right there.