Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
Ana paced the hotel room, walking back and forth in front of the window, which had a view of the Danube River. The lazy, flat waterway that meandered through the city was a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of cars and people alongside it.
The pacing probably wasn’t doing wonders for her anxiety.
But there was nothing to panic-clean. The hotel bedroom was spotless.
And panic-sex right now would be insane, though it had crossed her mind.
If Porter hadn’t been in an induced coma, his recovery status unknown, and Winters wasn’t MIA, she’d definitely choose panic-sex over panic-pace.
At least there’d been some good news delivered upon their arrival in Budapest. All the missing sources had been found thanks to Ivan’s tracking app.
And all were alive. Katya would finally be granted the life Ana had promised, and with any luck, if the Volkovs were officially taken down tonight, Katya would be free from ever having to look over her shoulder and worry anymore.
But Ana still had to come through with the Volkovs tonight for that to happen.
In two and a half hours, she’d be facing Grigory Volkov, and there was no certainty as to how the night would end.
When she’d phoned Grigory upon arrival in Budapest, as the team planned, she’d been the one to offer the public labyrinths as the meeting place.
The team had decided to give Grigory minimal time to prepare, but Grigory insisted the meeting location be at the “Renaissance Hall of Rocks with Wine Fountains of Mathias” in the labyrinth, which meant the entrance to the Volkovs’ tunnel system was most likely close to there.
“Still nothing on Winters. He hasn’t shown up at the bank in the Maldives,” A.J. said while walking into the bedroom from the living room of the suite. He shut the door behind him, and she stopped pacing to face him.
He was in jeans and a gray tee, his hair wet from a recent shower. A shower she would have taken with him had his teammates not been in the neighboring room.
And now sex is back on my mind. Maybe thinking about sex was a new form of therapy to help her get through the tough times?
Therapeutic orgasms. Yeah, that makes sense, she reasoned.
The orgasm A.J. had given her yesterday before the meeting in Carrollton, when she’d had to bite into a pillow so his teammates wouldn’t hear her moans while he plunged in and out of her in the bedroom, had been incredible, to say the least. She had fallen onto her back afterward murmuring that they were crazy, and he’d agreed, right before they worked up the stamina to do it again.
The next time, A.J. took her from behind, and it’d been especially hot since the mirror over the dresser captured the act.
So, sex with A.J. during stressful times was, well, therapeutic.
I’m officially the girl in novels who I screamed at for having hot sex when she should have been hunting serial killers or terrorists.
Ana took back every bad thing she’d ever thought about those authors.
Of course, she’d still read every word and five-starred the hell out of those books since the scenes had sizzled.
None compared to what she and A.J. had together, though.
Wyatt, Owen, and even Asher had shown up an hour ago and were getting caught up on the mission details for tonight. The team needed all the boots on the ground they could get.
Which meant no picturing A.J.’s tongue darting between her thighs. No distracting thoughts. No therapeutic sex to put her mind at ease.
“Um, did you hear me?” A.J. stood in front of her, his green eyes filled with worry.
“Yes,” she finally answered. “No Winters yet.”
“You, uh, sure you don’t want to just head out of Dodge? You and I can hop on a flight back to the U.S. and go search your storage for the translated copy and let our people here handle Grigory.”
“You need me, and you know it.” She rested her forearms on his shoulders.
“But it’s nice I’m no longer a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.” That was a huge relief.
“At least I can check off fugitive from my bucket list,” she joked, and maybe she was getting the hang of how to roll with A.J.
’s team. Humor and all. “Thank you for that, by the way.” It couldn’t have been easy for his team to let Director Mendez in on their “Avenger-like” lives, but they’d had no choice if they wanted to catch Winters and clear Ana’s name.
“He’s not my favorite person, but we’ll learn to live with him.
Natasha said Mendez took it better than we thought he would.
” He brushed his lips across her mouth as though he knew she was hungry for a kiss and needed his touch to calm her nerves.
“But he’s insisting we have an FBI team with us tonight,” A.J.
added as he pulled away, “and as much as we were against it, we may need additional support. The FBI agents will be told we’re private military contractors.
Mendez said he’s selecting someone he trusts to run the team. ”
No, no, no. This is a bad idea. She stepped away from him, processing the news.
“If Grigory acts as we predict, he’s not going to be happy when you tell him, contrary to what you’ve led him to believe, that you don’t know where the key is hidden.
Hopefully, when you inform him you have a translated copy of the ledger, he’ll not only believe it, he’ll be appeased enough to meet your conditions—you’ll only hand it over once you’ve exited the labyrinth.
We can’t anticipate which exit he’ll take, though.
We need our bases covered.” His tone was rough.
Like sandpaper. He hated this more than she did, from the sounds of it.
But he’d follow whatever was the safest route.
“How are we supposed to trust the agents on the team? What if there’s an SVR spy? Or the Volkovs have an inside man?” First Porter. Then Winters.
“We’ll try to keep as many operational details as possible to a minimum.
And if there is a traitor amongst the FBI team, I guess we’ll find out.
” He secured a hand to her waist, drawing her closer.
“Although my guys can steal a boat on the Danube if needed, it’d be safer if the Feds already have one on the river and near the Széchenyi Chain Bridge if my team has to conduct a water pursuit. ”
And from what she’d remembered the other day, there were two secret Volkov tunnel entrances: one by the water, the other by some “random” road.
“We can’t be certain where Grigory will take you, or if Adrik is still alive. But we have to be prepared for every possibility.”
And maybe A.J. was right about pulling in the FBI. They were on a tight timeframe with limited resources.
“Okay.” She forced a confident nod. “But I do think it’s better if you don’t come down in the tunnel with me to the meet tonight.” She reached for his hands and laced their fingers together. “You know how Grigory will react if he sees you.”
“He’ll never believe you showed up alone. We stick to the plan.”
“Then why did you first suggest we skip town and change the plan?” she challenged, drawing her body closer to his.
“Because your safety—”
“Is not more important than yours.” She wasn’t about to let him win this argument. “I just don’t want you getting hurt,” she said at the memory of presenting her “What Could Go Wrong” list to the team on the flight over, only to have them produce rebuttals for every item.
She still had her concerns. How could she not, when her mission risked the lives of others, especially A.J.’s?
“I have to finish what my parents started.”
“They didn’t want the Volkovs dead, though.”
“Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” Her parents had wanted to protect America, and she would cling to that knowledge to help her get through tonight.
“If something goes wrong,” he said, his voice deeper, “I don’t want you to blame yourself.” His eyes thinned. “Do you hear me?” He unlocked their hands and caressed her cheeks in his palms.
“That won’t happen.” It couldn’t happen.
“But if it does—”
“It won’t,” she said in a whisper, worried her voice would break if she spoke too loudly.
“You do whatever is necessary to stay alive. To complete the mission.” He brought his face closer to hers.
“But if something happens,” he went on, and he was as stubborn as she was, “don’t make me ghost your ass to tell you to move on and find happiness again.
” A touch of humor filled his tone like only A.J.
could summon during what should’ve been a dark comment.
“And does that mean you think I’ve already found happiness?” she whispered against his lips.
“Damn right you have.” He crushed his mouth over hers and walked her backward until she bumped against the window.
Urging her to wrap her legs around his hips, he deepened their kiss. They were about to go into the darkness tonight, but this hot, intense moment was all the light she’d need.
“There is one small detail I have yet to tell you about tonight,” he whispered into her ear a moment later as her feet hit the ground.
“No,” she said with an adamant shake of the head, crossing her arms in defiance.
“How do you know what I was going to say?”
“You can’t possibly want to work with him tonight.” Was he insane?
“It’s not up to me, but—”
“But no.” No way!
“You said he was overprotective. At least we know he’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. I saw that in his eyes on Monday night.”
She’d nearly forgotten A.J. had come face-to-face with her ex-husband. Her stomach roiled. Her thoughts about panic-sex totally gone. “This is a mistake.”
“Mistake or not, we don’t have a choice.” He checked his watch when she didn’t respond, then inched closer and brought his mouth to hers, an attempt to distract her, but not even his kiss could relax her right now. “It’s time to move out.”
“Will we at least talk to Kyle first? I need to make sure we’re on the same page.”
“He doesn’t want to, um, talk to you. Not right now.”
“Shit, he must be upset about my parents.” Of course. God, by-the-book Kyle Jeter probably had a mild heart attack after discovering he’d been married to the daughter of Russian spies. “He doesn’t know the truth about my parents’ real motives with the ledger, though, right?”
“No one aside from Mendez and Gray are aware of the truth. Not even about Winters being dirty. We don’t want to scare any potential leaks into doing a disappearing act, too.”
“Wait . . . Gray?”
His “oops” face said it all. “Our, uh, contact.”
And now she knew why A.J. and his team were so quick to rule her unit chief out as a suspect on the potential mole list.
He squeezed her bicep and offered her a small smile. “Now, you ready to go be my wife?”