Chapter 15
Everly slid into the wrought-iron chair, the metal cold against her back, and forced her hands to stay still in her lap. She didn’t dare fidget with the recording device Grant had wired into her bra just an hour earlier, even though it was poking her a bit. One wrong move could tip her hand.
She let out a slow, shaky breath and scanned the open-air cafe. A couple chatted nearby. A server took an order three tables over. Normal. Unremarkable. But she knew better.
STAG operators were scattered throughout the area, blending into the background like movie extras. No one looked her way, but she could feel the current of awareness crackling beneath the calm.
A familiar voice murmured in her ear, warm and steady. “You’re doing great, babe. This’ll be over before you know it.”
Grant sat somewhere behind her, his focus fixed on the laptop in front of him, the perfect picture of a bored businessman killing time. She felt her lips twitch at the edges.
She could do this. She would do this—not just to end the chaos Jeremy left behind, but to reclaim something for herself. A future. One that maybe, just maybe, included the man watching her back.
There hadn’t been much time to say goodbye this morning after Noah’s call, when he told them that Lockhart had moved up the timeline without explanation.
She and Grant had dressed quickly, throwing the few essentials they’d unpacked back into their bags.
Everly had been standing by the doorway, reviewing what she was supposed to say for the hundredth time, when Grant pulled her into his arms, pressing her to him and just holding her for a precious few moments.
She’d tried to memorize his woodsy scent, the solid feel of his chest and arms around her, the tempo of his heart where it thudded underneath her cheek.
“I’m so glad you decided to visit me,” she whispered, holding back tears. He pressed his lips to her hair.
“Best decision I’ve ever made,” he said, hugging her a little tighter. “As soon as you’re cleared, I’m going to be on your doorstep. We’ll have our time, Ev. I promise.” He’d kissed her then, a quick, desperate clash of teeth and tongues that left Everly aching.
Noah had arrived to take them to the rendezvous point, and they’d said little else to each other, both of them preoccupied with what was to come.
The earpiece crackled, and Noah’s voice sounded in her ear. “Target approaching.”
Andrei Andropov made his way across the plaza, a messenger bag bouncing against his hip as he hurried. Everly made no move to greet him as he collapsed into the chair across from her, a thin sheen of sweat glazing his flushed face.
“In a rush?” she asked with a coolness she didn’t feel, arching an eyebrow at the disheveled man before her. He looked like a wreck, gaunt and clammy and more rat than threat. This was the man behind all those messages? She almost wanted to laugh.
Andrei produced a handkerchief, wiping at his brow. “Places to be. Business you wouldn’t understand.”
Everly resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He reached across the table and motioned towards her. “Let’s have it.”
“Not so fast.” She leaned back in her chair. “Just what exactly are you planning to do with this information?”
He gritted his teeth. “ Now you have scruples? All that matters is that you provide it. I’ll worry about where it goes after that.”
“I still don’t understand why you need this so badly.” She kept her expression flat, even as her heart was galloping.
“ Because ,” he hissed. “You borrowed a substantial amount of money from us, then had the audacity to think you could just walk away when it suited you. No one burns DropKom and gets away with it.” He shifted towards her again. “Now, hand it over. I haven’t got all day.”
She made a show of sighing and digging into her pocket, then produced the flash drive that Evan had loaded with dummy files. Andropov’s eyes gleamed as she slid it across the table, and he snatched it up with long-nailed, pale fingers that made Everly’s skin crawl.
Nylon swished and plastic buckles clicked as he opened the cheap messenger bag and produced a small laptop.
Everly clasped her hands together in her lap to hide their trembling while he plugged the drive into the side of the computer and waited for the files to load.
Time seemed to pass impossibly slowly, but finally he began tapping on the keyboard, navigating through the files that Evan had created.
“What a pain in my ass you’ve been,” he muttered, more to himself than to her, scrolling through the files with a flicky, impatient hand.
His knee bounced under the table, eyes darting from the screen to her and back again.
“All this trouble just to get what should’ve been handed over months ago.
” A humorless laugh rattled out of him. “You Americans are all the same. Acting like you’ve got leverage, like we won’t collect. ”
He yanked the flash drive from the laptop and shoved it into his pocket. “I sincerely hope I never see your pretty face again.”
Everly sagged a bit into her chair as she realized that it had worked. Andrei had taken the bait. She held back a smile as he snapped his laptop shut and shoved it into his bag in a flurry of nervous energy. “May this be the last time I ever have to deal with your kind,” he hissed as he stood.
He looked at her– past her–then, and froze.
Everly fought the instinct to glance over her shoulder. Knew it was Grant he was staring at. Andrei’s expression twisted, his eyes cold and snakelike.
“Did I not tell you to come alone?”
Her stomach dropped. “I am alone, dumbass. Look at me.”
“Then explain to me why your military boyfriend is sitting over there,” he sneered.
“I don’t know who–”
“Liar!” He turned around wildly, as if realizing he was surrounded. “You set me up, you little bitch. I should kill you where you sit–”
“Target is hostile. Move in now!” Noah’s voice sounded in her ear.
Before she could blink, Andrei lunged across the table, his hand closing around her throat in a vice grip.
◆◆◆
Grant didn’t wait.
He was in motion before Noah barked his order, his chair clattering to the ground behind him.
He was vaguely aware of bystanders screaming, of Walker and Chilstrom moving in from opposite directions, but his focus tunneled to one thing: Everly.
Her eyes were wide with terror as she clawed at Andropov’s hands, gasping for air.
Grant reached the table in seconds and ripped Andrei away from her with a snarl. The bastard went flying, hitting the pavement hard.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Grant growled, voice low and lethal as he closed the distance. From the corner of his eye, he saw Walker swoop in and drag Everly away.
Andrei flailed, blood slick on his chin, his movements jerky and disjointed. His pupils were blown wide, fingers twitching as he fumbled beneath his waistband and produced a gun, but entirely too slowly. Grant kicked it from his grasp, sending the weapon spinning under a nearby table.
“All this for a piece of ass who sold you out?” Andropov’s breathing was ragged, but his grin was pure venom as he swiped at his mouth with a bloodied hand.
Grant’s fist answered for him with one clean, devastating blow. Bone crunched beneath his knuckles, and Andrei screamed.
He reared back for another strike, white-hot fury burning through him, but a hand clamped around his arm.
“McDowell! Stand down!” Taylor shouted.
Andropov shrieked in Russian as Chilstrom wrestled him onto his stomach. “Son of a bitch came at her like a rabid dog,” he grunted, yanking Andrei’s arms behind his back and securing them with zip ties.
A siren wailed in the distance, growing closer. Civilians clustered nearby, phones out, the entire operation on the verge of spiraling into a media nightmare.
Grant barely registered any of the chaos. All his attention was for Everly, who sat at a table across the plaza, Walker examining her neck.
He made a move toward her, just as Taylor stepped in front of him like a wall.
“McDowell. No contact starts now.”
“Just let me talk to her for a minute. Make sure she’s all right. Sir,” he added, the formality a buffer between them. For the first time in his life, his duty to obey orders wrestled with his duty to protect the woman he loved.
Noah sighed. “Grant, as your friend, I’d gladly turn a blind eye.
But I can’t. Not with this many people swarming around.
If word got back to Lockhart…” he shuddered.
“Besides, we’ve got a mess to handle right now.
” He gestured toward the crowd that had only grown larger, bystanders gawking as STAG and local police swarmed the plaza.
“You know what Lockhart said. A few days of questioning, and she’ll be back before you know it.
” He headed for the chaos, motioning Grant to fall in.
And damn him, he did. Turned his back on Everly to follow his captain, telling himself it was temporary, but unable to shake the feeling that he was making a mistake.
He allowed himself one last glimpse of her, just in time to see her being escorted away by two military police. She didn’t look back at him, and it felt more like goodbye than he wanted to admit as she disappeared into the crowd.
◆◆◆
Everything was gray. The walls, the floors, even the fluorescent light that buzzed incessantly seemed to emanate gray light.
Everly closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, staving off a growing headache and wishing that she could somehow transport herself back to the lush green and vibrant blue of the mountains. Back into Grant’s arms.