Chapter 5
Someone would have to be the first to bend. It wasn’t something Lev did. Ever. But after hearing Reyna on the phone, he had a suspicion that there was a lot about the female she kept hidden.
Much as he did.
Her dark eyes held his as if daring him to be the first to crack.
He’d been through so many levels of Hell, that it would take much more than her to break him.
And while his instinct was to refuse to budge, he recalled fighting alongside the Loughmans, their women, Yuri, and Maks Petrov against the Saints.
It had felt good to take such a stand, even if it killed him not to be by Sergei’s side to protect him. The sooner Lev finished with this, the sooner he could get back to Maryland and Sergei.
Where he belonged.
Because as much as the Loughmans might try and make him feel as if he were part of their group, Lev knew better. He was a loner. Destiny had chosen that road for him. Sergei had given him a home and a place to hone his skills. Lev owed Sergei everything.
“You want information?” Lev lifted his arms. “Take these off.”
Reyna shook her head of caramel locks. “I quite like walking around without having my gun pointed at you every second.”
“I won’t attack you or leave.”
She barked in laughter. “As if I’ll take your word.”
Lev glanced down at the floor. He’d planned to wait to show her that he’d picked the locks during the night with the pin that she’d given him to unlock the door at the theatre, but it seemed that now was his opportunity.
He tugged gently, and the shackles fell to the floor. Reyna’s eyes widened as her lips parted in shock. Then her gaze jerked to his face.
“You forgot to take this back,” Lev said as he held up the pin. “I unlocked them within an hour of being here last night. I didn’t harm you or leave when I had the chance. That should prove my word is good.”
She closed her lips and swallowed. Anger tightened her features, but he suspected that she was furious with herself more than him. “Who are you?” she demanded. “I’ve done this job a long time. I don’t make mistakes.”
“You did last night,” he pointed out.
“If I made those kinds of mistakes often, I wouldn’t be alive.”
She spoke the truth there. Had it been anyone but him, she would be dead. But he didn’t point that out. There was no need. She knew.
Lev got to his feet. As he did, he saw the way she took a defensive step back, readying to go for a gun she most likely had stashed nearby.
He ignored her and picked up his empty plate and mug before he walked past her to the kitchen. Lev set the dishes by the sink and rolled up his sleeves. He had his back to her, but he was aware of her position.
As soon as he had walked into the kitchen, Reyna moved to the fireplace and reached into the bucket of wood for a pistol. Lev didn’t say anything to her. If it made her feel safer to have a weapon pointed at him, then he’d let her. For now.
After he’d finished the dishes, he dried his hands and turned to face her, leaning back against the counter. He spread the damp towel out to dry and folded his arms across his chest. The only good thing was that she didn’t have the gun pointed at him.
“I don’t work for the Saints,” he told her. “I came here to stop Stasiuk’s assassination.”
“You didn’t succeed.”
He drew in a breath. “I know.”
“Even if you had saved him, the Saints would’ve gone after him again. And again. Until they ended him.”
Lev wondered if she realized that she didn’t include herself with the Saints. That slip-up might have been done on purpose, but his instincts said otherwise. His gut told him that Reyna wasn’t with the Saints, even if she was working for them.
Which meant that she might be undercover. It made sense. Especially given she was so adamant about wanting information to take to her superiors.
“You’re probably right,” he conceded. “But I would’ve liked to shove another loss in the Saints’ faces.”
Her gaze intensified. “Another?”
Lev hid his smile. He’d known that would get her attention. “You heard right.”
“Tell me more.”
He had leverage to get information out of her, but he decided to hold off for now. It was a calculated risk, one that he hoped would pay big dividends. “We killed the scientist who developed Ragnarok.”
Confusion marred her face as she shook her head. “What’s that?”
“You must not be very high up in the organization if you don’t know about the bioweapon they had developed to sterilize women.”
Her nostrils flared as shock reverberated from her in waves. “Was the bioweapon actually developed?”
“Yes. And before you ask, the Saints will never get their hands on it.”
“You mean you have it?”
Lev decided to lie. “It was destroyed.”
Reyna nodded, her gaze on the floor.
He remembered when he first heard about the bioweapon. He’d been so astounded that he hadn’t wanted to believe the news. He’d chosen to ignore things, but it was Sergei who made them enter the fight, first by helping Mia and Cullen, and then by joining the entire Loughman family.
Reyna walked to the table and set the gun down before she opened a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of vodka and two shot glasses.
Her hands shook slightly as she poured the alcohol into each glass.
Without looking at him, she downed her shot and placed the back of her hand against her lips, her eyes closed.
Lev dropped his arms and made his way to the table.
When he finished off his shot, her eyes were locked on him.
She once more had her emotions under control.
It was the mark of a professional. The more he watched her, the more he suspected that she was CIA.
He’d had enough run-ins with them on the docks in Dover to know their look.
“Why did you leave the CIA?” he asked.
She poured another round before she met his gaze. “Sometimes, we have no choice but to walk the path before us.”
He knew the feeling well. He’d done it himself. “You’ve been on this path for some time.”
“I’ll remain on it until I’m finished.”
“Doing what?”
Instead of answering, she drank the shot of vodka. “Who are you working with?”
“I’m not giving up names. We’ve gotten the notice of the Saints, though. Between the bioweapon, the scientist, and thwarting an attack on us, we’ve delivered three big defeats. And I’m guessing by your phone call earlier that we’re the reason they’re sending you back to the States.”
“I didn’t get any info. I was only told there was a problem that needed to be dealt with in America.”
Lev grinned and downed his shot. “That would be us.”
“You shouldn’t be happy about it. They’ll be relentless in their pursuit to bring you down.”
He raised a brow. “They?”
Reyna closed her eyes in frustration as she compressed her lips. When she lifted her lids, there was resolve there. Lev waited for her to make up some excuse as to why she said they instead of we, but to his surprise, she didn’t.
She pulled out the chair and sank into it with a sigh. Then she poured another drink and tossed it back. She swallowed, squeezing her eyes closed briefly before she slammed the glass down on the table.
“For five years, I’ve been careful about everything I’ve done and said,” she told him. “Maybe this is a sign I should get out of the game.”
“Maybe you knew on some level that you could trust me? Or you wanted to.” He sat opposite her and reached for the bottle. He poured vodka into both glasses and set the bottle between them.
Reyna shrugged. “There are spies within the Saints. I’ve been one before. They send us to others they’re unsure about, those within the organization who have caused someone to look unfavorably on them.”
“You think I’m one of those spies?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me. How else would you have known about the assassination last night?”
He leaned back in his chair and scratched his jaw. “One of my colleagues found something in a chat room.”
Her brows snapped together. “No. No, no, no. That’s not good.”
“What?” Lev asked, confused. “Terrorists do that kind of idiocy all the time.”
She scraped back her chair as she jumped to her feet. “How did you get to Ukraine?”
“I flew,” he said flatly. “By plane. Under a fake passport and name.”
Her gaze moved to the floor. “They tracked you. That’s the only explanation.”
“Hold up,” he said as he got to his feet. “What are you talking about?”
Brown eyes met his. “The Saints never broadcast their intentions. Never. You were set up.”
“Shit,” he mumbled.
“And by not killing you, they must know I’m helping you.”
Lev looked out one of the windows. “My COM. Did you shut off communications?”
She shook her head. “And we don’t wear any.”
He recalled the radio he’d taken from the soldier. He and Reyna were in the middle of nowhere. The only way out was in the car he’d driven down the drive that was most likely being watched.
“We need to go. Now.”
She nodded in agreement. Both sprang into action. Lev went for his jacket, hating that he was in evening shoes and not something better to make a run for it through the forest.
Reyna tossed him a backpack and pointed at the cupboard.
He opened the doors and found non-perishable food and bottled water that he hastily threw into the bag.
When he turned around, there were four rifles, ten handguns, three knives, and ammunition for each.
She was filling another pack with the bullets and nodded at him to do the same.
As he did, he tossed some of the food into her pack. Then they each grabbed two rifles and split the handguns, with Lev making sure he took his knives.
“This way,” Reyna said then grabbed her tablet and walked to the back of the cabin.
He watched as she checked the cameras through the tablet. There wasn’t any sign of anyone. Yet. But both of them knew the Saints were coming.
“The call this morning was to get your location,” he said.
Reyna shook her head. “I have it so that my location shows in Kiev.”
“Are you sure no one followed us last night?”
“No, I’m not sure of anything anymore. We should wait until dark.”
He raised a brow. “I wouldn’t suggest that.”
“We’d have the cover of darkness.”
“And they’d have night vision.”
She smiled and pulled something out of her pack.
He grinned when he saw the night vision goggles. “I still think we should go now. Get out before they even get close. You must have set up a plan if you ever needed to leave quickly.”
“We need to get to the Baltic Sea.”
Lev calculated the distance in his head. “That’s nearly seven hundred miles.”
“Passing into Poland.”
“And once we’re at the Baltic?”
Reyna adjusted her backpack as she put it on. “We travel by boat.”
Lev clenched his fist at the thought of getting on a ship. No matter how many times he’d tried, he got violently seasick. Just what he needed.