Chapter 9
Learning Lev’s history helped Reyna understand him better. His roots in the Russian mafia explained a lot. She detected the similarities, as well as the differences, between him and those in Russia.
Reyna waited for him to start walking. His retelling of how he’d nearly died was too smooth.
No doubt there was much more to the story.
She knew how long it took someone to die by strangulation.
How long had Lev had the rope tightened around his neck before Sergei got there?
She had a suspicion that it was a long time.
To know that Lev had walked away from a career as a doctor to serve Sergei told her so very much about him. He hadn’t said that Sergei forced him to serve, which meant that Lev had decided to do it on his own.
“Do you regret being a spy?” Lev suddenly asked.
She thought about it for a moment before she said, “No. I regret some of my decisions and not always listening to my gut. This job isn’t for everyone.”
“But it suits you?”
She looked over to find him staring at her.
“The CIA recruited me right out of college. I honestly thought I’d be behind a desk translating languages, and I started out doing just that.
But they needed someone on a quick mission during my eighth month.
My first mission was sitting at a bar in a hotel in Moscow, pretending to be a prostitute while spying on a known KGB spy. ”
“And you were hooked after that?”
Reyna chuckled softly. “Actually, I was terrified. There were plenty of others who spoke Russian, but apparently, I fit the bill more as a prostitute. Not sure what that says about me.”
“That you’re beautiful.”
His words surprised her so much that she nearly tripped over a root.
“Thank you. But I was happy to go back to my desk. A couple of months later, they requested that I join another mission. About once a month, I was being pulled to go on one op or another, and the next thing I knew, I was no longer going back to my desk.”
“Is that when you got teamed up with Arthur?”
She glanced up at the moon to see it was just a thin slice in the sky. “I was on my own for nearly three years before Arthur.”
“You liked it?”
“Every day was different. There was never a boring day.”
Lev pulled a bottle of water out of his bag and drank deeply. “I can see how that would appeal to some people.”
“I missed my desk sometimes,” she confessed. “I missed being able to talk about work. My family knew I worked for the CIA, but I could never tell them anything. I missed many holidays with my family. I barely made it to my mother’s funeral.”
“Do you still work for the CIA?”
She shook her head. “When I used the plane ticket the Saints left me, my status within the CIA was removed.”
“So, you weren’t fired?”
“No.”
“Hmm,” Lev said. “I wonder if that means you could return there.”
She snorted loudly. “Why would I want to, knowing the Saints have a connection there?”
“The Saints are everywhere.”
“Exactly. Have you even thought about what you’ll do when we reach the States?”
Lev gave her a quick glance. “I’m going to Sergei, and no doubt we’ll meet up with my companions to continue the fight.”
How could she have forgotten about that? Just because she was on her own didn’t mean that everyone was.
“You could join me,” he offered.
Reyna was about to tell him that she didn’t need his pity when she realized that she did need it if she wanted any chance of survival so she could keep going after the Saints. “I think I will. If your companions are still alive.”
Lev merely laughed. “You don’t know my friends.”
“Who are they?”
“The Loughmans.”
That drew her up short. “The Loughmans? As in Orrin Loughman?”
Lev stopped a few paces away and turned to look at her, his brows drawn together. “You know him?”
“I know his name. I saw it in a document that I found recently. I thought he was dead.”
“It was close, but he’s alive. It’s because he fought back against the Saints when they sent his team to Russian to collect the bioweapon.”
She grunted. “Ragnarok, right?”
“Yes. He went missing along with the weapon, so the Saints called his three sons back home—after murdering their aunt and uncle as a reason for them to unite.”
“Are his sons anything like him? Because from what I read in Orrin’s file, he’s a badass.”
Lev gave her a flat look. “I’ll deny it if you ever tell them, but they’re even better than he is.”
“That’s who you’ve paired up with?” she asked, suddenly feeling as if she might actually succeed in her mission.
“There are eleven of us total. It’s not like we have an army.”
She smiled and inhaled deeply. “It’s just about that. And right now, I’ll take anything I can get.”
They continued on in silence until they reached the top of the mountain. There they paused, and each drank some water. Lev removed his pack and pulled the knife from the sheath at his wrist.
“Going hunting?” she asked.
He nodded. “Stay here.”
“As if. I can hunt myself.”
It was hard to make out every detail of his face in the dark, but she didn’t miss the frustration. It had been a long time since anyone had acted as if she needed to be taken care of. She wasn’t offended by it, though.
In fact, it was sort of sweet. Not that Reyna was looking at Lev with any kind of warm and fuzzies. Her mind was focused entirely on getting to her boat and then making it back to the States.
But she could appreciate a gorgeous face and a fine body. And Lev certainly had both.
“I have no doubt you can take care of anyone, but I was thinking of him,” Lev said and pointed behind her.
Reyna’s head swiveled to find what he was pointing at. She saw the flare of a cigarette in the darkness, the reddish-orange light highlighting the man’s bearded face.
She felt something nudge her. When she looked, Lev was holding out his other knife. The blade was slightly smaller than the one he’d chosen, but no less dangerous.
“The border is just over the rise,” she told him.
He held her gaze. “We go together. I’ll meet you back here.”
She nodded and silently lowered her backpack beside his as he slipped away. With her eyes scanning every shadow, she began quietly making her way toward the man. He was focused on his cigarette and nothing else.
That didn’t mean he was alone, however. There was a good possibility that someone else was near. Reyna’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but she could only see so far in the night.
Reyna reached the man, coming up behind him as he finished his smoke. He pushed away from the tree and snuffed the cigarette out on the bark before tossing away the butt. She didn’t give him a chance to turn around.
She reached up and around his neck, slicing his throat with one cut. He was a good foot taller than she was, and while she would’ve preferred to let him fall, she couldn’t afford to. She sagged under his weight as she lowered him to the ground.
The moment she stood, she stepped left and felt something brush against her face right before she heard the thud of something slamming into the tree. Reyna glanced over at the blade sticking out of the bark.
Her head snapped back to follow where it had come from to find a giant of a man coming for her. His face was mottled with rage, his meaty hands fisted.
Reyna yanked the knife from the tree and threw it at him. She’d never been very good with knives, so it was no surprise that it missed him by a foot. Then he was before her.
She ducked his hand and slashed his thigh with the blade Lev had given her, but it didn’t seem to faze the giant. Another hand came at her. She dodged that one as well, but the third caught her on the side of the head, dazing her.
The next thing she knew, she was being held up against the tree by her throat, her feet dangling inches from the ground. She still had a hold of the knife and used it on the man’s arms, but once more, he didn’t react.
It was easy to panic in such situations, but Reyna didn’t.
She sank her weapon into the man’s chest above his heart and kicked his nuts.
Suddenly, his hand on her throat loosened, and he fell to one knee.
She landed on the ground and pushed his hand away so she could take a deep breath.
As she did, she spotted Lev’s longer blade sticking out from the giant’s back.
Then Lev came walking out of the shadows like some kind of savior. She’d told him not to be a hero, but it seemed he couldn’t help himself.
“Come on,” he said as he retrieved their weapons and they ran to their packs.
She slung hers onto her back. “Thank you.”
“You would’ve done the same for me.”
They said no more about it as they raced from the safety of the forest into the open area and crossed into Poland. They didn’t slow for another five hundred yards.
Reyna was breathing heavily when she looked back over her shoulder. “They’ll know this is where we crossed when they discover the bodies.”
“That’s why we need to keep out of sight of anyone so they don’t know which direction we take.”
“This way,” she told him as they set off again.