Chapter 5
Adirt-covered Chevy Bronco slowed before them, kicking up dust in its wake.
Taylor tensed, but Kam took her hand and led them toward the SUV.
This must be his contact who had a safe house.
If there was any such thing. Her confidence in ever finding a safe place to settle down was shaken.
She had confidence in her fellow agents, but these people, whoever they were, had a far reach.
"Hey, Max." Kam gave the angry-looking man a handshake that turned bro hug, complete with a slap on the back. "This is Taylor Ertz."
Max bowed. "It is a pleasure to finally meet the woman who kept this man alive long enough to save my sorry skin."
Taylor looked at Kam, who gave her a sheepish grin and a shrug of his shoulder. The man's words and Kam's actions were not helping her keep her distance, but they did give her a glimpse of who Kam was today.
Taylor continued to stare at Kam until he looked away. "We should get going." He opened the door, and Taylor got in the back seat.
Was it possible that her memory helped this soldier keep fighting? Was it possible that he also never forgot her? She had so many questions she needed to ask him, and she wasn't sure when she'd get her answers. If ever.
They turned down a dirt road off of Route 1 and headed into the woods away from town, where the moose outnumbered people. She shivered at the memory of the almost trampling coming to mind as the trees towered over them.
"You okay back there?" Kam turned from the front seat.
She cleared her throat. "I'm fine. I could use a shower, a change of clothes, and some food. Not necessarily in that order."
Max chuckled. "I've got food at home. And there is a bag in the back that is for you."
Taylor twisted to see the back of the SUV. There, next to a crate, was her jump bag. "How did you get that?"
Scenarios of Max breaking into her car flashed through her head.
"Relax. I did not steal it from your car. Agent Schulz had Officer Peters drop it off. That man told me that if you die, he would not stop until I and whoever I was working with were brought to justice."
Kam looked at her over his shoulder, and her cheeks warmed. She might also have some things to tell Kam. She opened her mouth to tell him that she and Peters were only friends and that there was only one man who had ever had her heart, but he shook his head then faced forward.
She couldn't let him think she had moved on. "For the record, we are friends. Nothing more." She stared at Kam, who did not look at her. "It wasn't for his lack of trying either."
This got Kam to look her way. "You are a beautiful woman who is intelligent and compassionate. Any guy would be fortunate just to have you in his life—even as a friend."
"Friendship is all I could give them because my heart died three years ago." Tears burned her eyes.
"Maybe the right man will one day bring it back to life."
"We are here," Max announced, killing the connection between them. She wanted to tell him that he was the right man. He would always be the only one, but right now they needed to focus on getting her own life back so there could be a them in the future. One where they got married this time.
Taylor grabbed her jump bag from the back before heading to the small cabin.
The log home reminded her of a vacation home for a couple.
Quaint. Cozy. Not exactly what she expected from Max, Kam's Russian friend who now worked for the government.
Or at least sorta worked for the government?
She'd have to circle back and ask for that story.
Just one more thing they needed to talk about.
"It's not much, but how is that phrase? Don't judge the man by his house?"
Kam chuckled. "You mean, don't judge a book by its cover?"
"That's the one." Max waved her over. "Come, I'll show you my humble home."
Kam gave Taylor a small smile. With a wink, he took her hand and they walked up the steps to the porch together.
The move gave her hope that Kam understood her hint that he was the one who could bring her heart back to life.
If she let him. She was running out of reasons to stop her heart from feeling all of the emotions again.
There were two rocking chairs on the porch with a small wooden table between them. A pot of flowers added a pop of color to the space. Definitely cozy.
Max opened the door, and they stepped into a picture-perfect cabin complete with an overstuffed couch and matching chair. There was a small kitchen and a round table with three chairs off to the right. To the left were two doors. If she were to guess, one was a bathroom and the other a bedroom.
"Your place is great, Max." She was trying to figure out where they would all be sleeping, but it was a roof over her head, and according to Kam, this place was safe.
Max laughed. "This is not where I live."
She followed him into what looked like a generic bedroom. Bed, dresser, nightstand, but there were no personal touches. No photos of loved ones or past trips. In fact, there was very little on the walls.
Max walked toward what she assumed was the closet. He slid open the door and pushed back coats. He pressed his hand against a scanner on the wall, and a section of the back wall swung open. Taylor blinked. A secret room? What kind of law-abiding citizen needed a secret room?
She descended the stairs behind Max, who flipped a switch at the bottom. This wasn't a secret room. This was a whole complex.
Kam gave a low whistle. "You really outdid yourself, Max."
Max started walking backwards. "To your right is the bathroom. This area I like to call my play space." The room held a large TV, a couch, two recliners, and a pool table.
"Still play pool?" Kam nodded toward the table with a low-hanging lamp over it.
"I'm an American now. Of course I play pool." Max winked at Taylor, who wrinkled her brows and shook her head.
Max turned around and walked through an open archway. "This is where I cook and eat. I'm not a chef, but I can make blinchiki."
Kam's stomach growled at the memory of the blinchiki Max had made him the night they met.
"What's blinchiki?" Taylor looked between the two.
"Kind of like a crepe, but the Russian version," Kam explained. "I promise you won't be able to stop eating them."
Max chuckled. "I thought you were going to eat all of my food the first time I made it for you. Come, I will show you where you will stay."
Max led them down a hallway. He stopped at the first door. "This is where we will work." He pushed open the door to reveal a room with a large table in the middle and several computer screens displayed in an arch around a comfortable-looking office chair.
Max tipped his head toward the end of the hall. "There are two bedrooms that you each can take on the left. At the end of the hall is the storage where you can find any weapon you might need."
Kam's eyes snapped to Max. "I thought you didn't do weapons."
Max put both of his hands up. "I do not, but I had a feeling that one day you'd need it."
Kam knew how much Max detested violence.
After what happened to his family in Russia, he swore off weapons that could kill people.
Some people would have turned to revenge and the death of the ones who took everything from them, but not Max.
Instead, he made it his lifelong commitment to fight with a computer and his tech skills.
Kam clamped Max's shoulder. "Thanks, brother."
Max kept his lips in a thin line and nodded. He turned and went into the room with the massive computer set up.
Kam and Taylor walked down the hall in silence. He could see the tension in her shoulders. She wanted to ask him so many questions. Ones that he was going to have to answer. Eventually.
He opened the first door. "You can take this one."
She walked past him and set her bag on the lower bunk. There wasn't much else to the room besides the small desk and single dresser. He took a step towards the door.
"Are you going to tell me who Max is to you?"
"Taylor, there are things that…"
"Save it, Kam. I can't stop falling for you all over again, but I need to trust you. I want to trust you. Will you give me a chance?"
Kam's heart started to race. She was falling for him again. The desire to tell her everything swelled inside of him. Her memory kept him going through the darkest of days when he couldn't see an ending to the nightmare he was trapped in.
"Okay," was all he could croak out.
"Okay, what?" Taylor put a hand on her hip.
"I'll tell you what you want to know about Max. About the last three years." If she still wanted to be around him after that, then he'd never let her go. If she chose to walk away, then he'd stay a ghost.
Taylor's eyes softened, and the guard she had up fell away. He took a chance and stepped toward her. He was drawn to her like he was the first day they met. There was something about her that tied a line directly to his heart. He cupped her face with his hand.
The dimly lit room made her eyes look like dark pools.
He leaned toward her as she lifted her lips to meet his.
His memories of their kisses did not compare to this.
He pressed his hand to her back, and she melted into him.
He was gone. Their lips moved in tandem like they hadn't missed a moment.
The give and take pulled him under, and he let himself fall.
For the first time in years, there was a light that burned brighter than the darkness.
She tilted her head to deepen the kisses, which unlocked something deep inside of him.
His hands roamed over every curve, searing in his memory the feel of her.
He lifted her to bring her closer to his level, and she wrapped her legs around him.
Setting her on the desk, he trailed kisses down her jaw.
A small giggle slipped from her when he kissed her right behind her ear.
He smiled against her skin before pulling back.
He needed to tell her before they continued with this reconnection.
She kept both of her hands behind his neck, keeping them close together, which was fine by him. He could stay here kissing her forever, but he needed to answer her question. He kissed her nose, then took a step back.
"I think I need to stop." Taylor studied him closely, as if trying to decipher both his intentions and his character. "Trust me, I want to keep going, but we need to get your name cleared. Then we can see where this"— he pointed between them— "goes."
She hopped off the desk and, without a word, went to her bag that she had tossed on the bed. Taylor pulled a small bag out of the pocket and dumped something into her hand.
She faced him. "I usually keep this on under my shirt, but I took it off to go undercover. Can you help me put it on?"
Taylor held out a necklace chain, but it was what dangled from the chain that made his throat thicken with unexpected emotion. The ring he had spent every spare penny he had to buy her before he deployed turned like a beacon to his soul.
"You still wear it?" He wasn’t sure why that was the question he asked, but his doubts and fears had won that round.
"It was my way of keeping you close to my heart."
He took the necklace from her and undid the clasp. His fingers brushed against her skin as he fastened it. "One day, I hope that you let me put it back on your finger." He gave her a light kiss on the nape of her neck. A sigh escaped from her.
She turned to face him. "I would like that." He felt the unspoken barrier between them.
Time to build that trust. "To answer your question.
Max was a prisoner in a gulag controlled by Spartak.
When he was caught hacking into Spartak's system, his house was raided.
They held his wife and son and forced him to tell them everything that he stole from them.
" Kam sighed and pulled Taylor down to sit with him on the bed.
"The problem was he didn't steal anything.
He was trying to crash their whole system somehow.
I'm not sure all of the details, but they killed both his wife and son before believing him.
They then took him and forced him to hack for them by threatening his sister and her family and anyone else that they could connect to him. "
Taylor looked toward the door. "That poor man."
"He saw something in me that made him trust me.
He gave me the rundown of who was who and all of the information I could need on the Volkovs.
I, in return, persuaded Ian to bring him with us to Alaska.
He mysteriously disappeared one night from the compound on Hive Island.
It just so happened that he found a friend waiting for him to give him a life where he could use his skills to take down groups like Spartak. "
Taylor gave him a sly smile. "You wouldn't have had anything to do with that, would you?"
"I was with Ian preparing the last shipment. I couldn't have set him free."
"Hmm. Just like you were nowhere near Nalani when they found her."
Kam winced. "I was actually there, but Davin arrived sooner than I expected him."
Taylor's eyes lit. "You were the one they chased through the woods? You could have been shot."
"I could have been killed by Spartak any day I was with them. At least a bullet would have been more merciful than what Ian would have done to me."
Any romantic spark they had shared died with that heavy confession. Not exactly what he had in mind when he started to open up to her.
"It was terrible not knowing if you were alive," she leaned her head on his shoulder, "but I'm not sure knowing where you were would have made my life any less anxious."
He wrapped his arm around her. "I'm not going to lie to you, I did some things during my time in Spartak that I'm not proud of, but I will put an end to them. After that, I want to spend as much time together as we can until you're sick of me."
She sat up. "I would like that too."
Kam wanted to ask why. He had done morally wrong things all in the name of stopping evil men from doing worse, but that wasn't an excuse for what he did.
"Taylor, I…"
Max rapped on the door. "Sorry to interrupt, but I think I found something."
Confession would have to wait. Kam and Taylor stood. She entwined their hands, anchoring Kam in his swirling emotions. "Let's go find some answers."