Page 27 of Kept By The Agents

"You have a lot of friends." She was eyeing the garlic, trying to figure out what to do with it.

I grabbed it, placed it root side down, pressed on the bulb to loosen it, and peeled off the cloves. "Comes with the job," I explained. Using the flat of my blade, I hit the clove, crushing it, then peeled away the skin. Her eyes were fixed on what I was doing as I showed her how to mince the garlic.

She was following along with her own clove, making me grin. She was a quick study. "Do you have these friends all over? Or just here in Russia?"

"Everywhere. Our missions take us all over the world."

"What's your last name?"

I looked over at her, studying her face before focusing back on my task. "Perry."

"Your name is Brandon Perry?"

"Yeah."

She bit her full lower lip as she began cutting the garlic.

After watching for a few moments, I used the knife to brush my pile onto her chopping board then washed off the knife. Watching her nibbling on her lips was torture, so I focused on butchering my chicken.

We worked in silence after that. It was a relief that she'd agreed to come with us. Not that I was going to allow her to do anything else. It was just a lot easier having her come along of her own volition and cooperating with us.

Cooking typically fell on my shoulders as I was the best at it, but if she picked up on it quickly enough I'd be happy to turn those duties over to her. The pipes rattled as Suave turned the shower on upstairs. He'd done his duty for now and was settling in to relax for the night. With Weaver's cameras in place we wouldn't have to keep watch all night.

He even went as far as to set up snares at every entry and exit point that would set off an alarm on his laptop if anyone crossed a threshold. It allowed us to get much needed sleep while we were working, without worrying that we'd get ambushed.

Before long, Suave joined us, sitting at the table, rubbing his towel over his wet hair. With her job of cutting the vegetables done, Cat went and sat next to him.

They were both quiet, watching me cook dinner rather than speaking with each other. I wondered how long they were going to tiptoe around the issues between them rather than talking through them. Cat had been so straight with me, something I preferred, but with Suave she didn't seem to know how to approach the conversation. It was one that would have to happen soon. They weren't going to be able to keep living in such close quarters without it coming up.

I'd been surprised to hear Suave's admission. He'd never mentioned leaving behind a fiancée, let alone leaving one at the altar. I was interested in hearing what had happened there.

The door banged closed behind Weaver as he came in. He was stripping out of his jacket. I watched in amusement as he skirted around Cat, giving her the briefest glance as he came over to wash his hands in the sink next to me. "You're acting a lot more skittish than I'd have thought for just catching her naked in the shower," I murmured, so she wouldn't overhear me.

He shot me a dark look. "It was more than that."

"What's for dinner?" Suave asked, breaking his silence. After an awkward five minutes of stony silence he'd gone upstairs to grab his rifle and a cleaning kit and had been wiping down his weapon. He was currently cleaning it all off the table.

I tossed him a wash cloth so he could wipe down the spot he was using. Weaver grabbed the plates and silverware that were stacked nearby and went to set the table. We had a routine. One that had been set over years of working together. It was going to take time to add a fourth person into it, but if we decided Cat was the one, I had no doubt we'd manage. "Chicken," I told him, not bothering to elaborate.

I put everything onto a few larger platters and then carried them over to the table. There were roasted potatoes as well as a variety of steamed vegetables to go along with the chicken.

"What's the plan for tomorrow?" Suave asked, popping a potato directly into his mouth before loading his plate up with food.

Watching Cat's face, I bit back a grin. If she was expecting these two to wait for her to dish up first, she'd be disappointed. In fact, if she didn't hurry, there might not be anything left. Suave had an insatiable appetite. There weren't typically leftovers after he finished with dinner.

She seemed to figure all this out on her own and waged war with Suave over a chicken thigh. He finally gave in with an apologetic grin and let her have it.

"First thing in the morning, you and I are going back to the farmers market. We need to get ahead of this and see if we can find out where the Raleka's base camp is."

"They move around a lot," Cat said.

I nodded. "We realized that back in the States. We knew by the time we got over here whatever intel we had on their location was going to be outdated."

"I'd like to find out who told the Raleka that Boris's brother was responsible for giving Cat information instead of Boris. Was that deliberate? Or where they misinformed," Suave said, his face a mask of anger.

"Whoever it was must have known it was Boris and set the Raleka after his family," Cat mused.

"Or they assumed that he found out the information, but allowed his brother to pass it on," I pointed out.

---