Page 70 of Smoke and Shadows

“The problem, kitten, is I think I would’ve given up the codes if it’d been you with a gun to your head.”

Silence.

“Iz?”

“Ah . . . not sure how I feel about that.” Marissa had a deep frown etched on her face.

“But if it were me, Marissa, I’d understand.”

“No! We’re not having this conversation.”

“With our jobs, we have to, Iz.”

“What, like a living will? Fuck you, Viktor.” Marissa’s green eyes darkened with anguish. “You say it’s okay for me to let you die, but you’d let everyone else die, so I could live? Do you know how that makes me feel?”

“You are the crack in my armor, Marissa,” Viktor said quietly. “The one vulnerability the enemy can use to manipulate me.”

“That’s why you’re trying so hard to train me,” Marissa choked. She was rigid against him. “Sometimes I question if we should even be together.”

Viktor hauled her onto his lap and nuzzled her neck. “I’m keeping you,” he said fiercely. “God, help me, I’m too selfish to let you go. All my fucking life I gave up everything I cared for to benefit the greater good. But not this time. Not with you. I would damn the whole world for you.”

Marissa relaxed against him. “Then we better make sure it doesn’t come to that.”

It was almost dawn,and none of them had had any sleep. But they’d managed to make headway in tracking down the chemical weapons. Starting with identifying Owen Reed. They’d pulled up video feeds from the Port of Murmansk, and though the resolution was grainy, they were able to match hisfeatures with Jonathan Owen Reed—ex-Army Ranger, dishonorably discharged after proven guilty via court-marshal. His squad leader was presently serving time at Leavenworth.

“His whole team was under fire for wiping out an entire Afghan village,” Marissa said. “Unfortunately, the CIA has reason to believe that they were political scapegoats. The village was harboring Al-Qaeda and were armed against the Rangers. The media circus presented only the pictures of dead babies and pregnant women. Not the kids toting AK-47s.”

“So the CIA keeps quiet and lets the men rot,” Viktor spat. He stood up and began pacing. “When will the agency learn?”

“You didn’t turn rogue, Viktor,” Marissa said. “You turned a bad situation around and continued serving the country, but on your terms. Reed’s doing the opposite. He’s bringing destruction on the people he had once sworn to protect.”

Viktor snorted. “The rules of engagement are set by people living their cushy lives thousands of miles away from the frontline. They have no idea of the horrors of war and what young soldiers go through. And we wonder why we produce sociopaths like Reed?”

“You’re not feeling sympathetic to the bastard, are you?” Morgan asked.

Viktor considered this before saying, “No. Reed has broken the code of the brotherhood—duty, honor, and country. That’s fucking forged in blood whether you’re serving or not.”

Marissa felt relief. Viktor was in too deep now to bail out. Not that he was the type of man to bail. Besides, she was still reeling from his last declaration.

I would damn the whole world for you.

Couldn’t Viktor just sayI love youin the traditional way by just saying the words? He’d had to go and say it in his alphabadass way because if that wasn’t a declaration of love, Marissa didn’t know what would be.

Was she ready for him now? He was larger than life and knowing how lethal he was, the intensity of what he felt for her, and what he would do to keep her—all thrilled and scared her.

“Marissa, you zoned off. Sleepy?” Viktor murmured as he reached out and caressed her cheek.

“Yes,” Marissa lied, her cheeks flushing. Viktor’s eyes widened fractionally in understanding, and then he grinned. A grin that made her skin tingle all over.

“Morgan and I were discussing what to do next,” Viktor explained. “It appears Reed left with just a few men, but in order to pull this off, he probably had people already in place in the U.S.”

“The logical place to start looking is for members of his unit that were dishonorably discharged with him.”

“Makes sense.” Marissa wasn’t able to keep the yawn from escaping. “I’ll shoot a request to Allison to have their dossiers ready. I dunno about you guys, but I’m catching some z’s.”

Marissa got up from her chair, logged out of the CIA database, and headed to the bedroom. Viktor took over her laptop and brought up the AGS website.

“I’m going for a run,” Morgan announced loudly as he caught up with Marissa in the hallway. He leaned in closely and whispered in her ear. “That was hot by the way.”

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