Page 142 of Ford

Wyatt’s mouth tightened. Oh he much more than cared. But RJ just couldn’t betray him.

“But Ford’s right. We need to think this out if you don’t want to end up arrested and sent to the gulag.”

“Or shot,” Ford said.

“Yanna and David said they had a contact in Vladivostok. Let’s start there,” Scarlett said.

Tate touched Wyatt’s shoulder. “Get on a plane, come home with us, and we’ll regroup.”

“And what about RJ?” Wyatt said. “She’s still not safe.”

“The Marshall Triple M feels like a good place to lie low,” Ford said. He turned RJ. “You can’t do anything here, not wanted by Interpol. Stavros’s jet will take us stateside. You’ll get in under the new passports the FSB issued and go home with Tate and Wyatt.”

It made sense, but the words burned through RJ. “And what about York? And Coco?”

“My gut says that York can take care of both of them,” Ford said.

She considered her sweating lemonade. “I’ll get ahold of Sophia and see if she has any more information.”

“Or not,” Ham said. “Seems funny that Sophia was incommunicado when Roy’s information came in. If you hadn’t intervened, maybe the assassination would have succeeded.”

“I didn’t intervene,” RJ said. She couldn’t relay the general’s words that would affirm Ham’s. “But without the country looking for me, they might have found Gustov, and who knows but the CIA’s shadow connections might have been discovered.”

“Randall could be a part of it,” Tate said. He turned to her. “You can’t go back to the CIA. Not until your name is cleared.”

She heard the big brother in his tone. Protective Tate. No, protective Marshalls. She hadn’t a hope of going rogue with her brothers standing guard. “Fine. Probably you’re right.”

She looked at Ford. “I’m going to shoot an email to York, tell him that I think I met Gustov, just in case—”

“I’m sure he already knows,” Scarlett said. She raised an eyebrow.

The truth sunk in, curdled her gut. “The kiss. He kissed me because he was trying to hurt York.”

“Why? Because he saw something between you and York?” Now she heard a new tone in Tate’s voice. “Isthere something between you and York?”

“Yes,” Ford said.

She glared at him and shook her head, maybe a little too quickly, but, frankly, she could be telling the truth. At least on his side. “York’s girlfriend was killed by Gustov. It’s personal. And when York rescued me, it turned personal for Gustov, too, so…no wonder he said it was more fun to keep me alive.”

“He said it wasmore funto keep you alive?” Tate said, his eyes darkening. “Yes, you’re definitely coming back to the ranch.”

“Tate—”

“Ford, back me up on this?”

But Ford just looked at her, smiled. “While I agree with Tate…RJ can take care of herself. Whatever she wants…” He winked at her.

Tate just looked at him. Then back at RJ. “Whatever.”

“So that means he’s after York,” Wyatt said. “And Coco is with York.”

Maybe she had to go home for Wyatt. Because they were right. She couldn’t do anything from here.

If she wanted to get to the bottom of the story, she needed to do some, well, analyzing.

“Wyatt, we need to go home. Regroup. But I promise we’re not going to leave York and Coco to be tracked down and finished off. We’ll figure out a way to get them out, I promise.”

He looked away.

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