Page 15 of Tempting Tessa

The dead drop location wasn’t far from the tourist shop. They left the car behind and kept to the side streets, moving in the shadows.

Every sound made him jump. At one point, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into an alcove. “Wait,” he whispered in her ear.

She gave a slight shudder but held still. He could almost hear her heart pounding as a car slowly drove down the street. The headlights moved past them without pause, but tension hung in the air.

It wasn’t the van. “False alarm,” he said, releasing her reluctantly.

They resumed their cautious trek until the shop came into view. Turning in the opposite direction, they found a bus stop, and Tessa slipped the manila envelope under the seat.

“You sure he’ll come?” Tommy asked.

“Just watch.”

Sorina walked down the sidewalk with a neutral expression, talking on her cell phone in Romanian. She sat on the bench, tucking a large tote between her feet and leaning forward, continuing her conversation.

Tommy kept a close eye on their surroundings. A single person crossed the street farther down the block, but he was busy texting and didn’t look their way. Sorina deftly retrieved the envelope and stuck it in her bag. In the next second, she placed a matching one in the same spot under the bench.

The bus barreled down the street and stopped in front of her. Still talking on her phone, she picked up her bag and boarded. They waited an additional minute before Tessa went to grab the envelope.

Tommy stopped her. “Let me.”

He didn’t even try for subterfuge. He simply walked up, ripped the envelope from its hiding spot, and jammed it inside his coat, jogging back to her.

He took her by the hand and hustled her to her car.

Seven

The safe house was a nondescript structure in a quiet corner of a rundown neighborhood outside the city.

It looked like any other weathered building in this part of town—a faded façade with crumbling bricks and shutters half open. Tommy eyed it through the windshield, shooting Tessa a you-can’t-be-serious look.

“I know, I know,” she said. “It’s ugly and looks like a fire trap, but trust me, it’s safe.”

He shut off the car engine. “You have two places.”

A statement, but the question behind it was obvious. She was so, so tired, but she hid it behind irritation. “This one is for emergencies only.”

She’d made Tommy drive around for an hour, waiting for night to fall, before directing him here. She exited the car and stomped up the sidewalk, closely monitoring the yard and neighboring lots.

It was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other, but she dug deep for the well of willpower buried under the layers of her resolute decision. Whether she wanted to be or not, she was in this now one hundred percent. There was no longer a way to go back, to return to her peaceful life. Whoever had shot her knew she was helping Tommy. That meant there was no path but the one forward.

She had to see this to the end.

He was nearly soundless as he trailed behind her. She wondered who’d trained him at The Farm. Why he’d chosen to become a counterterrorism analyst rather than an operative performing field missions like the swans? Or a hacker like Del. Maybe he hated undercover work like her.

Yet, he seemed efficient at it. Had Flynn recruited him to be a spy among spies? Had Tommy confessed it to Jessie--that he’d been running operations without any of them knowing?

Undercover work wasn’t something that clicked with everyone. Deep undercover work was a beast of its own.

Nor did just anyone, no matter how intelligent or skilled, have the talent for spying. It was a rare breed who embodied the imagination, abilities, and strategic thinking that made them good at such work.

Tessa flicked on the lights as they entered the house through the back door. She stopped in the tiny mudroom to reset the security system, wincing as she shrugged off her jacket. She dropped that and the backpack on a hook before going to the kitchen and filling the coffee pot with water.

“Why the hell didn’t we come here first?” Tommy asked, kicking off his shoes before sidling up beside her and taking over with the coffee preparations.

She sagged into a chair. “Because I didn’t know if we were being followed. This is my safe house. It hasn’t been compromised—yet. I want to keep it that way.”

Tommy threw grounds into the coffee maker and flipped the machine on. “If it wasn’t Vasile and Sorina who gave us up, someone followed me to your apartment.” He turned to face her. “But I’ve been staying there for the past week, and nobody disturbed us. Why wait to shoot at us until we were at the café? They had plenty of opportunities before then.”

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