Page 135 of Spying Under the Mistletoe
“X marks the spot.” With tears still running down her cheeks, she turns around, scanning our surroundings. “Aye, aye, Captain.” Her tone is that of a pirate—a pirate muttering to herself.
As if in a trance, she pulls away from me and walks away from the cabin. Adam, Agent Ramsey, and I exchange looks and follow after her.
We end up at a large tree with an X carved in the bark. The letter isn’t even an inch tall—easily missed if you don’t know what you’re looking for. At the bottom of the tree is a hollow opening.
“The night Nikolai and I talked about wishing on a shooting star, I’d asked him if he could wish for anything, what would it be. He said to be a pirate. The next day, we searched for the best location to hide treasure should his wish ever come true.” Chloe kneels and inspects the hollow opening for a moment.
She reaches inside, drags out a large metal box, and looks up at Agent Ramsey. “I think this is what you’re looking for.”
Ramsey tries to open it. “It’s locked.”
“I possibly know where the key is.” Chloe groans. “It’s on my keychain…back at the seniors’ residence. In my purse. My mom gave it to me last Christmas…or at least I assumed it was from her. We send each other presents every year but never sign them, so my grandfather had no idea what we were up to.”
“I grabbed your purse after we realized you were missing,” I tell her. “It’s in Adam’s vehicle.”
After retrieving her purse from the SUV, we all return to the warm cabin, and Ramsey unlocks the box. The key had been cleverly disguised to look like part of a key chain, decorated so no one would clue in that it was more than just an ornament. Inside the box are a memory stick and a stack of documents.
Only the FBI agents get to peruse them, but from what they can tell us, Nikolai had been storing evidence for a while that paints Chloe’s grandfather in a terrible light.
All right, a worse light than he’s already in.
There’s also a note from Nikolai, asking Chloe to hand over everything to the FBI. And there’s evidence that the two men who kidnapped her are actually on her grandfather’s payroll, and not on his rival’s. Like the FBI, they were searching for Nikolai. His grandfather knew Nikolai had damaging evidence against him.
And Nikolai wasn’t afraid to use it.
Once the two agents are finished talking to Chloe and Tabitha, we’re allowed to leave.
“You’re driving, right?” I ask Adam as the four of us return to his vehicle.
“It’s my vehicle.” His tone rings with a no-duh attitude.
“Good. Tabitha, you’re riding up front with him. I’ll be busy making out with my hot girlfriend in the back seat.” Who was hot before, but even more so after she took down those two assholes who kidnapped her.
Adam groans. “Christ, don’t tell me I’ll be forced to watch you two going at it every time I check my rearview mirror.”
“So, don’t check the mirror.” I wink at Chloe.
She laughs.
I might not get to work for the next few months—the idea of which isn’t sitting well with me—but at least I’ll get to spend it with the woman I love.
And there’s nothing I want more than that.
Epilogue
Chloe
Three Months Later
I placethe vase of white roses in front of the headstone. From a nearby tree, a bird chirps a cheerful tune. Even the rays of sunlight pushing past the breaks in the clouds seem joyful.
It’s almost as if Nikolai is watching me from heaven, smiling his approval of the life I’m now living. A life he could have lived if not for the family business.
A business he played a role in taking down.
At the neighboring grave, Mom replaces my stepfather’s red roses that she’d left the last time we were at the cemetery. They sit contently next to the flowers I set there a few minutes ago. My father’s and Mark’s graves are also here—far, far,faraway from the Orlov family plot.
All four men were important to me. All four men deserve to be remembered in a way that had nothing to do with my grandfather.
