Page 126 of Secret Weapon

39

NINE

“Has she lost her fucking mind?”

This morning, I’d woken in Alex’s arms, fully prepared to pack and return to Baldwin’s Shore after breakfast.To go back to my life of lies, changed by the experience I’d had this week.To try to reconcile the old me with the new me.

To work out how and when I’d be able to see Alex again.

But after I arrived in the dining room, Emmy acted as if it was business as usual.She had a plan, she said, exactly as Alex had predicted.Ana and I would steer clear of Ilya, and Blackwood would bring in additional team members to assist with surveillance at the terracotta house.In two hours, we’d have a briefing at the new base of operations, farther to the south, so I did find myself leaving Skywater House, albeit for a different reason.And maybe I was even a tiny bit happy, although the feeling was so foreign that I couldn’t be sure.

And then we’d arrived in Naples.

“I’m sure she knows what she’s doing,” Alex assured me.

Our new base was another mansion, an even bigger one, complete with a spacious terrace and a swimming pool and a damned putting green because we clearly hadn’t had enough of golf this week.Fuck only knew where the yacht had come from, but Black looked perfectly cool as he nudged it closer to the private dock on the other side of the road.

And less than fifty metres away across the all-too-narrow channel of water, I saw Ilya monitoring Black’s efforts from the rear terrace of the terracotta house and ducked back behind the curtain.

“Feelin’ Nauti?The boat is calledFeelin’ Nauti?That’s hardly subtle.”

“Until this morning, she was called theBlack Opal.”

Ana appeared behind me, her approach silent.But I’d known it was her.You didn’t spend three years living as a person’s sister without learning to read their energy.

“Subtle is the wrong approach with Ilya,” she said.“He’s like us—too sensitive to things that are out of place.If we parked a vehicle on a nearby street or ran patrols past the place, he’d notice.”

Ever felt as if you were being watched, then turned in time to see somebody look away?Ilya was a hundred times more perceptive.Once, he’d picked out a sniper dressed in a ghillie suit eight hundred yards away, right before we walked into his field of fire.Said hefelthim.We used to kid that he was psychic, but his abilities had saved us on more than one occasion.

Now they were working against us.

We’d already had to ditch the Porsche because he’d seen it—that was back at Skywater House along with my red wig and possibly the last of my sanity.We’d driven here in a black SUV with a jelly bean air freshener stuck to the dash and an “I Love Vegas” bumper sticker.I had to admire Emmy’s attention to detail in that respect.If anyone ever had to describe the vehicle, those were the two things people would remember, both of which could be easily removed.

“So we’re hiding in plain sight?”

“It’ll mess with his perceptions.”

Hmm.Okay, I saw where Emmy was coming from, but her plan was a gamble.Ilya would be able to see our faces.Not mine or Ana’s because we’d stay out of sight, but everyone else’s.Following him would become more difficult, and I had a sudden fear that I’d been wrong about the location of the weapon.Yesterday, I’d been so certain, but Emmy had put a huge amount of trust in me and now I was second-guessing my theory.Why?I’d never doubted myself in the past.

Because in the past, I had nothing to lose.

If my light had blinked out, nobody would have missed me except maybe Rad during that brief time we were together.And I’d had no future to worry about.No hope had led to no fear.

But in this new life, I had everything to lose.

Alexei.Ana.My friends back in Baldwin’s Shore.

Focus, Dasha.I had to trust my own judgment.I knew Ilya, and that weapon was somewhere close to him.It had to be.And by running an unconventional surveillance pattern, there was less chance of arousing his suspicions.So no, Emmy hadn’t lost her mind, but there was a fine line between genius and insanity.

A door slammed, and a moment later, Emmy and Black walked into the great room.

“Everyone making themselves at home?”Emmy’s phone pinged, and she glanced at the screen.“Ah, the first of the reinforcements are here.”

The newcomer was a delicate-looking dark-haired woman who hugged Black, kissed Emmy on the lips, and then waved at everyone else.Hmm.

“Vance and Hallie are five minutes out.Fia, meet Darya.Darya, this is Fia.If she offers to make you dinner, decline.”

“Why?Is she that bad of a cook?”

---