She went limp in Legend’s hold as if every bit of fight had leached out of her. It scared him. Even when she’d been wrestling the mop, she’d never seemed defeated. “Yeah. Okay.”
“Let me get the shutters.” Ruby trotted to her computer. With a few taps, sunlight began spilling into the room once more. “Honestly, it’s better if we don’t draw too much attention to the building. Guys like that might wonder why a rinky-dink security service has sophisticated blast barriers.”
As they approached their seats at the table, Tavish swiveled Legend’s chair around and held it so that he could sink into it without having to let go of Karolena. He rocked her gently until her ragged breathing smoothed out a bit. When she lifted her cheek from his chest and realized the rest of the team was watching them intently, she pushed lightly on his ribs. He instantly set her in her place next to him.
“Thanks,” she murmured.
He nodded, already missing the slight weight of her in his arms.
Tavish scooched his chair closer to her cautiously, as if expecting her to shove him away. But she didn’t. Instead she sighed and rubbed her temples before saying to him, “Okay, so you’re do-gooder assassins. Next you’re going to tell me you’re Robin Hood too.”
Ruby bopped her head back and forth. “We did sort of have a recent foray into crypto and reassigning some funds…”
“Why? Why do I have this kind of luck?” Karolena dropped her head back. She was tall enough that it rested against the top of the chair while she stared up at the ceiling as if speaking to the universe. “I picked this town in the middle of fucking nowhere so there wouldn’t be people doing...well, shit like this! It was supposed to be boring here.”
“It’s decent cover, we know.” Sola beamed from her spot between Cash and Aarav. “Who would think to look for a group like ours here instead of New York or L.A. or even Miami, huh? Fortunately, there’s plenty of land here for airfields. Jordan has a helicopter and a private jet. Our pilot, Aven, can fly us anywhere we need to go in a matter of hours. It’s also great because it’s super easy to spot newcomers and people who aren’t from around here, like those two assholes hunting you.”
Karolena groaned. “Don’t remind me.”
“So what would you like us to do about this situation?” Jordan wondered.
“You’re asking me?” Karolena sat up straighter then, her head angled to one side as if gauging how serious he was.
“We shouldn’t have forced you to stay.” James winced. “It’s just that you didn’t have all the information you needed to make a sound decision and we couldn’t risk you getting snatched from the parking lot while we hashed it out.”
“Trust me. I give the kidnapping experience zero out of five stars. Donotrecommend.” Ruby reached for Liam’s hand. He enfolded hers in his, reminding her that no one would ever be able to take her from him and Ace again.
“If you’re comfortable with it, I’d recommend you continue to hang out with Legend and Tavish for a while. And if you want to share more, including how you got away and any details about Vladimir’s operations that we could leverage with authorities, we’d be happy to see how we could help.” Jordan had obviously been won over. Legend didn’t blame the guy. Karolena was genuine. He could sense it and so could Tavish, even if he was afraid to rely on his instincts.
“I’m still not convinced you’re going to be able to do anything, but if you’re willing to listen…you’re the best chance I have at getting away for good. The only one, really.” Karolena took a moment to compose herself, and when she opened her eyes she was sitting up straight, meeting their gazes directly. She was a fighter.
Jordan steepled his fingers. “If nothing else, we should be able to exchange your information and cooperation for legitimate papers. I’m assuming you’d be deported if anyone looked too closely at yours.”
Her throat flexed as she swallowed hard. “I don’t know. You’re probably right, though I hadn’t thought about that. There’s a lot I have no idea about. And yes, I couldn’t have done this on my own. I had help with the documents and the circumstances that allowed me to make a run for it. Literally.”
Legend tried to reassure her. “Fortunately, Jordan used to be an agent for ICE. They’re the part of our government that handles this sort of stuff. He has connections. He helped Devra get out of some trouble once.”
She nodded. “Okay. That’s good. Thank you. I wish I could have been better prepared. Things happened fast once I’d made up my mind and it was never easy to ensure I was speaking privately with my friend.”
Jordan pried a bit. “We’ll need to know their name.”
Karolena hesitated. “I don’t want to trade my safety for his. It’s important to me that anything I tell you isn’t used against him and that every attempt to spare him will be made. Is that even possible?”
Tavish rubbed a hand down his beard, obviously thinking of how his own family and friends had been impacted by his choices. Their work wasn’t some nine to five where the worst peril was a paper cut. There were real consequences to what they did. Karolena’s friend could easily get caught in the crossfire.
Legend sighed. “We can’t promise he won’t get hurt, Karolena. And you shouldn’t believe us or anyone else who’d make such a bold claim. What we do is hazardous. And just because this dude helped you doesn’t mean he’s blameless. But we’ll try our best.”
That must have been good enough for Karolena. “Levin is pretty much the only true friend I’ve ever had.”
Ruby zoomed in on the background of Karolena and Vladimir’s photo. A man with golden eyes lurked on the fringes of the limelight. He had a way of holding his well-toned body that spoke of readiness to fight. Alert, he stood with his hands clasped in front of him as he scanned the crowd snapping photos of the power couple. “Levin Fedorov. Rumored to be the head of the security branch of Vladimir’s operation.”
“We call his positionObshchak, one of the two spies.” Karolena nodded.
“I like this dude already.” Knox spun his chair for a better look, planting his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward.
“He’s essentially second in command only to Vladimir himself,” Karolena informed them.
“And he had a soft spot for you?” Tavish asked, not in the least subtle.