Page 136 of Near Miss

The Bean Counter sat behind his desk and pointed at the chairs on the other side. “Sit.” When they had, he said, “You both have a choice to make.”

“Choice?” Korolev said.

“A simple one. You need to decide where your alliances lay. And I’m not referring to the two of you sleeping together.”

Both Korolev and Lauren stared at him, wide-eyed.

“As long as it doesn’t affect your work, I don’t care,” the Bean Counter said. “What I’m asking is if your loyalty is to me or Dmitri Asimov.” He looked directly at Lauren. “I know you were devoted to Peter Greco, and that you kept him informed on what was happening in the family when he was pulling back.”

She gulped. “I—I—”

“I don’t care. I let you do that because it was useful to me. But Greco is gone.”

She stammered again, but no words came out.

Korolev said, “Mr. Asimov is the head of the family.”

“Is that your answer, then?”

“You,” Lauren said. “I choose you.” She looked at Korolev, urging him to say the same.

“I have sworn my loyalty to the family,” Korolev said to the Bean Counter. “I’ve had few dealings with Mr. Asimov, but those I have had have not been... ideal.Youhave never done wrong by me.”

“I need you to say it,” the Bean Counter said.

“My loyalty is with you,” Korolev said, after a moment. “Why are you asking us this?”

“Because there is an excellent chance that Asimov will be out of favor in the next twenty-four hours. The family is already fragile. The choices made in the wake of his screwup will be the difference between whether the family survives or not. With your help, I will bring stability to the organization.”

“What do you need us to do?” Korolev said.

Chapter 66

Stone woke up on Friday morning to the touch of Carly’s hand bringing him to attention. He returned the gesture until she could stand it no more and rolled him onto his back to show him how much she appreciated his efforts.

Later, as they lay blissfully beside each other, Stone said, “Is it just my imagination, or was that particularly enjoyable?”

“I hope so,” Carly said. “I put in extra effort.”

He turned on his side to look at her. “Are you saying you don’t usually put in the effort?”

“Not at all. I always put in the effort. This was just extra.” She swung off the bed and stood, giving him a view he appreciated.

“I’m not ungrateful,” he said, “in fact, I’m just the opposite, but is there a reason why?”

She stopped in the doorway to the bathroom, looked back,and said matter-of-factly, “If things don’t go well tonight, this could be our last time.”

She disappeared through the doorway, and Stone rolled onto his back, feeling suddenly less relaxed than he had a moment before.

Yesterday, he had received a short message from Teddy Fay, confirming that their plan had worked, and he was indeed going to be targeted at some point Friday evening. What Teddy hadn’t said was when the attempt would be made. The only other thing in Teddy’s message was:remind Carly that she should be armed. You, too, if you can bring yourself to do it.

Carly walked out of the bathroom twenty minutes later, a towel wrapped around her hair and nowhere else. She tilted her head when she saw him. “What’s wrong? You look unhappy.”

“I don’t know. Perhaps I wasn’t expecting the woman I’d just slept with to remind me that I might die tonight.”

“Oh, should I not have said that?”

“I could have gone without hearing it, especially in the way it was presented.”

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