Page 55 of Zirkov

“Is that a yes, Commander?” she asked, fighting to keep her eyes open.

“On one condition.”

“Anything.” She needed his help, and she trusted him… more than she trusted herself. “Name your price.”

“We will speak with one another as peers. Friends. I will call you Maggie and you will call me Zirkov. Or Z,” he added with a warm smile.

Oh, how she loved his smile. It was almost worth being branded a traitor. “I accept. I guess that means you’ll stop calling me Magdalena.”

His brows and horns turned inward. Confusion?

“You may like my name, but we both know for two years you’ve been calling me Magdalena to aggravate me. You never respected me as a marshal and you never wanted me working with GI7.”

“Partially correct. I always respected you, but I did not want you near.”

“Why not?”

“You are a temptation, one I’ve struggled to resist since the day we met. I suspect we will work well together, Maggie. Better than in the past.” Another grin, one that melted her heart.

She couldn’t keep her eyes open. With that last image, of Zirkov smiling, she gave in to the need to sleep.

“Rest, Maggie. Regain your strength, then we will find Var’Len. Together.”

As she drifted off, Zirkov leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I’ve always wanted and respected you,” he whispered. “I feared losing you.”

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

MAGGIE

“Idon’t recall this safehouse,” Maggie said as they climbed the five steps to the porch of a small but well-maintained house in the middle of Orange County. The landscaping in the five by ten-foot front yard consisted of concrete, dirt, rocks, and a lone-standing shrub that barely reached her waist.

“I couldn’t take you to a safehouse the DAA knows about,” Zirkov said.

“Because they don’t know you have me, do they?”

“You know?”

“I couldn’t miss the timing of the emergency down the hall and Agent Morris’s disappearance at that exact moment we left my hospital room. Or how you threw a doctor’s lab coat on me and snuck me down the back stairs. I was technically under arrest, and you broke me out of jail, Z, didn’t you?”

“Effectively, yes.”

“They’re going to find you. Us.”

“No, they won’t.”

She loved his confidence, but they both knew the DAA would eventually find them. At least the neighborhood he’d chosen was quiet and didn’t have much activity, or the stench of overflowing garbage cans and broken sewer lines.

Each house on the street stood out with its own identity. A row of pots lined the side of one house, while another sported colorful towels hanging out to dry. With most cars destroyed during the occupation, people turned their carports into mini recreation areas. In one carport, kids had drawn hopscotch lines using a red dye, while in another someone had set up chairs and a small table, creating a secondary porch. The neighborhood gave off a hopeful vibe. Maggie needed that right now.

Zirkov pulled a dark green nylon bag from the car he drove. An older model four-door sedan with its share of bullet holes, dents, scratches, and graffiti. She’d never seen that car before. Hell, she didn’t even know he could drive until she got in the car today. The man had many hidden skills, but talking about himself wasn’t one of them.

“I suppose the DAA took my car, too.”

“They’re scrutinizing every part of your life. While you were in recovery, the doctors wouldn’t let me in to sit with you. I went to your apartment to look for clues to help me find the og’dal who did this to you. DAA agents were already there, pouring through every inch of your apartment. It couldn’t have been more than an hour after the surgery ended. I knew the doctors had contacted them about the implant they found, but still, I never expected they’d converge on your apartment so fast. I said you’d need clothing for when you left the hospital. They begrudgingly allowed me to take your clothing, but nothing else.”

“I had more clothing than one small bag’s worth.”

“This was all I found.”

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