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He’d thought if he managed to help her have a breakthrough, if she decompressed about the previous day’s events, that she would fall back into his arms and be the Lara he’d come to love. So far, he’d been wrong.
Connor thought seriously about putting his fist through a wall. How long would it be before Lara decided sex wasn’t enough for her? How long before he was sitting here alone without even a job to keep him occupied?
She picked up the paper the CI had given her. “So this list is Natalia Kuilikov’s aliases. She came to the States on an education visa. It had a nine-month limit. She disappeared after roughly three months in Brooklyn.”
“I already have a whole file on this. After what happened in New York, I talked to some Agency contacts and compiled all the information I could find. I’ll e-mail it to you. Natalia was living with a known member of the Krylov syndicate.”
“What happened to her husband? I can find records of her marriage but not of a divorce.”
“We don’t know. She left him to come to the States, but they didn’t divorce. Apparently the marriage fell apart when their only child died roughly three months after he was born. She threw herself into her nanny job in Moscow and they drifted apart. Years later, she came to America and we lost track of her.”
She grabbed a banana off the counter and peeled it as she sat again, her eyes on him. “I suppose I can understand why she got into her job. Her son died of SIDS?”
“That’s what the death certificate said.” Whether she would admit it or not, she’d needed to cry. Now her head was clearer and she could talk about the case. “The police incident report said she woke up that morning, went to get the baby ready to go to child care, and she found him dead.”
Lara sat back with a sigh. “I read the translation. The coroner’s report stated that the baby died hours before. He was only three months old.”
She took a bite and then ran her hands over the keys. “What was the baby’s name?”
Connor opened his own laptop and pulled up the file. “Sava Kuilikov.”
Lara’s head came up, a light in her eyes. “That’s what she’s doing.” She turned the list around, handing it to Connor. There were five handwritten names on the list. “Natalia originally had four siblings. Two sisters and two brothers. Anja and Dessa were the sisters. Maxim and Konstantin, the brothers.”
The five names were the known aliases of Natalia Kuilikov. Anja Maximillian, Natalia Konstantin, Dessa Konn, Anja Sava.
“So she’s taking the names of her closest family members and using those?”
Lara shrugged. “I suppose it would be easy to remember them. It also forms a pattern if someone wants to find her. Maybe she wants to be found. Maybe deep down she wants to tell her story.”
It was definitely a theory he could work with. “We need to compile a list of possible names. Add in her parents’ names as well. We’ll work through and try to match them up to people who would be roughly Natalia’s age, somewhere in her midfifties. Give me an hour or two and we’ll have something to work with.”
“All right, but let me help.” She moved her chair over as he started to type.
He began the process of matching up names and wondered if, once this case was over, they would ever be together again.
* * *
Lara looked over the parking lot of the Serenity Assisted Living Center just outside of Baltimore. It was on a quiet street, but Lara had so recently learned that quiet didn’t mean safe. Just because she was with two men who knew how to defend themselves didn’t mean people couldn’t be hurt. She looked between Connor and his big friend Dax, whom Connor had called in as backup.
“If you’re nervous, I can go speak to her myself.” Connor put his big, gas-guzzling SUV into park in front of the main building.
Dax leaned in from where he took up most of the backseat with his muscular body. “I’ll stay out here and watch over you. Connor can get this done without us.”
“I’m not nervous.” She hadn’t come this far, risked so much, just so she could sit in the car with her massive babysitter.
She looked around. The parking lot was half full. In an hour or so the sun would set. It had already been a long day, but things had sped up considerably once Connor had gotten someone at the CIA involved. Their pool of names had been run and they’d come up with one. Maxine Sava of Baltimore. She was the right age. Her driver’s license had lapsed but they’d found a copy with the DMV, and the picture matched 95 percent with the facial recognition software despite the years between the photos. Her cheekbones were still strong, her eyes wide and exotic. Though her skin had lost its perfection, Maxine Sava was still a lovely woman.
He cut the engine and turned slightly. “Fear is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s something to be embraced, as long as it doesn’t hold you back. Fear proves that you’re smart.”
“I’m sure you’re afraid of so many things,” she said, tamping down the way her heart pounded every time she looked at him.
“I didn’t use to be. But then fear is mostly about loss, and I didn’t have anything to lose until you so I wasn’t afraid.”
“And now you are?”
“Princess, now I’m terrified.” He pulled his SIG Sauer out of its shoulder holster and checked the clip. “Are you ready?”
“How do we know we weren’t followed?”
“We don’t. I didn’t pick up anyone on our tail, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Connor said in that matter-of-fact way of his. He’d been so calm with her. So patient. His gentleness was wearing her down and warming her heart. She didn’t want to risk opening her heart to him again but he seemed determined to pry it open.
What had she been thinking, suggesting they continue sleeping together? Like she could really have sex with him a couple of times and not want him anymore. What a joke. Despite the way he’d set her up and the lies he’d told, she still wanted him. She wanted him today more than yesterday. More than the day before.
Where this man was concerned, Lara feared her heart was doomed.
“Let’s get this over with.” Dax opened his door. “I’m more concerned with them following us at night or ambushing us back at the house.”
“Hopefully we talk to Natalia and end this thing. If she tells us who Sergei is, we’ll take him down and be done.” Connor stepped out and walked around the car. As she unfastened her seat belt, he opened the door and helped her down. She slipped her hand into his, and then he curled his free hand on her waist, easing her to the pavement. “I don’t want you to fall.”
Everywhere he touched her she felt heat flare. Sometimes all he had to do was look at her and she could feel his hands, stroking her, loving her.
Yeah, she was totally going to be able to sleep with him and walk away. Not.
She eased aside, hoping her feet were steady. “Well, if your car wasn’t as big as a tank, I wouldn’t need help.”
“I’ll go and buy a smart car tomorrow,” he promised.
“Dude, you weigh more than a smart car.” Dax shook his head. “I don’t think you’ll fit.”
“How about I look into a hybrid SUV.” He started up the path to the door. “I’m sure Lara knows the best ones. We can use a new car.”
This was why staying with him was so damn dangerous. She melted when he said things like that. She just wished she could figure out why he was saying them. Guilt? Had he decided that he owed her?
Or did he really, truly care?
She was quiet as they walked inside. The front room was cheery but there was an oppressiveness that came with any place like this. No matter how many cutesy signs for bingo they hung, this was a place where people waited to die.
“We’re here to see Maxine Sava,” Connor said to the front desk clerk.
