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She looked at me, helpless. “What if Owen stayed to keep an eye on Elias, make sure he was safe?” I suggested. “Gabe, Zach, and I can handle things.”
“You’re sure?” Nataliya asked.
I nodded. “We’re used to adapting,” I said, keeping my eyes locked with hers. We’ve got this, I tried to convey to her silently. After a long pause, she nodded.
“We should call the others,” Owen said, “and fill them in.”
I agreed, and Nataliya grabbed my laptop. “They can’t track you with that, can they?” I asked as she opened up Zoom.
“They’d have to know my network,” she said, and at my blank look, she shook her head. “It’s doubtful.” But then, her confidence seemed to crack, and she tapped out a combination on the keyboard that I couldn’t follow. “We’ll use my backup VPN,” she explained. “Just in case.”
She placed the call, and the other former SEALs answered in tandem. I quickly filled them in on the change of plans. “You think the three of us can get in?” Zach asked.
“Four,” Nataliya objected. “I can help.”
Zach looked like he wanted to argue, but Gabe jumped in, “Four,” he said resolutely. “You’re right. Will the four of us be enough?”
“We’ll make do,” I said. “We’ll do recon and make a solid plan once we can see what we’re up against. Ideally, we’d be able to give Nataliya an hour or more to do what she needs to, but realistically, it’ll be thirty minutes at a stretch.”
Nataliya let out a harsh breath, and I reached over and squeezed her shoulder. It was something that I would do to any of my men who were nervous going into a mission, but I didn’t miss how Owen’s lips twitched into a half smile.
Instead of saying anything, thankfully, Owen pulled up a map on his phone, and we were able to pick out a motel in Georgia where Nataliya and I could meet Zach and Gabe. It was close to Atlanta, but I didn’t want to be seen in the city until we were ready to go. Hayes might not have eyes on us, but he’d be an absolute moron not to think we would head straight for him. We were still dealing with the need to lay low because of the kidnapping charges. There was no telling what other tricks Hayes might have up his sleeve to make things more complicated for us.
The next steps planned out, we ended the call, and Nataliya swept out of the room, grabbing Elias as she went. I wanted to go after her, reassure her, but Sam caught me before I could. “Give her some space,” she said. “That boy is her whole world. Asking her to leave him with strangers is a lot.”
I knew that…but it was still hard to watch her walk away. Though, it wasn’t exactly easy being around her, either. Whenever she was in the room, the only thing I could think about was kissing her again. I shouldn’t have done that. Clouding my mind before a mission was stupid. Moronic. Idiotic.
And I would give just about anything to do it again.
I spent the rest of the day with Owen. We went over the schematics Drake had sent and made a tentative map that we could use of the entrances and exits. Noted where the security would probably be the heaviest in terms of cameras or guards. It helped to have something to do while we waited for go-time.
Around lunchtime, Nataliya and Elias emerged from the guest room. She looked suspiciously puffy-eyed, but the little boy was in good spirits. “Adrian,” he said as Nataliya started picking through the cabinets, obviously intent on cooking again.
“Yeah, bud?”
“You’ll take care of my mama, right?” he asked. “You won’t let anything happen to her?”
“Of course, I won’t,” I said. “She’s safe with me.”
He gave me a look that was hard to decipher. “My uncle Anton,” he said, “you were supposed to protect him too, right?”
Ouch. Somehow, the question coming from Elias hit especially hard. “Last time, there were a lot of factors involved that I couldn’t control,” I said. It was difficult to explain the complexity of military operations in a way an eight-year-old could understand, but I had to try. “The biggest one was that someone leaked the details to the bad guys ahead of time so they could plan out how to attack us. But this time, me and my guys are the only ones who know what’s going to happen, so we can stay in control. We're going to do whatever we have to do. Understand?”
He didn’t; no eight-year-old could, really. But Elias nodded like he did anyway. “I trust you.”
Having his trust was nearly as much of a headrush as it was to have Nataliya’s. I wanted the boy to see me as someone worthy of his trust, of his belief that I could make everything okay again. Maybe I just wanted him to look at me like I really was a superhero. If Elias believed it, then maybe I could convince myself of the same.
For lunch, Nataliya showed Owen how to make patty melts, another recipe from the diner, and after everyone had eaten, I jumped up to clean again. It felt like the very least I could do. “Thank you,” Nataliya murmured as she put her and Elias’s plates in the sink.
“Anytime,” I said and nudged her shoulder with my own. “It’s going to be okay, you know?”
Nataliya didn’t look convinced. “I’ve never been away from him,” she said. “Not for his whole life, not even for a night, and now I’m just going to…to leave him with strangers.” She looked at me. “Nice strangers,” she amended.
“But strangers nonetheless,” I filled in, and she nodded. “I know this is hard, and I can’t thank you enough?—”
Nataliya waved her hand, smattering my shirt with water droplets. “Oops,” she murmured, and I saw the beginning of a grin on her lips.
“No harm, no foul,” I said.
