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“You’re right,” I admitted. “I screwed up. I’m so used to being the guy in charge, the guy who knows what to do. I couldn’t break out of that mindset. But losing you threw my pride out the window and made me realize what really matters. I never want to have a fight like that again. I never want you to think you’re not being heard, not being listened to.”
Her eyes went wide, and I could tell that this was the last thing she’d expected me to say. It gave me some hope I’d finally gotten it right.
“So…” she said, slowly, cautiously. “The files.”
“Right.” I nodded sharply. “The files. We need to decide what to do about them, and we need to decide fast, before we talk to the sheriff.”
“Even if we wanted to release them right now,” she said, “is that an option? It’s not like I have my computer with me.”
“Drake has everything,” I reminded her. “He’s just a phone call away, if we want him to release the files.”
She looked at me, challenging. “Do we?”
I took a breath. “I still don’t love the idea of releasing information on active-duty service people. But I agree that we don’t want to run the risk of Hayes sweeping things under the rug and maybe continuing to hurt innocent civilians all over the world. Is there a middle ground?”
I waited anxiously to see how she’d respond, and the tension poured out of me in a rush when she smiled and leaned in and kissed me. Her lips were petal soft against mine. Kissing her immediately chased every thought in my head away. When she started to pull away, I chased after her, needing her mouth on mine. She let out a shivery giggle. “Let’s compromise,” she said.
“Compromise?”
“Call in your ‘big guns,’” she said. “Anyone you trust to take on Ian Hayes in court and actually put him away…and I’ll talk Drake through releasing the most damning things to show that Hayes’s company is as complicit in his crimes as he is. We won’t reveal the military information he has. The war profiteering and smuggling that directly boosted the company’s profits should be more than enough, along with the bribes and blackmail that got the government to go along with it.”
My chest felt tight and free all at the same time. I pressed my forehead against hers. “Your brother isn’t going to come out so great if you do that. His name was all over the files about smuggling, especially in the RoW. Hell, without knowing that he was the one who made a deal with Interpol and gathered evidence against his boss, he looks like he was Hayes’s right-hand man, living the good life.”
Nataliya sniffled; she was crying, and my chest ached for her. I brushed my thumb across her cheek. When she was ready, she said, “My brother, as much as I love him, was a criminal. I would have loved for people to see the side of him that I knew; I would have loved for Elias to be able to point to his uncle and say that he died while trying to do the right thing. But, in the end, Anton made his life choices all on his own. He worked with Ian Hayes knowing exactly who the man was. I can’t change that. All I can do is to continue to love all of the parts of him that no one else will get to see.”
“We don’t have to?—”
“I’m okay with this, Adrian. Really, I am. This is what lets us move forward instead of being tied down to the past. This is what gives us a fresh start…together.” She let out that shivery giggle again; it was a nervous gesture. “I don’t know if we’ll be good together in the long run, but I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”
“Are you saying you’re falling for me too?” She nodded. Her hazel eyes swam with hope and fear and something that looked a lot like love. “Can you say it for me, sweetheart? Please?”
“I’m falling in love with you. I want…I want to build something worthwhile with you.”
I leaned in and caught her mouth with mine again, and this time, I tugged her close so that her body was pressed against mine. I needed to feel her that close.
Nataliya must have felt the same way because she wound her arms around my neck and clutched at my back. When my tongue brushed her bottom lip, she sighed and opened to me, letting me taste her again. She had only been gone for twelve hours, but I genuinely wasn’t sure I’d ever have this again. I would never take it for granted again.
“Um…folks?”
I wrenched away from Nataliya. The deputy was back. “The sheriff is really insistent on you coming to speak with him. Now.”
I glanced at Nataliya, and we both broke into laughter. The adrenaline burn-off was finally hitting us, and I felt that itchy, needful feeling I always did after missions. Usually, I would grab any means of distraction from it, but for now, it was a reminder that we survived. That we had each other again.
“Folks?”
“We’re coming,” I assured him. “While I speak with the deputy, why don’t you call Elias?” I suggested and handed her the phone. “He’s worried sick about you.”
“When we’re done, can we go back to him? There’s no reason to stick around, right?”
“We may need to come back to testify in the trial, but we have time before that, so there’s definitely no reason to hang around here.” I kissed her forehead, then her nose, and then her chin. I avoided her lips because if I kissed her lips again, we’d be lost to each other, and I wasn’t sure I’d let a piddly deputy stop me. “Go call your son. Tell him how much of a badass you are.”
We walked out of the bedroom and with a squeeze of our hands, we parted ways. The deputy led me toward a dour-looking sheriff and Zach. I glanced back and saw Nataliya already talking into the phone. I couldn’t quite hear her, but whatever she was saying, she had the most beautiful smile on her face.
I want to see that smile for the rest of my life, I thought.
TWENTY-FOUR
NATALIYA
