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“They were all in Charleston, South Carolina,” Ryson told me. “Once again, Sokolov got in and out of the country undetected. We need to know how he’s doing it, so we can stop him from wreaking havoc on people’s lives.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about that,” I said truthfully. Peter never spoke much about his connections or how he does the impossible things he does. As awful as I feel about the people he terrified and tortured, I know nothing that can help the Feds in this regard.
Assuming I wanted to help, that is. If Peter was unable to get into the US, he wouldn’t be able to hurt more people. However, he also wouldn’t be able to retrieve me, and that perverse, contradictory part of me—the one that keeps me awake at night, thinking of that note with a mixture of joy and trepidation—can’t stand that possibility.
I need him.
I crave him so much it hurts.
Before that note, I was able to hold the pain in, to be strong as I told myself that it was over, but hearing from Peter—knowing he’ll be back—stripped away my fragile new defenses, plunging me back into that endless waiting mode.
“Come back,” I whisper, hugging a pillow to my chest as I stare at the TV screen. “Please, Peter, I need you. Come back for me and take me home.”
29
Peter
“You what?” Yan stares at me like I’ve sprouted a pair of tentacles.
“I contacted Lucas Kent about arranging a meeting with Esguerra,” I repeat, stirring the pasta sauce. “Hand me that basil, will you?”
Yan doesn’t move, so Ilya silently pushes the chopped basil toward me, and I sprinkle it liberally over the sauce. I’m making Italian food tonight—a cuisine my men feel quite neutral about, but Sara loves.
For you, ptichka. So I feel like you’re here with me.
I’ve started doing that this week, talking to her in my mind. It’s probably not healthy, but it makes me feel closer to her, as though she’s here with me instead of an ocean away.
Maybe it’s because I know I might see her soon, but I’ve been missing her even more than usual. Each day without her is fucking torture.
“I thought you were going to kill Kent,” Yan says, frowning in confusion. “For letting Sara crash.”
“And I still might, just not at this time.” I dip a long spoon into the sauce and taste it before adding a pinch more salt. “I need him to get me into Esguerra’s compound.”
Anton comes up to stand next to Yan. “So that’s your grand plan? To have Kent hand you on a silver platter to Esguerra? You do remember the guy swore to kill you, right?”
I give him a level look. “He won’t kill me if he wants the name of Novak’s asset.”
“Ah.” Yan’s expression smooths out. “So you’re going to pretend to double-cross Novak to gain access to Esguerra’s compound.”
“Precisely.” And then I’m going to double-cross him for real, I think, but I don’t say it. As much as I trust my guys, I have to operate on the assumption that Novak has eyes and ears on us at all times. It’s highly unlikely in the privacy of this safe house, but I can’t afford to risk it.
As it was, I barely managed to convince the Serbian to go along with my plan.
“You’re going to what?” He stood up, nearly knocking over the table when I informed him of my intentions in the café. In an instant, his goons appeared from their hiding place in the back, surrounding him like a human wall, their M16s drawn and pointed at me.
“So much for building trust, huh?” I said, amused, and Novak gave me a dark glare before ordering them to stand down.
I sat down and waited for him to do the same before explaining the gist of my plan. It took a while, but he finally understood why that was the only option… why, even with his asset in place, we wouldn’t be able to get into Esguerra’s compound by force.
“Even if your pediatrician is a tech whizz who manages to disable the drones and the electric fences that protect the compound, we’ll still have the guard towers to contend with. Which wouldn’t be a problem for my team except that Esguerra has generators and backup drones that would go online within a minute of the main ones being disabled. And then, while we’re dealing with the drones firing on us from the sky, Esguerra’s backup guards—over a hundred of them—will appear and take us out. The only way past them would be with an even bigger force—say, a couple of hundred mercenaries of our own—but a group that size has no chance of getting near the compound undetected. We wouldn’t even be able to enter Colombia without Esguerra hearing about it and intercepting us long before we get anywhere near his place.”
