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Raketa was planning something, and like he’d just said to Shiver, he guessed it related to the person Alegria had told them about at the compound.
Perhaps if he could figure out Raketa’s connection to Petrov, he could also determine who that person was.
No theory he’d come up with thus far made any sense. When Petrov was reported killed and disappeared from the face of the earth, believed to be at the bottom of the Caspian Sea, Raketa was a child. He’d reappeared in the States as Conor McNamara, married multiple times, and fathered two twin girls. There was no intelligence indicating that Raketa had ever worked for him or been associated with McNamara in any way.
Onyx was unable to make a connection between her and any of the people working for Petrov either, including the bodyguard who had been posing as his latest wife.
There had to be a reason why Petrov abducted her from their last op, but it seemed that until Raketa told him what that was, it would remain a mystery. For now, she remained locked in the privacy room, which was laughable given they were on an airplane. It wasn’t as though she could decide to walk away.
“That’s quite a conversation you’re having with yourself,” said Shiv, still studying him.
Gunner shook his head, stood
, walked to the back of the plane, and put his key into the outer lock of the door. He didn’t bother to open it; Raketa would know what he’d done and could come out if she chose to, although he predicted he wouldn’t see her again until he either joined her or the plane landed.
“We’ve been cleared to fly directly to London,” said Alegria from the cockpit.
Gunner nodded. It would be harder for Raketa to stage an escape once they were on UK soil, but harder still if they traveled all the way to the US.
“I’ll go underground with her, but not in the Cotswolds,” Gunner turned and said to Shiv.
“Where, then?”
“The East Coast.”
“Be specific, Gunner,” said Shiv, smirking.
He walked away without answering because Shiv knew damn well where he was headed with Raketa.
He was taking her to a place almost no one knew existed. Kade, Razor, and Mercer did, but they were more than business partners; they were Gunner’s best friends. Shiver knew about it too, but only because Gunner had needed the kind of help that only the MI6 agent could give him.
Raketa would be the next person to see the compound he’d spent the last couple of years constructing for his retirement.
—:—
There would be no way she could fall asleep, regardless of how much she needed the rest.
Gunner would be relentless; Raketa knew this. She had to craft a story more plausible than her intention to return to Moscow, but her brain wouldn’t play along, and it was because she was mentally and physically exhausted.
Having Gunner so close didn’t help. He’d had this effect since the first moment her eyes met his.
There was nothing soft about the man—every inch was rock-solid. At five feet, ten inches and in near-perfect physical condition herself, there weren’t many men who made Raketa feel petite, but Gunner did. It wasn’t just his height—he had to be at least six feet, five inches—it was the girth of his torso as well as that of his extremities.
She’d heard stories from other Russian agents, detailing what he was capable of when it came to hand-to-hand combat. He could snap a man’s neck without breaking a sweat, and hurl someone weighing three times as much as she did through the air like a rag doll.
Raketa knew he wasn’t much older than her, maybe two or three years, but the life he’d led was etched on his face. The scowl he wore was ever-present, intimidating even his colleagues.
She’d seen his compassion, though. When he held her in his arms the day they both believed she was dying, his eyes had softened as had his voice.
“Rocket Girl,” he’d murmured, holding her close to him.
As dangerous as the situation they were in had been, he still radioed for a medic, something she couldn’t say she would’ve done if their situations were reversed.
She hadn’t fallen in love with him that day, nor had her fantasies about him changed all that much. He was the main reason she’d accepted the assignment to escort the woman who’d try to murder her that very day, to Moscow.
The minute she’d heard the K19 team was on the woman’s detail, she’d immediately accepted. That she and Gunner were on opposites sides of the op hadn’t mattered. All she’d wanted was to be near him.
If she was being honest, he was the main reason she’d decided to leave Russia permanently, essentially signing her own death warrant. Once he’d agreed to help her, she knew he’d keep her safe. Just like, somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d known he’d come for her in Baku.
