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“I do, Shiv, but there’s something you need to know.”
“Fuck off, Gunner. Let go of me.” Shiv tugged at Gunner’s arm.
“Raketa refused to hand over Kuznetsov, even to save her own life,” Gunner said, releasing Shiv.
“If we don’t get Petrov, UR will kill both of them.”
“Shiv!” he shouted as the man started walking toward the forest. “Would Kuznetsov want you to give up Raketa’s mother?”
Gunner watched the pain of acceptance wash over Shiver’s face. They both knew, for now, going after Petrov wasn’t an option. First, they had to make sure Svetlana was safe.
“We’ll get him, Shiv. I promise. But we have to do this first.”
Shiv nodded and Gunner motioned for the rest of the team to come closer.
“We believe this is an explosive device that Petrov is able to detonate remotely.”
Onyx stepped forward. “Let me have a look,” he said.
Shiv turned to Gunner, who nodded. “He’s the best we’ve got.”
Gunner looked for the UR team and found them seemingly immobilized by the scene that had played out in front of them. What they needed was someone like Raketa to kick their asses into shape. But she wasn’t theirs anymore. She was his and he couldn’t wait to get back to Doc’s and hold her in his arms.
He remembered the shot Petrov fired. “Who’s missing?” he asked. “Check with the Russians too.”
“Alegria,” said Dutch.
“Go find her,” Gunner told him, praying she wasn’t dead, but doubting she could be. How close had she been when Petrov got the one shot off that had resulted in someone dropping to the ground? It had to have been very close for him to have hit her.
—:—
Raketa didn’t speak as the vehicle barreled out of the ranch’s parking lot. She had no idea where they were going, but did it matter? Soon they’d meet up with Petrov, who would threaten her life in exchange for her handing over whatever money he’d put in her name. Once she had, he’d kill her anyway.
The familiar sounds of a gun being prepared to be fired didn’t phase her. How could it be this easy for her to accept her own mortality? Had she been preparing herself for it all her life?
She didn’t believe in heaven or hell, and there wasn’t much she regretted. Not being able to save her mother’s life, for she was surely dead by now, and Gunner. Always Gunner.
How long had she loved him? More than ten years, and they’d all been wasted. If she’d told him that first night, when she spared his life, that she wanted to leave United Russia, would he have taken her with him? Would he have offered her his asylum in exchange for the shot she’d fired into the ground? She’d never know for sure, even if she thought to ask him.
At least she’d been able to tell him how she felt and hear that he loved her too. That knowledge would sustain her through whatever happened next. If Petrov was capable of mercy, maybe he’d let Topor kill her quickly.
—:—
“It was an amateur job. Something someone could have learned how to do from the internet,” Onyx told them as he tossed the explosive device’s components to the side after diffusing it in under a minute.
“She’s alive,” Dutch yelled, carrying Alegria in his arms.
“I’ve already called for a bus,” Striker told them.
“Get another one on the way,” Gunner said, holding Svetlana’s limp body in his arms. She was alive, although she had likely been drugged enough to keep her pliable to Petrov’s plan, but not enough that she’d be unconscious, until now.
Striker scrubbed his face with his hand. “Roger that, Gunner, but we need to talk. Immediately. You too, Shiv.”
“What’s going on?” Shiv asked.
“The Russians have taken the entire deal off the table.”
“Why?” asked Gunner, incredulous.
