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“Fuck. Does she have the phone with her?” Nikolai asks.
I tab back to the tracker app. “No, the phone is still at her house.”
Damn it. She’s doing it. She’s going to make a fresh start. She’s leaving the country.
Eighteen
Nikolai
Ibangmyfiston the shelf, knocking the books askew, and scramble to stop them from falling. Pages are wrinkling, books are landing open-faced on the floor. I’m sure this is one of the worst library fouls I can make, and I don’t care. Something much more fragile than books is at stake.
“I can’t let Lilia get on that plane.”
“We can’t force her to testify, Nikolai.”
“I don’t care about her testifying.”
“If we go after her and reveal what we’ve done, we’ll lose our jobs.”
I peer through the shelf. “I lost the love of my life to violence. I never thought I’d be able to move on. She was everything to me. Then Lilia came into my life. I cannot survive that level of heartbreak again. Violence and pain are no longer going to control me.”
A loud “shh” comes from the end of the aisle. Shit.
A librarian throws her hands on her hips. “What are you doing?” she says in a loud whisper, rushing toward me. Her hands outstretch as she shoos me out of the way.
“I’m sorry. It was an accident.”
Keys jingle from the next aisle, and I realize Erik is getting them out. I give the librarian the space she needs to clean the books, circle the end of the aisle, then bolt toward the exit with Erik.
“We have to stop her.” Erik uses hushed tones as we rush through the main part of the library and out the front door. “Do you think her family tapped into the servers and can see that her passport showed up? Their house is closer to the airport than we are.”
“We better drive separately,” I tell him as we rush outside. “Who knows what we’re going to run into.”
I call for backup while speeding to the airport, hoping we have agents that can get there faster. I ask that they make sure Lilia is safe and detain her. They can pull her aside at security. No one in the area will think anything of it and they can hold her till we get there.
Keep her from getting on the damn plane.
If the Soloniks don’t show up, that’ll be the sole need for it, but if they do, this could be life or death for her. With Erik and Lilia having gone missing, the family might consider her a traitor even if they haven’t determined Erik is undercover.
Approaching the arrival gate at the airport, I notice a string of three black SUVs in the passenger drop-off area. They’re way too familiar. I’ve seen enough photos of them and the few times I did surveillance, I stared at them countless hours. The Soloniks got here first. My gut knots.
An airport security golf cart pulls up beside one of the SUVs. That poor TSA agent doesn’t know what he’s up against. I slam on my brakes, hop out of the car, and bolt for the entrance to the airport. Erik is right behind me.
Innocent bystanders stumble out of the way as we run down the sidewalk. A ruckus coming from the sliding glass doors spikes fear in me. One by one, six familiar Solonik faces step forward. Two of them are flanking Lilia, forcing her out of the airport. She’s no match for their brutishness.
An instant thought that we can have them on kidnapping goes through my mind. She doesn’t appear hurt, but she is pissed.
I draw my weapon, inserting myself between them and their vehicles. Erik has done the same to my right.
“Let her go.”
Erik says, “Drop your weapons.”
The Soloniks tell us to do the same, and to get out of their way and their business. Lilia wiggles, fighting against them, but she’s outmatched. The squeal of tires in the distance lets me know that our backup has arrived and they surely see that the situation has already escalated.
In my periphery on both sides, our agents move forward cautiously. Any remaining bystanders are hiding behind columns and trash cans. A few have jumped in their cars and sped away, but my only concern is that if one of them takes a shot, it would be in Lilia’s direction. I can’t let that happen.
I say loudly and clearly, “If you force Lilia into a vehicle, we’ll have you on kidnapping. All you have to do is hand her over and you can drive away. No questions asked.”
