Elena tucked her hair behind her ear, murmuring, “She was profiled in a magazine.”
The final two were Márton Bálint—eliminated as he was a legacy whose parents had been suspiciously quiet after Petro’s death and the leadership changeover—and Laszlo Petrescu.
Laszlo was a wildlife conservationist working in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains. While admirable, his incredible knowledge of the topography of the region was what had put him on this list. He had led both strike teams and refugee groups through the mountains.
“If you need to go off the grid and hide, he’s the one who could do it,” Grigoris said.
“I can’t disappear,” Nikolett countered. “I need to be here.”
“You hiding for several months and communicating with us electronically via a secure relay is better for the territory than you dead,” Grigoris countered.
Everyone nodded.
Nikolett swallowed the urge to argue. They were right. It was her pride and stubbornness that made her want to refuse to be run out of town by an unseen enemy.
Though if she were totally honest, hiding for a while sounded rather nice. But when she pictured being safe, hiding, she imagined a stone fortress on the edge of a cliff, not a cozy cabin in the Carpathian Mountains.
“How do we decide?” Oksana asked, studying the board. She went still, then turned in her chair to face Nikolett. “I’m sorry, Admiral. It’s your decision, not a collective one.”
“No.” Nikolett shook her head. “I, we, asked you to be a part of this because it is a strategic decision, as all trinity marriages are. The fact that I can choose my own doesn’t mean my marriage should be a love match.”
Oksana nodded, but still looked uncomfortable.
Elena looked at Maxim, then quickly away. A second later, he looked at her, turning away a second before she snuck another glance at him.
Nikolett glanced at Nyx, who was leaning forward like a bird of prey, watching Elena and Maxim. Ha! She wasn’t the only one who noticed there was something there.
“We’ve eliminated two.” Iacob tapped the hilt of his knife on the table twice. “Narrowed it down to six. Maybe five. We need to be sure where Fedora’s loyalties lie. Admiral, have you met any of them?”
“No.”
“What about my date idea?” Elena said. “Like on the show?”
“Security issues.” Grigoris shook his head. “Yes, obviously the admiral will need and want to talk to them, but six, even five, in-person meetings is too many. Too much risk.”
“So she doesn’t meet with all five in person,” Oksana said.
“Video interviews?” Zoran raised a brow.
“I’ll need to talk to them one way or another,” Nikolett said slowly. “We could be honest and tell them we’re forming trinities and want to get to know them better. I just won’t mention that I’m one of the potential spouses.”
“Is that how it’s normally done?” Oksana asked with interest.
Nyx shook her head, a hunted look in her eyes and the scar on her face more apparent as her expression tightened. “No. Members were summoned—by hard copy message that arrived via courier. It informed you that you were getting married and when to show up. You met your trinity when you arrived at the admiral’s house.”
Oksana glanced at Grigoris, clearly ready to ask something about their marriage, but Elena caught Oksana’s eye and shook her head once while widening her eyes. Nyx wasn’t talking about her marriage to Grigoris, but her first marriage. The way she’d ended up with Grigoris had been unorthodox and dramatic—so of course Eric was involved.
There was an awkward silence before Nikolett cleared her throat. “Thank you all for putting in the work to generate this list and gather information. I appreciate it.”
“And it’s cute,” Maxim said, pointing at the colorful board dotted with magnets.
Elena froze, then flushed with embarrassment. Nikolett seriously considered kicking Maxim who looked stricken as Elena started dismantling the board.
“Leave it,” Nikolett said. “I want to be able to see it for reference. It’s a perfect visual.”
Iacob had swiveled to face Maxim, his back to Elena. He pointed at Maxim with the knife, then at his own head, as if asking what was wrong with Maxim’s brain. Good. Someone else was dealing with that so she didn’t have to kick him.
Nikolett carefully lowered her leg from the stool it had been propped on and wheeled her chair to the corner to grab her crutches. Once on her feet, she thanked everyone in the room individually before heading for the elevator. It had seemed ridiculous to put in an elevator, and she’d only agreed when discussion of moving heavy server towers into the upstairs backup server room was discussed.
