I took a second to just look at her, staring into those flashing blueeyes. But then the breeze started playing with loose strands of her fine black hair, and it turned intomorethan a second…
I tore my eyes away. Something was happening to me. It had started back in the strip club, when I’d seen her in danger and felt thisneedto protect her. Then I’d seen her in the graveyard, broken and vulnerable, with no one in the world to turn to, and I’d suddenly understood how lonely she was. Maybe because it felt so familiar.
And then she’d risked her job to save my life.
Maybe ithadn’tstarted in the strip club. Maybe it had started back when she was following me all over town, and I’d realized how smart and tenacious she was. When I realized I finally had a worthy opponent.
Or maybe it started right back in the casino, when I’d snarled at her, and she’d lifted her chin and defied me. All I knew was, there was a part of me that had been dark, silent, and cold for years, and she made it spin to warm, colorful life.
I had no idea what the fuck I was going to do about it. After the graveyard, I’d had to apologize to Radimir and persuade him that killing Alison would bring too much heat down on us. He wasn’t happy about leaving her alive. He’d completely lose it if he knew we were meeting like this.
“You got my message, then?” I asked, my voice carefully gruff.
Alison snorted—somehow, when she did it, it wasmilyy, cute—and looked away. Could she feel it too?
“An anonymous tip to the FBI hotline,” she said. “Giant yellow duck sighted at these coordinates.”
I smirked. I’d been proud of that. But then my smile faded. “I haven’t seen you in a week.”
She went over to the railing and leaned on it. “I’m off the case. Someone else will be tailing you, now.”
I looked around. We were alone. “Clearly, they’re not as good as you.”
“Clearly.”
She turned and looked out across the lake. I joined her at the railing and did the same: this close to her, I didn’t dare look at her, orI might do something stupid. “I may be able to get you back on the case.”
I felt her look at me. “What?! How? No: why.Whyfirst?”
“Because it’s my fault you’re off it.”
“But you hate me. This is exactly what you wanted, you’re rid of me.”
You hate me.It was right there, dangling in the air. I could say something…
Instead, I sucked in my breath and turned to her. “I want to beat you,” I told her. “I’mgoingto beat you. But not like this.”
She stared at me, challenging me to say more. I stared back at her, stony-faced.
She dropped her eyes. “Okay,” she said. Wait, was that pain in her voice?ShouldI have said something? “How?”
“There’s a container arriving on a ship in two days’ time,” I told her. “Refrigerators. Except, inside the casing of one of the refrigerators is a small package of radioactive cesium. You can tell your boss and catch some terrorists. You’ll be a hero.”
“How do you?—”
“I have a friend at the docks.”
She nodded. “Yakov Beletski.”
I forgot, sometimes, just how well she knew my life. “Yes. He knows everything that passes through. Terrorism...that isn’t good for us, for you, for anyone. So when he hears of something like this, he passes word to the authorities. That’s why they leave him alone.”
“So why doesn’t he just tell the authorities himself this time, too?”
Chyort, she was like a dog with a bone. I looked away and ran a hand over my stubble. “I...requested that he let you tell the FBI instead.”
I could feel her staring at me. “What did you have to do in return?”
The price had been admitting to my best friendwhyI wanted to help her. I’d stood there scowling and red-faced while Yakov laughed so hard he could barely breathe. “That’s not important,” I told her stiffly. “Here.” I held out a slip of paper with all the details on it.
