“Partners?” I asked.
“Partners,” he replied.
Cameron
IWOKE UP early the next morning to find Tess out of bed and brewing a pot of coffee, which smelled better than anything else I could recall in recent days. I got up, threw my jeans on, and tried to get the drop on her in the tiny kitchen. I crept up behind her as quietly as I could, but just as I reached her, Tess spun around, planting a kiss on me, her hands going to my stubbled face.
“Someone’s in need of a shave,” Tess said, with a slight growl in her voice.
“I know,” I said. “I was going to tell you last night that your moustache is getting a bit prickly, but I didn’t want to spoil the mood.”
“Shut up,” Tess hiss-pered. Slapping me on my bare chest. “Don’t even joke about that. My aunt Linda has a moustache. That stuff is hereditary, youknow. It could happen to me.”
I studied her face for a few moments. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think there’s room on your perfect face for a moustache.”
She bit her lip. “We’re really stupid to be doing this while on the job, aren’t we?”
“Probably, but people meet each other at work all the time, right?”
“Calling what we do ‘work’ or ‘a job’ is oversimplifying in order to minimize the trauma of realizing the true peril we are in, right?”
I nodded with a sigh. “I’d say we’re in a fair amount of peril, true.”
“Seems that way,” she said.
“We could always run. Sasha can’t have eyes everywhere, right? We could make it onto a flight out of here, I’m sure. There’s nothing wrong with a tactical retreat.”
“I’m not quitting. Not after all of this work. Not when I’m so close to burning these mothers down.”
“Full speed ahead it is, Captain.”
“How about I pour us some coffee, and we can figure out how to get ourselves out of peril?” she suggested, grabbing the only two mugs from her shelf.
I took a seat at her tiny little kitchen island and studied her. “Has it been lonely for you here in Russia, all by yourself?”
“Me climbing you like a tree didn’t tip you off?” she retorted.
“The physical thing aside, what about the rest of it? Have you craved companionship?”
“I’m not sure Iwasreferencing my physical reaction to you. As much as I enjoy the wrapper you come in, I like the chocolate bar that’s inside even more.”
I stood, leaning down for another kiss, pulling Tess in close. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promise.”
“You can’t make that promise. Neither of us can,” she said.
“I can and I am. We’re partners, remember? We’ll always have each other’s backs. Besides, I’m not sure we have anyone else to rely on. From what we’ve both experienced, the agency is basically treating this mission like a black-op.”
She settled her palms on my chest. “Yeah, but why?”
“My handler told me there was a leak in our office. That any communication of any kind back home could jeopardize the mission and it’s assigned officers,” I said. “My strict orders were to run in whisper mode. No calls home to mother. No outside support.”
“I check in twice a week via a system of rotation drop points. Outgoing messages only,” Tess said.
“I don’t suppose you have any contacts here who could help?”
“Help us do what, exactly?” she asked. “Contact a CIA asset whose location is completely unknown to us?”
I shrugged.
