He hesitated again.
“You just… can’t,” he said finally. “Revenant asked for me. Alone. Specifically. Not for you.”
“But we’re a team,” I argued. “That’s the entire point of this assignment. They assigned me to you for a reason.”
“Katya.” He rubbed the back of his neck, a sign I was beginning to recognize as one of his signs of stress. “This meeting is just logistics. Nothing interesting. Nothing dangerous.”
He was lying again. He was terrible at lying.
I stared at him.
He stared back.
Neither of us moved.
“It’s suspicious,” I said quietly.
He opened his mouth, then shut it again.
“You’re not answering me,” I said.
“I don’t have an answer,” he replied. “Not one I’ve figured out yet. So let me go. Let me see what this is about. I’ll come back and tell you everything.”
The words should have comforted me.
They didn’t because I recognized the tone. It wasn’t dismissive, and it wasn’t condescending either, but a bit protective.
I let my gaze narrow. “So that’s it? They whistle, and you come running?”
He huffed a faint laugh. “Do I look like an obedient dog to you?”
“Yes,” I said. “Like a very well-trained dog.”
His eyes flashed. “Careful, princess.”
I stepped closer, my heart pounding. “I’m serious. If they’re hiding something, I want to know what. I’m part of this mission too.”
“You’re the partIcontrol,” he said, voice lowering. “And until I know what this is about, I’m not putting you in the same room.”
He said it gently and that made it worse.
“I’ll be back tomorrow night,” he said instead. “Before midnight. I promise.”
Promises meant nothing in this world.
Still, I nodded.
He lingered, as if he wanted to say more, but he didn’t.
Then Mikhail’s voice echoed from down the hall.
“Andrei,” he called. “What was that about?”
Andrei looked at me one last time, something unreadable flickering behind his eyes. “Don’t wait up.”
Then he left.
I waited until the footsteps faded before I followed, silent as a shadow, into the hallway that branched behind the study.
