“Yes,” I said.
His gaze narrowed in on me, but he remained quiet.
“Revenant didn’t want me at the meeting. They asked for you alone. They specifically didn’t want my eyes on whatever they’re doing. Why?”
His jaw ticked.
I continued.
“That should scare you. The fact that they don’t want me there means one of two things.”
He didn’t move, but his fingers tightened slightly around my throat. He was listening.
“One,” I said, “they don’t trust me.”
His nostrils flared.
“Or two,” I added, “they’re trying to set you up and knew I’d catch it. Because. I. Know. Them.”
His eyes widened, just a fraction, but I saw it anyway.
“Andrei,” I said firmly, “if Revenant wanted me so far away from that meeting, it is because they don’t want a witness who can recognize what they’re doing. I’mtheir own agent, for God’s sake.”
He didn’t speak.
His chest rose and fell. His hand was still wrapped around my neck, muscles rigid, the gun still pressed beneath my ribs. The intensity in his eyes softened, sharpened again, then softened once more as he thought it through. I could tell that his mind was running through all the angles at once.
Silence thickened between us.
Then I drove the final nail in.
“And I am here, on your plane,” I said, “because I don’t trust Revenant right now. Not after what they’re keeping from me. Plus, my presence proves exactly one thing.”
“What?” he asked, voice rough, low.
“That I’m on your side.”
The fight started to bleed out of him. Not completely. But enough.
His grip loosened. The gun dipped by an inch.
His gaze slid down my face, lingering too long on my mouth before returning to my eyes.
I pressed harder.
“And the second reason you aren’t throwing me off this plane,” I stated cockily, “is because if you do, you’re never going to get what your brothers already had. And then you’ll be pissy for the rest of your life knowing you never got a taste of the hottest girl they’ve ever had.”
He drew in air too fast.
A flush hit his neck.
Then something primal and furious flickered in his eyes.
“Katya,” he growled, voice hoarse and unsteady in a way I had never heard from him, “that is not fair.”
“Who said I play fair?”
The last barrier in him visibly cracked.
