I moved toward him, glancing at the gash and bruise along his temple and forehead. “Headache?”
“Feels like a marching band is inside my skull,” he said. “But I’ll live.”
“Barely,” Viktor added helpfully.
“Shut up, Viktor,” Andrei muttered, rubbing his forehead.
Mikhail set a mug in front of Andrei, then one for me, then leaned back against the counter. “We need to talk.”
Oh, God.
My pulse sped up immediately.
“About Revenant,” Mikhail said.
Oh. Not what I thought. Good. That’s probably for the best right now.
I exhaled softly.
Viktor pushed off the counter. “We’re done with them. Completely. No more negotiating. No more playing liaison. We’re out.”
“Andrei nearly died,” Mikhail said. “You nearly died. Someone tried to crash our plane out of the sky.”
“It might not have been Revenant,” I said, even though the words felt weak. “It could have been ARCHEON.”
“Does that make it better?” Viktor asked. “One insane organization or another? Either way, someone came after us.”
Andrei’s tone was quieter, more serious. “Whoever it was, we’re not continuing the drone handoff. We’re not even going to pretend to work with the group in Moldova. We’re not carrying out the next phase. We’re done.”
“And we’re going to stop Revenant,” Viktor added, his tone turning more eager and a bit darker. “Make sure they can’t use those upgraded drones on anyone.”
A part of me relaxed. Just a little. I’d been bracing for what came next. Bracing for the fallout of intimacy, for the awkwardness, the jealousy between them, the guilt, the tension. All of it.
But then I noticed the look they were exchanging, and my stomach dropped with a sudden sense of panic.
Andrei leaned back in his chair and gave me a small, crooked smile. “Speaking of things we’re done pretending about…”
Oh, no.
Fuck.
Here it comes.
Viktor grinned wickedly. “She’s nervous. Look at her. She’s blushing.”
“I am not,” I said, even though my cheeks were warm.
Mikhail set his coffee down. He wore the expression of a man about to deliver an incredibly inconvenient truth with perfect composure. “We need to discuss what we’re doing. Withyou.”
I swallowed. “You mean… operationally? For the mission, right?”
“No,” Viktor smirked. “We mean sexually.”
“And emotionally,” Andrei added in a softer voice.
“And practically,” Mikhail finished.
My brain stalled. “You three need to stop saying ‘we’ like you’re one organism.”
