He shook his head. “Deutsch.”
Good. He only speaks German.
She ordered a Hugo and took a single sip of the sweet drink. Then she stirred it, waiting.
A glance up from the bartender told her someone had entered. One look in the mirror behind the bar at his hulking shape confirmed her instincts. He settled his bulk onto the stool next to hers and gave the bartender his order before turning to her.
“Malcolm,” she said.
“Gina.” The Chicago accent had faded a bit. Or he was holding it in.
“Looks like the Cubs might make it to the World Series again this year,” she said.
Malcolm smiled. His hometown heroes.
“You always did root for the underdog, Gina.”
“Always,” she said, thinking of a long-ago princess with no hope. Of a SEAL separated from his team and tortured. Of another SEAL washed up like wreckage on a barroom floor. Of an aimless and underestimated woman with a talent for computers.
And she thought of the man sitting next to her, who’d found someone who loved him, and had saved that woman from an even colder predator than himself. Was he here to do that again? And which woman was he going to save this time, Annalie or Gina?
That was an easy answer. She wasn’t even bitter about it.
Please, just don’t make me hurt you, Malcolm.
The bartender brought Malcolm his drink and looked at Gina, but she waved him away.
“So they sent you,” she said.
“They sent me. Probably thinking you'd hesitate a minute before killing me.” He clinked his beer against her Hugo. “Fan of underdogs that you are.”
They were right. The second she realized who they would send, Gina had thought of three different ways she could kill Malcolm. She’d cataloged all his weaknesses years ago like a reflex. Funny that they'd cataloged her latest weakness before she had. She’d made new friends. Real ones. Now they were going to use them all against her, starting with Watchtower.
“You think you're an underdog compared to me?” she asked him.
Malcolm scoffed. “I know it. I've seen your dossier. All of it. Nothing redacted.” He took a swallow of his beer.
“Thewholething? It must look likeWar and Peace.”
Malcolm chuckled. “Heavy on the war.”
She considered asking him how he planned on killing her. But instead, she decided to ask for a gift.
“We've known each other a long time, Malcolm.”
“That we have.”
Any surprises in my dossier?”
His eyebrows rose. “Of course.”
“Then tell me what I need to know, Mal. Why? I did everything they wanted. Always a good soldier.”
He grimace-smiled at her. “You already know, Gina, so don’t pretend, not with me. For starters, you let Skeleton Key get destroyed. They wanted it.”
Ah. He’d confirmed something for her, just not what he thought. But she needed more.
“That wasn't my call. You were there in Hawaii. Elissa and Fia smashed the thumb drives all on their own.”
