But she said it with a smile, and Jamie couldn’t help but return it.
05
IN PEACE PREPARE FOR WAR
“Y’all, we’re startin’ our descent into Heathrow, and I’m out of coffee.Someone bring me a refill,” Annabelle said over the comms system in the private jet.
“Sorry,amiga.We drank it all!”Trevor yelled.
Annabelle’s swearing could be heard through the open cockpit door behind them.Katie arched an eyebrow, but her attention never wavered from her laptop and the holographic images it projected into the air.
“Haven’t heard that insult in a while.Trevor better watch his back,” Katie said.
“There will be more coffee at the house.Annabelle can have some while we get settled,” Jamie said as he swiped to the next page of the report on his tablet.
“I’d ask if you could afford the stuff, but this is you we’re talking about.Did you already call ahead and have the place stocked?”
“My mother did.A cleaning crew went through it yesterday from top to bottom, and the food delivery service should have arrived this morning.”
“And security?”
“The UMG sent a couple of agents to handle it.”
Katie hummed wordlessly as she fixed something in the code she was working on, which altered the depth of the web page’s background.Sean might be excellent at building identities, but whoever he’d tapped to create their fake company’s website had shit taste, according to Katie.She’d been upgrading it for the past two days with an eye to security options the Pavluhkins might possibly prefer after several suggestions from Alexei.
“Does this mean we’re going to be eating with platinum flatware again?”Katie asked.
Jamie rolled his eyes.“That wasonetime.”
“That was three times.The gold flatware happened only once, and I was afraid to use every single piece of cutlery surrounding my dinner plates.”
“If I promise you everything at the house will be normal, will you believe me?”
“Not for a goddamn second.This is your mother we’re talking about.”
“I’d prefer we didn’t unless there’s alcohol involved.”
An ice bucket sat on the side table connected to the leather couch Katie was sprawled on.The bottle of Don Pérignon it used to hold had been emptied within ten minutes of takeoff.Currently, it contained several different bottles of beer resting in half-melted ice.She grabbed one without looking, tossing it to Jamie.
Jamie caught the bottle one-handed, making a face at her.“I’m still not discussing my mother.”
“I didn’t ask you to,” Katie retorted, rolling her eyes.“But while we’re on the subject of your family, you need to tell them to back off about what we’re doing out here.They’re driving you up the wall, which is drivingmeup the wall.”
Jamie pried the bottle cap off and tossed the bit of metal back into the ice bucket.It hit with a tiny splash.He drank down half the bottle in several large gulps before responding with “I can’t not take their calls.Things would be worse if I completely ignored them.”
“They’re makingyouworse, Jamie.I’m having flashbacks, and not in a good way.It’s like our first year together in the Marines all over again, and that was ahellishfirst year, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“I haven’t.But it’s one mission, Katie.We can handle it.”
“It’s never just one mission, and you know it.”
Jamie sighed and rubbed at his eyes hard enough he saw spots.“When this is over and done with, I’ll let you punch me, all right?It’ll be just like old times.”
“I’d rather it wasn’t.”
“Tough shit.We have our orders, and mine is to be a complete fucking bastard for the foreseeable future.”
“Then I’m definitely punching you when this is over.”
