She still wore the clothes she’d put on to go to the hospital. A pair of old jeans and a Yankees sweatshirt that belonged in the trash—and not just because it was ratty. He was a dyed-in-the-wool Red Sox fan. Apparently she’d been holding out on him in that arena, too.
“I couldn’t sleep.” She handed him a piece of paper. “Here.”
He glanced down at it long enough to see that it was a handwritten list of some kind. “What’s this?”
“Read it.”
Reluctantly, he put down the fork, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and began to read. It didn’t take him long. When he was done, he looked up and met her gaze.
“That’s it,” she said. “That’s everything I told Mick.”
He’d figured that much out. But in between things like recommendations regarding the military health system, the budget for special operations in Afghanistan, the results of a review on whether there should be a new chief management officer in the DoD, ways of getting costs down for replacing Air Force One, and various other classified but not overly sensitive information, he saw only a few things that might have interested Russia. But they weren’t anything critical. What was missing was any information to do with technology, defense systems,or operational plans, including Special Forces operations such as Team Nine.
He put it down and looked up at her. “I think you are missing something.”
She shook her head. “I’m not. I told you, I didn’t intentionally tell him anything about your mission. I didn’t know anything about your operation until Mick told me.”
Scott stood up and opened the refrigerator again. He’d been focused on food before, but he’d noticed something else that he figured would help for this conversation. He pulled out a Bud Light, twisted off the cap, took a swig, and sat down. He preferred Coors Light, as most of the guys did on the Teams, but as she’d drunk only wine when they were together before, he couldn’t exactly complain. At least it wasn’t vodka.
Putting the bottle down in front of him, he leaned back and crossed his arms. “All right. Tell me.”
Obviously relieved to have her chance to explain, she took a seat opposite him and folded her hands on the table in front of her.
Her eyes rested on his arms for a moment before turning back to his face. But from the soft pink blush in her cheeks he knew exactly what she’d been thinking, and the knowledge of how his unintentionally flexed arms had turned her on wasn’t without effect.
Pissed at the heat rushing to his groin, he let his arms drop and flexed his jaw instead. But he’d never been able to control his desire for her. Why should it be any different now?
“Where should I start?” she asked tentatively.
“At the beginning.”
He could tell she was nervous because she reached for the bottle. Not to drink, but to do something with her hands. She fiddled with the label by peeling the edges back with her short nails. Her short, unpolished, andunmanicured nails. It seemed as if everything had been stripped away. From the tips of her fingernails to her fancy clothes and well-made-up facade. The fact that this natural Natalie appealed to him just as much wasn’t something he wanted to think about.
Scott listened as calmly and open-mindedly as possible, but ready for lies and inconsistencies, as she told him how Mick had targeted her at a bar four years ago and asked her out on a date. She’d been flattered to be singled out by the good-looking hockey player and had agreed, but that had changed the moment Mick picked her up at her apartment and told her what he really wanted from her.
“I thought he was nuts, but when I realized he wasn’t... I refused at first. But he... uh, threatened me, and when that didn’t change my mind, he threatened my family.” She told him how Mick had targeted her Russian parents first, but when his proof hadn’t convinced her that they hadn’t died as the orphanage had told her, he’d moved on to her family in Minnesota.
She paused to look back up at Scott, her eyes bright with fear—as if Mick were threatening them all over again. “He said he’d kill my parents—the only parents I’ve ever known—if I didn’t do what he asked. They are good people, Scott. Whatever you think of me, know that. They brought two troubled children into their home and showered them with love and patience. They gave me happiness, security, and a life I never could have dreamed of in the orphanage.”
He wanted to ask about the orphanage, but now was not the time. He suspected that whatever memories she had weren’t good, and he didn’t want to feel sorry for her. He needed to stay cold and objective.
Was that what he was?
“He didn’t stop with my parents. He also threatened my sister. He said he would...” Her voice fell off as ifshe couldn’t bear to repeat what he said. When she looked back at him, her eyes had turned dark with anger and a kind of raw hatred that made him almost certain she was telling the truth. Whatever else she’d lied about it wasn’t her family. She loved them with a fierceness that was impossible to deny. “He threatened to rape her and then send her back to Russia to be sold as a sex slave.”
“And you believed him?”
A dark emotion crossed her face, and she hardened her jaw. “I did.”
There was something she wasn’t telling him—something she was holding back.
“Why?” he asked. “Some strange guy comes to your apartment to recruit you as a spy for a country you haven’t lived in since you were a child, and you just go along with it? You didn’t go to anyone? Confide in anyone—even your parents or sister?”
He caught the flicker of the shadow in her eyes again before she lashed back at his tone, which was absolute disbelief. “You don’t understand. I knew he would do it, and I couldn’t take that chance. My parents... my sister... things are difficult for them, and I couldn’t burden them with this. My father’s health isn’t good. But of course I just didn’t jump right into happily committing treason. I only pretended to go along with it at first. I tried to sabotage my job at the Pentagon, but Mick found out about it, and...”
Tears filled her eyes. Her gaze turned imploring, as if she was begging him to believe her.
“And what?” Scott said evenly, not letting himself be swayed by her obvious despair. But it wasn’t easy.
