“Where’s the phone?” he asked.
“It’s with me, but I turned it off at the embassy.”
“I can also permanently delete any records of Donskoy’s cell phone,” Teddy said, “but not before I lift the data.”
The lights in the conference room brightened, the power outage had ended.
Gabriel set a cell phone on the table in front of Teddy. “Donskoy’s. Also turned off.”
“Oh boy, you two have been busy,” Z said. “Halston, we need you to continue downloading files from the ambassador’s computer.”
“Understood,” she replied.
“And if you’re caught?” Gabriel asked.
With determination pouring from her eyes, she replied, “Igotcaught and I handled it. I’m not afraid, but I am concerned about the information I was able to take. This is way more unsettling than anything I lifted from his computer the entire nine months I was in Moscow.”
“They’ve been working toward something,” Z said, “and the delivery of the packages means their project is moving to the next phase.”
“I’ll stay on top of it and continue to funnel everything through Evangeline,” Halston said.
Z’s phone rang.
He answered, listened. “Thank you.” He hung up. “All seven cities lit up at the exact same time, all across the country.”
The energy shift in the room was palpable.
“Not a coincidence,” Gabriel said.
“No, it’s not,” Sin agreed.
“Whoever is doing this—and my money’s on the Russians—are going after something big,” Z said. “Since tomorrow is January 8th, we have to hope for the best… and expect the worst.”
The room went pin-drop silent.
In Gabriel’s world, he ran toward danger. In this particular case, they didn’t know what they were running toward.
As he looked across the table at Halston, his thoughts jumped to dark places. He’d just found her. Their relationship had barely started.
Halston wasn’t just walkingtowarddanger, she was standing in the epicenter of it.
And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it.
19
IN LOVE
GABRIEL
As the team began exiting the conference room, Gabriel hung back. Halston stood, spoke with Caroline then—as if pulled by an invisible string—made her way over to him. Her smile made his heart beat a little faster. Despite the murder and mayhem, he found joy in simply being with her. He stood, his gaze cemented on hers until Greystone walked over, severing their fiery connection.
“I’m sorry,” Greystone said. “Forgive me?” He extended his hand.
“Always.” After a handshake, they hugged it out. “We’ve been fighting with each other?—”
“My earliest memory is a fight with you,” Greystone said. “It was about sitting on Dad’s lap. I coulda been three, maybe four, so you were?—”
“Four or five,” Gabriel replied.
