Page 11 of Every Last Breath

He unlatched the window, opened it, and climbed out. The small house appeared to be isolated in the woods. For a heartbeat, he stood quiet, listening to be sure neither man had wandered outside, then ran. West side, hugging the wall, through grass, where he found his bike.

Frick and Frack would be alerted as soon as he cranked the engine.

Unease kept nagging at him. Fool that he was, he couldn’t help hoping they wouldn’t take it out on Maddox.

* * *

The roar of the motorcycle split the air. Emotion seesawed through Maddox. She clenched her jaw and ignored her churning stomach. This asset needed delicate development.

Jeez. Did the term asset apply here, considering he’d been the love of her life?

She slammed the safe house window closed and locked it.

Reece opened the door, entering the room. “Are you sure this is the right play?”

Nikolai Reznikov was alive, back from the dead with a new name and life, and he wanted nothing to do with her. The red-hot poker of such an unfathomable reality jabbed between her ribs, leaving her unsure of anything. So she was following instinct. Her gut had never steered her wrong.

“Positive.” She took her blazer and holstered gun from Gideon, who’d trailed Reece inside. “As soon as I mentioned our employer, he iced over. Would’ve gone better if you two had listened to me and not zip-tied him to a chair.”

“Based on the carnage I saw in the café,” Reece said, “we had a tiger by the tail.”

She’d taken down guys twice her size, but her combat skills were useless with Nikolai—Cole—whatever the hell he was calling himself. Nine years ago, he’d been deadly.

Today, he looked sixty-nine shades of lethal.

“Your history with him is complicated,” Gideon said, “and things ended badly. You hadn’t seen him in years. No telling what he was capable of besides extreme violence.”

The walls pressed in on her. Cole obviously despised her enough to let her grieve and suffer with the torment of thinking she was responsible for his death.

Reece pulled off his cap and raked a hand through his scruffy dark hair. “After the Russians jacked him, he would’ve been geared to butcher first and take names later.”

Okay, caution had been the right call. Cole was furious, hurt, defensive. Hated her.

After baiting him, she’d seen the loathing in his eyes. He’d never forgiven her and might not even help her. Not that she was entitled to it, after what she had done to him and his family.

“How can you be sure he’ll show tonight?” Reece asked.

Cole had curled his hand around her throat as though he meant to strangle her, but then his touch had softened. A different kind of spark had kindled in his eyes. There was so much more simmering beneath his rage.

“He has questions only I can answer. He’ll come.”

And when he did, she wouldn’t smell like an old lady slathered in arthritis cream.

Reece rubbed his chin. “What if you’re wrong?”

Beaded sweat chilled on her skin. She couldn’t afford to be wrong. “You usually have my back, Reece. What’s with the twenty questions?” And the utter lack of faith in her judgment.

“If I didn’t have your back, your ex would still be strapped to that chair. Not out of our custody, on his bike. The DGB is going to grill us on what—”

“I’ll explain to Dad.” A nickname for the DGB they used with affection and respect, albeit never to his face. “I put a roving bug on Cole’s phone.” The bug would allow her to activate the microphone on his cell. She could listen in on his calls, remote eavesdrop on any conversation within the vicinity of the phone. And if he tried to turn his cell off, the malware would mimic a shutdown while keeping the phone on. “We can stay abreast of his plans and keep him on a short leash.”

“We’ll give him a three-mile tether and stay off his shadow while you get Dad’s blessing on this COA,” Reece said. Any course of action that impacted the mission this much needed to be sanctioned.

Fear of another failure clawed up her chest, but she wouldn’t yield an atom to self-doubt. She’d harness the stress bubbling in her core instead, use it like a battery charging.

“Easier to keep our finger on the pulse of this if we monitor his phone,” Gideon added.

True. Maddox handed him the handheld device that had the roving bug app. “Don’t let him spot you. If he doesn’t come to me or tries to run, I’ll go to him and use a coercive approach.”