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And when I had his name, I was going to take a very long time with him. Weeks, if he lasts. I have taken weeks before, and I have never once enjoyed the work as much as I intend to enjoy this.

I got the phone out of the book not long after reading it for the last time, my other hand already fisting the torn scrubs that had started to lose her scent.

My second in command picked up on the second ring.

“The seal was intact,” I told him, forgoing any formalities of a greeting.

“Of course it was,” Yakov chuckled.

“The warden is ours,” I confirmed, a fact that didn’t surprise him.

“I know. I spoke with him myself.” He paused then, as if walking away to somewhere more private as the background noise died down.

“He has a daughter, so naturally, he was very reasonable.”

“Nobody touches her,” I stated, as he knew I would. Like I said, we didn’t fuck with the innocent. We lived by the code, and Yakov knew this.

“Nobody will,” he replied instantly, and I looked down at the file in my lap.

“The woman,” I said. “It ends three years ago.”

“Yeah, three years and two months.” He didn’t sound apologetic, because he never did, and I didn’t employ men who made excuses.

“That’s not a gap, boss. That’s a wall. Somebody built her a new life and knew exactly what they were doing, and I would like to know who, because there are perhaps forty people in this country who could do work like that, and I know most of them by name.”

“Then ask around, as I want that name,” I demanded, as he knew I would.

“I intend to.”

“Before that.” I sat forward. “There is a man behind her, the reason for the new life… Find him.” I practically growled this, telling Yakov exactly what I intended to do to him when I finally got my hands on the fucker.

A pause on the line and then,

“You’re certain?”

“She has the look of a woman running.”

He didn’t ask me to explain more, as he had been with me for nine years. He knew how I operated. He also knew that I had never once been wrong about this particular thing, and that I had a great deal of practice at recognizing it.

“It will take time,” he said. “Real records, not this. Court filings, hospital admissions, protection orders if any were ever filed. If she has been moving as long as you say, there will be a first city, and in the first city there will be a real name.”

“Then find the first city and look for an Anna, as I believe this is the only part of her life that is real.”

“It is already being done, but I will add the name to my search.”

“Dig deeper.” I said it quietly, which is how I say everything that matters. “As deep as it goes. I want every name she has ever worn, but more than anything, I want the one she was born with. That will lead us to the man she is running from, as I want him delivered to me on paper before I put a hand on him.”

“And how long do I have?”

Good question.

I looked at the ceiling of my cell and released a breath.

Because here was the situation at hand. There was a woman nineteen minutes from where I lay who would not be sleeping tonight. Who had spent the last day and night with my teeth marks going purple under her collar.

And I would put money on where she would be the second that shift ended. Not in that building but somewhere with a door she could lock and a bag sitting ready beside it.

I knew that desperation. I had watched a hundred people do it and hunted most of them.