A.J. had together, though.
Wyatt, Owen, and even Asher had shown up an hour ago and were getting caught up on the mission details for tonight. The team needed all the boots on the ground they could get.
Which meant no picturing A.J.’s tongue darting between her thighs. No distracting thoughts. No therapeutic sex to put her mind at ease.
“Um, did you hear me?” A.J. stood in front of her, his green eyes filled with worry.
“Yes,” she finally answered. “No Winters yet.”
“You, uh, sure you don’t want to just head out of Dodge? You and I can hop on a flight back to the U.S. and go search your storage for the translated copy and let our people here handle Grigory.”
“You need me, and you know it.” She rested her forearms on his shoulders. “But it’s nice I’m no longer a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.” That was a huge relief. “At least I can check off fugitive from my bucket list,” she joked, and maybe she was getting the hang of how to roll with A.J.’s team. Humor and all. “Thank you for that, by the way.” It couldn’t have been easy for his team to let Director Mendez in on their “Avenger-like” lives, but they’d had no choice if they wanted to catch Winters and clear Ana’s name.
“He’s not my favorite person, but we’ll learn to live with him. Natasha said Mendez took it better than we thought he would.” He brushed his lips across her mouth as though he knew she was hungry for a kiss and needed his touch to calm her nerves. “But he’s insisting we have an FBI team with us tonight,” A.J. added as he pulled away, “and as much as we were against it, we may need additional support. The FBI agents will be told we’re private military contractors. Mendez said he’s selecting someone he trusts to run the team.”
No, no, no. This is a bad idea. She stepped away from him, processing the news.
“If Grigory acts as we predict, he’s not going to be happy when you tell him, contrary to what you’ve led him to believe, that you don’t know where the key is hidden. Hopefully, when you inform him you have a translated copy of the ledger, he’ll not only believe it, he’ll be appeased enough to meet your conditions—you’ll only hand it over once you’ve exited the labyrinth. We can’t anticipate which exit he’ll take, though. We need our bases covered.” His tone was rough. Like sandpaper. He hated this more than she did, from the sounds of it. But he’d follow whatever was the safest route.
“How are we supposed to trust the agents on the team? What if there’s an SVR spy? Or the Volkovs have an inside man?” First Porter. Then Winters.
“We’ll try to keep as many operational details as possible to a minimum. And if there is a traitor amongst the FBI team, I guess we’ll find out.” He secured a hand to her waist, drawing her closer. “Although my guys can steal a boat on the Danube if needed, it’d be safer if the Feds already have one on the river and near the Széchenyi Chain Bridge if my team has to conduct a water pursuit.”
And from what she’d remembered the other day, there were two secret Volkov tunnel entrances: one by the water, the other by some “random” road.
“We can’t be certain where Grigory will take you, or if Adrik is still alive. But we have to be prepared for every possibility.”
And maybe A.J. was right about pulling in the FBI. They were on a tight timeframe with limited resources.
“Okay.” She forced a confident nod. “But I do think it’s better if you don’t come down in the tunnel with me to the meet tonight.” She reached for his hands and laced their fingers together. “You know how Grigory will react if he sees you.”
“He’ll never believe you showed up alone. We stick to the plan.”
“Then why did you first suggest we skip town and change the plan?” she challenged, drawing her body closer to his.
“Because your safety—”
“Is not more important than yours.” She wasn’t about to let him win this argument. “I just don’t want you getting hurt,” she said at the memory of presenting her “What Could Go Wrong” list to the team on the flight over, only to have them produce rebuttals for every item.
She still had her concerns. How could she not, when her mission risked the lives of