turned her head, and the hurt in her eyes gutted him.
"I'm sorry." The words came out again. It wasn't what he'd intended to say when he entered the room, but it had to be said, maybe another thousand times—not that it would probably make any difference.
She swallowed hard. "How is Brandon doing with the cypher?" she asked, ignoring his comment.
"He's still working on it."
"Did you find anything in the journals that surprised you?"
"Yes. I don't know if it means anything for Natasha, but it means something to me."
"I don't understand."
He opened the journal to the page he'd earmarked. "Did you read this passage?"
Her gaze moved to the page. She read for a moment and then she said, "What bothers you about this? I don't know who Andrei Markov is. Do you?"
"Yes, I do." He paused. "Andrei Markov is my father."
Her eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
"I am. And Natasha knew him. She talked to him. He was at the club."
"This is crazy, Jax."
He sat down across from her. "Last night when I told you Bragin said I reminded him of someone, it was my father I reminded him of. Of course, I pretended I'd never heard of Andrei Markov, because it would have blown my cover."
"Now I know why you were so unsettled when you were talking to him." Maya's gaze moved back to the journal. "She says they talked about their pasts and their futures. She doesn't know if either of them will get to where they want to go. She wants to try to help him." Maya looked back at him. "I don't know what this means. Do you?"
"No. But if your grandmother was…" His jaw tightened so hard he couldn't get the words out.
Awareness ran through Maya's eyes. "If my grandmother was a spy, then maybe your father was, too? Is that what you're thinking?"
"No," he said immediately, then paused. "Maybe. Natasha was worried for him. And the way he and my mom died… I didn't question it when I was young, but later I wondered why they never found their bodies."
"Did you ever try to find out what happened?"
"After I joined the FBI five years ago. But there was nothing, no mention of their names anywhere. I just accepted that it was a tragic accident."
"It still might have been that."
"Or it wasn't."
"Or it wasn't," she agreed, the anger fading from her eyes as she put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, Jax. I opened Pandora's box when I started all this, and now so many bad things are coming out. People are getting hurt. I never should have done it. I should have left it alone."
"You can't change it now. Neither of us can take back what we did."
She met his gaze. "It's not the same."
"I know it's not."
The kitchen door opened.
"Hey, Jax," Brandon said. "Sorry to interrupt, but I think I figured out something."
"You can read the code?" he asked, feeling renewed hope that they might get to an answer.
"Possibly. It will take a few hours. This is old school Russian code and it's mixed in with garbage. I want to take it back to the office and work on it. I have a better computer there. It will help me decrypt this faster."
Jax looked at Maya. "What do you think? Are you okay to let the cypher go with Brandon?"
She hesitated and then she nodded. "If that's what it takes to get an answer. But it's irreplaceable. You get that, right?"
"I do," Brandon said solemnly. "I will guard it with my life."
"All right," she said.
"I'll see you out." He walked Brandon to his car, which was parked on the street in front of the townhouse. He took a good look around, but the street was quiet, and the only pedestrians were a young couple walking their dog.
"Don't worry. I've got this," Brandon said, reading his concern. "Does Maya realize that her grandmother was probably a Russian spy?"
"She's coming to grips with the idea."
"I'll be in touch."
He waited until Brandon drove away before walking back into the house. He locked the door and put on the security system. Maya met him in the living room.
"Do you think he can get to your office safely?" she asked. "I was thinking we should have gone with him."
"It's five minutes away. He'll text me when he gets there."
"Okay. What do we do now?"
"I don't know." He paced restlessly around the room, then paused, facing her once more. "I think you should go to your sister's house."
"No way. I