“You and Justine?”
Her words felt like cold water and made my head jerk. “How do you know about her?”
She crossed her arms, and her voice got colder. “Andrusha told me.”
That stopped me. “You’ve been talking to Andrusha?”
She was getting worked up. “I came looking for you and found out that you went to Paris in search of someone by the name of Justine!”
I loved her tone, but at the same time I worked to smooth her feathers. “I only went there to find answers.”
“Did you find them?”
I didn’t want to tell her that Justine had been murdered. “In a sense, yes.”
Tears trembled in her eyes. “Do you still love her?”
“No, I don’t. I never did.”
“Did you see her? Did she have answers for you? Is she connected to this sniper?”
“Justine has passed away, but this case is directly connected to her. We think the sniper is her ex-boyfriend.”
I watched as she processed that. “She’s dead?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly she was contrite. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “She was in my life briefly a very long time ago.”
“Her ex-boyfriend is the sniper?”
I gave her a wry smile. “Apparently she had a type.”
She sounded bewildered. “I don’t even know what to say anymore.”
Suddenly I couldn’t stand this separation between us. I wanted more than anything to hold her, but I no longer had that right. “I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Yes. I think you deserve better, and I know that I fucked up. If I could do that night over again, I would.”
She stepped closer, interrupting me. “That night wasn’t your fault, Viktor. Please understand that.”
The door of the private room flew open, and Pierre stood there like a disapproving school teacher.
“This is a private conversation,” I told him.
He ignored me. “Blaire, your grandmother is looking for you.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“I can wait,” he told her.
“Back off,” I growled.
Pierre didn’t even flinch.
Blaire said, “I’ll be right there. Please, Pierre.”
Pierre turned his hostility toward me before he reluctantly stepped out of the room and shut the door.
“Did you see that?” I asked her in disbelief. “That guy’s not even afraid of me.”
“Why did you let him hit you?”
I didn’t want to answer that. “He’s always by your side.”
“He’s not.”
“He is. Every time I see you now, he’s right there,” I complained.
“Just for family things.”
When I thought of Pierre, I felt nothing but irritation. “You sure about that?”
The door of the private room opened again.
“For the love of God,” I said sharply.
Andrusha stood in the doorway. “Sorry to interrupt, but we have to go.”
There was something in Andrusha’s expression. “What is it?”
“The sniper is at our property.”
I frowned at him in disbelief. “What?”
“Let’s go.”
I learned down and pressed a hard kiss on Blaire’s surprised mouth. “I’ll be in touch, I promise.”
“Where are you going?” Fear coated her voice.
“To try and finish this.”
Andrusha drove like a bat out of hell while I sat beside him, loading our weapons.
“What happened?”
“Petrov sent me a two-word text that said, he’s here.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you try calling him?”
“Once. No answer.”
When we pulled up to our place of business, it was completely dark. All the yard lights were out.
“What the hell?” Andrusha muttered as he drove madly toward the airplane hangar. The doors were open, and he drove right in and slammed on the brakes.
Immediately, our team surrounded the car and pointed their weapons at us. As soon as they realized we were alone, they disengaged.
Andrusha and I got out, and I handed him his loaded weapons.
Petrov spoke. “Glad to see you guys.”
“Tell me what happened,” I said.
“We were training, and first a single yard light blew out. We thought the bulb had died, but then a second one blew out. And then a third. And then we were running for cover. He hit every light in the yard, and then the power generator. We can’t get to the backup generator. We have three guys pinned down in the obstacle course.”
“Any idea where his nest is?”
“No clue, except he’s somewhere on the hill.”
I turned and headed toward my locker so I could properly gear up.
Andrusha appeared beside me. “What are you going to do?”
“Go out there and look for him.”
“You think that’s wise?”
“You have a better idea?”
“Take two guys with you.”
“They’ll just make me a bigger target. He has to be up on the hill. If you want to help, get the guys to figure out a distraction so I can get outside.”
I put on dark clothes and streaked my face with dark paint. My weapon of choice would be my semiautomatic rifle. Tonight, reloading speed was more important than distance. I put a Glock on my leg for good measure. And packed eight magazines.
Andrusha reappeared. “We’re ready. We’re going to set off some flares in the yard, and some smoke bombs. What’s your plan?”
“I’m going to head across the yard and get to the roof of our office. I think I’ll have the most coverage up there behind the air conditioning ducts. I don’t want him to know I’m up there looking for him.”
“Okay, that’ll work.” He handed me a comms earpiece. “Stay in touch.”
I waited at the side door, and Andrusha spoke in my earpiece. “We’re set to go off in five seconds.”
“Roger.”
I waited until I heard the first crack of the firecracker, and then I sprinted as hard as I could in the shadows toward the office building. I slipped around back and silently climbed up the fire escape. Once I was on the roof, I took cover behind the air ducts. “I’m in place.”
I put on my night vision goggles and systematically started searching the hill. I saw nothing but black shadows, trees, and rocks.
After a few minutes of searching, I spoke to Andrusha. “Any chance you guys can draw fire?”
“Are you serious?”
“It would help.”
“Well, I need to go get the boys from the obstacle course anyway.”
That would definitely draw fire. “What are you going to drive?”
“How bulletproof do you think the Hummer is?”
“Against a sniper? Not particularly.”
“Great. That’s what we’ll use.”
I doubted my decision every second until his voice came back. “We’re all set.”