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 others, especially A.J.’s?
“I have to finish what my parents started.”
“They didn’t want the Volkovs dead, though.”
“Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” Her parents had wanted to protect America, and she would cling to that knowledge to help her get through tonight.
“If something goes wrong,” he said, his voice deeper, “I don’t want you to blame yourself.” His eyes thinned. “Do you hear me?” He unlocked their hands and caressed her cheeks in his palms.
“That won’t happen.” It couldn’t happen.
“But if it does—”
“It won’t,” she said in a whisper, worried her voice would break if she spoke too loudly.
“You do whatever is necessary to stay alive. To complete the mission.” He brought his face closer to hers. “But if something happens,” he went on, and he was as stubborn as she was, “don’t make me ghost your ass to tell you to move on and find happiness again.” A touch of humor filled his tone like only A.J. could summon during what should’ve been a dark comment.
“And does that mean you think I’ve already found happiness?” she whispered against his lips.
“Damn right you have.” He crushed his mouth over hers and walked her backward until she bumped against the window.
Urging her to wrap her legs around his hips, he deepened their kiss. They were about to go into the darkness tonight, but this hot, intense moment was all the light she’d need.
“There is one small detail I have yet to tell you about tonight,” he whispered into her ear a moment later as her feet hit the ground.
“No,” she said with an adamant shake of the head, crossing her arms in defiance.
“How do you know what I was going to say?”
“You can’t possibly want to work with him tonight.” Was he insane?
“It’s not up to me, but—”
“But no.” No way!
“You said he was overprotective. At least we know he’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. I saw that in his eyes on Monday night.”
She’d nearly forgotten A.J. had come face-to-face with her ex-husband. Her stomach roiled. Her thoughts about panic-sex totally gone. “This is a mistake.”
“Mistake or not, we don’t have a choice.” He checked his watch when she didn’t respond, then inched closer and brought his mouth to hers, an attempt to distract her, but not even his kiss could relax her right now. “It’s time to move out.”
“Will we at least talk to Kyle first? I need to make sure we’re on the same page.”
“He doesn’t want to, um, talk to you. Not right now.”
“Shit, he must be upset about my parents.” Of course. God, by-the-book Kyle Jeter probably had a mild heart attack after discovering he’d been married to the daughter of Russian spies. “He doesn’t know the truth about my parents’ real motives with the ledger, though, right?”
“No one aside from Mendez and Gray are aware of the truth. Not even about Winters being dirty. We don’t want to scare any potential leaks into doing a disappearing act, too.”
“Wait . . . Gray?”
His “oops” face said it all. “Our, uh, contact.”
And now she knew why A.J. and his team were so quick to rule her unit chief out as a suspect on the potential mole list.
He squeezed her bicep and offered her a small smile. “Now, you ready to go be my wife?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“How did you like it?” the tour guide asked as they exited The House of Houdini an hour into the tour of Castle Hill. Ana peered over at the brunette, who had given A.J. her undivided attention nearly the entire tour. Naturally, the question was directed at A.J.
He squeezed her hand, a gentle reminder he was there and everything would be okay. God, she hoped he was a fortune teller and tonight wouldn’t go terribly wrong.
“We enjoyed it very much,” A.J. responded and gave the tour guide one of his killer smiles. Based on the starstruck look on the woman’s face, Ana thought she was going to swoon.
And how could Ana blame her? A.J. made for one gorgeous Southern hunk of a tourist. He had on those dark-washed denim jeans she loved that showed off his perfect ass. Dark sneakers since combat boots would draw attention. And a fitted black tee and black ball cap.
Of course, the heavy backpack he had on, same as Ana’s, wasn’t packed with tourist essentials, but what they needed for their operation.
“I’m sure if The House of Houdini had been around the last time I was in Budapest, my father would have taken me here.” She stopped loving magic after her parents had died, but now maybe she could enjoy it again. And all this time, the ledger had been right under her nose. Her father, ever the illusionist, even in his death. A smile formed on her lips at the memory of her dad. It’d been so long since she’d allowed herself to smile when thinking about her parents.