Unfortunately, none of her contacts knew a damn thing about the price on Nina’s head. Word on the street was that several Bratva families were embroiled in a bloody turf war over the territory formerly controlled by her late brother Ivan. It was possible the contract on her life had originated from one of those families who considered her a traitor for severing all ties to the Bratva. It didn’t matter to them that she’d never had an active role in the business, or that she’d barely been old enough to vote when she ran away from home. Criminal organizations demanded unyielding devotion, and that kind of perceived disloyalty was often punishable by death.
Nina took out her phone, snapped several pictures of the drawings, and dropped the phone back into her purse. “Can I ask you a question?”
“You can ask whatever you like.”
“Yeah, but will you answer it?”
“That depends on the question.”
“Fair enough.” A note of amusement warmed Nina’s face, the closest she’d come to smiling since Essie turned her whole world upside-down. “I’ve never met an actual spy before. What was it like?”
It was a common question, one she’d fielded numerous times while interviewing for jobs in the private sector. “The life of a covert operative isn’t glamorous like you see in the movies. There aren’t a lot of shoot-outs or high-speed chases, though they happen on occasion. Mostly, it’s an exercise in tedious endurance, punctuated by occasional moments of terror when everything hits the fan all at once. The trick is keeping your head on straight so you live to see more monotony.”
“Did you ever have to kill anyone?”
“I killed the sniper who was planning to kill you.”
“Oh. Right.” Stress lined the corners of Nina’s mouth, and Essie felt a twinge of remorse for being so blunt with her answer. “What was it like to be a woman in that field?”
“Exhausting, just like it is in any other male-dominated profession. I’m sure you can relate.”
That got a nod out of Nina. “Yeah, I’ve dealt with some real jerks in tech. But I’ve been pretty lucky here at Six Points. Larissa doesn’t put up with that crap, and she’ll make any guy who tries it wish they were never born.”
“I like her already.” Essie had heard quite a bit about the Flint family’s resident hacker extraordinaire but had only met the woman in passing.
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Essie twisted in her chair and saw Jackson in the open doorway with one of the Flint brothers—Ryan, if she remembered correctly—to his left. “Sorry to interrupt, ladies, but Austin’s ordering lunch for the office. What don’t you want on your pizza?”
“Whatever you get is fine with me,” Essie said, while Nina added, “No olives, anchovies, or onions.”
“You got it.” Jackson grinned, and Essie tried her best to ignore the way her heart did a little flip. “We’ll let you know when it’s chow time.”
Nina watched both men leave and then turned her inquisitive gaze to Essie. “So how did you and Jackson meet?”
“I really can’t say,” Essie said, even as her mind skipped back to that desolate outpost in the former Soviet republic. “A lot of the circumstances surrounding it are classified.”
“Seriously, or are you jerking my chain?” Nina stared at her for a long moment. “I can’t tell if you’re lying.”
“If you could, I’d be worried I lost my touch.”
Nina snorted. “Can you give me a redacted version?”
Christ, the woman was like a dog with a bone. And although Essie appreciated tenacity as a trait, she was less than thrilled with being on the receiving end of it. “No offense, but why do you want to know?”
“I’m just curious,” Nina replied. “Actually, I was curious before, but now I’m super-curious because there’s spy stuff involved. Besides, I like Jackson. He’s a good guy.”
“Yes, he is.” Things would be so much easier if he were a raging asshole. But he wasn’t. He was kind, loyal, and fiercely protective, with a sharp mind and an ironclad code of honor. All qualities she loved in a man. It made their failure as a couple sting even more.
Essie paused to choose her next words carefully. For years, she’d made it a policy not to share any sort of personal information. But Nina had trusted Essie with her life; it only seemed fair to return the gesture by revealing a piece of her past, albeit heavily redacted. “We met in an undisclosed location while he was in the Army and I worked for an agency most people have never heard of and probably never will. His unit was there for undisclosed reasons. I flew in as part of a congressional delegation, though my actual purpose for being there was to extract a high-value informant. I’m afraid that’s all I can legally tell you.”
“While you were there, did you have one of those shit-hitting-the-fan moments?”
“At one point, yes, but that’s another story I can’t tell.”
Nina’s shoulders slumped on a heavy exhale. “Can you at least tell me if you got the informant out?”
She supposed that piece of information was safe to disclose. “No. He was murdered before I could reach him.”
Poison had always been a popular choice among assassins. Oliksandr’s corpse was being loaded onto a stretcher by the time she reached the café that had served as their meeting spot. Thanks to a bit of creative theatrics, she’d been able to get to the body, where she’d stolen the watch that contained a hidden treasure trove of sensitive data.
