Struggling to make sense of the chaos outside, she did some questionable computations—made more difficult by the international dateline jump. Today was tomorrow on Big Diomede. So that made yesterday the day before for Maya?
Right?
Wrong?
What the fuck? What day was it? She shook her head to clear the fog and changed mathematical directions. Hours. How many hours had it been since she’d accidentally on purpose made her location known?
Eighteen? Nineteen? For sure, it’d been less than twenty-four since she’d cast the net to trap her twin. But if Maya had been waiting—ready and able to scramble Johnson’s resources at a moment’s notice—she could be here by now. Right?
Oh God! Was this it? Had Maya come for her already?
Shit! That was fast. Becca wasn’t prepared. And not just to come face-to-face with her sister. She had to get back into the computer room one last time to enter the commands necessary to trigger the activation sequence on the virus she’d uploaded.
Once initiated, her software would bypass the mainframe’s security countermeasures, infiltrating systems, corrupting data, and exposing Alexsandr and the rest of the Imperium Council by recoding and uploading reams of incriminating information to a far corner of the dark web. A black hole created by Jay for the sole purpose of exchanging messages in a computer language known only to the two of them.
A second explosion, closer this time, rocked the floor beneath her feet, causing her body to sway. Double shit! Thankfully, the computer room had its own backup generators. All she had to do was get to it before Maya or Johnson’s henchmen caught up to her, or forget about Volkov and the Imperium, she’d never be able to take them down.
One fuzzy-sock-covered foot sliding forward a few inches at a time, she crept ahead, eyes squeezed shut tight, palms held out for protection. She needed to reach the opposite wall. Find the door handle without taking a tumble into the plaster.
A few tiny steps later, and she was making good progress, right up until her big toe caught the edge of something, and it moved. Heart rate accelerating, she fought to keep her balance as a loud and indignant meow filled the darkness around her.
The Grand Duchess. Shoot! She couldn’t leave Kitty of Catia behind to fend for herself. Who knew what would happen to the tiny furball if left to her own devices? Miss Kitty was the only living thing she cared about besides Jay.
She had to survive. She had to?—
The sound of her locked handle rattling reached her ears a second before wood splintered and broken metal pinged against the tile floor. Her eyes sprang wide as the door flew inward, and a blinding light fried her retinas.
She blinked. Blinked. Blinked again.
Her pupils adjusted, and holy shit! Her gaze swept through the group of heavily armed men huddled in the hallway before landing on the one person she never wanted to see again after today.
“You,” Roman spat, his stormy expression a promise of retaliation. “You did this.”
The double tap of rapid gunfire matched the beat of Jay’s heart as it thumped against his sternum. Pistol in hand—because nobody in their right mind would give him an automatic rifle—he stepped over the body of a soldier missing his face.
Sandwiched between Doc and Chase, he hadn’t had the opportunity to demonstrate his firearms mastery, or lack thereof, as they made their way down one long corridor after another in search of Becca.
Would it have been reassuring to have an automatic submachine gun slung over his chest? Yes. Would it have been too dangerous for the rest of them, according to, well, the rest of them? Also, yes.
Assholes.
He huffed. Fine. Limiting his access to excessive firepower was probably a smart decision given his ability to hit things that weren’t his target, but what the fuck? Would it hurt them to have a little faith?
Maybe…
Okay, scratch that. Giving him a weapon he hadn’t handled before would indeed endanger their lives. Besides, there’d been no need for him to pull the trigger on the Glock in his hand. More firepower? Unnecessary.
In the lead, Cody had dispatched every enemy encountered with impressive speed and deadly accuracy. Yeah, he’d left a trail of bodies in their wake. Jay couldn’t have cared less. They were in a kill-or-be-killed situation. And going by the chatter coming through the comms link jammed in his ear, team one was taking on some heavy fire down by the docks.
Fuck. His guts churned. He hoped nobody got hurt on this mission. Or worse. He genuinely liked these batshit crazy Canadians, and if one of his teammates?—
Nope. Not going there. Not gonna happen.
If sheer will and determination were enough to protect the people he cared about, then they’d all be going home without a scratch, Becca included, because these guys had that shit in spades.
A closed fist held in the air signaled to everyone to hold their positions as Cody halted their advance. “Looks like we’ve got a breached door here.”
Heart pumping, Jay craned his neck around Jamie’s broad shoulders in time to see Cody disappear inside the room. The lapse in judgment earned him a tap on the back of the helmet. A polite request from Chase to move his melon out of the line of fire.
