She frowned for just a second, then nodded.“Right.Boo’s brother.”
Huh?
Then she turned back to Emberly.“I’m glad they got you out.You’re okay?”
“I’ll live,” she said and took off her backpack.Then she stepped onto the balcony and reeled in the fire ladder.
Roy had walked farther into the room and now stood, arms akimbo.
Steinbeck turned to him.“How’d you find us?”
“Mystique reached out.She heard via Logan about our op.You run into any trouble?”
“No.”Which maybe seemed a little odd but, “You get a tail on Tomas?”
“Yes.He boarded a flight for Moldova a few hours ago.”
“Moldova?”This from Emberly.
“It’s the new HQ for the Petrov Bratva,” said Mystique.Pretty, she exuded a disarming calmness and bore a hint of a British accent.The strangest sense of familiarity about her nudged him.
Wait—she knewBoo?Which meant—“Were you at my sister’s wedding?”
“Right.That’s where I know you from.”
“I don’t?—”
“I’m on your sister’s Air One Rescue team,” she said and gave a wry smile.“Day job.”
“That’s a thing?”
“For some of us.”She glanced at Emberly.“Some of us can compartmentalize, separate our lives.”
And some couldn’t.
“In a different life...”
Acompletelydifferent life, maybe.Because he got it.He’d always been an all-in, get-the-job-done guy too, unable to make room for anything but the mission.
Emberly dropped the ladder back into its spot in the ottoman.Then she turned to Mystique.“What’s on fire now?”
Mystique’s expression turned grim.“Luis is missing.”
Luis?
“What do you meanmissing?”Emberly said.
“His panic alarm went off two days ago.I arrived yesterday and got ahold of the video footage.Looks like the Bratva might have taken him.We saw them entering his home.”
“Why?”
Wait—“Our Luis?”Stein said to Emberly.It might take him a millisecond or two to get used to that name.He rather preferred Phoenix.Emberly made her...well, maybe down-to-earth.Even vulnerable.
And only fed themaybeinside him.
She raised a brow to his words.“OurLuis?”
“You know what I mean.”
