Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
I answered, opening up to him, hiding nothing. I was the woman he’d met back in Boston, the one I’d been trying so hard to hide.
And he liked it. The kiss began to move and change, taking on a rhythm, firm presses of that hard upper lip, and slow strokes of the lower one. The room filled with our panting.
He finally broke away and stared at me, his chest heaving. “Glasses,” he said at last. “In Boston, you wore glasses.”
“They fixed my eyes,” I said. My voice sounded weird and unfamiliar. I’d gotten so used to Christina’s.
He stared at me for another few seconds. “I liked you in glasses,” he told me.
A big, hot wave crashed through me. He’d liked me even before—
He put a hand between my breasts and pushed me back against the wall, then scowled down at me. His voice was like granite, telling me this is how it is going to be. “If you ever, ever lie to me again—”
“I won’t,” I said meekly.
He stared at me silently for a few seconds. Then he looked down at the crushed earpiece on the floor. “They won’t just let you walk away,” he told me. “As soon as they realize you’re not loyal to them, they’ll come in here and take you from me.
I went cold inside. I couldn’t let that happen.
“There’s only one way this works,” he told me. “Come away with me, right now.”
My eyes widened as I realized what he meant. “To—”
“To Russia, yes. In six months, a year, we can come back. But for now, we have to get far away from them.”
My stomach lurched. I’d be turning my back on everything and everyone I knew and loved. But we’d be together. It only took me a second to decide.
I nodded.
“Pack a bag, quickly. We might only have minutes. I’ll have the jet made ready.”
He gave me one last kiss and hurried off. I stood there frozen for a second, struggling to come to terms with how much had changed in such a short time. My eyes fell on the bullet hole in the wall. We’d come that close….
I shook it off, ran into the closet, and grabbed Christina’s suitcase. I started throwing in clothes. I felt different. Lighter. Even my tooth had finally stopped hurting. This is actually happening. Everything’s going to be okay. We’re going to be—
A phone rang. But not Christina’s phone, or Konstantin’s phone. I didn’t recognize the ringtone and it sounded muffled. On the second ring, I lifted up the suitcase because it sounded like the phone was underneath it. But the ringing lifted, too. The phone was inside the case.
I opened up the secret compartment Calahan had shown me. And underneath my FBI badge and my gun, I found a pocket. With shaking hands, I pulled out a cellphone, attached to a power bank that had kept it charged. It had been sitting there this whole time, and there was only one person who could have hidden it there.
I pressed the button to answer the call and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Hailey,” said Calahan. “What’s going on?”
56
Hailey
“I’M OKAY,” I said quickly. But then my throat closed up. How could I possibly explain? How could I tell him I was turning—I felt sick—traitor and running away with the enemy?
I’d underestimated him. “The phone’s a secret,” he said. “No one else knows about it. When you went off the air, procedure says I should have called in the cavalry and rushed in to get you. But….”
And I heard it in his voice: worry, frustration... and just a hint of jealousy.
He already knew.
“...but if there’s something you need to tell me, first….” He left it hanging in the air, a plea for me to come clean.
I closed my eyes, mad at myself. This was Calahan, my friend. Of course I had to tell him. I took a deep breath and then it all came spilling out: my attraction to him, even before the mission, what happened in his hotel room in Boston, how we’d fallen for each other, how he wanted me even now he knew who I was. “He’s taking me to Russia,” I finished breathlessly.
I heard the rasp of his palm rubbing his stubble. “Hailey,” he started.
“I know. I know what you’re going to say, I haven’t forgotten what he is. But if you knew him like I knew him….” For once, I used his first name. “Sam, I love him. And he loves me.”
I heard Calahan’s chair creak as he rocked back in it and imagined him sprawling there, hands over his eyes as he debated.
I held my breath.
Calahan sighed. Cursed. “Go,” he said at last. “But make it fast. I’ll cover for you as long as I can but Carrie and the others will figure it out soon.”