The Defender Page 7

  No one but the upper tiers of the organization knew that the building was nothing more than a front for the Saints to use to conduct their business. For all intents and purposes, it was one of three home bases.

  Lorraine pulled up the tapes of that day and found where Reyna had entered the building. Lorraine might have been able to dismiss Reyna’s visit if she hadn’t gone to the archives. Though Lorraine couldn’t see what Reyna did there since the recordings had been tampered with.

  With that information, Lorraine was able to look at Reyna differently. And there were some suspicious things. It took some time and six different hackers, but she was finally able to locate Reyna when the woman called her. As soon as it was confirmed that Reyna was thirty minutes outside of Kiev, Lorraine knew that her operative was no longer viable and needed to be neutralized.

  She couldn’t even blame it on Lev. Reyna’s actions before he’d left the States proved that.

  Lorraine let out a breath as she dropped her arms to her sides. She made her way to the clearing but stopped short of continuing into the Polish forest.

  If Reyna were a double agent, someone would have figured that out by now. No one who dared try to infiltrate the Saints by such an action lasted more than a few months. Reyna had been with them for over five years.

  But if she wasn’t a double agent, what was she? Because she no longer seemed to be with the Saints.

  “You’re thinking about Reyna,” Anatoli said as he walked up beside her. “What happened to her? She was favored to rise within our ranks.”

  Lorraine shook her head and looked at him. “I don’t know. She was vetted, right?”

  “By the elders.” His brows snapped together in a frown. “Why? What are you thinking?”

  Lorraine knew she’d probably regret this, but she needed to bounce ideas off someone. She didn’t trust anyone working for her enough, so that left her ex-lover and enemy. Anatoli might use it against her—she would in his shoes. But he’d never been wired that way.

  Then again, time changed everyone.

  But what choice did she have?

  She made a quick decision and said, “When Lev wasn’t killed in the assassination at the theatre, I checked nearby CCTV and saw Reyna driving off with him.”

  “Maybe she realized who he was.”

  “I have no doubt, but she didn’t bring him to me.”

  Anatoli shrugged, his lips twisting. “Perhaps she wanted to bring him in herself to get the credit.”

  “I thought that as well, but when I pinged her phone that showed her location in Kiev, imagine my surprise when she wasn’t there.”

  His brows shot up at the news. “That does make things look bad.”

  “There’s more. I began looking into Reyna and happened to discover that she went to headquarters.”

  Worry filled his blue eyes. “And you didn’t send her there?”

  Lorraine shook her head.

  “Who did she see?” Anatoli asked.

  “No one. She went to the archives. I think she’s a double agent.”

  He stared at her for a long minute before he sighed. “I know you’re careful when you investigate someone, and I wouldn’t hesitate to believe you. However, her going to headquarters without orders from you is telling.”

  Lorraine faced him, anger and a little bit of worry filling her. “How so?”

  “What if she’s working for one of the elders? What if she’s one of the spies they’ve sent out to make sure we’re doing our jobs?”

  Lorraine rolled her eyes, but even as she did, trepidation filled her. “That’s insane. We send those spies out with new recruits.”

  “Why wouldn’t they do the same with us?”

  “Because we’re dedicated.”

  He quirked a blond brow. “Were you dedicated to the CIA before you joined the Saints?”

  Damn him for reminding her of that. He was right. People could be talked into changing sides, bribed, or sometimes even forced. It happened all the time.

  “If you didn’t tell her about headquarters, then who did?” Anatoli asked.

  Lorraine didn’t have an answer for that.

  Anatoli swung his gaze to the forest on the Polish side. “If she knew the building, then that means she has connections to the elders. They could be sending her on this mission with Lev. It’s perfect, actually. Gain his trust, infiltrate the Loughmans, and then take them out. But,”—he hesitated and slid his gaze back to her—“you could be stepping into a mine field if you keep hunting her.”

  “If she is working with one of the elders, they would’ve alerted me by now.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  Lorraine narrowed her eyes on him. “Are you saying someone is trying to set me up?”

  “I’m saying you should be careful.”

  Someone called Anatoli’s name. Normally, she would have followed him since this was her scene, but she remained. Her mind had yet to sort through the jumble of Anatoli’s theories.

  What bothered her the most was that he might be right. In fact, there was a very good chance that he was. Before she continued after Reyna and Lev and possibly signed her own death warrant, she needed to see if she could find out more.

  No one spoke to the elders, which would be the easiest thing to do. They contacted you. Lorraine wasn’t about to sit around and wait to see if the decision she made was the right one or not.

  She spun around and raised her hand to signal for her people to gather up the dead and move out. She needed to remove the hated jeans and hiking boots and get back into her regular clothes so she could think properly when she sat at her computer.

  11

  They avoided cities, which made their trek even longer. Just a few hours in, Lev saw a village when they crested a hill.

  “We’re ahead of them,” Reyna said.

  Lev wanted to agree with her, but the Saints had proven resourceful. “We can’t take the chance.”

  “We’re going to need food soon.”

  “And a cell phone.”

  She leaned against a tree and finished off another bottle of water. “I know I said we should take the long way around before getting to my boat, but I’ve been thinking that might not be the right way to go. I think we should head straight for the sea.”

  “It doesn’t matter what we do. We need to expect the Saints to be wherever we are.” He set down his pack and grabbed a bag of nuts and a bottle of water.

  They’d been walking for hours. He wanted to cover as much ground as they could during the day and find someplace to bunk down for the night. They were running out of forest to hide in. If they were going to make it to the coast, they would need to find another way to do it. Continuing on foot could prove disastrous.

  “I know,” Reyna said suddenly.

  Lev looked at her to find her staring. “You know what?”

  “That we can’t continue as we are. It’s nothing but plains for miles and miles. We’re going to have to steal a car.”

  “How far are we from Warsaw?”

  Her eyes widened. “You want to go there?”

  “It’s better to get lost in a city of hundreds of thousands than a village with just a few hundred.”

  “We take the chance of being seen wherever we go. But to answer your question, we’re about a hundred kilometers from the city.”

  He inwardly winced. It was much farther than he’d hoped. “We won’t be able to wait to get there. We need to get a car now.”

  “Not in that village,” she said.

  “Agreed. Let’s see what we find next.”

  She put her backpack on and shifted northwest from their present westerly course. “This way.”

  They used every bit of cover they had, staying clear of roads but walking near them. Anytime they heard a vehicle coming, they ducked down. Despite alternating from a walk to a jog and back again, the sun was sinking faster than they were eating up miles.

  It was dusk when they reached a town. It was large enough
that they could get lost in the people, but it wasn’t as if they could go in carrying their packs.

  “We should split up,” Reyna said. “We’ll cover more ground that way.”

  He gave a nod. “I’ll get the car and meet you back here.”

  “I’ll get us some food and a cell phone,” she replied with a smile.

  They hid their bags in some shrubbery and walked into town. With a glance at each other, they went their separate ways. Lev was surprised that she trusted him enough to get the car. He wasn’t sure he would if he were in her shoes. Then again, she was capable of taking care of herself.

  After all, she knew the location of her boat. If Lev wanted to return home, he needed her. He grinned. It wasn’t that she trusted him, he realized. They needed each other. It was as simple as that.

  It took Lev less than thirty minutes to find what he was looking for. He spotted the older-model silver Skoda and made his way toward it. When he tried the door, he was shocked to find it unlocked.

  Lev got in and quickly hotwired it. As soon as the engine started, he put it in drive and started back toward his meeting place with Reyna. Once there, he put their packs in the back seat and waited for her to return.

  As the minutes ticked by, he grew anxious. He kept looking in the rearview and side mirrors as well as through the front windshield, hoping to see her. It started raining, which made things even more difficult.

  Another thirty minutes went by before he caught sight of her in the rearview mirror. He started the engine right before she reached the car and slid into the passenger seat.

  “Here,” she said and handed him a mobile. “Though I suggest you make the call now and then toss the phone away since I stole it from someone.”

  He laughed and dialed the secure line to the Whitehorse base. There was an answer on the second ring, but it wasn’t Callie’s voice. Instead, it was a deep, Texas accent belonging to the eldest Loughman brother.

  “Wyatt, it’s me,” Lev said.

  “Lev?” The surprise in the Texan’s voice was clear. “I told them you weren’t dead.”

  “Not for the Saints lack of trying. I’m attempting to get home.”

  “So, they know you’re there?”

  Lev glanced at Reyna. “Without a doubt.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Right now, Poland. But we’re trying to make it to the sea to come home that way.”

  There was a pause before Wyatt said, “We?”

  Lev lowered the phone and asked her, “What’s your surname?”

  “Harris,” Reyna replied.

  Lev lifted the phone back up. “Reyna Harris. She’s an ex-CIA agent who was working with the Saints to get information to bring them down.”

  “Are you sure you can trust her?”

  “She had the opportunity to kill me and didn’t.” Lev didn’t look over at Reyna, but he felt her eyes on him.

  He wasn’t upset by Wyatt’s question. He would’ve asked the same. Actually, he would’ve asked a lot more.

  “Hang on,” Wyatt said. There was a soft click. A moment later, Wyatt said, “I have you on speaker now. Cullen and my father are here.”

  Cullen said, “Glad to hear from you, Lev. What’s going on?”

  “A lot. Too much, actually. The short of it is that the Saints are after me, and they’ve figured out that Reyna has been working against them. They’re not far behind us, and we don’t have a lot of time to tell you every detail.”

  “Understood,” Orrin said. “Stay safe and check in whenever you can. And let us know if we can help in any way.”

  Reyna nudged Lev. “Tell them the Saints are coming for them.”

  Damn, he couldn’t believe he’d nearly forgotten that. “By the way, the Saints are sending people after you. Or that’s what they led Reyna to believe anyway.”

  “We’re ready for them,” Wyatt declared.

  “I may be keeping the majority of their attention focused on me right now.” Lev knew that would benefit the Loughmans.

  Cullen made a sound at the back of his throat. “If that’s true, you won’t get far from...where are you?”

  “Poland,” he supplied.

  “How far are you from the coast?” Orrin asked.

  Lev licked his lips. “Not nearly close enough.”

  “One more thing,” Lev said before anyone could disconnect from the line. “Can one of you call Sergei?”

  Wyatt said, “Consider it done.”

  Lev ended the call before he took out the SIM card on the phone and snapped it in half. Then he threw the cell phone out the window and drove away.

  It was then that he smelled the food. He looked over at Reyna, sitting in the last rays of daylight, to see her staring at her lap. “What is that?” he asked.

  She smiled at him and held up a sandwich filled with sausage. His stomach rumbled at the thought of hot food. Reyna handed him half, which he bit into immediately. He’d never felt bread so soft, cheese so melted, or tasted sausage so good before.

  Neither said a word as they devoured their food. Lev kept the car pointed north and ate up the miles as darkness settled over the land once more.

  “I could eat two of those,” Reyna said after she’d wiped her mouth.

  He nodded and swallowed his last bite. “Me, too.”

  She laughed, then leaned over with her napkin and dabbed at the corner of his lips. “You had some sauce.”

  “Thank you,” he said, shooting her a grin. “How did you get the food?”

  “I had some money.”

  “That was fortunate.”

  She laughed and placed her elbow on the door and her hand against her head. “I’m usually never that lucky.”

  “Seems like you’re always lucky. You weren’t killed with your partner, you were able to join the Saints and not be detected as a spy, and you got out of the cabin before they arrived.”

  “Only because of you.” She nodded and met his gaze. “The others I can’t refute, but the last I can and will.”

  “You would’ve realized it.”

  She shook her head. “Before it was too late? I’m not so sure.” Then she changed the subject. “Your friends are leery of me. I don’t blame them.”

  “They want details, none of which I can supply right now.”

  She turned her head to look out the passenger window. “I used to think this job was fun and full of adventure when I was with Arthur. It’s turned me into someone who doesn’t trust anyone and who sees danger at every turn.”

  “You see danger because you know firsthand that it’s there. Whether it’s the Saints or whoever you were trying to bring down working with the CIA, bad people are bad. It doesn’t matter their skin color, religion, or where they live.”

  She dropped her arm and turned her head to him. “But I fully realize now what I didn’t when I joined the Saints.”

  “And what’s that?” he asked, glancing at her.

  “That I’ll never be free of them. I know how determined they are. I know the capabilities and the resources they have on hand. We’re just two people. It’s like an ant thinking it can withstand a boot.”

  Lev shrugged one shoulder. “Ants are strong. Together with other ants, they can build bridges. I don’t mind being an ant.”

  “You’re missing the point.”

  He heard her frustrated sigh as she dropped her head back against the seat. “I know exactly what you’re saying. If you want to give up, then you might as well get out right here.”

  “Why would I do that?” Her head swung to him.

  “So the Saints can find you. If you want to win, to survive and bring down this organization, then you can’t give up. Ever.”

  She drew in a long breath and then slowly released it. “You’re right. I was feeling sorry for myself when I was looking for a phone to steal. I thought that I’d be out of the CIA and living somewhere with a husband and a dog by now.”

  “No kids?”

  A small smile tugged at her
lips. “Possibly. I’d want at least five years with my husband to do all the things together as a couple before we even considered children.”

  “You did say a dog. Lots of people consider them children.”

  “Hmm,” she replied. “Good point. A cat then.”

  He smiled at the teasing he heard in her voice. “And where would this place be that you lived?”

  “Somewhere pretty. I don’t care if it’s in a city or somewhere quiet in the country. If I had someone I loved, anywhere could be home.”

  “All I’ve ever known is city life. The closest I came to the country was when I was with the Loughmans in Texas on their ranch.”

  She sat up quickly. “Do they have horses? I love horses.”

  “They have several.” He smiled and imagined how she’d react when she saw them.

  Suddenly, she reached over and put her hand on his arm. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” he asked with a frown.

  “For pulling me out of my self-pity and making me smile again. I can’t imagine being on this journey with anyone else.”

  Lev gave her a nod and focused back on the road. He cleared his throat. “You should sleep while you can.”

  She gave his arm a squeeze before her hand slipped away.

  And damned if he didn’t find that he missed her touch.

  12

  The slowing of the car before it turned pulled Reyna from sleep. Then she heard the repeated squeak. She couldn’t believe that she’d actually slept, but oddly enough, she had. She yawned as she straightened and shifted toward the door.

  Her eyes opened to see the rain falling at a steady rate against the windshield, the sky dark. The rapid beat of the windshield wipers let her zero in on the squeak. She yawned again, this time arching her back before leaning her head from side to side to stretch her neck.

  Reyna glanced over at Lev’s profile. It felt nice to be fed, rested, and relatively safe. She hadn’t let her guard down like this since before Arthur was killed.