With his front to her back, he took both of her wrists in one of his hands and pulled the syringe King had given him earlier from a side pocket of his pants. She struggled, and he inserted a knee between her legs and spread them far enough apart that she had to concentrate on not falling instead of kicking back at him.
Dodging her head as she threw it back to clock him in the nose, Jude uncapped the syringe with his mouth. “I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear a second before he pressed the syringe to her neck.
She didn’t say a word, just went lax in his arms with a soft release of air. The door opened, and both King and Rook entered, looking ready for WWIII.
King’s eyes swept over Jude, reprisal in their depths. “At least you disabled her. She’s become quite a handful, hasn’t she?”
Ella had done something for King she’d not done for Jude. Answered his questions…hell, given him something. She’d given nothing to Jude.
His heart mocked him. She gave you six fingers against the cab’s glass.
It wasn’t enough. Was it?
“You got her?” Rook asked.
Jude nodded as he shifted her in his arm and lifted her small body high against his chest. King and Rook turned as one and left the building. There was no reason to search the flat; he’d handled that and loaded up anything of use earlier. Jude left behind them, carrying the most precious of his burdens close to his heart.
They walked down the hallway and took the tiny service elevator to the ground floor. Rook exited and took point. King glanced at Jude. “You okay?”
Jude had never been more vulnerable than right that second. Every emotion he’d felt during the last year bombarded him, nearly sending him to his knees. He’d seen her, smelled her, but until that moment, he hadn’t held her in nearly four hundred seventy-three days.
“Dagan,” King demanded sharply.
“I don’t know what ‘okay’ means.” He met King’s gaze, took a deep breath, and said, “But I can do this.”
King nodded slowly and held open the doors. They exited the back of the building and got into a blacked-out Range Rover they’d appropriated from a used car lot on the outskirts of Moscow.
It took them an hour to reach the abandoned farmhouse in Sergeiv Posad. Known for its monastery, Trinity Lavra, the town was a quiet one and just what they needed to handle business. They weren’t going back home to DC. Not quite yet, since King felt it would be better to question Ella before returning.
Rook glanced at Jude in the rearview mirror before looking down at Ella. Jude ignored the warning in his teammate’s eyes. He wasn’t letting her go until he absolutely had to. Jude returned his gaze to Ella’s face, the lights of the roadside lamps highlighting her and then casting her in darkness. Her hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail, braided and then wrapped into a bun near the top of her head. Jude longed to release the shiny tresses, run his hands through them, and hold her still for his mouth.
His hand fisted, and he slowly removed his glove, the temptation to be skin to skin with her damn near overwhelming. Her lashes lay like fans over her cheeks. The wings of her black brows arched over eyes that could skewer a man or make him feel like king of the world.
He loved staring at her while he entered her because everything she felt was mirrored in her gaze. Her face could remain passive, but those eyes? They were truly the windows to her soul, and she’d never been able to hide from Jude.
He lifted his hand and was shocked to note a tremor. He was shaking. He lowered a single finger to her lips, stroking over the lush bottom one.
A touch was all he could stand because as he came into direct contact with her, his skin heated and he knew he was going to lose it.
Never had he loved anyone as much as he’d loved her.
Never had anyone hurt him as much as she had. Not even his mother.
He dropped his hand, used his mouth to tug his glove back on, and then stared at everything but her face.
It was the longest hour of his life.
They let King out of the Rover half a mile from the abandoned farmhouse they’d reconned and set up for tonight’s purpose. He would make sure their surroundings remained clear and return to them.
It had taken Jude hardly any time to read what Vivi had sent him, and then he’d called King. Rook’s words two days ago had reminded Jude of why he was in Endgame Ops…brothers, family, teammates. He couldn’t continue to let down his brothers-in-arms, because the relationships he had with them were now the most important.
He couldn’t let Ella, or what he felt for her, interfere with that anymore. He’d resolved that he would use tonight to get his answers, and then he would leave her alone. He wouldn’t chase her any longer.
It was clear she didn’t want Jude, no matter that she’d held six fingers up to a goddamn window. No matter that he still loved her like hell on fire. She didn’t get those pieces of him anymore.
He’d contacted King, given him everything he had, and he’d listened to the man he respected more than any other tell him they’d figure it all out. King was angry, and that was to be expected, but he was a leader, and all leaders knew when to ream you out and when to let it ride.
Jude wouldn’t get a free pass, but the fact that King had let him stay on this was proof that his leader had his back.
King returned, waving them forward and walking beside the Rover as they drove up the dirt path to the farmhouse. Within a minute, they were out of the car. King stepped up, adjusted the
