“Tell the truth,” Jude bit out, his silence a thing of the past.
She hung her head and just as suddenly raised it, spearing him with those eyes of frost. “Ah, Dagan, the great hunter. Keeper. Just haven’t gotten the memo yet, huh?”
“What memo is that, Ella?” Rook asked.
“The one where I obviously want nothing to do with Endgame Ops, and that includes your teammate, Dagan.” Her words were forceful, but the underlying layer had Jude’s ear perking, making a liar out of her once again. Why she persisted with this, he had no idea, but he realized that the truth lay within her lies.
“Just can’t get that telling-the-truth thing down, can you, Ella?” He kept his tone light, but she shuddered.
Yeah, she still felt it. As much as she denied it, denied him and their past, she felt him in her bones as much as he felt her.
She looked away from him. “Let me go, King. This is too big for you to step in and jack it up now.”
Steel underpinned her words. What was going on?
“Tell me,” King demanded.
“Talk to the Piper,” she responded.
King shook his head. “What does he have to do with this?”
“I can’t give you any more than that,” she whispered. “Let me go.”
Jude stepped up to her now and sank down on his haunches in front of her. She stared over his head, refusing to meet his gaze. He took a gloved finger and ran it slowly down her thigh. The muscle quivered, and Jude fought his reaction. “Tell me why,” he urged, watching her face for every nuance she’d give him.
“Don’t do this to me,” she pleaded.
“You’ve asked me that a lot lately, but I’m not sure what I’m doing. I mean, you left with Dresden a year ago, watched as he shot Madoc and killed Micah. You stayed with him willingly and have spent the last year doing his dirty work. You claim we left you with the bastard, but at every turn you’ve run from us. All I’ve asked for is the truth. So what exactly am I doing to you?”
She bit her lower lip. Jude continued to trace down her thigh. “If I ever meant anything to you, you’ll let me go.”
He barked out a laugh and stood abruptly. “Let you go? I never had you, Ella. So let’s cut the bullshit, yeah? Tell us what you’re doing here for Dresden, and we’ll let you go.”
He took a few steps back because the need to rip off those damn ropes and pin her beneath his body was raging. She was lost to him, and his mind couldn’t accept it. His heart refused to accept it. Goddamn, he was a soldier to his core, but he was human too.
She drew in a deep breath and looked him in the eye. That look almost took him to his knees. “Dresden has aspirations of selling Crimea and all of its oil to Russia. I’m here to broker the deal.”
King hissed in a breath. Rook cursed. Jude shook his head. “How can he sell something that isn’t his?” he queried.
“He bartered with Ukraine, vowed protection from Mother Russia if they gave him the rights to the oil in Crimea. They did. Dresden can be persuasive when he has something you want very badly.”
“What did he have of Yoraslav Schevchenko’s?” King asked.
“Schevchenko’s sons, daughters, wife, mother… Dresden had his entire family. The prime minister caved quite easily once he was delivered his youngest daughter’s head on a platter.” Ella’s mouth twisted. “Dresden doesn’t care who he kills, only that it nets him something he considers valuable. In this case, Schevchenko’s three-year-old daughter netted him the oil rights to the Crimean Peninsula.”
“Jesus Christ!” King ran a hand through his hair. “And you work with this bastard?”
She pinned King with a hard, cold glare. “I do what I’m told. As should you and your team. You’re wading into waters you haven’t been invited into. Talk to the Piper, and stay in your lane, team leader.”
Jude cleared his throat and cocked his head. “Is that a threat?”
Ella moved her glare to him. She had developed quite an attitude over the last few months. “I think we both know I can’t make good on any threats. I mean, look at me. Bound and trussed like a Thanksgiving turkey.”
“She’s got you there, Keeper,” Rook said while rubbing his chin.
Jude shrugged him off. “Why were you there with Svetlana Markov yesterday?”
“It’s none of your concern,” she answered crisply.
“What did you pick up at the train station?” he asked, not giving her time to breathe.
“Again, none of your concern,” she replied, that waspish tone making another appearance. “You really have no control over him, do you?” She directed the question to King, but it was Jude who answered.
“He does. I mean, you’re here, right? Not somewhere locked up at my mercy.”
Jude turned his back to her and walked into the kitchen area. He just needed a few minutes to get his shit together, and he’d go back in and have another go at her.
“She’s working with the Piper,” Jude said as King came up at his back.
“I know,” King responded, and it was the last thing Jude expected.
A bitter chuckle escaped. “She pulled an op within an op with us, didn’t she?”
King nodded. “Looking more and more like just that.”
“What is he doing?”
“He won’t tell me. He points and directs, and I lead my team into whatever hellhole he says to.” King’s tone suggested he was beginning to question doing so.
“She’s on Dresden for a reason. We need that reason. She’s been close enough to put a bullet through his skull, yet she hasn’t. That means the Piper wants him alive. What the hell is going on, King?”
“I don’t know, but let’s—”
A muffled groan from the living room sounded, interrupting King, and it happened a split second before the noise of an engine cranking invaded the house.
“Motherfucker!” Jude shouted.
