Ella winced. All the subterfuge of the last year was a terrible weight she carried every day. Endgame thought she was a traitor, and even though she’d had an opportunity to explain parts of her story to King, it was impossible to recap her hell in a single conversation. And that was all they’d had before Dresden’s men had caught up to them.
Did Jude hate her? Want revenge for the perceived betrayal her own team leader had believed? Why was he here now when she was so close to figuring out how to dismantle Dresden’s operations?
“Where’s your ape?” Segorski asked.
She assumed he was referring to Brody Madoc. Brody had been her constant companion over the last year. She’d managed to plead for his life when Dresden and Savidge had been intent on killing her teammate. All she’d had to do was give up an innocent to see Brody saved.
Ella had done it and not blinked. Team before all else. Did she wish she could have made a different decision? Now that she’d met Allie Redding, yes, she did. But hindsight was always twenty-twenty, and Ella didn’t have time for gazing into the past.
Except when it came to Jude.
“Your ape?” Segorski demanded again.
“Obviously, he’s not here. I’ll be sure to tell him you asked about him,” she responded waspishly, cutting her gaze to the small Russian as she removed her overcoat. The factory was kept cold due to the temperature-sensitive nature of what was housed here, but Ella burned on the inside. Fear, rage, and love threatened to choke her. She wished Brody was here, but he was back with Endgame. She’d forced him back to the team and now bemoaned her choice. He’d been a rock for her, a link to her team, safety, when she hadn’t deserved it.
Segorski smiled, which brought Ella back to her present. She shuddered, suddenly wishing she hadn’t removed her coat. Segorski was all teeth and no soul. The pistol resting in a holster on her thigh soothed her. Segorski had accompanied her here to Dresden’s factory on the outskirts of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the intention of counting his shipment prior to payment. Normally, this was a duty reserved for Ella, as she’d worked herself into a position of trust with Dresden. But Segorski didn’t trust Dresden. One of the only men Ella knew who had told Dresden that to his face and lived to tell the tale. Ella wondered if Segorski understood he stayed alive not because Dresden was scared of him, but because Dresden still had use for him.
Segorski moved closer to her and ran a hand down her arm. “Perhaps now we can become better acquainted.”
Not a question, a statement.
She turned her head and stared at him, saying nothing.
Segorski was still smiling, but the expression slipped when he realized Ella wasn’t. The Russian cleared his throat and then his eyes changed, slitting as his face went red. “I’ll have you.” He breathed in deeply and smoothed his gray hair back from his face. “Dresden can only protect you for so long.”
Ella found his statement humorous, but her face remained blank—as empty as the heart inside her chest. Dresden didn’t give a shit about protecting Ella. She was a means to an end.
“The product is through those doors. Count the vials, transfer the money, call your men in, and take possession. I don’t have time for small talk, Segorski.”
“One day you will,” he promised.
As Segorski strutted to the containment room, Ella thought over how she’d manipulated Dresden into his current position of extending her a measure of trust.
Oh, he watched every move she made, but when she’d handed over Allie Redding with no hesitation a year ago, she’d begun a long journey toward becoming integral to Dresden’s operations. She still didn’t know the structure of his conglomerate—you had to be his right or left hand to have access to that—but she was close to the inner sanctum, and she was willing to do whatever was necessary to gain that information.
She owed Dresden. She owed him a bullet to the temple. But not until she knew how to take down his entire organization. Cutting off the head wouldn’t kill the snake in this instance. The bastard had put a system of checks and balances in place that rivaled the U.S. government. There was something behind all that paranoia. Ella was going to find out what that was.
Dresden’s operation made Al-Qaeda and ISIS look like poverty-stricken amateurs. The fact that the bastard was one of America’s own—born and bred in New York City, no less—was just another reason to take him out.
But for Ella, this was much more personal. Yes, Dresden had killed innocents, two of her Endgame teammates included, and he was responsible for arming most of the terrorists and warmongering monsters on nearly every continent on earth. His biggest mistake? Aiming for Jude Dagan.
And Ella was going to make him pay for it.
Every emotion she’d trapped inside herself for the last year bubbled up. Jude would never know it, but he’d taken every step in the last year with her—in her heart and mind.
And he was right outside now. So damn close she ached with it.
“It’s all here. The transfer is made. Confirm it.” Segorski’s high-pitched voice pulled Ella from her musings.
She pulled her phone from the pocket of her dress and hit a preprogrammed button.
“It’s done,” the person on the other end answered her unspoken question. The money had been transferred into Dresden’s accounts.
She hung up and nodded to Segorski. “Enjoy your death dealing, Segorski.”
He smiled that reptilian smile again, only this time Ella smiled too. She knew something Segorski didn’t. Ella had contaminated his entire shipment of ricin powder two days ago. She’d raised the temperature of the poison to over a hundred degrees Celsius by placing burners under the metal containers holding the vials. She had cooked it so much that the
