“You have got to be kidding me!” Jude exclaimed. “She’s alive?”
“According to my software, it’s a positive match. I’m running further analysis as we speak. I’ve also asked a friend still with the Agency for help in locating the woman,” Vivi announced.
“No,” King said emphatically. “Call them off. I don’t want Broemig having this information.”
“Future father-in-law is a real gem, isn’t he?” Brody teased.
King threw him a sardonic grin. “Vivi, call your friend off.”
“Done,” she stated. “I’ll do the legwork.”
“Wait until we get back stateside, Vivi. You and Allie lock up tight. Black is headed your way. Fill him in on things, and keep an eye out for Chase and Knight to be headed your way too.”
“Ten-four, Your Highness.” She cleared her throat, and then uttered a tentative “Rook?”
“Yeah, woman?” Rook was staring out one of the cabin windows. Jude followed his line of sight and noticed the Black Sea, an endless, velvety blackness beyond the glass.
“Come home to me,” she whispered.
“Done.”
“Good night, Vivi,” King singsonged and then disconnected.
Jude rubbed his chest. Vivi wasn’t cut out for wet work. She sucked in the field. But without her, Rook was only half a man. Much like Jude without Ella. It was the first time he didn’t envy Rook and Vivi. He had Ella here with him, and even though she was soft, she’d proven she more than had the chops for fieldwork. She was a damn fine soldier.
He’d have to tell her.
“I’m going to bed down,” he told his teammates. “I’ll take last watch.” He glanced at his tactical watch. “I’ll be up at oh three hundred.”
He made his way back to Ella. She was quiet, but he could feel her attention. He wondered if she’d eaten over the last couple of days and decided she probably hadn’t. The woman was too thin. When they got home, he was going to keep her fed. And sexed up. Definitely sexed up.
She curved her body into his as he settled back down on the bed with her. “Hey,” she murmured sleepily.
“Shh, go to sleep. I’ve got you, El,” he whispered against her hair.
His hands calmed her back down into sleep, and Jude just held her there against him, feeling waves rock the boat.
He fell asleep with her scent in his nostrils and her heat against his skin.
Chapter 22
Ella breathed in the salty wind and pulled her hair into a tight bun. She was dressed in black, her combat boots chafing because they were so new. Over her black field suit, she wore blue, faded overalls. Cleaning crew, indeed.
Jude had been up at oh three hundred for watch. She’d taken it with him. They hadn’t talked—that’s not what watch was for. But she’d been eased anyway because they were together.
She watched him strap on his guns. Keeper. He was every bit his call sign. He wore a double shoulder holster with a 9mm handgun in each pocket. He had cleaned them earlier and loaded ammunition. Rook, King, and Brody had sat at the table with him doing the same.
Ella had cleaned her guns prior to leaving Port Royal. She’d spent the gut-churning ride in the puddle jumper loading her ammo. As Jude strapped on multiple knives, Ella admired the play of muscle over solid bone. Those arms had held her all night.
She was going to make sure they continued to do so.
She pulled on her own holster, loaded herself down with her weaponry, pulled up the coveralls, zipped them, and cleared her throat.
The men all stopped in the process of pulling on their overalls and glanced at her, questions in their gaze.
“Anna Beth Caine,” she said by way of explaining her interruption.
“The Piper’s daughter?” Jude asked. “What about her?”
“She’s there. Whatever happens today, we don’t leave without her,” Ella explained.
Everyone nodded.
Brody ran a hand over his beard. “You mentioned something about her being a fail-safe?”
Ella nodded. “Yeah, we never talked about that the other day in the war room. Vivi can’t open those last two files on the thumb drive Cameron Caine gave me. I think Anna Beth knows how to crack that code.”
“Do you think that’s why Dresden has her?” King asked.
She shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, we need her. Oh, and again, she’s a person in the hands of an evil bastard,” she finished sarcastically.
“What if she doesn’t want to come?” Brody asked.
Ella huffed. “Jesus, Brody. Did he break your brain in that cell?”
“You’d know better than me,” Brody said with a wink.
“Psshh, you’re an ass.” She glanced at Jude and found him watching her intently.
“We’ll get her,” Jude said as if it were a foregone conclusion.
But Ella knew those were few and far between. They hadn’t even begun this op, and he was giving her assurances.
King’s satellite phone pinged, and he hit a button.
“Good morning, Endgame. Your op starts now,” Vivi chanted. “Ride’s outside waiting on you.”
“You got eyes on us?” Rook asked, strapping his rifle to his back and pulling a skullcap over his head.
“I do. Now get moving. You’ve got limited time to reach Simferopol. Word on the street is that Dresden has a plane being fueled, and he’s pulled maybe fifteen or twenty men in to his property.”
“How do you always know everything?” Jude asked.
“It’s my job,” Vivi said matter-of-factly.
“Touché,” Jude responded.
“He knows we’re coming,” King said on a sigh. “He always knows we’re coming. I’m getting sick of this.”
“He may know you’re coming, but he doesn’t know how. You’ve got the heads-up. You aren’t walking in blind,” Vivi reminded them.
Jude pulled on his skullcap, covering his hair and donning his soldier persona. This was business now. So Ella pushed everything she felt for him to the back of her mind as she shielded her heart.
“Safe, Ella,” he said as he put his rifle over his back.
She held up six fingers.
He smiled. Her stomach settled.
King gave a short whistle and they all fell out, hitting the deck and making their way to the waiting truck.
“Good see you, American,” the man named Fedir said with a
