“We also have the rifles we stole from other TKM security goons. You’re welcome to use one. Giving you the guns was Asher’s idea and I supported him a hundred percent.” She talked up Asher so Misha would know they were in it together.
“Harasho, uh, okay,” the Russian man responded. “All very good.”
Grace watched the track roll out from under the flatbed car for a short time. “Misha, I’m sorry it didn’t work out for your family, but, honestly, I don’t know how to feel. If they were still alive, it would mean I was dead. That’s why Petteri killed them, right? Because you didn’t get to us in time.”
He clicked his teeth. “Da. I mean, yes. I understand your confusion. I do. However, you must know I was not always like this. Petteri was good boss for the time I worked for him. I was bodyguard, not paid assassin. I went to gym twice a day. Had nice apartment in city. Made honest living for my family. It was only when asteroid was inbound—” He flexed his arm, drawing a downward path on the horizon, “that he ask too much of me.”
She let him think for a few seconds before he went on.
“I knew I went too far when I accidentally killed traffic officer. But by then, I was committed to protecting my mother as well as my darling Valentina. Problems arrived when you saved my life.”
“Twice,” Grace reminded him on the spot.
He smiled. “Twice. I know. Two times you prove to me you were better person than man I worked for. Two times you reminded me I was working hard to protect bad man. The problem, I realized too late, was I was only one link in long chain of operatives working for him. Some were compromised, like me, but some were in it for power.”
“Like Nero,” Asher added.
“Nerio,” Misha corrected.
“Right. Her. She’s one who likes what she does, isn’t she?”
Grace gave him a curious glance.
Asher acknowledged her concern. “I figure any husband and wife hit team has to be fully committed to the cause. Either way, she didn’t seem too concerned about collateral damage. She sprayed the entire train yard. If we’d been around a lot of people, they’d all be dead.”
“He is right,” Misha continued. “Nerio and her husband are having fun. It would not surprise me if she is in tank the next time we see her. Anything is possible now that Tikkanen mining is in charge of large areas of your country.”
She glanced over her shoulder, around her Chevy truck and beyond the train. The flat grasslands of boring Wyoming were back. If the woman had a tank, they’d see it from miles away.
When she turned back, Asher put his hand on her leg, prompting her to place her hand over his. He smiled broadly at her. “We’re in this together,” he said. Her curly-haired friend spoke to Misha. “We both thank you for what you’re doing, but if you try to hurt Grace, you’ll have to go through me.”
Misha laughed, then slapped him on the back. He was taller and huskier than Asher. If he’d wanted, he could have probably slapped him right off the back of the train. “I like you better as park ranger. Is much better look than in your cheap business suit.”
“Hey!” Asher replied, sounding a little hurt.
Grace stifled a laugh, not wanting to give anything to the ex-hitman. But he was right. Asher had been a fish out of water when she’d first met him. He wore his business suit and stylish dress shoes as if he’d come off the last subway stop from the big city. Now, with his crumpled and worn park ranger uniform, and the rifle slung over his shoulder, she bought into the image of him as a partner.
At the same time, Asher was correct. She couldn’t really trust Misha, no matter how sincere he seemed about finding his purpose.
She squeezed Asher’s hand, glad to have him by her side.
“I like you, too, Ash. Thank you for being here.”
“I wouldn’t—” He froze mid-sentence.
She saw it, too. Far in the distance, roughly above the train tracks they’d already traveled, a black speck coasted through the air.
A helicopter.
Arrow Rock, MO
“I can’t leave her with you. I just can’t!” Haley had taken a few steps back, as if the woman was going to steal the cat.
“She doesn’t have to be alone. You could leave the puppy, too. He and Jabba the Mutt are having a blast.”
Haley stood there for several moments, but abruptly stepped away from the group, almost on the verge of tears. Ezra guessed she might have been rethinking jumping on the boat with her pets in the first place. He might offer for her to stay in Arrow Rock to keep an eye on her pet friends, but he didn’t want to push her away. And there was no denying TKM had their sights on the three of them. If they tracked her down, and he and Butch weren’t there…
Butch sidled up next to him. “What do you think she’s going to do? I have to admit I was scared to death her pets were going to eat a bullet. Almost as much as I was worried about myself. But we can’t protect them. Not unless we have a bulletproof bunker on the boat.”
Ezra was thinking along the same wavelength. “Yeah, you and I need to figure out a way to stop having men shoot at us. I don’t want to lead all these dangerous men right to Grace. Then I’ll have put her in danger, too.”
“But it’s
