He could think of a million different ways to distract her. They didn’t need to be down in the club.
“I want to see Tasha. I want to make sure she’s all right. And I think it’s better for me to see that he’s here in the building than to let my imagination go wild. Besides, I’m super interested in who he brought with him.” She moved back to the table and opened the laptop.
He sat down beside her. “I’m sorry we can’t go to Colorado.”
“Me, too,” she said, her eyes on the screen. “They don’t trust me, and I would likely bring more danger into their lives, so I don’t blame them.”
“I could reach out to Henry Flanders.” He would point out that yes, Kim had lied about who she was, but she’d done it to protect Henry as well. She’d been the one to tell the Agency he wasn’t a threat.
She shook her head. “No. He’s got enough on his hands. It’s okay. I’m worried we shouldn’t go to Dallas, either. I can’t stand the thought of bringing the Agency down on their heads. They’ve got families. I shouldn’t put them in danger. I’ve got a couple of places no one at the Agency knows about. I’ve built a few more nests since we broke up.”
Nests. That was what she called those little apartments or homes she kept in foreign countries. He’d kept a few himself. “I think we should trust our friends.”
She went quiet as she pulled up the security cameras.
“Kim, what’s wrong?”
“They’re not our friends,” she said quietly. “They’re your friends. I know Big Tag says he owes me, but he owes you more.”
“Then he’ll help us more.”
She was silent for a moment. “Why did you hold my hand? And what did he mean by advice?”
“I held your hand because I wanted to,” he explained. “He called last night. You know Big Tag. He’s the world’s worst busybody.”
“Really? I don’t know him except for the few times I’ve worked with him. He’s pretty standoffish with me.”
“Well, as Adam Miles has said on many occasions, beneath all the meathead muscles lies the beating heart of an eighty-year-old grandma who wants all her kids to get married.”
“So he gave you advice about me?”
“He told me I should give you a break.” He wasn’t going into all the crap Big Tag had said. “He pointed out that time only heals wounds if you don’t continually rip them back open.”
A slight smile crossed her face. “He’s a smart old lady.”
Ezra chuckled as Tag closed the door on the screen. The big guy stared at the wall as though trying to make damn sure no one could see the seam of the door. It reminded him that this wasn’t a game. “If anything goes wrong, I want you to barricade yourself in the bathroom and don’t open the door until you hear from me or Tag.”
She slid him what he liked to think of as her “dumbass said what” stare. “So I can run where? Because we’re pretty much in a cage here. Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy for the cage, but we’ve got nowhere to go if Levi figures out where we are. If that happens, you have to promise that you’ll let him take me.”
Now it was his turn for the dumbass stare. “I’m not doing that.”
“So we’re going to go down like Bonnie and Clyde?” She turned her attention back to the screen. She switched to the lobby camera where Big Tag and Chelsea greeted twin girls racing down the stairs. They were going on and on about how hot chocolate was better here.
“I don’t know. I need some kind of plan. I feel helpless without one.”
“We can’t plan this out, Beck. We are helpless in this case, and the best way to handle it is to let me go and try to get me back later. That’s what Tag would tell you to do. You should be the one hiding in the bathroom and I’ll talk Levi out of murdering you. I couldn’t handle that.”
He wasn’t about to agree to letting her go. “Well, let’s hope Tag is as smart as he says he is. Wow. That’s her. She looks so much like Sasha. Can you turn up the volume? You know a little Russian, right?”
She smiled as she stared at the screen. A thin girl was led into the lobby of the club. She was carrying a small suitcase and wearing a plain dress and black shoes. She had her father’s eyes and that frown of his.
The woman who was traveling with Tasha said something and nodded toward Big Tag.
“She’s telling Tasha that this is her new family and she needs to go with them now,” Kim translated.
Tasha shrank back and Kenzie and Kala stared at her.
Big Tag stayed where he was and let Chelsea take the lead.
Chelsea got down on one knee and addressed the child in Russian.
“She’s telling her not to be afraid. She says she knows what it’s like to lose her mom and end up going to a strange country.” She glanced his way. “She was only nine when she went to Russia?”
He nodded. “That was when her mobster dad killed her mom and kidnapped Chelsea and Charlotte.”
Kim laughed suddenly. “She told Tasha that Big Tag looks scary but he’s a marshmallow and that she’ll quickly learn how to manipulate him.”
Tasha set her pitiful suitcase down and walked over to Tag. She looked up at him and asked a quiet question.
“She asked if he knew her papa.”
Big Tag got to his knee and he still loomed over her.
“He’s says that yes, he knew her father, and he knows lots of people who knew her dad. He wants to honor her father by taking care of her and making sure she has a good life. He says he knows she’s scared
