Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“Really? CIA? I clearly don’t know shit about you.”
“Former CIA,” he pressed in a firm but soothing voice. “Former CIA.”
“Soren, let me leave. This is all bad for more reasons than I can even list. You’ve got the hard drive. You’re safe in this hotel for at least a night. I won’t tell anyone where you are. I’ll leave, and you won’t hear from me again, I swear it.”
“But then I won’t have you, Angel. You’re all I want.” Very slowly, he reached behind him with his right hand and pulled the hard drive from his pocket. He held it up in the air for a second for Alexei to see, then tossed it onto the bed. “Don’t care about the money. Don’t even care about saving the world if the shit on that thing is bad. All I want is for you to stay here in this room with me for ten more minutes.”
“Why? So your CIA buddies can come busting through the door and kill me?”
“No, I want ten minutes to convince you that you’re safe with me. To tell you about who I was and how I know about your family. Please, Alexei. Ten minutes.”
Staying was the stupidest thing he could do. He needed to run and disappear. He’d run straight to Colorado if he had to, hide with his uncles, but he didn’t want to hide with them. He didn’t want to spend his life allowing them to protect him from all the bad things in the world. Especially when it came to his family and his past. It was time for him to stand on his own two feet and make his own decisions.
And right now, the first big decision came down to trusting Soren.
Staring into his face, Alexei could see the fear filling his blue eyes. The man loved to make jokes and turn every conversation into something light, but right now, he was completely serious.
Maybe Alexei didn’t want to let him go yet. They’d known each other for only four crazy days and spent half that time dodging killers. He didn’t know where this thing between them was going. He refused to let himself think about it.
The idea of something long-term was ridiculous. He was only twenty-three. This was the time of his life where he was supposed to be dating and sleeping with everyone. It wasn’t supposed to be this easy to find…the one.
But that was what Soren was starting to feel like. Soren accepted him as he was. He seemed to even celebrate it. Relationships were supposed to be restrictive and suffocating, but with Soren, he felt free. He couldn’t leave. Not yet. Not when he’d hoped that Soren might accept that he came from a line of racist, homophobic, murdering bastards that had rained terror and pain on Russia for decades.
“Ten minutes,” Alexei said. He didn’t return to the bed but sat on top of a dresser that was positioned near the short hallway leading to the hotel room door. At least if he had to run again, he was closer to the exit.
Soren relaxed a little and retreated to the chair he’d been sitting in. He shoved a shaking hand through his hair as he stared at the floor. He looked nervous. Really nervous.
“I was CIA up until a few years ago. I was stationed in Europe. My expertise was Middle-Eastern government and terrorist operatives moving around in Europe, particularly London. I was only peripherally aware of what was happening in Russia.” He paused and took a heavy breath. When he spoke again, there was a slight waver in his voice. “Shit went wrong on a job. People died. Some of it was my team’s fault, my fault, but some of it was also the Company’s fault. The CIA instantly disavowed my entire team. Just cut us loose in the middle of everything going down. It was fucked up.”
“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to be betrayed by people you feel like you should be able to count on.”
Soren flashed him a weak smile. “Thanks, but I really don’t feel like I deserve your sympathy. I landed on my feet better than the rest of my team.” He shrugged. “I’m used to acting as a solo. When shit went south, I said fuck it. I gave too many years to the Company, nearly gave them my life. I wanted to do something for me.”
Alexei couldn’t fight the twisted grin that formed. “So, you became a thief?”
“No, I became a world-famous cat burglar. Nothing is outside of my reach.”
He didn’t want to laugh at Soren’s cockiness, didn’t want to let his fear and wariness go so easily, but the tension in his chest starting to unwind whether he wanted it to or not. “And you’re not in contact with the CIA now?”