Nothing they could do about that if so. Anyone who’d been in his hotel room making noise and setting off sprinklers might have seen the papers.

Rand gathered his belongings. They were about to leave the small lobby when the clerk said, “Ms. Hanson. I almost forgot. This message was delivered by courier for you earlier.”

He held up an envelope that matched the one currently in her purse.

Inside Kira’s room, Rand dropped his wet bag and leaned against the closed door. He watched Kira as she gingerly explored her belongings, looking for a sign someone had searched her room.

The “Do Not Disturb” door tag would have kept housekeeping out, but the fire alarm meant the room had likely been checked.

For not being a combat mission, today had been a ride. Now he watched Kira, whose day had been even more turbulent than his. And it wasn’t even five o’clock.

“I want to be with you when you meet with Kulik.”

He braced for an argument and was relieved when she simply nodded. “Nothing’s been touched, as far as I can tell.”

“Good.” He pushed off the door and stepped from the short hall by the bathroom and into the room.

Three windows. Two small ones on the side overlooking the street. A large one on the front facing the harbor. No enclosed balcony like his room, but the view was spectacular, just below the rooftop terrace they’d enjoyed last night.

He closed the curtains over the side windows, but left the front window uncovered. They could be spied on through that window but only with a high-powered scope from across the harbor. They wouldn’t be caught unaware.

The twin beds were close together—less than a foot separated them, same as his room—and the one nearest the front window was unmade. “Tonight, you’ll sleep closest to the wall.”

“Are you calling dibs on the good bed, Lieutenant Commander?”

He smiled and shook his head. “I know we’re on the sixth floor, but the window is still an entry point. I’m closest to the window.”

She pointed to the two windows on the wall opposite the foot of both beds. “What about those windows? Or the door?”

“You’re in the corner, with the bathroom making the entryway a funnel. I can cover all four entry points keeping you safe tucked behind me.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that I can defend myself? That I might know how to fight?”

“Good. That will come in handy if there’s more than three.”

That brought a laugh out of her.

He smiled and stepped in front of her. He brushed a lock of hair that had come loose from her hairclip. “I’m not worried about fighting. I’m worried they’ll have guns. And they will have guns, while we don’t. I’m counting on anyone who comes after you to want you alive. If I’m standing in front of you, they can’t shoot me without potentially harming you. Which will force them to lower their guns, and the fight is on, with you safely behind me.” He pressed a kiss to her lips. “No one gets past me to you. Not while I’m breathing.”

She tucked her head down against his chest, and his arms went around her. He stood there in the middle of her hotel room, holding Kira in his arms. Not in the way he’d wanted for months, but the way they both needed now.

Her phone chimed with a text, and he cursed.

She groaned and slipped from his arms to check her screen. She frowned. “Cousin Andre wants to see me before I meet with Reuben Kulik. He’s waiting by the Upper Barrakka fountain just a few blocks from here.”

“Have you opened any attachments from Andre on your phone?”

“No—shit. Yes. A photo of my father and his that he found a few days ago. It was a JPEG file.”

Rand took the phone from her hand and powered it off. “I’ve got extra burners in my stash in the car. We’ll get it after meeting Andre.”

“We’re going?”

Rand very much wanted to meet with Kira’s so-called cousin. “Definitely.” He wanted to ask Kira if she trusted the man, but there was nothing stopping her from turning the question back on him, and he didn’t want to lie to her. After he met with the man, he’d decide if Freya was right about keeping Kira in the dark.

Chapter Twenty-Four

They walked side by side up the wide stair road to the battery atop the city walls to where a row of cannons faced the harbor they’d crossed earlier and the fort where they’d kissed. The battery had been constructed in the sixteenth century by the Order of Saint John, and the cannons were fired daily at noon and 1600 according to the sign at the entrance.

They bypassed the battery and continued up to the entrance-fee-free garden, where Cousin Andre waited.

As they approached, Kira could see Andre was agitated as he paced by the fountain. When he spotted them, his face brightened until he saw Rand at Kira’s side. His momentary smile turned into a scowl. “You didn’t say you were bringing him.”

“I didn’t know I needed to clear my companions with you, Andre.”

“I’ve gone out on a limb vouching for you with my connections. I don’t know him at all.”

“I don’t need you to vouch for me. My father’s name has worked quite well.”

“Your father’s name is the problem. Listen, we need to talk, in private.”

“No,” she and Rand said simultaneously.

“Kira there are things about your father you don’t want him to know.”

“Then you should have told me this morning, when we were alone.”

“This morning, you hadn’t gone to Birgu.”

“How do you know I was in Birgu?”

Andre’s nostrils flared. “Everyone knows you went to Birgu.”

“Who is everyone?”

“You have no idea who you are dealing with.”

“Then enlighten me.”

“You’ve endangered everyone.”

“Again, Cousin Andre. Who. Is. Everyone?”

His words were a low whisper. “They’ll kill me. You should have told me about the letters.”