He finished tying up the unconscious man, then stepped back and admired the jagged cut and rising lump that disfigured one side of “Andre’s” face. He would imagine the blow to the nuts with the baseball bat looked just as bad, but he wasn’t about to check. “Nice work.”
“I might have broken a rib or two when I stomped on his stomach.”
Rand cupped a hand behind the back of her neck and tugged her toward him, then brushed his lips over her forehead. He wanted to aim for her lips, but wouldn’t make that move without permission. He held her gaze. “I’m amazed you had a baseball bat. I will never underestimate you again.”
She glanced down at her fake cousin. “He won’t either.”
She stepped back and crossed her arms as she nudged the unconscious man with the toe of her shoe. “What do we do with him?”
Rand grabbed his cell phone and dialed Freya, who answered immediately. “What did you find out?”
“I got you an apartment. It’s even got a view. You still have your car?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Okay, you have the kit I gave you at the airport?”
“Yes. I was grabbing it from the car when the guy came after Kira.”
“Gotcha. Okay, there’s an app on the phone in the kit. Use it to take photos of both his hands. A biometric software company gave us the beta on the next iteration of their product. We should get decent prints. Get his ears too. Then check his face for makeup and prosthetics. We haven’t been able to find this guy anywhere. He might have done some slight alterations.”
It took only a minute to power up the phone and set up his and Kira’s face recognition, then he took all the photos Freya requested using the app. Andre didn’t wear makeup or prosthetics, which made sense in Malta, where the heat meant sweat would cause the makeup to run.
He would forever wonder how it was so many movies were filmed here.
“Maybe he had a beard,” Kira suggested. “And a wig to hide the receding hairline.”
“We’ll run his face with variations on head and facial hair. Does his hair look dyed?”
“He doesn’t have much, but what he has is dark—almost black—and even,” Kira said. “No roots. I bet he colored it a few days ago.”
Rand cursed and said, “I’ll check.” He yanked down the man’s pants and reported his findings. “Pubic hair is gray and brownish red. And now I can’t unsee his junk, which the bat did a number on, thank you very much. It’s a dick pic no one wants. Ever.”
Freya laughed. “You really are a hero, Rand.”
“Hey! I’m the one who knocked him out.” Kira snickered, then said, “But yeah. I wasn’t gonna do that.”
“Grab your things and get out of there,” Freya said.
Again, Kira prodded the man with her toe. “We’re just going to leave him here? That’s…not very kind to housekeeping. I like the hotel staff.”
“I’ve got a CIA contact I’m going to reach out to. I’ll tell him that we’ve got a potential FSB agent trussed up like a turkey and have him pass it along to one of his contacts. The Russians can clean up their own mess.”
Rand knew what that meant. It was unlikely the man would see another dawn. But it was his own people who would do the dirty work.
“They might not need the tip. He was pretty scared when we met him at the garden earlier.”
“I was thinking the same thing. That’s why you need to get moving.”
Rand stuffed the items he’d set out to dry earlier back in his duffel as Kira cleaned out the dresser and bathroom vanity.
On their way out, Rand hung the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. Kira had the room for another week. The man would likely be collected in the next few hours, but it would be days before anyone checked the room. He’d try to come back and make sure the blood and wine were cleaned from the floor before housekeeping got a nasty surprise.
Kira marveled at Rand’s comfort behind the wheel as he navigated the dark and twisting roads of a foreign country. She imagined finding his way in a foreign land was part of SEAL training, but still, he drove with the same relaxed air he’d had in DC—and while she could navigate Dupont Circle like a boss, she was never relaxed while doing it.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, surprising herself when the words slipped out.
“Me too. And I know you know this, but it’s worth repeating, you were incredible back there. I can’t believe you took down an FSB agent like that.”
“Chase made it clear that the first few seconds would be critical for catching an attacker off guard. And Andre—or whatever his name is—really only saw me as a twit. He feared you, not me. I’m sure he saw you leave the hotel, then waited just long enough so I’d believe it was you coming back.”
“I’ve heard Chase is a good teacher. After tonight, I’m a believer. I’m going to see if my sister will take classes from him. When did you start taking classes?”
“Once my doctor cleared me after the concussion. I was so scared on that roof that night. I never wanted to have ‘retreat and call for help’ as my only option again.”
Rand took her hand in his. “You did what you had to do that night. And tonight, you did what you could do. I think you’re pretty fucking amazing.”
“I’m not a Valkyrie, but I’m trying.”
“I see no reason why you couldn’t be a Valkyrie.”
“It’s actually something I very much want. But until a few months ago, I couldn’t get a passport. Without that and a security clearance, it wasn’t possible. Now that…well, if my dad really was a spy, I’ll never get any kind of security clearance.”
She gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth. “Rand. Shit. My father. He sent you away. Drove you away with lies about a boyfriend. If I told you about Apollo when I was out of it, I could very well have told him about you. And the strawberries. And that you’re a SEAL. If we got involved…at some point, that could have triggered a background check on me, and he couldn’t risk that.”
He squeezed the hand he still held. “That makes sense. He was worried about his own secrets. But Kira, you still haven’t explained the strawberries.”
