Page 7 of Steinbeck (The Minnesota Kingstons #5)

THREE

Stein wasn’t a total idiot. Of course he had his SIG Sauer out as he opened the door. Not for the man on the other side, but for the unknown woman who’d stepped up behind him.

Mid-thirties, maybe, brown eyes, blonde hair pulled back, wearing a black jacket, a pair of black pants, she held her own weapon, although she now tucked it away under her jacket.

“What are you doing here?” Stein said to Roy as the man lowered his gun and held up a hand.

The dim hall light half obscured the man’s features, but Stein had glanced at the flatscreen in the kitchen and made out Roy’s outline, and maybe just in time, because Phoenix had fully planned on flinging herself over the balcony’s edge.

And he would have been right behind her, casting himself fully into her chaos.

“Maybe we can figure out how to get past survival together?”

Yeah, he’d said that. Not sure why, but really, really , he didn’t want this life.

Honest. Cross his heart and... well, all the things.

His words to Jack even filtered back. “I just need to find her. Make sure she’s safe. That’s all.”

Clearly that wasn’t all, because yes, here he was, gun in hand, ready to go mano y mano with whoever stood on the other side of the door.

The woman behind Roy said, “I need to talk to Emberly.”

Who?

Oh. Phoenix. And it might be another alias, but it felt weirdly real. Right. She just kept reappearing, reigniting the fire inside him.

Not to mention rare and beautiful.

He turned just in time to see Phoenix-Emberly charge him from the balcony. “What are you doing?” she shouted.

Roy walked into the room and she stepped back, pulled her Glock.

“Phoenix! It’s Roy—don’t shoot.” Stein held up his hand and stepped in front of Roy.

Phoenix—no, Emberly —hesitated for a second, her green-eyed gaze hard on Roy.

Then the blonde entered, and Emberly’s mouth opened, her eyes widened. “What are you doing here?”

He glanced at the duo and shut the door. “Okay, everybody just calm down. Ph—Emberly, this is Roy.” Maybe she needed the Emberly name as cover. He didn’t know—but he didn’t want to blow it.

And now she directed her gaped look at Steinbeck. “How?—”

“That’s on me, Em,” said the blonde. “I dropped your real name.”

Real name. Oh, he knew it.

Emberly finally lowered her gun. “Oh joy.” She set the gun on a nearby side table. “Again, my question. Why are you here, Mystique? And with—” She gestured to Roy. “Thanks, by the way.”

Dark hair, tall, a former operator according to Colt, Roy had a quiet presence, a solemn sturdiness, and now just nodded.

“We have a problem,” Mystique said.

Steinbeck cut a look at Emberly, who put her hands on her hips and backed up, a set to her jaw. “Yeah, we do. Never mind that you would have let me be shipped off to a Russian gulag?—”

“You went off-grid. And you know the rules.”

Rules? What rules?

Emberly nodded, a tiny pinch on the side of her mouth.

“But I am glad Roy and...” Mystique glanced at Stein.

“Steinbeck Kingston,” he said, filling in the gap.

She frowned for just a second, then nodded. “Right. Boo’s brother.”

Huh?

Then she turned back to Emberly. “I’m glad they got you out. You’re okay?”

“I’ll live,” she said and took off her backpack. Then she stepped onto the balcony and reeled in the fire ladder.

Roy had walked farther into the room and now stood, arms akimbo.

Steinbeck turned to him. “How’d you find us?”

“Mystique reached out. She heard via Logan about our op. You run into any trouble?”

“No.” Which maybe seemed a little odd but, “You get a tail on Tomas?”

“Yes. He boarded a flight for Moldova a few hours ago.”

“Moldova?” This from Emberly.

“It’s the new HQ for the Petrov Bratva,” said Mystique. Pretty, she exuded a disarming calmness and bore a hint of a British accent. The strangest sense of familiarity about her nudged him.

Wait —she knew Boo ? Which meant—“Were you at my sister’s wedding?”

“Right. That’s where I know you from.”

“I don’t?—”

“I’m on your sister’s Air One Rescue team,” she said and gave a wry smile. “Day job.”

“That’s a thing?”

“For some of us.” She glanced at Emberly. “Some of us can compartmentalize, separate our lives.”

And some couldn’t.

“In a different life...”

A completely different life, maybe. Because he got it. He’d always been an all-in, get-the-job-done guy too, unable to make room for anything but the mission.

Emberly dropped the ladder back into its spot in the ottoman. Then she turned to Mystique. “What’s on fire now?”

Mystique’s expression turned grim. “Luis is missing.”

Luis?

“What do you mean missing ?” Emberly said.

“His panic alarm went off two days ago. I arrived yesterday and got ahold of the video footage. Looks like the Bratva might have taken him. We saw them entering his home.”

“Why?”

Wait— “Our Luis?” Stein said to Emberly. It might take him a millisecond or two to get used to that name. He rather preferred Phoenix. Emberly made her... well, maybe down-to-earth. Even vulnerable.

And only fed the maybe inside him.

She raised a brow to his words. “ Our Luis?”

“You know what I mean.”

She nodded, her mouth quirking. “Yes. Our Luis.”

The Portuguese computer scientist they’d fought over in Krakow.

“He was living up in Porto, under our protection,” Mystique said.

Steinbeck remembered her name now. “London,” he said. “You were with a guy?—”

“Shep, yes,” she said and turned back to Emberly. “We think the Bratva got their hands on Axiom, or maybe a version of it?—”

“How? I promise it was destroyed.”

“Maybe there’s a leak in the DOD,” Stein said. “I know Declan sold it to them.”

London-Mystique held up her hand. “It doesn’t matter. The truth is, it’s not when the program gets out into the wild, it’s how many governments will get their hands on it.”

“We need that virus,” Emberly said quietly.

“Yes,” London said, now perching on the arm of the sofa. “Which means we need the program.”

“And Luis.” Emberly folded her arms. “You think they’re forcing him to corrupt it?”

“I don’t know. But we’ll find him. I’m on that.” She pointed to Emberly. “You need to get that program from Declan.”

“Wait a hot minute,” Steinbeck said. “You’re not suggesting another heist, right? How about we just ask him for the program?” He shot a look at Roy. “He was Dark Horse. Alosha. The infamous spy who took down the Russian cybertech lab in Vladivostok.”

Roy nodded. “Yes, he was. Still is.”

“Wait. What? I don’t know who—” Emberly looked at London. “You said he was a terrorist.”

“To be fair, we didn’t realize that the Caleb Group had reactivated his cover and had pulled him in to spy on the Bratva when you set out to get the program,” London said.

Steinbeck glanced at Roy.

Roy held up a hand. “I’m just a chess piece. I don’t control the board.”

As opposed to Steinbeck, who clearly watched from the gallery. “Okay, so we get the program and then what?”

“ Emberly gets the program,” London said. “You go home.”

His mouth opened. Closed. “Over my dead body.”

“That’s what I’m trying to prevent.” London took a breath, shook her head. “The last thing I want is for Boo to lose her brother.”

“You’re kidding me, right? I was a SEAL . She’s well aware of the risks.”

London’s mouth tightened. “You haven’t been vetted?—”

“I was Declan’s bodyguard. I have top-secret clearance. And I sprang Miss Pants on Fire here from a Russian dungeon. I feel like that qualifies for vetted.” And yes, he meant to raise his voice.

Aw, who was he kidding? Since Emberly had stepped back into his life, and he into hers, something had awakened inside him. No, ignited .

Phoenix, indeed. She was a live coal inside him, and he wasn’t going to let it die.

And that he didn’t want to look at too closely. “Listen. Clearly she needs someone watching her back?—”

“What?”

“And Declan trusts me.” He glanced at Emberly.

“That hurts.”

“He works for the Caleb Group,” London said. “He’ll give us Axiom.”

“Maybe,” Stein said. “But let’s remember that Emberly attacked him in Barcelona?—”

“That’s a little overstated.” She rolled her eyes.

He ignored her. “And even if Declan does hand over Axiom—what if the Russians don’t have the program? They could be watching her.” He cast a look at Roy. “Maybe that’s why we walked away so easily from Sintra.”

Silence.

“Black Swans work alone,” Emberly said softly.

He met her green eyes. “Not anymore.”

Her jaw tightened as she looked away.

“We’ll track down Luis,” said London. “You guys get Axiom.”

“Then what?” Steinbeck said.

“Stay out of trouble and wait to hear from us.”

“You have met her, right?” He grinned when her mouth opened.

London laughed. “Try not to kill each other.”

“Been there, done that,” Stein growled.

Emberly folded her arms, shook her head. “He’s slow. And annoying. And?—”

“And just maybe, Emberly Hart, you’ve met the one man who can keep up with you. Try to keep him alive.” London pointed at Stein. “Don’t make me regret this.”

“Mystique—”

“You either,” London said as she turned back to Emberly. “I don’t want to lose one of my best operatives, so try to play nicely.”

Emberly rolled her eyes.

“I’m not sure where Declan is,” Steinbeck said. “My guess is Minnesota.”

“Great,” London said. “I’ll arrange a flight for you in the morning. Check into the server for details. And get some sleep.” She turned to Roy. “Let’s go.”

Roy smirked and clamped Stein on the shoulder as he left. “Heaven save us from Black Swans.”

Stein locked the door behind them. Turned. “Emberly?”

She sighed. “Phoenix to you, bub.”

“That’s what you think.”

A beat, then she picked up her backpack. “I’m going to bed. But...” She also picked up her handgun. “Next time, maybe you let me shoot them.”

He laughed as she closed the door at the end of the hallway.

Then he grabbed the pillow off the bed and set up a perch on the sofa.

Just in case.

* * *