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)
Alexei snorted. “It wasn’t a favor. I got paid eight million dollars for that job.”
“Fuck! I went into the wrong line of work! My paydays aren’t usually so high.” The Kalman gig had been a weird exception that he couldn’t pass up. Of course, he still hadn’t gotten paid for that, so maybe he should have taken that crazy bounty as a sign to stay away.
Rolling his head to the side, he grinned up at Soren, his eyes dancing with laughter. “Yeah, I seriously got overpaid for that job. I guess the contract holder thought it would be way harder than it was. Gabor was an arrogant schmuck, and his security team was shit.”
“Well, I hope you don’t mind, but I’m glad that his security team was shit, because it made my job of breaking into his office that much easier.”
“True. But what do we do now?”
“Have you heard from your handler?”
Alexei shook his head, which was really just him rocking his forehead on the table. “Nothing yet. I checked in with her and the asshole is ghosting her right now. I’ve given her a full rundown of all the shit that’s happened, and it sounds like she’s talked to my uncle as well. She knows I have no intention of killing you, but she’s checking to see if it’s safe to hand the hard drive over to the contract holder.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Angel. I’m half-tempted to erase the damn thing,” Soren admitted softly. “I’ll happily reimburse you for all the money you and your uncles have spent on this stupid job.”
His head popped up and a scowl twisted his features. “I’d like to think you know me well enough by now that you realize I’m not in this for the money. I don’t give a shit about the expense.”
“You mean, how we’ve known each other for all of six days.”
Alexei gasped, his breath seeming to catch in his throat as he stared at Soren. “We’ve only known each other for six days. That can’t be…” His voice trailed off and Soren guessed that he was likely counting them off in his head. “Whoa. But it feels like longer.”
“Getting shot at and chased around a city can twist time.”
“Yeah,” Alexei muttered and scrubbed a hand across his face. “Well, since we haven’t known each other for that long, let me tell you that I don’t care about the money, and I really think it’s the least of my uncles’ concerns right now. I believe we can all agree that we don’t want this information to fall into the hands of someone worse than Kalman, and we don’t want to start some kind of international incident.”
“Agreed.”
“Then what are we trying for here?”
“To stay alive,” Soren suggested.
“And to not get any innocent people killed,” Alexei added. His eyes drifted over to the laptop that was quietly working on the hack, his frown returning. Soren had to admit that he didn’t have high hopes for either of those goals right now.
He reached across the table and took one of Alexei’s hands in both of his. “There’s nothing we can do until we find out what’s on the hard drive or hear from your handler or my buyer.”
“I’ve never been good at this kind of waiting. I don’t like being in the dark.”
“No one does. But more pieces of this puzzle will reveal themselves soon enough.” Soren rubbed his thumb across the top of Alexei’s hand, feeling some of the tension ease from the muscles. His long, slender fingers stretched across his palm and something in Soren reveled at his touch. “I’m assuming your uncles have some sort of hidey-hole in this place.”
Alexei made a choking noise and dropped his face down to the table again, shoulders shaking. “You just…you can’t use that word.”
“What? Hidey-hole?”
“Yes. Oh, my God, yes! It’s the kind of word that Justin would repeat constantly, making it sound so dirty.”
“Even around his nephew?”
Alexei smiled, laying his head on his arm. “Yeah. He heavily censored himself when I was young, but as soon as he found out I’d had sex, the filter came off. Drives Gabriel insane.” He straightened and gave his head a little shake. “But to answer your question, there are several hiding places around the house. I doubt I know all of them. Why?”
“I was thinking that we put the laptop in one of the secure locations and head out for a few hours. Get something to eat. Go for a walk and see some of the city. It’s been at least five years since I was last in Amsterdam.”
“Sounds great.” Alexei shoved to his feet and gathered up the laptop, power cable, and hard drive. “I’ll lock this away and let it work.”
“While you’re doing that, I’ll jump in the shower.”
Alexei halted as he’d started out of the room. “You don’t want to see where I’m putting the laptop.”