"She also has indirect ties to the Russian Mafiya. The Mafiya is a closed community. They still speak 'Old Russian' that dates back to the time of the tsars. It's like a foreign language within their own country. She speaks the language, and there are possibilities her grandmother could still be connected in some ways. No doubt she knows things. We've had her monitored for years. Tess too, just in case Tatiana ever feels the need to absolve her conscience to her granddaughter. We've not had reason to pull her in for questioning on the past at this point, but we'll see where this particular mission takes us. They treat her like an outsider, but Tess belongs here. She's too entrenched. She'll never leave this place."
"And yet I've heard her tell two people she's leaving," Deacon said.
"Then give her a reason to stay," she told him flatly. Her tone was nonnegotiable. "I don't care how you have to do it. Threaten her. Seduce her. Give her a purpose. She's a mousy bookworm who spends more time with dead people than with the living. Make her feel needed and important. She speaks that particular dialect of Russian better than any of us could hope to. She may not realize it, but she was raised with the same traditions, information, and survival skills that the Mafiya passes on to their families. Hell, bring her in on the mission and give her a job on a need-to-know basis. Do whatever it takes."
"Mousy" was the last word he'd have used to describe Tess. "Fiery," "passionate," "hardheaded," and "opinionated" would have come long before he ever thought the word "mousy." It looked like Eve didn't know everything after all.
"And what happens if she has more courage than you give her credit for and down the road she decides to leave anyway?" Deacon asked.
"Then we'll take care of her."
"That's cold," Colin said.
Eve's glare cut to him and her gaze was glacial. "It's reality. If we bring her in and tell her classified information, her contract would be much like yours. The only thing that can separate you from The Gravediggers is death. Or if you term out."
She added the second part as an afterthought, and Deacon felt like he had a pretty good answer to his wondering whether or not she'd actually release them from their bonds to go back out into the world as civilians.
"We're not an assassination squad," Dante said.
"You're what you're told to be," she countered. "Don't act as if your armor isn't tarnished, Dante. You've somehow managed to seamlessly meld your life before death and this one. It's because I allow it and nothing more."
Deacon stared at Dante, but the other man's face was unreadable. They all knew Dante took his trips from time to time, but they never knew where he went or what he did. But the information was curious, and though he would've said he could trust Dante with his life, now he wasn't so sure. There was no place for secrets like that in the brotherhood.
"There are bigger things at stake than a Russian mortician," Eve said. "We either use her or dispose of her. End of story. Don't forget why you're here. And don't forget I don't need your permission to do what I think is best. It's my mercy that allows Tess Sherman to continue as she is. Just as it's my mercy that allows you to be here."
"Our countries betrayed us," Axel said, the anger in his voice palpable. Of all of them, he'd lost the most.
"Some of you, yes. And some of you betrayed yourselves. It doesn't matter. You didn't follow orders and you had to die. End of story," she said with a shrug.
"We're not puppets," Deacon said. "And none of us will condone cold-blooded murder of the innocent. We've all walked in the gray areas. But we have a moral compass. Just because the pencil pusher at the top doesn't have one doesn't mean that we have to lose our sense of right and wrong."
"It's a moot point," she said. "Your countries considered you traitors. Maybe you should've followed orders for the greater good. Now you'll never know. In the end, the legacy you've left behind is that of a traitor."
"And yet it's us you wanted for this team," Colin said. "Knowing we'll disobey orders if we feel it's necessary."
"Do you think you're irreplaceable?" she asked coolly, arching a brow. "Do you really think that The Gravediggers' inception began when I brought Deacon back as the first of you? Ten years is how long this project has taken to get where we want it to be. And we're not there yet. Do you think there weren't others before you? That we haven't put millions of dollars into finding the perfect candidates. To test and discard them?"