The Darkest Corner (Gravediggers #1)(69)

"You never keep in . . . contact with anyone from that time?"

"Who's to keep in contact with? Everyone is dead. I'm an old lady."

"I keep hearing the Russian Mafiya has moved back into power," Tess said carefully.

Tatiana was very still as her hot tea was served. How anyone could drink hot tea in this heat after a workout, Tess wasn't sure, but her grandmother lived on the stuff. She took her time adding lumps of sugar and stirring it precisely.

She finally stopped stirring and looked at Tess with those clear blue eyes. "I think you're watching too much television. This is my country now. What happens there no longer concerns me, and it's a time I choose to forget. I had to live with memories of those days while your grandfather was alive. And I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but it was a big relief when your grandfather died. He courted trouble wherever he went. I've had almost thirty years of blessed peace, and I'm not looking back."

Their food was served, and Tess wondered why she'd bothered to work out at all. The calories sitting in front of her probably doubled what she had burned.

"Now tell me about this motorcycle ride you took," Tatiana said, waggling her brows. "I bet it wasn't just the motorcycle you rode. You've got that look about you. I bet he put that Henry to shame. I never did like that boy. I told you when you were engaged, you can't trust a man who carries a Waterpik in his pocket."





CHAPTER FOURTEEN




Deacon left Tess alone for three days. He avoided her on the cameras, and he didn't venture into the house. Fortunately, there was plenty of work to keep them busy, but it was a long three days.

They were working on a deadline, trying to trace the quartet to ground and get a bead on the different batches of XTNC-50 that could be entering into the country from different points of entry. Headquarters was beginning to feel a lot like prison. He'd scarcely left the carriage house or HQ, afraid he'd accidentally run into Tess and she'd make a rash decision.

His temper was on edge, and when he wasn't sitting in front of a computer or tracking satellite images, he was beating the hell out of punching bags and lifting weights until his muscles burned.

They'd been at it since early that morning. Their time was limited, and they still didn't have a clue as to the targets for the Den' Sud'by-the Day of Destiny-though they were slowly putting pieces together.

"You've got to snap out of it, mate," Axel said softly. "She'll come around when she comes around. I still think you're out of your damned mind, but it was your choice to make. Your chance to take. She'll either take the bait or she won't."

Deacon gritted his teeth to correct him. They all still thought he was following Eve's orders, seducing Tess and luring her in so she'd stay. But that's never what he'd planned. It just gave him the excuse he'd never had before to make his move and claim her before it was too late.

"This job is a game of chance," Elias piped in. "We've got her monitored. She's got a listening and tracking device inside her purse, and we're monitoring her cell phone. Dante went early this morning to the retirement center dressed as a utility worker to plant listening devices at the grandmother's apartment while she was at her yoga class, and we planted another device at Miller's house, though that was a lot trickier because she never leaves. If Tess decides to tell anyone the information you told her, we're going to know about it and we can deal with it accordingly."



       
         
       
        

Deacon went cold inside. He'd promised her they'd no longer violate her privacy, and now they were doing it worse than they had before. If she found out, she might never forgive him. He looked around the room at the men he considered brothers. Even Levi, who'd only been with them a matter of days. There was an immediate bond when men were joined together for heroic tasks, sometimes unattainable tasks.

Eve had been right about Levi. He'd finished the psych testing and had managed to do it standing, while still holding onto his sanity. Then they'd taken him out in the field on a couple of test ops to see what he was made of. And Deacon could say with certainty that Mossad agents were not like normal men. They were trained unlike anything he'd ever seen before, and Levi's skills, even when he was at half-strength, were exceptional.

Colin's head was buried in his computer screen, and Elias and Axel were tracking map routes and trying to close in on possible routes the Russian terrorists might have taken. It was a slow and time-consuming process.

"The Russians excel at confusion," Levi said. "We're collecting mounds of data and separating the possible from the impossible. But the data shows a pattern, and that pattern is that they're unpredictable. They hit the College World Series in June, and regular intelligence agencies still aren't a hundred percent sure that the Russians were behind it. They don't have the intel that we have access to. And to throw confusion into the fray, ISIS immediately stepped up and claimed the attack.