The Darkest Corner (Gravediggers #1)(92)

"You're going to want to drop that weapon before my friend standing behind you breaks your wrist."

Levkin turned his head and saw Axel there, and then he turned back to face Deacon. "You cannot beat me. You cannot win against those who are willing to sacrifice it all."

Before Levkin could blink, Axel had snapped his wrist and the gun fell to the floor.

A voice buzzed in Deacon's comm again and said, "We've got a problem." He recognized Dante's upper-crust British accent.

He turned off the mute button in his comm unit and said, "What's wrong?"

"There are only twelve trucks here. The thirteenth is long gone."

Deacon looked at Levkin and said, "I'm going to give you one chance to tell me where the truck that's already left is going. And then I'm going to start putting bullets in you."

He pulled the Sig and pointed it at Levkin.

"Like I told you," Levkin said. "I'm ready to die for my country."

"Oh, I'm not going to let you die," he said. "I'm going to make sure you get the best hospital care you can possibly get to patch up all your wounds. And then I'm going to do it all over again."

"Go to hell," Levkin said.

"I'll give you one more chance. Where is the truck going?"

"Fuck you."

"Wrong answer," Deacon said and shot him in the knee.

Levkin howled and dropped to the ground. "I couldn't hear you the first time. Where did the truck go?" Deacon asked again. "If you give me the answer I want, I promise to give you death."

"Phila . . . Philadelphia," Levkin gasped out.

"See," Deacon said. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" He looked at Axel. "Let's wrap him up and put a bow around him for Eve. I'm sure she can get all kinds of information from him."



       
         
       
        

Levkin started laughing and rolled around on the floor, the high-pitched sound grating on Deacon's nerves. It was almost maniacal. Sometimes pain could do that to a person.

"Do you think we didn't plan for this?" Levkin snarled through gritted teeth. "Egorov is smarter than that. You'll never catch him. There are many chess pieces in play. There's nothing to do but watch the game. You've failed. In more ways than one."



TESS CHECKED THE clock for what had to be the hundredth time. It was close to five in the morning, and they still hadn't returned.

Deacon had kissed her good-bye and told her to get some sleep. Instead of kissing him passionately and giving him something to remember her by, she'd grabbed his shirt, given him a rough peck on the lips, and blurted out that she loved him. She had to be the biggest dork on the planet. He hadn't answered her. He'd only stared at her, and then he'd kissed her one last time.

It was impossible to go back to sleep after he'd left, so she got up and made a pot of coffee and turned on the TV. She'd listened to them play out the op over and over again. And she'd heard them lay out contingency plans in case one of them was killed or injured. They talked about death as casually as they talked about their favorite sports teams or the weather. They'd gotten so conditioned to it being a very real possibility that it was part of their daily lives.

She checked social media while she was waiting for the coffee to finish, and noticed that the only other person she knew online was Miller. Miller habitually kept weird hours, depending on when her writing was going well, and when it wasn't going well she could be found on social media.

Why are you awake and posting Kermit the Frog memes at three a.m.? Miller messaged her.

Tess smiled and replied, Can't sleep. Making coffee and going to watch a movie.

Good, I'm out of coffee. Why don't you bring some extra this way and we'll watch the movie together?

The book must be going well, she replied.

I don't want to talk about it. Bring chocolate if you've got any of that stashed somewhere. I ate all mine.

Tess laughed and dug out a package of Axel's stash of Tim Tams, and she grabbed a small bag of gourmet ground coffee from the freezer. She also grabbed a bottle of Tums because the worry was giving her heartburn. Loving Deacon wasn't going to be easy. There was no need to get ready or dress up. That was the good thing about having lifelong friends. She wore an old pair of gray sweats and a T-shirt, and her hair was piled in a knot on her head. She wasn't even going to bother to put on a bra. She was only going three blocks away.

She put everything in a bag and had reached to grab her keys from the hook when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Eve Winter stood just in front of the locked door that led to HQ. She had no idea how long Eve had been standing there or how she hadn't heard Eve slip through the door. But she was there, in the flesh, and Tess had never felt more outmatched in her life.