She’d opened and closed the door of the room to see if he really meant he wouldn’t try to stop her. And he didn’t. She stood perfectly still, barely breathing, waiting for him to turn around and see she was still there. She’d almost gone to him when she saw his shoulders hunch, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.

There, before her, was proof that he hadn’t lied to her. At least not about everything. He did love her.

It didn’t change the fact that, ultimately, she would have to leave. Raketa couldn’t risk going against what the voice had demanded of her when whoever it was, clearly knew every move she was making.

“Gunner,” she murmured, unable to stand watching his pain a moment longer.

He spun around. “I don’t understand. Why are you still here?”

Now that he knew she was, she had no idea what to say. Should she tell him she was sorry, but she had to go? He’d given her the opportunity to do so without explanation.

“I…”

He walked toward her.

“Talk to me, Rocket Girl.”

“You aren’t stupid.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“I believed you. When you said you’d help me, I believed you. When you said you loved me, I believed that too. When you left and wouldn’t tell me why, I told myself it was all a lie. Everything you said to me. That’s the only way I could force myself to leave—by convincing myself you were betraying me.”

“I could never. I promise.” He reached out and touched the side of her face in the way he always did.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she realized she couldn’t make him the same promise. If it came down to choosing between betraying Gunner and saving her mother, she’d betray him in a heartbeat.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “My mother…”

“Let me help you.”

Raketa shook her head as the tears streamed down her cheeks. “I work alone.”

“You don’t have to. Not anymore. You have me and the rest of the K19 team. You can trust us.”

She shook her head again and put her hand on the doorknob. “I can’t.”

She pulled the door open and was crossing the threshold when Gunner put his hand on her arm. “Stay with me. Don’t go.”

“I wish I could.” She pulled away and walked toward the elevator.

“Wait,” he shouted.

When she looked back, he was scrubbing his face with his hand.

“I know why Petrov wanted you to bring Ava and Aine to him. It’s not the reason you think.”

“Gunner…”

“You’re in the same danger they are. Or maybe it’s that they’re in the same danger you are. He’ll kill all three of you, and I’m sure, your mother too, as soon as he gets his hands on what he wants.”

Raketa slowly walked back toward him. “You said you’d let me go.”

“And I will, but first you need to know what you’re up against.”

Was he doing this for the right reasons? Gunner couldn’t honestly say one way or the other. All he knew was he couldn’t let her leave without telling her everything he’d learned since the last time they were together. He could say it was for her safety, but if he was being honest, it was so he could spend just a few more minutes with her.

Raketa came back inside the room and sat on the edge of the bed where she’d been before. He pulled up the chair and sat as close to her as he could get.

“There are bank accounts that were set up in all three of your names. He’s running out of money. That’s why he wanted Ava and Aine. I’m convinced that once he gets his hands on it, he would kill you and your half-sisters.”

“Why did you say you think he’ll kill my mother too?”

“There was a fourth account—in her name. It’s already been liquidated. I believe her only value to him now is as a means to get you to do what he wants you to do.”

“Where are Ava and Aine?”

“Somewhere safe.”

Raketa studied him. “You don’t trust me enough to tell me.”

“It isn’t that.” Wasn’t it? Did he have a valid reason for not telling her where they were? “They’re in Oregon. The same place they’ve been. They’re with Razor, and they have a great deal of protection. If we believe their safety has been compromised, they’ll be moved. Although at this point, I don’t know where that would be.”

Her burner phone buzzed in her pocket. She couldn’t risk answering it in front of Gunner, but what if the person knew she was with him and assumed she’d already told him about the earlier call? Why hadn’t she left before instead of letting him talk her into staying? She may have just signed her own mother’s death warrant.

She stood abruptly. “I have to go.”

“I’ll say it again. Please. Let me help you.”

She shook her head and walked toward the door. “I can’t.”

Gunner heard the sound of gunfire the second she opened the door, dove to cove her, and pulled her back into the room.

He fired when he saw the tip of a gun edge at the turn to the elevator.

From what he could tell, there was only one gunman. There was nowhere to go from the corridor the shooter was in but by way of the elevator. There were no rooms, no stairwell.

He eased down the hallway, staying close to the wall, with his gun pointed directly at the corner. He may not be able to hit the person firing, but if he saw the gun again, he’d hit it, and in the moments directly following, he might be able to make the turn fast enough to kill the bastard.

When he heard the elevator’s ding, he ran forward, reaching the spot where the shooter had been just as the door came to a close. He pressed the button again and again, and then watched as it descended floor by floor.

Earlier, when he thought Raketa had left, he’d slipped the earpiece of the mic off and set it on the table. He pulled his phone out instead, calling for backup.

He ran back to the room to check on Raketa while he listened to the phone continue to ring.

“Where is that sonuvabitch?” he seethed.

Raketa’s eyes were wide when he walked back in the room to find her gun leveled at him.

“Oruzhiye?”

Gunner nodded.

“He’s alive?”

“Yes.”

“Iisus Khristos,” she muttered, lowering her gun.

“We need to leave. Now.”

“There’s someone following me,” she told him. “From the embassy, but I think he might be UR.”

“He’s MI6, but that’s not important right now. We have to go.”

Gunner led Raketa the opposite way of the elevator and to the stairwell, calling for help while they made their way up.

When they reached the roof, Gunner kicked the door open and held Raketa close while they watched a helicopter land.

“I thought you were dead,” he said when he saw the man flying it.

“I thought you might be too,” he responded with a distinct English accent.

“Raketa, meet Pimm Torosyan.”

“We’ve met,” said Raketa.

“Not officially,” said Pimm.

“No. Not officially.”

“Where are we headed?” Gunner asked once they were in the air.

“We have to make a quick stop to refuel, but I heard you fancy islands.”

Gunner smiled when he saw Raketa cringe.

“How does an MI6 agent have access to a safe house in the middle of Lake Michigan?”

Pimm laughed. “It isn’t a safe house, and it belongs to my aunt and uncle.”

Gunner watched Raketa out of the corner of his eye as she assessed every word Pimm said. She was right to. He was an agent from the UK who had been undercover inside the Armenian embassy with close access to the ambassador. He could very well be a double or even triple agent. Gunner had gone through his own vetting process and was as comfortable with Pimm as he was with Onyx, Dutch, Monk, and Alegria. He was more comfortable with Pimm than Striker, but that was because he couldn’t stand the latter. He’d never liked him, not from the first day they met. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust him, he just didn’t like him.

“Your team is spread thin,” Pimm said to Gunner, “but you’ve got plenty of coverage from MI6 until your guys can get here.”

“Appreciate it,” Gunner said, shaking the man’s hand.

Raketa had no intention of doing the same. While Gunner may trust him, she didn’t. Not even a little. That Oruzhiye, one of the deadliest assassins who’d ever lived, had found her so easily, along with how much the person who’d called her burner knew about where she was, what she was doing, and why, meant someone close to her was feeding them information. Pimm Torosyan was the most likely suspect.

She hadn’t received another call since the one had come in while she was in Gunner’s hotel room, not that she could’ve answered if one had. She kept her hand close to the phone anyway in the event it vibrated. If it did, she had to figure out how to get away from Gunner. Her mother’s life depended on it.

Raketa bristled when Gunner put his arm around her shoulders. It didn’t surprise him given the amount of stress she was under. She moved away from his grasp and walked over to the window of the house Pimm had ensconced them in.

“I can’t stay here,” he heard her murmur.

“We won’t be here long. The important thing was to get you out of Chicago and away from Orlov as quickly as possible.”

She nodded, but had a faraway look on her face. Gunner hadn’t forgotten that, prior to his gunfight with the Russian assassin, she’d been walking away from him.

“You were leaving.”

“I told you I had no choice.”

“Actually, you said you couldn’t stay.”

Raketa shrugged. “There is no difference.”

Gunner walked over to where she stood. “There is. Telling me you can’t stay means one thing. Saying you have no choice means something entirely different.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

He wasn’t about to relent. It absolutely did. Something, or someone, was making her choose to leave, rather than stay and let him help her.

“You know it does. Talk to me, Rocket Girl. Tell me who’s threatening you and with what?”

He saw the flash of pain she didn’t know broke through her steely facade every so often, always over the same subject.

“Someone is using your mother to make sure you work alone.”

She didn’t react, but he knew he was on the right track. It was the only thing that made sense.

She didn’t trust him when she came to him for help initially anymore than she did now. Less, actually. Her refusing his or K19’s assistance now only meant that she had a very good reason for doing so.

The logical answer was that it was Petrov. Had he been in contact with her? If so, how?

It wasn’t a surprise that Orlov had managed to find her. United Russia’s resources were far-reaching. Petrov, on the other hand, was operating almost solely on his own. The only help he may have been getting would’ve been via Azerbaijani or Iranian intelligence, neither of which had the means to effectively track her, K19, or MI6.

“You have the full force of K19 behind you, not to mention MI6.”

“I work alone.”

“Look at me.”

Raketa shook her head, but just barely.

“If I have to, I’ll find out who’s blackmailing you on my own. Tell me, and you’ll save us both time.”

“No one is blackmailing me.”

“Do you think I can’t tell when you’re lying to me?”

Raketa spun around on him. “No less than I can tell when you’re lying to me.”

He’d finally hit on something that she reacted to. He wasn’t going to let her slip away from him again. He’d keep her talking as long as he could.

“I’ve never lied to you. I love you, Zary.”

“You think you can play me?” There was a nefarious tone to her laugh.

“I have no reason to play you.”

When she turned back toward the window, Gunner stood as close to her as he could without touching her.

“Is it Petrov?”

No reaction.

“You don’t know, do you?”

Barely a flinch, but enough that he knew he was right. Gunner put his hand on the small of her back and kneaded her tense flesh. “Let me in, Rocket Girl.”

She shook her head, slowly, and he saw her eyes fill with tears.

“You’ve been all on your own for too long. You don’t have to be anymore. I’m here, and I’ll do anything to help you.”

“Then let me go. That’s what I need you to do to help me. Let me go, and don’t come after me.”

“If I asked the same of you, would you do it?”

Would she? When she knew she couldn’t leave Petrov’s compound in Baku without her mother, who had she chosen? Gunner. She could’ve told him then that she didn’t want to go, but she hadn’t for the simple reason that she didn’t want him killed.

She’d already chosen in her heart, and the realization hit her hard.

“Don’t do this,” she whispered, wishing she had a way to get through to him, but knowing it was pointless to keep trying.

“I’ll never stop. You wanted me; you got me.”

She turned her head and caught his smile, but he was right. She had wanted him, more than anything.

She knew leaving UR was essentially committing suicide, but he had been worth it to her.

Her mother was different, though. Raketa could make the choice with her own life, but not her mother’s. Not now when she was so close to being with the only person who’d ever loved her unconditionally. She may not remember much about her early childhood, but seeing the photographs that Gunner had brought to her, reminded her that she had once felt loved.

He loved her too, though. As much as she struggled with trusting him, when he said the words to her, she knew he wasn’t lying.

The phone in her pocket vibrated, and there was no way for her to hide it from Gunner. She was faced with another choice. Did she ignore it or answer in front of him? Both would likely result in her mother’s death.