I SLEPT FITFULLY and the final few hours lay there awake, eyes open, staring at the window as the dawn filtered through the drapes. I wasn’t sure which had shaken me most: the realization that I was in love with Konstantin, or the reminder that I was going to have to betray him.

Calahan must have been listening because, as soon as I got up and went to the shower, he came on my earpiece. Had he been on shift all night? I wondered how much sleep he was getting. “We’ve got a plan,” he told me. “We need to get something to you. Walk to the coffee stand at the end of the street. The barista is one of our agents. Tell him your name and he’ll put what you need in a coffee cup.”

By the time I was dressed, Konstantin was up and dressed, too. I was worried that things might snap back to how they were, that he’d act like last night hadn’t happened. But as soon as he saw me, he drew me to him, leaned down, and kissed me. It was tender but solemn and I could see the worry on his face. He’s still figuring it all out. I’d try to give him some space. “I’m going to go down the street and get a coffee,” I told him.

He shook his head. “Not with Ralavich around. I’ll send a guard.”

Ralavich. Just the memory of him made me shudder. It brought home to me how wrong Carrie had been, when she’d said these men were all the same.

I forced myself to focus on the mission. Sending a guard to get my coffee wouldn’t work: what if he looked inside the cup? “Maybe you could come with me,” I said. “It’s a lovely morning. A quick stroll down the street….”

Konstantin’s forehead crumpled. “I have things to attend to. And we have coffee here. Why would you want to—”?

God, he’d lived in a purely practical world for so long. ‘Because it’s romantic!” I insisted.

He blinked at me... and then softened and nodded. My heart lit up. This was all new to him, but he was trying….

And then icy reality crushed my heart again. He was trying... and I was being romantic to deceive him, to betray him.

We walked outside and down the long driveway. Konstantin looked around suspiciously as we reached the street: he made me think of a huge, protective wolf, sniffing the air. I wondered how long it had been since he left the grounds on foot.

But at last he nodded to himself and turned towards the coffee stand. And then he reached down awkwardly and—

My heart lifted as his hand closed around mine. He really is trying. And it was romantic. The freezing wind of the last few days had stripped most of the fall leaves from the trees but now it had dropped away and it was calm and peaceful, the street silent except for the scrunch of red and orange leaves under our feet.

We reached the coffee stand and I asked for a vanilla latte, giving my name as Christina. Konstantin went for a black Americano and we sipped them on the walk back, still hand in hand. We could have been any happy couple out for a stroll. Why can’t it just be like this? Ever since Rufus was killed, I’d fought against criminals. I’d thought it was simple: they were bad guys, I was one of the good guys. But when I saw how Konstantin kept order on the streets, how he protected people...when I compared him to the real evil, people like Ralavich….

But of course it wasn’t that simple. The FBI wasn’t desperate to bring him down because he’d built an empire. There’s always been organized crime in this city. We needed to stop him because his aggressive expansion was going to spin the city into a gang war.

“Why can’t you stop?” I blurted, just as we reached the doors of the mansion.

He turned to look at me. “What?”

I pointed at the New York skyline. “You keep taking more territory, getting bigger and bigger. You already control over a third of the city. You’re already the biggest. Why can’t you stop there?”

He frowned, not angry, but concerned. “It never bothered you before.”

“It bothers me now. When are you going to stop? When is it enough?”

His face fell and the pain flooded his eyes, chasing away any trace of blue. God, what happened to him?

“Never,” he said at last. “There is no enough.”

Then he bent down and kissed me. I grabbed onto his shoulders and clung on, wanting to extend the moment. But at last, he pulled away. “I’m sorry, I have to work,” he told me, and walked inside.

I was left standing there with my coffee, the rising wind tugging at my coat. He was trying. He’d shown me a side of him that he’d never shown to anyone else. But he was still Konstantin.

I loved him. But I had to stop him.

I took my coffee up to our bedroom. As I sipped it, I was starting to feel something bumping up against the inside of the lid, blocking the flow. I pulled off the lid and fished the thing out, washing it off and then ripping off the protective plastic bag. I sat down cross-legged on the floor by the window to examine it.

It was a thin, pen-like thing made of white plastic, a bit longer than my finger. It had some sort of sensor at the “nib” end and a little LCD display about halfway along. It had a faintly medical feel, like a thermometer or...there was some other gadget it reminded me of, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“I have it,” I told Calahan. “What is it?”

“It’ll get you into his safe,” said Calahan.

It felt like my heart clenched tight in my chest and refused to pump. I snapped my head around to check the bedroom door was still shut and dropped my voice to a whisper, even though Konstantin was down on the second floor. “I can’t go in his safe!”

The fear sluiced through me like ice water, numbing my limbs until they refused to move. I remembered the look in his eyes, when he’d caught me outside his office. If he caught me trying to get into his safe….

And his anger, and what he might do to me, wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was knowing I’d destroy everything between us.

Carrie came on the line. “We don’t have a choice. Whatever he’s involved in, whatever he paid that guy a quarter of a million dollars to do, it’s happening the day after tomorrow. We have to find out what it is.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said miserably. I tried to tell myself that our happiness was only an illusion. It was all based on a lie. So why did risking it scare me so much?

Konstantin stayed in his office all day while I paced and worried. He even ate lunch in there. Finally, just as the sun was going down, he walked off downstairs. I rushed to the door...and then stood there on the threshold, gripping the door handle. “I can’t do this,” I said.

“Yes you can,” said Calahan calmly. “I’ll be with you every step of the way. I have a guy watching Konstantin through binoculars. He’s downstairs talking to Grigory. If he so much as moves in your direction, I’ll let you know and you’ll have plenty of time to get out of there. Okay?”

I took a deep breath. “Okay.” And I slipped into the study and closed the door behind me.

Everything about being in the room felt wrong. His huge, imposing desk and chair, the scent of his cologne in the air. This was his place, his private sanctum, the one place he’d made me promise never to go….

I hurried over to the safe. The quicker I did this, the better. “What do I do?” I asked, falling to my knees in front of it.

Calahan must have been scared too, but his voice was calm and comforting, exactly what I needed. “You know those movies where the guy opens the safe using a stethoscope, listening for the tumblers? Well, that’s what this thing does. Just put the tip against the safe and start turning the dial. When a bar lights up on the screen, you’ve hit a number right.”

I did as he said and started twisting the dial. I could feel the sweat forming between my shoulder blades. “Nothing yet…” A bar lit up. “Got it!”

“Now back the other way until you hit the next number.”

I twisted the dial the other way. I kept glancing towards the door. Another bar lit up and I reversed direction again. “Where’s Konstantin?” I asked, my voice tight.

“Still downstairs. Don’t worry.” But I could hear the tension creeping into his voice. It hit me that this was just like the hotel in Boston, except now he was the one helplessly observing and I was the one in danger. How did everything get so backwards?

The sweat was trickling down my spine in icy beads. A third bar lit up. I changed direction, my hand shaking. Come on, come on! A fourth bar—

There was a metal clunk. I looked up at the safe in disbelief, then tried the handle. The door swung open. Piles of cash, documents, passports—

A confusion of voices on my earpiece. Calahan’s voice but quiet, as if he was turned away from his mic, and someone else, arguing with him. “What?” I heard Calahan say. “Where is he?!”

I jumped to my feet, sucking in a huge, panicked breath. I slammed the safe shut and locked the handle.

Calahan’s voice, deafening in my ear as he shouted in panic. “Hailey, get out! We don’t have Konsta—”

I raced towards the door. But just as I got there, it swung open and I was face-to-face with Konstantin.