I’D BEEN THROUGH so many emotions in just a few minutes: panic, guilt, fear. And now, as he tilted my head up and kissed me, hope. It was a tiny, fragile flame: if I even breathed too hard, it would go out. But it was there. I opened under him, desperate to show him this was right, this was real.

He was savage, kissing me with the full force of his anger, wanting to hate me. But I didn’t pull away, I stood there and took it, letting all the rage and hurt boil down into me, Yes. Yes, I lied to you. I lied to you and I’m sorry. My hands were on his sides and I could feel his body tighten and tighten as he fought with himself: he was a hair’s breadth from hurling me across the room, picking up the gun again and shooting me. I sobbed and kissed and prayed….

And at last, I felt his body relax. He gave a low growl and settled into it, one hand burying itself in my hair, the other sweeping down my back and clutching my ass, pulling me into him. The kiss changed, turning soft and slow... and deep. He sought me out and explored me. He’d told me all his secrets, but he didn’t know me at all. Who are you?

I answered, opening up to him, hiding nothing. I was the woman he’d met back in Boston, the one I’d been trying so hard to hide.

And he liked it. The kiss began to move and change, taking on a rhythm, firm presses of that hard upper lip, and slow strokes of the lower one. The room filled with our panting.

He finally broke away and stared at me, his chest heaving. “Glasses,” he said at last. “In Boston, you wore glasses.”

“They fixed my eyes,” I said. My voice sounded weird and unfamiliar. I’d gotten so used to Christina’s.

He stared at me for another few seconds. “I liked you in glasses,” he told me.

A big, hot wave crashed through me. He’d liked me even before—

He put a hand between my breasts and pushed me back against the wall, then scowled down at me. His voice was like granite, telling me this is how it is going to be. “If you ever, ever lie to me again—”

“I won’t,” I said meekly.

He stared at me silently for a few seconds. Then he looked down at the crushed earpiece on the floor. “They won’t just let you walk away,” he told me. “As soon as they realize you’re not loyal to them, they’ll come in here and take you from me.

I went cold inside. I couldn’t let that happen.

“There’s only one way this works,” he told me. “Come away with me, right now.”

My eyes widened as I realized what he meant. “To—”

“To Russia, yes. In six months, a year, we can come back. But for now, we have to get far away from them.”

My stomach lurched. I’d be turning my back on everything and everyone I knew and loved. But we’d be together. It only took me a second to decide.

I nodded.

“Pack a bag, quickly. We might only have minutes. I’ll have the jet made ready.”

He gave me one last kiss and hurried off. I stood there frozen for a second, struggling to come to terms with how much had changed in such a short time. My eyes fell on the bullet hole in the wall. We’d come that close….

I shook it off, ran into the closet, and grabbed Christina’s suitcase. I started throwing in clothes. I felt different. Lighter. Even my tooth had finally stopped hurting. This is actually happening. Everything’s going to be okay. We’re going to be—

A phone rang. But not Christina’s phone, or Konstantin’s phone. I didn’t recognize the ringtone and it sounded muffled. On the second ring, I lifted up the suitcase because it sounded like the phone was underneath it. But the ringing lifted, too. The phone was inside the case.

I opened up the secret compartment Calahan had shown me. And underneath my FBI badge and my gun, I found a pocket. With shaking hands, I pulled out a cellphone, attached to a power bank that had kept it charged. It had been sitting there this whole time, and there was only one person who could have hidden it there.

I pressed the button to answer the call and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hailey,” said Calahan. “What’s going on?”