THE AIRPORT. The arrest. The interrogation. The rescue. This was the first chance we’d had and I hadn’t realized how much I needed him until I felt his hands on me. As he pulled me onto his lap, I was already stretching up to kiss him, my mouth searching, my hands clutching at his shoulders. Then I felt the hard press of his lips, spreading, demanding, and the pleasure crashed through me, rolling down my body in an electric ripple.

I gasped, frantic and panting. His hands slid over my back and ass and mine traced the muscles of his arms, feeling their warm strength through his suit. We both had to reassure ourselves that this was real, that we were back together.

I didn’t know what would happen next. But I knew I wouldn’t let anything separate us again.

When we finally released each other, I was weak and fluttery. I just wanted to cuddle up to his chest, my head on his pec, and nestle there for a week. Nothing in the world ever felt so good.

“So what now?” Calahan’s voice broke the silence.

Shit. My head jerked up and I looked towards the front seat.

He wasn’t glaring at us angrily. He was staring straight ahead, out of the windshield. That was almost worse, somehow: he couldn’t bear to look. The guilt welled up inside me and I untangled myself from Konstantin. I’d always known there was something, something more than friends, but he’d always crushed it, as soon as it started. Oh, Calahan….

“We need to find out who set me up,” said Konstantin. “We have less than an hour.”

Calahan finally turned around in his seat... and nodded. The tension was still thick between the two of them, but we had to put it aside and focus or we were all going to jail.

“If you didn’t send those emails, hiring the assassin and arranging everything... who did?”

“Maybe you were hacked,” said Calahan.

I shook my head. “It had to have been someone inside the mansion. They told Grigory to get hold of the rifle and deliver it.”

“I don’t understand. No one can get into my laptop,” said Konstantin. “It’s encrypted, you need my ring to get in.”

That was true. I knew from experience how hard it was, I’d barely managed it and I’d been sleeping with him. How could anyone else—

Shit.

A truck thundered past, rocking our parked car, but I just sat there, staring at the other two without seeing them.

“What?” asked Calahan.

I didn’t answer. The suspicion was rolling through me like an oily fog, chilling me as it settled into my bones.

“What?” demanded Konstantin, gripping my arm.

I hadn’t ever considered it. I’d spent so much time feeling guilty…. I looked in the rear view mirror, at the reflection of Christina’s face. Oh God….

I looked at Konstantin. “What if I wasn’t the only one betraying you?” I croaked.

His brows knitted.

I turned to Calahan. Everything was reversing in my mind, every assumption we’d made since the very beginning. “Our whole plan was to impersonate Christina,” I said. “We were so busy thinking about me being the imposter, me not getting caught, we just assumed she was innocent. But what if Christina’s behind this whole thing?”

Calahan and I stared at each other. I’d gotten so used to being Christina, the idea made me feel physically sick, as if I’d done it. I’d thought I’d been impersonating Konstantin’s lover. What if I’d really been impersonating his worst enemy?

“No,” said Konstantin, but his accent had thickened with worry. “How would even Christina get into my laptop?”

“The same way I did,” I told him. “Wait until you’re asleep, then use your ring.”

Konstantin stared at me. “You did that?”

I nodded and hung my head, the guilt eating me up.

“But you barely managed it once,” said Calahan. “Christina would have had to have been on his laptop night after night, checking for mail, organizing things....”

Konstantin suddenly put a hand to his face. “Chert! I’m so stupid!” When we twisted to look at him, he sighed. “When Christina arrived at the mansion, I started to sleep soundly. There were no—” He glanced at Calahan, uncomfortable. Even now, he didn’t want to appear weak.

“Go on,” said Calahan. And I was surprised at how gentle his voice was.

“There were no nightmares,” Konstantin said through gritted teeth.

Calahan just nodded as if he understood.

Konstantin rubbed at his cheeks. “The vodka. Every night, she and I would have a glass—”

“She was drugging you!” I breathed. Suddenly, it was all making sense. I imagined her sitting next to him in bed, the glow from the laptop screen lighting up her face as she wrote emails pretending to be him. That’s why all the emails about the assassination had been filed away in a hidden folder: not to hide them from me, to hide them from him! I let out a groan.

“What?” asked Calahan.

“She was so smart! That email she sent, organizing the payment at the shopping mall: I will send a woman. Don’t discuss things with her, she’s just the courier. She knew law enforcement would find those emails eventually. She set it all up to look like it was Konstantin organizing things, and she was just a pawn. And we bought it completely.”

I groaned again as I remembered sitting in Battery Park with Konstantin and him offering to share all his secrets with me. I could have found out then that he knew nothing about the assassination, but I’d put our relationship ahead of my job. This is all my fault!

Konstantin was shaking his head. “But how did she convince Grigory to get hold of the rifle for the assassin? He must have known that order wasn’t coming from me.”

I winced. Of course: he didn’t know. “Grigory and Christina were—” I swallowed and looked at Calahan. He, too, was avoiding Konstantin’s eyes.

“What?” demanded Konstantin, sensing something was up.

“Christina was having an affair with Grigory,” I said quietly.

“No—” Konstantin shook his head, his face going pale. “Grigory’s been loyal to me for years. He wouldn’t be involved in….”

He trailed off as he saw my mournful expression. Even Calahan looked sympathetic. Konstantin let out a roar and thumped the car’s ceiling, hard enough to leave a dent.

“It wasn’t Grigory’s fault,” I said quickly. “It wasn’t just sex, he was in love with her. I think ever since she came to the mansion. Christina saw that and used it: she seduced him. Told him she’d run away with him, all he had to do was help her frame you.”

Konstantin was staring at the ground, his shoulders rising and falling as he panted in anger. At last, he raised his head and looked right at me. “I don’t care about Grigory,” he said. “I don’t care about Christina. But I do care about—Did Grigory—” His voice caught and he had to look away and take a deep breath. “You were impersonating Christina, did you have to—”

I grabbed his hand. “No! He kissed me, just once, before I could stop him. That’s all. I never slept with him.”

Konstantin sighed and relaxed and a big, unexpected glow soaked through me. It was me, not Christina, he cared about.

“This is why Christina was so scared, when we ran into her in the lobby and she realized you were going to impersonate her,” said Calahan. “This is why she escaped and came to the mansion. She was worried you were going to find out about the assassination and stop it.” His forehead wrinkled. “But then why did she take the deal and walk away?”

I looked at Konstantin. “Because she could tell I—” I swallowed. “That I was in love with him.” Even now, even with all that was going on, saying it out loud was a heady thrill. And Konstantin just stared right back at me, the blue in his eyes fiery, and squeezed my hand and nodded. Then I swallowed and hung my head. “She could see I was past investigating anything. She could see I’d switched sides.”

I closed my eyes and just slumped in despair. I had the real villain right there, and I let her go because I was so desperate not to lose Konstantin—

Someone grabbed my other hand and squeezed it. I reluctantly opened my eyes and saw Calahan. “We’ll get her,” he told me. “And find out who she’s working for.”

I looked between the two men. Things definitely weren’t resolved between them, but there was a sort of truce, for now. And with all three of us... maybe we could catch her. I nodded.

“Where would she go?” Calahan asked Konstantin. “Friends? Relatives?”

“Her father,” said Konstantin. “She visits him once a week. He lives on the Upper East Side.”

Calahan shook his head. “Remember when you went to the shopping mall and I checked Christina’s records to see if there was a photo of her mom? Both her parents are dead.”

Another lie. But—”She did go to the Upper East Side every week, though. I found a parking pass in her purse for an apartment complex called Barlow Heights.”

“Probably meeting the person she was working for,” said Calahan. “Checking in, getting orders. She could be hiding out there now!”

“But it’s an apartment complex,” I said. “How do we know which apartment?”

Calahan cursed under his breath and we stared at one another in frustration. It would be a thirty second job... if we had access to the FBI computer system. But we were fugitives.

“Okay,” said Calahan at last. “I know someone who might be able to find out.” He took out a cell phone. “A hacker group. They’re the best, and I know one of them. If I can reach her.”

“Her?” Konstantin sat forward and narrowed his eyes. “She is one of the sisters?”

Calahan looked thrown, but nodded.

“I know one of them also,” said Konstantin, sitting back in his seat. “They are the best.” He glanced at me, then looked almost embarrassed. “She sneaked into the mansion. Downstairs.”

To the dungeon? That was a story I was going to have to make him tell me. But it could wait.

Calahan’s call connected. “Li—Mary? It’s Calahan.”

A woman’s voice, with a New York accent. “You need a favor.”

A man’s voice in the background, richly Texan. “He always needs a favor.”

Within a few minutes, the phone was on speaker and we were listening to keys rattling. The woman typed so fast, it was almost a continuous buzz. “Most of the apartment rentals look legit. But there’s one, apartment 502, that’s rented by a company in Panama.”

Calahan sighed. “So you can’t give us a name?”

“Pfft.” The woman sounded offended. “What do you think I am? I’m tracing it back...that’s a shell company...that’s a front...hello! It all leads back to a Russian company owned by….” Her voice darkened, as if she knew the name. “Dmitri Ralavich.”