I shook my head. “You’re horrible,” I stated once we turned the corner.
The elevator dinged its arrival. I jumped, not realizing she’d pressed the button to call it. Neither did I realize I’d been standing so close to it.
“Humph,” Yolo simpered, not noticing or pretending not to notice my startled reaction. “I didn’t see you setting them straight, ma petite. I know you saw my smile and realized I only teased. Why did you not come out and put them at ease?”
My shoulders bounced in a shrug. “I have my reasons.”
She turned to me. “Callie… I want to apologize for how I behaved when you first joined our team.” She scowled at me when she caught me about to shake my head. “Non, do not argue with me. I realize you know now that it all stemmed from a place of concern for my sisters on the Cardinal Team. We’d dealt with a situation very similar to yours when Natasia broke away from her corrupt father. Russian mafia came after us in an endless line of attacks. Looking back, I do not know how we survived.”
I’d had the displeasure of meeting Vasily Petrova, Natasia’s cold-hearted father. I cleared my throat. “I understand why you were so wary, believe me, I do. At least you knew Petrova cared about Natasia in his own way and wouldn’t harm her. With Ivanov…”
“Oui, Ivanov’s only concern was to take you down and anyone with you.”
“Like I said, I don’t blame you. You don’t have to apologize.”
“But I do. Despite valid concerns, it took me a while to accept that you weren’t responsible, even as the catalyst bringing the risk. Mon dieu! They kidnapped you as a young child. How could that be your fault? I treated you poorly, so please accept my apology.”
My mouth opened and closed before I shut it and nodded.
She studied me before winking and enclosing me in a gentle hug. My eyelids drooped into a slow blink when I squeezed her back, basking in the moment. The floral tones of her expensive perfume wafted over me.
The bell dinged again, forcing us apart.
I stared at the brightly lit interior and cleared my throat. “I’ll uh… I’ll—”
Yolo’s frown lifted in a second of clarity. “Suit yourself,” she called, boarding the metal box alone.
I shook my head at myself and headed for the stairs.
When I reached the fourth floor and pushed open the door, Triz pounced, jumping into the doorway mere inches from me.
Finding someone as short as me was a rarity—about like finding someone as tall as Brock or Aleks. By some stroke of luck, Triz ended up being nearly the exact same height as me. Her long, luscious curls fanned past her timber brown shoulders.
Before I’d finished opening the door all the way, Triz darted in and snagged my hand to pull me along behind her. “Oh, Callie, there is so much to say but so little time. But it doesn’t matter now.” She tugged me along down the flights of stairs.
Yolo joined us when we exited the stairwell from where she’d been leaning against the wall watching people stroll by.
Triz stopped in the middle of the crowded hall she’d led me to and broke into one of her spontaneous, frequent hugs. Unlike with Yolo, I’d prepared for some random and vibrant display of affection. I didn’t know if it was a Brazilian norm or not, but it was certainly a thing from Triz’s family.
I returned the hug just as tightly, the feel of her luscious locks brushing my forearms. Her coconut scent was cataloged to memory. Normally, engine grease laced the fragrance, but she had called into work this morning to come help out with the training exercise.
She stepped back, all but bouncing with energy. “How lucky that Yolo snagged you away from those icky boys before they got their oversized paws on you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oversized paws?”
She shook off my skeptic look. “Natasia called them that one day after you got home from a date with Brock.”
My cheeks didn’t heat up, but it was a close call.
I clearly recalled the time Triz referenced. It’d been about a week after we returned to the U.S. I’d fallen into a horrible slump. Veseli’s death had been hard on me, and worse yet, I had no idea how to contact Andrea. The despair and guilt had me going through the motions in a facsimile of life when Brock had finally had enough. He marched into my room, scooped me up, and took me to Delta.
He’d plied me with Miss Maggie’s sweet, sugary paninis like they were shots of tequila until I opened up to him. After that, we’d commandeered a couple of treadmills in the main gym as he helped me work out my emotions in a healthier way.
The part that Triz referred to was when we’d made it back to the house much later than expected. Tiptoeing through the dark, unwilling to turn on any lights as if we were teenagers afraid of being caught, he’d walked me to my bedroom door. He’d turned to leave, but I stopped him, overwhelmed with emotion but confident in my desires. I’d taken two large steps forward and pulled him into a kiss that grew deliciously heated, for all of three seconds until Natasia had peeked out of the room next to mine and stopped us in the act.
She’d given him quite the lecture in Russian. I think even Brock’s ears had tinged pink at the tongue lashing.
“Oversized paws” was just one phrase in a long line of creative litanies that would’ve made Corbin and his imaginative alternative cursing proud—if anyone else had been awake to hear it, that was.
To this day, I still didn’t know how my soft call had woken her through a closed door.
“Yes, well, it’s not exactly the nicest thing to describe them,” I cautioned her.
She laughed gaily. “I can handle myself.” She pulled me along once more toward Dr. Harper’s office. “And if not, I will sic my girls on them.” Triz leaned closer. “Between you and me, I think the boys are terrified of our team,” she giggled.
All I could do was smile because it was probably true.
Chapter 2
“S o that’s what I’ve been dreaming about, every single night since Chernobyl,” I summed up while attempting to quell the suffocating ache in my chest that always happened after the horrible nightmares.
Dr. Harper propped his chin up in thought, his salted copper hair shining in the light filtering through his office of windows. Outside, the city of Norfolk bustled about, unaware of the high-tech agency that operated under their noses. Dr. Harper heaved a weary sigh, running a hand over the wrinkles on his face. He’d aged a lot since I met him.
“Your dreams—”
“Nightmares.”
He let out a humorless laugh. “Agreed. Your nightmares are very different from what happened in real life, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
I blinked away the vision of Veseli dying in a pool of his own blood. “I had noticed, yes.”
“And you want to know why.”
My eyes blinked, clearing the budding moisture before it morphed into full-fledged tears. “Well, I’ve been around enough psychologists to take an educated guess at it. I mean, you’ve been meeting with me for our sessions for months, almost a year.”
Dr. Harper leaned back. “My, my… so you think you know all the answers now? Humor me.”