Chapter 128
**Hadassah POV**
I fling the covers off me as I scramble out of the bed to dash for the door. I almost rip it open just to silence Emilia that much faster. She looks back at me amusedly and pokes her head inside to catch a glimpse of Sasha and Anya still passed out on the bed.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake up the girlfriend and kid.”
I shove her out of the doorway before I step out to close the door. She snickers obnoxiously as we make our way back to the room. And I see newly bought burner phones on the bed, unpackaged. I come inside so I can dump myself on the edge to examine her early morning purchases.
“Reached out to my handlers—William and Sophia.”
I give her a curious look.
She responds with an indifferent expression. “Aliases, obviously. The agency can’t openly support me—to their ethos and legal constitution. I’m worse than a defector. I’m a dangerous rogue.”
My lips quirk with the barest of smiles. “You kinda are.”
“Because of you,” she’s quick to point out. “I contacted them and they are sending a transport to pick them up in under eight hours. So it’s best we’re long gone when they get here.”
I nod slowly.
“Unless you want to take Sasha with you?”
I stab her with a look that makes her hands fly to her shoulders. “Just kidding, I know your type skews towards the morally gray.”
I stand up to make a start for the bathroom. “I’m going to go shower.”
“Wait.”
I stop to spin around to look back at her expectantly.
“You’re not going to say goodbye?”
“I kind of already did,” I say with a tired shrug. “Another face-to face, it’s just going to make it harder than it needs to be.”
“If it were me, I’d hate you,” she says bluntly.
“If it was you, I wouldn’t care.”
Emilia rolls her eyes, and I resume my way to the showers.
***
“I thought you didn’t care.”
I crest the hilltop, high enough to have an expansive view of the sparse urban sprawl. I draw the binoculars to my eyes to observe the transfer from its lenses. A convoy of vans with British agents in the parking lot, helping to usher the girls from their rooms to the inside of the vehicles. None of them are fettered, and the agents are being rather respectful from what I can just make out from their expressions and gesticulations. My eyes fall on Sasha and she’s holding Anya’s hand. Both of them are looking around frantically. A twinge of guilt but I try to brush it aside.
It was for the best. They will be safer with them than us.
I drop the binoculars away so my hand hangs by my side. I turn away to see Emilia leaning against the flank of the station wagon we stole and that she hot-wired. Clad in cheap black leather with her arms crossed, looking back at me inquisitively, sheets of her hair tucked behind her earlobes.
“What?”
She shrugs innocently. “Where do we go from here?” She perks up dramatically. “Wait, no. I know this part. Is this the part you advocate that we return to Torin? Because we need him and his resources?”
“Yeah, hell no.” I turn away to stare wistfully at the distant motel. “The most dangerous place on Earth is being in Orian’s way. But Torin… he’s a snake under grass. He’ll strike while you’re looking. I still stand by the point that combined. We have a bigger and better shot of recovering all the books. My fear is the end looms greater—that I won’t be able to just walk away once this is over.”
Emilia lifts an incredulous brow. “It took you that long to figure that out?”
My face deadpans. “No, Acheson. It’s just that I thought I’d be able to handle it when the time came. But that was my first mistake, and my second was underestimating him. Just because Orian is more formidable, doesn’t mean Torin is without his cruelties.”
Emilia leans back against the passenger door and crosses her arms again. “Look who’s joining the rogue side.”
I point at her with a warning finger before I drop it.
“Hey, I’m just saying. Glad to know you came out of his spell.”
I gape at her. “I was never under his spell,” I spit out.
“You were under his spell, so of course you’d say that,” she says sardonically. “The point is now, you will have both of the Moon brothers after you. Are you ready for that?”
“Another reason why I chose to stay with Torin.”
“Rather a demon than the devil?” she says jokingly.
“He was so close to getting us, this time,” I say somberly. “Just like with Moretti. He was seconds off. How the hell is he able to track us so precisely?”
Emilia contemplates, thinking it over with a confounded head shake. “It doesn’t add up. I mean, Torin worked for Orian for years. Is it possible that knowledge of former operational networks were entangled?”
I shake my head. “No, he disconnected everything, all of his systems before the divergence. Long before. If it was a breach, it would be invasive not intrusive. Calum could figure that out. The problem is getting him out.”
“We have a lead on that,” Emila says with a chip of cheer in her voice. “When I made a forex transfer to withdraw the funds. It must have alerted him, so he knows that we are here—at that motel.”
“What good is that if he has Torin and his death squad are around him twenty-for-seven?”
“Calum will have to play it risky,” she says with an exaggerated shrug. “He can concede our location because that will likely get him and the rest of them. This side, with him. Which is perfect because we can bait them here and slip Calum out before they can get a whiff of us.”
I nod theatrically. “Brilliant plan. But I’m interested in the nuances like how the hell are we going to get that done with just the two of us?”
She lifts herself off the car to open the passenger door. “Easy, you’re the bait,” she concludes before she settles onto the seat.
My eyes narrow and I recede with one last lingering look before I hop into the driver’s side.
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