“From now on, neither of you goes anywhere without an escort. And you didn’t actually refuse me, so that’s enough of an agreement.” He paused. “Do you remember how grateful you were when I first told you that I was taking you and Maria away from Volkov and Anton? I was touched, even though you diluted a lot of the gratitude with suspicion and lack of trust. But now since I’m going to give you everything you could possibly want in an extraction, I’ll be magnanimous and forgive you for not being equally generous.” He opened the door, and icy air blew into the cabin. He motioned to Jordan below. “Have a good night, Lara.”

“Good night.” She was halfway down the steps before she looked back. He was still standing there. He was not smiling. But there was that same intentness about his expression that he’d had in those last minutes.

“Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay,” he said gently. “I’ll take care of you.” Then he turned and went back into the plane.

She stood there for a minute longer. Why should those few words have filled her with such a glowing sense of warmth and security? If anything, she should have resented them. She probably would if she thought about it. But she didn’t want to think about it. She wanted to keep this feeling of warmth a little longer before she had to face the coldness again.

* * *

Mallory was on the phone when Jordan opened the door of the office for her ten minutes later. He nodded to Lara and then hung up. He turned to Jordan. “You go back to the plane and get some sleep, since you’ll be doing most of the flying tomorrow.” He turned to Maria. “You’ll have to put up with me for a while longer. I have orders to camp out on the couch in here. Do you need anything?”

Maria turned to Lara. “Do I need anything?”

“According to Tanner, a good night’s sleep,” Lara said, shaking her head. “Though he’s not giving us much time for it. We take off at four in the morning.” She nodded at Jordan as he left the room before turning to Mallory. “I don’t need you. I tried to tell Tanner. He wasn’t listening.”

“He’s like that,” Mallory said. “You just have to give him his way. It’s much easier.” He turned to Maria and inclined his head. “It was a pleasure. Have a good night.”

She smiled. “Much better than I’ve had for the past three.” She took hold of Lara’s arm and pushed her toward the bedroom. “Come along. We need to talk.” She barely waited until she’d shut the door before she leaned back against it, staring at Lara. “You agreed to do this?”

“Tanner says I did,” she said wryly. “I think he may be right. Though he was using everything from the urgency of getting us as far from Russia as soon as possible, to making me promises that he probably can’t keep.”