Mikhail yanked her to his chest, turning her so she was a shield in front of him. He placed his hand at her throat and squeezed lightly.

“That’s why you wore a mask. You knew Flyte and I saw your face in Belarus.”

The hand at her throat tightened, and she struggled to breathe, clawing at his hand.

After a long moment, his grip relaxed, and he said. “I was hoping you would come. I was hoping you would watch as I do to your lover and child what you did to mine.”

She studied Xavier’s face as he inched closer through the forest, his gun drawn but not pointed at Mikhail, as that would mean pointing it at her.

He avoided looking at her. His face was stone-cold operator. Deadly intent on the man who threatened to crush her windpipe.

“You hurt her and there is nothing stopping me from tearing you apart.”

“So be it. I’ve already died once. Hanged myself.”

“You shot your minion with a nail gun days before you hung him, so it would have time to heal, as your wound did. How did you get him to agree to that?”

“I paid him for the initial wound. Told him I wanted him to be photographed with the wound visible after taking the ferry to Victoria. Once he was in Canada, I promised to get him on a private boat and smuggle him out of the country.”

“Then, after the puncture wound healed enough, you killed him and the other mercenaries in the RV,” Xavier said.

“I still don’t understand,” Audrey said. “Why were you in Belarus? Were you trying to rescue Katerina too?”

“No,” Xavier answered. “He was her captor. The one who abducted her.”

“Her father hired his daughter’s abductor to get his revenge against the SEALs who tried to rescue her?”

“I was an employee of Grigory Laskin already,” Mikhail said.

He was clearly pleased to get to share this. But then, he wanted Xavier to know exactly why he was here. Wanted to draw out Audrey’s pain as Xavier watched.

“She and I fell in love, but we knew her father would never allow it, so she came up with a plan that she would be abducted. Eventually, her father would pay the demanded ransom, and she and I would disappear together. But instead, her father was turning traitor against Russia and used a potential alliance with the US to pressure your government to rescue her.”