"Stay safe, my favorite Russians."

I could tell from her voice she's injured, and the panic hit me in the gut.

We're still arming up with the incredible armory she dumped in our lap just as we ran out of ammo - a lifeline just in the nick of time.

She always comes through with some crazy scheme to make sure I get out alive.

But this time... this time her plan backfired. Seeing her bolt from the cover of the pallets towards the door, I knew she'd given up on making it out. I could feel it in my bones... she's not expecting to survive this.

"RED!" I hear Aleksandr call out for her the same moment I do.

Grabbing the bag, I throw the strap over my shoulder. Aleksandr and I have each taken two handguns from the options she gave us - and she made sure we had plenty of mags in here to fight our way through an army.

I have a feeling her extra mags are in here too. I have no idea how much ammo she really has left, but given the damage she's done so far it can't be much.

Bolting out from cover, I see she's already taken care of the last of the men who were pinning us down. Aleksandr and I move as one, two sides of the same coin as we've always been, rushing toward the door with a gun in each hand.

"Exit Team Two Clear. We're on our way to the rendezvous."

We each take up a position on either side of the door, glancing into the smoke-filled room where we hear gunshots and screams.

She's clearing the way for us. I can see her outline in the smoke as she moves forward taking out as many as she can, but it's faint and I lose her quickly in the smoke.

"Pakhan!" I hear Boris in my ear, "The men that were headed your direction are heading toward the explosion at the wall. If you go right now, you can make it out!"

She did it. Her crazy ass plan worked.

Aleksandr and I crouch and carefully enter the garage, staying low to avoid stray bullets. The shooting has stopped... where is she?

"Where's the assassin?" Denis' sounds tense, but he's trying to stay composed.

He's developed a bit of a crush on our little assassin, I think.

"Lost visibility," Aleksandr grits out, trying to keep his voice down as he and I move into the room.

The fire is raging just like we planned, but now that we're back in the room the heat and the smoke are burning my lungs and making my vision blur.

"Where the fuck is she?!" I rage.

I hear Italian coming near the door and there is just enough movement in the smoke to know she didn't get them all.

"Team One. We're with Exit Team One. We've made it out. We've got all the hostages. Got a few injuries, but we're all alive and on our way to the rendezvous."

Aleksandr fires and takes the guy we heard by the door out as I slowly move along the cars on the side of the garage we left alone. We didn't want to, we simply didn't have enough explosives at the time for all of them. Something I'd been pissed about before, but turned out to be a blessing.

"Ivan... we have to go. Maybe she got out?" Aleksandr coughs beside me, clearly struggling with the smoke as much as I am.

How long before this building becomes structurally unsound?

The frustration is building... I'm not fucking leaving without her, but I also can't risk Aleksandr.

"She's destroyed her ear piece," Boris relays.

"What?! Is she a fucking traitor?" I hear Alexsei growl through the piece, and I'm about to fucking lose it when Boris speaks up first.

"No you fucking moron. Have you not been paying attention? We told you to destroy your pieces in the briefing if you're at risk of death or capture. They can trace the signal back to us if they're smart enough. She's destroyed it to prevent that."

To protect me.

"She doesn't think she's going to make it," Denis whispered.

I don't think he's even talking to us.

"Red!" Aleksandr screams, choking on the smoke.

"Fuck it!" I yell, standing up and rushing forward to check between the rows of remaining cars.

I hear a gunshot ahead and whip my head toward where I know the exit is.

"THERE!" Aleksandr shouts, grabbing my arm and pulling me forward.

I immediately follow his lead. I can't fucking see anything, the smoke has filled the room and the fire is spreading. We have to get out of here before it's too late.

Moments later I see her walking toward the door, slow and stumbling, clutching her side.

A side soaked with blood.

She stumbles and I launch myself forward to grab her before she falls, her gun clattering to the ground as her body starts to give out.

"Fuck! I got her, grab the gun!"

Aleksandr grabs her pistol and I lift her into my arms, running at a full sprint out of the building and toward the wall. She's dead weight, but I can hear her breathing... and that's all I can cling to right now.

Boris is right, we don't run into a single person - though we can hear the commotion to the far west of the compound.

"How the fuck do we get her over the wall?" Aleksandr asks, his voice strained as his eyes dart between her and the path ahead.

"I'm going to carry her over my shoulder. You take the bag and go first so I can hand her to you once I'm at the top."

"We have to cut the barbed wire."

"I think she has the cutters on her, when we get to the wall I'll check her vest."

"Leo..." she whispers.

Who the fuck is -

"My name... is Leo."

I choke and almost stumble. Holy fuck... she really thinks she's going to die...

The second we make it to the wall, we pause - which is a damn good thing because I'm winded. The arsenal she brought with her weighs a fucking ton, and she just ran with it like it was nothing!

I find the cutters quickly, handing them to Aleksandr along with the bag while I adjust her in my arms. I watch as he clumsily climbs the wall in front of us. It's a tall ass, smooth brick wall. I don't know how she scaled it so fast without any kind of real handholds, and it takes Aleksandr easily twice as long as it took her to get up to the top.

After cutting a huge section of barbed wire free, he drops down the other side and it's my turn.

I can hear the commotion behind us... we're taking too long. We're going to get caught if we don't get the fuck out of here.

My hands are slick with her blood, and her weight is awkward over my shoulder... so, I slip down the wall several times having to start over. Each time I do my heart surges to my throat, and I worry we're not going to make it out of here alive.

When I finally make it to the top, I want to pause and let out a sigh of relief, but hearing shouting at the tree line I know we don't have the time.

A gunshot fires and it's clear they're aiming blindly, but it was still too close for comfort.

I quickly hand her down to Aleksandr, earning a whimper when I hold her by her arms. Fuck, I think her shoulder is in really bad shape... but I don't have any other choice.

The second he has her I release her and she slumps into his arms, her eyes closed and her face pale. I think her breathing is slowing... we can't risk the medical setup, she needs a hospital.

We have to risk it.

The second my feet touch the ground, I whip out my phone and follow the ping to the car she's hidden in the woods. I'd have missed it entirely if I didn't have the pin. She's camouflaged it, and in the dark I wouldn't have realized it was even there.

Clever fox...

Aleksandr dives into the back, her still in his arms, as I take the driver's seat and barrel down the dirt road and out onto the main drag. I drive away from the compound as fast as I can manage heading straight for the hospital.

I know it's a risk... but she won't survive without it.

"Stay with us Red," Aleksandr whispers, holding her close to his chest.

He's never really had eyes for a woman before... but she's different. Special. Like no other woman I've ever known. It's clear she's come to mean a lot to him in the short time we've known her.

"We've got Red. We're heading to General - she won't make it otherwise," I tell Boris, letting him know we won't be meeting them at the rendezvous.

"Pakhan, that's a huge risk."

"I know."

"What's the story?" Aleksandr asks tightly, not even arguing.

"We found her in an alley, and we have no idea how she got there or what happened."

"I'm going to wipe the makeup off and strip her gear off."

"Add some slashes to her clothes," I choke out, hating to say it, but knowing it's the best way to explain the weird shit she's wearing, "we'll say her dress was in tatters around her if they ask. They'll assume this was her underclothes."

"Even with that she's not going to look like a rape victim with these kinds of injuries..."

"Yeah, but we also don't want her to look like a fucking assassin."

I hear him silently obeying, and each fabric rip makes me internally wince.

"Fuck! She's... Ivan she's not breathing!"

The panic rises instantly along with the bile, but I push it down as I pull into the ER drop off.

"HELP!" I yell the second I open the door, rushing to the back to grab her from Aleksandr, who hands her to me without delay.

Three people rush out instantly from the ER, one of them turning on their heel and returning with a gurney before I've even made it all the way to the door.

"What happened?" the woman in front of me asks as I lay her down.

"No idea. We found her in an alley like this. Her dress was all ripped up around her. We brought her straight here."

"You don't know her?"

I choke, knowing that even if I say yes they won't tell me anything about her or her condition... but I'll have Boris hack the fucking system if I have to, to get updates.

"No," I say tightly, and she nods as they rush her inside screaming orders and medical jargon I don't know.

I'm left at the door staring after her, knowing there's nothing left to do but hope and pray.

One of the guys tells me to stick around - because they'll call the police, and I'll need to give a statement - before turning on his heel and rushing inside. I nod, but the second he's out of sight I get in the car with Aleksandr and drive off.

"She's at General. Boris, I want to know absolutely everything that's going on with her. Make it happen. We're going to dump the car, have Misha pick us up at the junkyard."

"Da, Pakhan."

"Is she going to make it," Aleksandr chokes, not bothering with English and taking the ear piece out.

I do the same, handing my piece to him.

"Yes. She has to."

I wait a long moment then add quietly, "she told me her name."

His head whips around to look at me, and he pales.

"Leo. Her name is Leo," my voice is barely above a whisper, and I can't help the way it cracks as I speak, "Find out who she is. Quietly. I want to know everything about her within 24 hours."

He stares at me, knowing she wouldn't have given me her name if she wasn't convinced she was going to die... then, pressing his lips together, he nods once.

He may not be Boris, but he has his own means of getting me what I need.

"She's going to make it," I growl.

She has to make it.

--

I stare at the folder Aleksandr brought into my office as I sip my whiskey. Aleksandr sits across the desk, eyeing the folder and clearly deep in thought.

The hesitancy around sharing details seems a bit more understandable now.

Leo Jamison. 36 years old. Trans masc person who made headlines as an author and business strategist for Fortune 500s. Birth name Nicole Jamison, born in South Dakota and raised in foster care as an orphan. Disappeared after aging out of the system until popping back up again on paper with an application for a name change.

Leo enrolled in college and graduated with a master's in business before launching his very successful career, and now works as a VP of Operations and Strategy for - ironically enough - one of my competitors. He's one of the first openly trans people in the US to achieve such a title.

Daughter, Sarah Jamison, currently enrolled at Berkeley on a full academic scholarship in the Linguistics program. He's gone to great lengths to keep that tidbit private, and it's not common knowledge that he has a child.

That... is a lot of information to process.

Die Dame...Leo... never fails to surprise me. I can't help but chuckle.

His original profile is strange though... and I have a feeling that Nicole Jamison is not his real birth identity. The records around it are just complete enough to fool anyone digging, but they scream falsified to a trained eye.

Everything from his name change and degree forward seems standard and legitimate, though.

"Do you think he stole Nicole's identity," Aleksandr asks, not looking up from the folder he's been staring at.

He can't read it from over there, but his eyes are fixed on it as he processes and thinks about it.

"It seems likely. I don't know where he came from, but I do know he's running from something. I'm not sure if this is some witness protection kind of thing or what... but I have a feeling Nicole either died or disappeared, and Leo needed a backstory."

"Do you think WKTA is behind his protection?" Aleksandr asks, his eyes moving up to mine for the first time.

"That would definitely explain a lot," I sigh, leaning my head back against the chair and taking a long drink from my glass.

The whiskey hits just right - the familiar burn helping me clear my mind ever so slightly.

"He always did say we didn't have all the puzzle pieces," Aleksandr murmurs, mostly to himself.

A knock at the door has me closing the file and locking it in a drawer of my desk before I yell, "enter."

Victor walks in carrying two white boxes, one with blue ribbon and one with green ribbon. They're not in the greatest shape. They both look a bit beat up with black scuffs and dents over the surface of what probably used to be very nice looking presents.

I raise an eyebrow at him in question.

"Pakhan... we... we found these in the bag Red gave you. They have your names on them."

My eyes widen as I look at them in shock.

"We... we didn't scan them. I had a feeling you wouldn't want to wait. It's against protocol but-"

Before he can finish, Aleksandr has snatched the green one out of his hands, clutching it so tightly his knuckles have turned white.

Victor nods, walking forward and handing me the other. Then, without another word, he leaves - closing the door softly behind him.

I meet Aleksandr's eyes, before untying the ribbon and opening the box.

Inside is a small note laying on top of grey foam.

Ivan,

By the time you read this, I should be gone. I want you to know I didn't want to leave, but I had to. Not just for my safety, but for yours.

I wish I could stay. I wish I could tell you everything. I wish I had a heart left so I could give it to you.

I want you to know that if I had a choice, that's what I would have done.

Instead, I'm running because if I stayed I'm not sure I wouldn't eventually give in and do exactly that.

In my place, I'm leaving you this gift. These were custom designed for you, and will only work for you and Aleksandr.

Stay safe sexiness.

Dame

Leo planned to leave after the job... he was going to disappear.

I have a bad feeling coil in my stomach. I snatch my phone off the desk and immediately call Boris. The second I hear him pick up, I speak - not even waiting for him to speak.

"Boris! Is Red still at the hospital?"

"What?"

"Check! Now!"

The panic is rising. If WKTA is behind his identity... then the second they found out Leo was in the hospital they may help him disappear.

"Fuck. No. Discharge papers say Jane Doe was transferred the second she was stable."

"Where?"

"That's... fucking weird. It doesn't say. Everything else is here. The ambulance was arranged, her discharge details are sorted... but it doesn't say where the transfer was to or who ordered it."

"FUCK!"

I slam the phone down, raising my eyes to Aleksandr who is staring at his own note in horror.

Looking down, I remove the thin foam from the top of the box... reveal two absolutely stunning handguns and their matching mags fitted inside a foam insert beneath it.

They're silver with a vibrant red inlay in the barrel that shows a running fox surrounded by leaves and vines. The style kind of reminds me of old Russian folk designs I used to see on the dishes my grandmother pulled out for special occasions. On the grip there is a black electronic piece that is clearly molded to look like a hand's impression.

When I lift one of the guns and place my hand over the grip, I hear the safety unlock. When I remove my hand, the safety automatically latches back into place.

I choke, staring at them, looking up to see Aleksandr holding an identical set except his is dark grey instead of silver. When he holds the grip, the safety clicks off just as mine did.

They're the most incredible pieces I've ever fucking seen.

"We have to find him," he rasps, his hand shaking as he puts the gun back into its place.

"We will."

I don't know what Leo is running from, but this isn't how this story ends. I fucking refuse.

--

Did you know that voting & commenting on the chapter helps writers on the app out a TON? If you liked this chapter and you'd be willing to vote and/or comment, it would mean a lot to me <3

3097 Words