"And you found this in your flat?" Zak asked coldly when I handed him the note.

I was at the Brasserie again, ready for my shift, yet the note had not left my side. I didn't know why I'd decided to give him the missive and show him the footage from my flats' camera feed, yet something had made me reach out and trust him.

"You're not going back to that flat again," Zak said flatly, his voice returning to the cold gangster's voice. "You hear me, Oleksandr?"

I startled a little at the use of my full - cover - name and once again, I thought of my own father, whose name really was Oleksandr. I couldn't admit to that so ploughed back into the conversation and hoped that Zak had not noticed my hesitation.

"And where do you suggest I stay, Zak? Here in the restaurant? With you perhaps?" I asked, more sarcastically than I'd meant.

I waved an apology at him yet Zak had not taken any notice of my sarcasm. Instead, he seemed to treat it as par for the course.

"Yes. You are staying with me," he said firmly. "At my house in High Beach. This is a threat. Because you're running with me. "

Briefly I wondered if the figure in my flat had been Zak, forcing me to run into his arms, yet the man in the flat was not the right build for Zak. The unknown figure was too short for a start and not muscular enough.

"Have any regrets yet? Through running with the devil himself?" Zak asked as he stared at me.

"The devil? You're hardly that, Zak," I scoffed.

Zak tilted his head towards me in a sign of gratitude before he countered - "I'm no angel either. I thought you knew that by now. You've seen some of the shit I'm capable of."

"Hardly anyone is an angel. Not even me," I said bitterly.

Zak's cold expression turned into a brief smirk before he said - "I'd like to see that side one day. "

"You wouldn't," I predicted just as coldly, as I thought of what he'd think if he ever found out I was MI5.

"I'm getting the beginning of it now," Zak said yet he didn't seem perturbed. "The Cossack coming out in you."

That made me smile, which I supposed was the effect he'd been after. Even so, I sighed and nodded.

"Fine. Put me up in your house," I said. "But I do expect to pay my way."

"A gent. I like that," he said. "Honour among thieves, eh?"

"Just honour. No thieves," I said glumly.

"We'll see. And no. I do not accept that gent-like offer. Not this time," Zak said. "You're my partner ain't ya? I'm supposed to look after the man I intend to marry."

His expression had fallen into teasing and light-hearted lassitude again and I laughed before I said - "I'm no wilting flower, Zak."

Zak's eyes ran over me and he said - "I can see that. Still. I don't expect payment. Not of the monetary kind at any rate."

He leered even as I suddenly grinned at his off-colour comment yet couldn't think of a suitable riposte quick enough. Zak seemed to take my brief hesitation as an agreement for he stood and clapped his hands together as though we'd brokered a deal. I wondered if perhaps we had after all.

"Go back to your flat, grab a few clothes yet leave everything else. It could be bugged. Or poisoned or something. No wait. Go buy yourself some clothes," Zak said. "Some new ones. Just in case. And no, I won't offend you by offering to buy them for you even though I can afford them. I have a sense you'll argue with that."

"And your sense was right," I said. "You'll probably doll me up in bloody Gucci or something, I ain't a Gucci man."

"You could be," Zak said as he gave me an appraising look again. "It'd suit you."

"I'm sure I'll be wearing Gucci on our wedding day," I sighed. "As long as it's not a bloody dress."

That did it - that made Zak laugh out loud.

"You're too beefy for a dress," he observed. "You'd look like a gorilla in lace."

I rocked back in my chair, surprised into guffaws of laughter by his comment.

"Not so much of the gorilla, you," I countered as I continued laughing. "I'm not that hairy."

"I wouldn't know first-hand. Yet," Zak said meaningfully as he leered at me.

"You will," I sighed. "And I'll say then that I told you so when you find out I'm not as hairy as you seem to think I am."

"I'll hold you to that," Zak said and smirked.

I nodded and smiled in return - I was too used to his incorrigibility by then to even bother framing a response to it anymore. I then sighed again and climbed to my feet wearily before I excused myself to buy some new clothes; I barely had time to get to the shops and back before they closed after all. Zak even let me borrow his Z4 for the trip which made me feel incredibly privileged; this was even though the Romford Market was only just down the road from the Brasserie.

****

Zak was waiting for me at the restaurant when I returned, and whisked me back to his place once more. He offered a place in his bedroom at first with an amused look in his eyes yet I studiously kept to the same guest bedroom that I'd stayed in before - which he suspected I would do. He didn't seem offended and seemed also to honour my choice.

We then returned to the restaurant for the remainder of that evening's shift.