Bargains and Betrayals by Shannon Delany Read Free Book Online Page B

hand? One organization manipulating different things?”
    “For a CIA agent—”
    “Maybe I’m not.”
    “You’re quite a conspiracy theorist.” I shrugged and tipped my chair back. “Why does this matter to me? From my perspective, my family has a few specific goals and they appear to contradict yours. We want Mother out. We want Jessie out. We want our family healthy, whole, and sane. I want to be done with all of this.”
    “I want to be done with all this, too.”
    It sounded like a confession.
    “Until I met Leon, I couldn’t imagine life outside the CIA—or whatever organization it is I really work for.”
    “Tired of playing at being a cloak-and-dagger knight?”
    “Tired of running the risk that lies are going to screw up something that could be really great.”
    “You’re in love,” I accused her, kicking my legs up to rest my feet on the table’s edge. “I could ruin you with Leon.”
    “You won’t. You know exactly what I’m dealing with. Lies.”
    I raised an eyebrow.
    “There’s been some chatter.”
    “Terrorist chatter?” I suddenly felt off balance.
    “It’s all terrorist chatter if it might screw up my country. Someone’s looking for you. A woman, from what we’ve gathered.”
    I slid my feet back off the table and set the coffee mug down to make it less obvious my hand trembled. “Does this woman have a name?”
    “Just a handle. The White Crow.”
    I blinked, my most frequent tell, and the reason I was no longer allowed to bet at poker. White Crow was certainly a name Nadezhda would choose for herself. Part of a flock, but set apart. Different in more than plumage.
    “You know her.”
    My throat tightened until words only squeezed out in a whisper. “What intelligence do you have on her?”
    “Very little, but the chatter’s intensifying. She’s planning a visit. She seems anxious to be reunited with you.”
    I glared at the table.
    “So. Love and lies.” She stood. “Maybe we could each do a favor for the other. I’m looking for answers. And the best folks at speculating and researching the supposedly dastardly dealings of the U.S. have traditionally been our old Cold War rivals. You get me info from your contacts and I’ll keep you in the loop about the White Crow.”
    “ Nyet . The only favor I want from you relates to my mother.”
    “From what intel’s passing on to me, your mother—a Mrs. Hazel Feldman —is quite available for visits at the Golden Oaks Adult Day Care and Retirement Home. She’ll gladly read your future with some weird sort of tarot cards, too.” She smirked and, taking a sip of coffee, made a face. “Though it seems her memory about all things oborot is faulty.” She looked at me for confirmation.
    I kept my face free of expression. So the old woman was clever even if she’d been heartless, giving me—her only child—away as a baby to grow up living a life full of lies. I doubted she wondered why I’d never yet visited. I raised and lowered one shoulder.
    “And her lockbox is empty.”
    Because she’d handed over the thirteenth journal to Pietr. “The only favor I want relates to our Mother. Tatiana Rusakova.” The woman who gave us all her last name because Father’s came with a more high-profile and dangerous history. And how many other Americans would know enough to ask about boys and a girl with Russian heritage and the same exact last name? It had been enough to keep our Russian hunters off our trail until I sought them out personally. “I want Mother healthy and out .”
    “You know that’s beyond my control.”
    “Then get us in. Soon.”
    “That, I think I can do.” She dumped the remaining coffee into the sink. Barely touched.
    Such a cruel woman .
    She strode from the room and I heard the door open and close.
    And open again.
    “You really should lock your door,” Wanda advised. “‘What may at first appear a ballsy, self-confident move often equates with short-sightedness and stupidity,’” she quoted