LOGINOliverThe Brno safe house is a converted farmhouse forty minutes outside the city, set into the side of a low hill.It has a barn that’s been rebuilt as a training space and a kitchen that smells like every meal that has ever been cooked in it. One of Oba's contacts owns it. The contact is in Greece for the winter and the keys live in a clay pot by the front door.Eleven of us spilled out of the van two hours ago, ate a hot meal Dom and Tariq put together while the rest of us hauled bags, and started peeling off into bedrooms by ten. Kir and I have the loft.A long bed under a sloping ceiling. Heavy wool blankets. A wood stove in the corner that’s currently loaded but unlit. A single round window at the gable end, looking out at nothing but black fields and the suggestion of a tree line.It’s like something straight out of a fantasy.I’ve made double sure the bolt on the door is locked.Kir’s at the window with his back to me, watching the yard the way he watches the surroundings
KirOba has acquired a van.It is white, unmarked, fourteen years old, and large enough to seat all eleven of us with cargo space left over. Oba acquires things. The provenance is not always something the team needs in writing."Insurance?" I ask."Insured.""To whom?""A man in Lille who does not exist.""Oba.""It’s fully papered. Plates clean, vehicle clean. We’re a group of people on an extended hiking holiday in the Czech mountains. We even have brochures in the glove box."I suppose we look fit enough to be hikers. And like an extremely eclectic group of friends.Oliver climbs into the front passenger seat without asking. Chana takes the seat behind him. Tariq and Saint claim the row behind that. Dom, Max, Butcher and Ray fold themselves into the third row. Oba and Jozef take the rear bench, where Oba immediately begins arranging a small, tidy nest of snacks, two thermoses, a bag of clementines, and a folded blanket.I drive.We stop at an internet café Oliver has scouted
OliverThe first strike lands across both shoulders and my brain stops working.Not figuratively. Properly. The thirty tails come down in a perfect heavy sweep that travels the full width of my upper back, and every coherent thought I had a second ago goes white. My weight pitches forward against the cuffs. My breath punches out of me. The sound I’ve been holding in my throat finally gets free, low and ragged, into the warm hush of the room.Kir is precise. He’s so fucking expertly precise.The next strike lands a fraction lower, parallel, perfectly stacked. Then a third, lower still, shading the meat between my shoulder blades. He’s laying down a foundation. He’s mapping me.The plug hums against the base of my spine in a low, steady note, and every time the leather lands the vibration ripples up through my pelvis like he’s playing me on two instruments at once.Behind me I hear the soft scrape of his boot on the hardwood as he repositions. The flogger reverses. The next str
KirOliver radios Evelyn at four in the afternoon.He keys the mike from the sofa, legs folded under him, a chipped plate balanced on his knee with the last of the bread and cheese from the safe house. He’s been quiet since we got back from Saint’s apartment. The team is back. The plan is set. Tomorrow we leave for Prague.Evelyn needs to be told."Mother hen," Oliver says into the handset.Static. Then a deep sigh before she responds, "Baby bird.""We’re moving tomorrow."A long pause. The kind that means she has questions she’s not going to ask."I would like to come over before you go," she says. "I won’t stay long. I have something for you."Oliver's mouth tightens. "When?""Within the hour.""Fine."He clicks off and sets the handset on the coffee table without looking at me."You do not have to see her," I tell him. "Yes, I do. If she has something useful, I want to know what it is. And if she has something useless, I want her gone before we leave."He stands up, picks up th
Oliver Dom comes up the stairs at ten past ten. She has a plain canvas tote slung over one shoulder and her dark curls are messier than her usual standards, falling loose down her back. Two weeks of not having to keep it braided back tightly when going into combat looks good on her.When she sees me, something in her steadies. Like she'd been bracing for the worst the whole walk over.There’s a flicker of relief so naked it’s almost painful to watch. She crosses the room without speaking and pulls me into a crushing hug.I return it with full force. I love everyone on the team. They’re my chosen family. But Dom’s special.She was my first friend among them. The one who took a chance on me long before the others were on board. She still acts like my over-protective older sister. Our bond’s only deepened over time.When she lets me go, she goes to Kir, punching him lightly in the shoulder. “Glad to see Oliver didn’t drive you completely crazy during our hiatus.”Kir rolls his e
OliverIt’s six-thirty in the morning and I can’t keep still. The anxiety’s eating me alive.What if everyone didn’t make it?Kir and I are tucked into a doorway off a cobbled alley.He’s shielding me with his body, reading the street while pretending to check his phone. My eyes cut past his shoulder to the wall opposite where he pointed out a marking.Third brick up from the foot of the drainpipe. Fourth brick in from the corner. A tiny blue chalk mark, no bigger than a thumbnail.Someone got here before us. Someone left a sign to let us know they’re alive."Watch for shadows," Kir murmurs.He crosses the alley in three easy strides. I follow him across, stand watch while he crouches and runs his gloved fingertips along the mortar below the marked brick. Something slides out of a crack. A crushed cigarette filter which he pulls apart with steady fingers.There’s a rolled strip of paper inside, a tiny square with words on it that I can’t make out from up here.Kir reads it witho
KirillI’m not sure what the time is, but I know it’s very late.Shadows stretch across the vaulted ceiling of the master suite, shifting slightly as the wind rattles the heavy glass of the windows.Beside me, Oliver is dead to the world.His face is mashed into the pillows, his long limbs tangled
OliverThe firm mattress barely dips as my back hits it, sending me a few inches up in the air again before I settle.Sprawling out, the cool air of the bedroom washes over my flushed, damp skin. Kirill towers over the edge of the bed, staring at me like I’m some amazing new species he’s just disc
OliverThe haze of arousal is thick and suffocating, drowning out every rational thought in my head.Heat pools heavy and demanding in my stomach. It’s a desperate, throbbing ache that the silicone toy is barely managing to scratch. Every stroke of my hand, every slow roll of my hips, is fueled en
OliverI spend most of the night staring up at the ceiling of the guest bedroom, my mind running at a million miles an hour. My body is still thrumming with residual adrenaline. Every time I close my eyes, I feel the phantom weight of Kirill pressing me against the wall. I feel the suffocating h







