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Jack lifted a shoulder. “You didn’t need to know.”
“Like hell I didn’t.” I blew out a breath. “We’re supposed to be in this together.”
Jack went quiet for a long time, and we were pushing through the hospital’s exit doors before he spoke again. “We should pack when we get back to the hotel. I’ll text the pilot to let her know we’ll be ready to leave in a couple hours.”
I tried not to take it personally that he was keeping things from me—I’d already known he was—but it still felt like a stab to the heart. Instead of telling him that it was important to me that he trusted me, I just nodded. In Jack’s defense, there had been very few, if any, times since I’d known him that I’d proven he could trust me.
That needed to change.
Starting now.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
JACK
The flightto Prague was fast. It barely felt like we’d taken off, and we were landing again, which was a welcome reprieve. I barely had time to hate being up in the air before we touched down again.
Cal slept during the short flight, and maybe it was weird, but I watched him sleep. I knew he was angry. I’d basically stonewalled him, refusing to give him any additional information, and he hadn’t spoken to me since we’d left the hospital in Venice.
Unlike in Venice, there was no one waiting for us at the private airstrip in Prague. Instead, Reuben’s pilot handed me a small padded envelope that contained keys to a car that was parked at the private airport and a set of keys to a town house with a note saying the fridge was stocked.
“Looks like we’re staying in town.” I palmed the keys, and Cal looked my way. He made no effort to grab the keys.
“Okay. Do you know how to get where we’re going?”
“No, but I have this.” I held up my phone, then punched in the address on the little slip of paper. “We’re twenty-five minutes out.”
The sun had already set, leaving behind a chill in the air and making me grateful Reuben had thought to order us sweaters. It took only a second to load into the car, and then we were off. Navigating the unfamiliar roads reminded me of too many jobs in too many places I’d only ever seen under the cover of darkness. Instead of unsettling me, it made me feel like I was back on solid ground. While Cal thought I liked sitting around in broad daylight watching a target, I was actually much more comfortable in the dark.
Like the flight, we made the trip to the town house Reuben had secured for us in silence, the tension between us growing with every moment that ticked by, until I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to tell Cal why I was there, why I’d agreed to work with him on this op, but the words wouldn’t come.
When I finally opened my mouth to speak, Cal beat me to it.
“Do you and Reuben have a plan for how we are going to approach Vlk Mazal? Is it more wait and see?”
I flexed my hand on the steering wheel, and the gold fake wedding ring caught the blue light from the dashboard, distracting me for just a second. “No, but let’s talk about it in more depth when we get to the town house. Reuben sent me some footage from the last week we need to review.”
“We?”
“Yes. He sent the file to my encrypted server while we were en route, and I figured it would be best to look at it together.”
“Why?”
“I want your insight. Reuben has been watching Mazal for a while now. He’s taken control of several train yards and has been running shipments in and out of Prague via Bratislava, but he’s recently increased security at one of the yards.”
“Because he’s moving priceless art or something else?”
“That’s the question.” The GPS told me to take the next right, and I signaled to make the turn, even though we were the only car on this stretch of road.
We fell silent again until we arrived at the town house that sat at the far edge of the city where the buildings were more spread out. There was an alley behind the row of town homes, and the note Reuben had left with the pilot said there were two parking spots behind the town house we could use. I found them and parked. Cal was out of the car before I’d unbuckled my seat belt, and I wondered if it was because the weird tension between us was getting to him too.
“This is really nice.”
I studied the rear of the yellow and red brick building. Judging by the number of windows, the town house was three stories tall but not very wide nor very deep.
“Let’s go inside and see.”
