Dangerous Allies. Renee Ryan

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СКАЧАТЬ and gauge what she would do if she ended up in a crisis. “This mission depends on your quick reflexes and ability to think on your feet. For at least five minutes you’ll be alone inside the Kriegsmarine headquarters.”

      “I’ll only need three.”

      He did his best not to react to her bravado. “Wrong attitude. You can’t be impatient. Impatient equals careless. And careless equals one dead female spy.”

      A nerve flexed in her jaw. “Have I given you the impression that I’m stupid?”

      “One mistake is all it takes.”

      “It won’t be mine.”

      She returned to clenching her teeth.

      He returned to holding on to his temper.

      “Fancy words, Kerensky. Will you be able to back them up?”

      He didn’t know her well enough to judge for himself. And for five long minutes he would be unable to control the situation, unable to protect her if Admiral Doenitz awakened. Jack knew she was hiding something from him. And he thought he knew exactly what it was.

      Heredity.

      If he was right, the woman could not be caught. Ever.

      He knew what they would do to her, where they would send her.

      No emotion. He reminded himself of his personal motto that kept him alive. Nothing personal.

      Who was he kidding? “How much Jewish blood runs in your veins?”

      Her sharp intake of air was barely audible, but he’d heard it all the same. Already knowing the answer, he found himself holding his breath, waiting for her response to his bold question with a mixture of dread and hope. When she held to her silence, he wondered if he might have been wrong in his assessment.

      Jack Anderson was never wrong. “How much?”

      Her hands tensed on the wheel, the only sign of her agitation. Making a soft sound of irritation, she adjusted herself with a swoosh of wool against leather. “We do not speak of these things in Germany. We do not even whisper them in the dark confines of a car.”

      He had no easy response. She was right, of course. Even if she was only part Jewish she could not reveal such a secret to him.

      No emotion, he reminded himself again. Nothing personal.

      “Consider the subject closed,” he said.

      She locked her gaze with his for a full heartbeat, two. Three. Then she began a very slow, very thorough once-over of him. Since the road ahead of them was long and straight, he sat perfectly still under her perusal. He owed her that much at least.

      Eventually, she turned her head back to the road. “We’re nearly there. Soon, this will all be a distant memory for us both.”

      Jack took a hard breath. He wished he could ignore the risks of going through the front door with nothing more than a loaded gun. This would be a good time for prayer, if he was still a praying man. “Are you sure I won’t fit through the window?”

      She snatched her eyes off the road, looked at his chest and then shook her head. “You won’t.”

      Her voice sounded strong, confident, but she looked bleak. And her hands shook slightly.

      Was she having second thoughts? Had he thrown her off balance by accusing her of being a Jew?

      He knew touching her was a bad idea. Don’t do it, he told himself. She is not a harmless female. Not this one.

      He ignored his own warning and reached out, lightly fingering a lock of hair that had come loose from her braid.

      She took a shuddering breath.

      He dropped his hand. “I don’t like the idea of sending you in there alone.”

      Her shoulders stiffened and all signs of her distress disappeared. “We’ve been through this already. I’m going into that room, end of discussion.”

      “What discussion?” he muttered.

      She flipped him a smug look. “Exactly.”

      “Careful, Kerensky.” Jack jammed a hand through his hair. “You’re treading on razor-thin ice with me.”

      She bared her teeth. “Good thing I’m light on my feet.”

      “You’re a difficult woman.”

      “So I’ve been told.” She cleared her expression and pointed ahead of her. “Look up there, on your right. The harbor.”

      In the next instant, before he could stop her, she swung the car down a dark alley and cut the engine.

      The night swallowed them, pitching the interior of the car into blinding darkness. A hot, nagging itch settled in his gut.

      Unable to make out anything other than a heavy nothingness, Jack squinted into the eerie gloom. Still…nothing.

      A sudden blast of anger left his nerves raw.

      It was too dark. Too remote. Too isolated.

      He’d allowed Kerensky to park the car facing toward the back of the alley. If an ambush awaited them, there would be no getting out alive. Very, very stupid.

      He touched the panel in his sweater where he’d sewn a cyanide pill into the stitching. Trained to choose death over revealing secrets, Jack Anderson knew his duty. He’d seen men with stronger convictions break. He’d seen innocent men break, too. Jack would not join their ranks. Too many lives were at stake. The Nazis could never be allowed to get to the information he had stored in his head.

      Suicide was the only solution. His own damnation was well worth the lives he would save with his permanent silence.

      Tonight, however, there was a woman’s life at stake. He would make sure the choice between disclosure and death never happened. Jack would do what he must to ensure the cyanide pill made it through another mission unused.

      “Turn the car facing out,” he said, his voice flat and hard.

      “What?”

      “Either do what I say, or I do it myself.”

      “I…” She shifted in her seat, then sighed. “Of course. I wasn’t thinking.” Her voice held a slight shake, as though she’d stunned herself with her thoughtless behavior.

      Another act? Or was she still upset over their conversation about her “heredity”? Upset enough to make a mistake in the admiral’s room, as well?

      Before he could question her, she started the engine and put the car in gear. Jack stayed planted in his seat as she made quick work of the direction change.

      Once she threw the brake, a thin bar of light from a nearby streetlight slid across the front of the car’s hood.

      Better.

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