“There’s something you’re not telling me!” Natasha said.
“I used my get-out-of-jail-free card.”
“Your what?” Julius and Natasha asked in unison.
“During a vulnerable time in Dahlia’s life, she met a man whom she thought she was in love with. He trained her into the ruthless, cold-hearted killer that she is today. Or at least set her on that path. Soon after I left Dahlia in Bratislava, she moved in with Sarrin. Started taking mercenary jobs, honing her craft while taking out some of the most dangerous people on the planet,” Alexei said.
“I still don’t understand why she owed—”
“I was just getting to that,” Alexei interrupted. “Several years later, Dahlia got captured in Africa. Somehow she was able to send a message to Sarrin, who contacted me. I agreed to help. I got her out of there. During our escape, we were intimate for the first time in years. I got her back in one piece. We kept in touch for a short time after—long enough to develop a digital dead drop system. She owed me, so I could ask anything of her, but there was one catch. After she made good on the promise, I could never contact her again. After that, she gave birth to Hunter; and that was the last time we saw each other,” Alexei said.
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“That must have been around the time you found me,” Natasha said.
“Da, you could say that. Without Dahlia, we might have never met.”
Natasha didn’t respond. She seemed to be in deep thought.
“Dahlia changed while Sarrin was around. She is cold, calculating—not the person I once knew. The sweet, idealistic girl I met in Prague is long gone,” Alexei said.
“What is Dahlia going to do for us?” Natasha asked.
“Information-sharing between our respective groups. But we might need to go beyond that,” Alexei said.
Natasha raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“We might need to form a partnership if we have any chance of defeating Jeremiah. And there is also the matter of Gregor,” Alexei said.
“I will watch your back,” Natasha said.
“I go, too, boss,” Julius agreed.