Page 73 of Code Name: Harbor

“And we’re a woman down if Connie doesn’t show.”

“She won’t show. I plan on making the run with you. I’ll have Josie stay with someone at Jameson while I’m gone.”

“Nah… I can do it solo. You stick with her.”

The relief I feel at his offer is staggering, and for the first time in my professional criminal career, I realize I’d rather the entire job blow up than leave Josie at risk.

“You sure?”

“I’m good. The figurine’s fourteen inches and twelve pounds. I can stash it, run it, hand it off without Connie. It’s the lightest cargo we’ve moved in eighteen months. If I can’t do that without a deckhand, I should have stayed in the navy.”

“You should have stayed in the navy. It’s far more honest work than this.”

“I was bored in the navy.” He flashes me a wide grin. “Plus the pay can’t compare.”

“It’s not always about the money, my friend. You’d have made chief by now.”

“I’d have made chief and divorced twice and I’d be drinking myself stupid in some bar in Bremerton instead of doing this with you. Pass.”

I let myself smile.

It’s the first time it’s happened since I sat down at this table but it’s short-lived as business creeps back in.

“All right. You run it solo. I cover Josie. If anything moves on you up there, you abort. I don’t care what the broker says, I don’t care what the contract says. You abort and you come home.”

“Understood.”

“And I want you packing at all times.”

If Connie went to Mikhail and gave him Josie, it means she’s inadvertently giving us all up. He’s going to be furious because bottom line is that I’m now standing between him and the woman who can put him in a federal cell, and there is no version of Mikhail that lets that stand. He’ll come for Josie and he’ll want me dead as well. Marcus is a soft target, so he’s in equal danger.

He reaches inside his jacket and pulls his SIG P226 from the shoulder holster. He sets it on the chart table next to the coffee thermos.

“I’m covered. No need to worry about me.”

I turn my coffee mug a quarter rotation, a habit I developed when I’m thinking through something that weighs on my mind.

“I told Josie,” I say.

Marcus blinks at me in surprise, because he knows what I’m talking about.

“Everything. After the gallery. I told her about Jim and what I really do for a living. All of it.”

He’s quiet for a long beat. “That’s a hell of a thing. It means you trust her.”

“Yeah. I trust her the way I trust you.”

Marcus nods in understanding. “How did she take it?”

For the second time, I smile. “She didn’t even flinch. Just put her head on my shoulder and told me she was falling for me. Smuggler and all.”

“Dude,” he drawls, thumping his fist once against his chest. “That got me in the feels.”

“Fuck off,” I mutter. But then my eyes lift to his, locking hard. “She asked me if I’d ever walk away from this.”

Marcus goes still. “What did you tell her?”

“I told her I don’t know yet. But I need you to know, I think I’ve found something I want more than I want this.”