Persevere

Chapter 9

"Surprised darling?" Deckard asked as he flipped a switch.

"They're amazing. Not quite the muscle car that I normally drive but these are definitely beauties. The Cooper is fun, I haven't driven one of those but she's cute." I smiled.

"Wow, look at all these. Somebody's overcompensating." my husband said and it made me roll my eyes.

"If anything, I'm under compensating." Deckard replied.

"And a teeny tiny one. Just your size."

"Used it for a job over in Italy. Shame we didn't need a weightlifting bus driver. Would've given you a call."

"Oh Jesus." I muttered to myself as I looked around at all of the high tech stuff he has in this underground . . . bat lair.

"They've been like this all morning." Hattie said.

"Children, all my jobs surround me with overgrown children." I sighed.

"Drink?" she asked me.

"No, I need to keep my wits."

"Understandable, drink?" she asked Luke.

"Yeah, I'll take a little one." he said, chuckling when she filled the glass to the top.

I'm surrounded by children on every single job. Why does this keep happening to me?

"You mind?" I asked Deckard, raving to play with all the computers.

"Sure." he smiled.

"Looking for anything in particular?"

We huddled together where he told me his plans and what he needed me to do. I can admit, to myself, that he isn't so bad when he's not trying to kill us. I'd even dare say I sort of like him, his cockiness is endearing when it's not annoying and he really is very smart.

"Yeah, her." he said when I pulled up the file with a familiar photo.

"I know her." I smiled.

"How so?" he curiously asked.

"I met her once when I was working on . . . all this was before I met you babe." I said, winking at my husband when he looked over at me.

"Yeah, do I even wanna hear this?" he asked.

"I do." Deckard smugly smiled at me.

"Maybe later, all you need to know is that I know her. I met her while I was on my own during my downtime after Brazil. Well, things didn't add up because that's when my husband found me again." I said, a soft smile on my face.

"I will always find you, woman." he said, walking over to wrap his arms around my waist. "Anything else you're hiding from me?" he asked with a chuckle and I just smiled.

What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

"All right, do you want to share information on this mutual acquaintance of yours?" Hattie asked.

"We have a long history, she's an old friend from Moscow. She and her crew are paying a visit to some locals of a particular Russian criminal element. I had already reached out to her but wasn't sure of her location. Those of the Russian criminal element got things that we're gonna need." he said.

"Considering your history of friends, how many bullets you put in this one's head?" Luke asked, and I smacked his arm so he stepped away from me.

"Hey! They can set us up with gear and I don't hear any other ideas." Deckard argued.

"You know as well as we do, that getting out of this country's gonna be extremely difficult. You already have every major intelligence agency already hunting you down and I'm sure my name will be on many lists now that I left the states. How the hell are you planning on getting to Moscow?" I asked.