Page 102 of Emerald

My phone rings.

“Max?”

“I’m alone. I’ve gone for a walk in the garden, we can talk freely,” he says.

“I don’t know how to tell you this …” I sigh, biting my lip.

“Whatever it is you can tell me. I’m your brother,” he says.

My stomach is full of knots, just tell him. “I found Anna.” The phone goes silent, and then, as if he’s processed it, he starts celebrating. “Max, we can’t tell Sergei.”

“What do you mean, we can’t tell him? That man thinks his daughter is dead. He needs to know she is alive.”

“Max, please … trust me.”

“Is something wrong with her? I don’t understand. Why would you want to hide her?”

“She is married to a cartel leader.”

Max falls silent. “A cartel leader?”

“She has been helping run the Yucatan Cartel,” I explain to him.

“Because she is undercover,” he adds.

“Yes, she is deep undercover. I’m a little worried how deep she might be,” I explain.

“Oh.”

“Believe me when I saw her again, I was so excited, but the stories the locals tell about her aren’t good. She is living in the lap of luxury, I don’t think her security is that tight, she has real power here, men kneel before her.”

“Isn’t that what she is supposed to do undercover?” he asks.

“Yes, it’s just a feeling I’m getting. I don’t know if she’s the Anna I used to know.”

“You’re not the Elena I used to know either, but I still love you.” Max’s words are like a dagger to my chest.

“I changed that much?”

“Elena, you are a government weapon, not the sweet, naïve ballerina from Sochi that I said goodbye to. And I’m sure Anna is the same.” Maybe he’s right. “How is she? Is she okay? Does she ask about her father?”

“She is excited to be coming home. I’m bringing her home. We are just finalizing the plans.”

“Sergei is going to be so happy.”

“Please, Max, don’t tell him incase …”

“You don’t think you’re going to be able to bring her home?” he asks.

“I will try my very best to save her, but she is constantly surrounded, plus we have to somehow extract her without her husband waging war against us.”

“You think he would care if she disappeared?”

“I think he actually loves her, so yeah, he will be upset if she vanishes,” I explain.

“Fuck,” he curses.

“It’s delicate and I don’t want Sergei to get his hopes up. You know he would be on the next flight down here and he would compromise the mission,” I state.

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