Page 2 of The Gentleman

Her muscles protested as she lowered it to the table and flipped it open. Her laptop blinked awake, the screen glowing blue. Layers of security peeled away—retina scan, voiceprint, rolling pass phrase keyed to a three-day cycle.

Once cleared, she accessed the file she’d been working on all day. INTEL CASE 6R/AD-RAPTOR, Classification: Top Secret / Eyes Only.

She waited for it to load, checking her phone while chewing on a salty olive. No messages. No missed calls. She turned the phone face down on the table. She sighed. Gillian had been right. Her old chief had delivered the truth as she left in disgrace after her relationship with a former agent had resulted in leaked sensitive information.You have to choose, Kat. Love or the job. You can’t serve both masters.

Any relationship Kat had embarked on had been undone by secrets and silence. The inevitability of a job that demanded she vanish for weeks without warning. She’d walked out on three promising men mid-date. None of them called back.

And maybe that was for the best.

Because the truth was that none of them had ever stood a chance.

Not withhimin her head.

Leonid Bychkov.

The man was built like a weapon. All controlled power and sharp edges with a scar that dragged across his left eye. Impossible to forget, although she’d tried. God, she’d tried.

They’d met in Oslo ten years ago—during a hostage extraction gone sideways. She’d been the liaison. He was the operative who’d kept her alive. Somewhere between the gunfire and the fallout, he’d agreed to waffles at the Christmas market.

But he’d never shown.

She’d told herself it was for the best. That getting close to a man like him was dangerous—for her heart and her clearance.

But the job kept throwing them together—encrypted calls when his team needed MI6 resources, intelligence sharing when their operations intersected. A professional, necessary torture.

The last time she’d seen him had been at the Dorchester as they raced to track down Korolov, the rain plastering his suit to the honed lines of his body.

That night seemed like a lifetime ago now.

Yet every time his name appeared on her screen, something twisted beneath her ribs and his voice still did things to her pulse that ten years of distance should have cured but hadn’t.

He was the one man who made her feel like someone worth protecting. Worth choosing. And that terrified her more than any target ever could.

The worst part? She was good at reading people. It was her job. And sometimes—in the pause before he spoke, she heard the cost in his voice too.

But maybe that was wishful thinking. Maybe he’d walked away for her sake. Maybe?—

She stopped herself. She hated maybes.

Either way, it didn’t matter. Gillian had been right about choosing. And Kat had made her choice years ago.

Her phone buzzed. A text flashed across the screen. It was from Jane—one of her team who worked with her under their new section chief. She picked it up, grateful for the distraction.

You still in the office? Can I have a word?

Kat tugged a hand through her hair.It’s always something.

She typed a quick reply:

No, I’m home. Let’s talk tomorrow.

She set the phone aside and stared at the list of files she’d planned to review.

NX 7782. NY 7893… The numbers blurred and she closed her laptop. She couldn’t look at Korolov’s file again. Not tonight. Anxiety was already coiled tightly around her ribs.

A soft weight landed in her lap.

The cat.

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