Page 97 of Code Name: Reaper
“There’s nothing to forgive. I promise.”
As I talked about my childhood, my studies, and my life with the Beaudoins, Anna and Polina listened with the intensity of people starved for details, wanting to know everything from my favorite foods to my college graduation.
“Dorothy sent photos when she could,” Anna said at one point. “Through careful channels of course.” Her voice broke. “I have watched you grow up, but pictures are not the same as holding your granddaughter.”
The door opened, and Katarina joined us.
“Hello, Grandmother.” She kissed Polina’s cheek, then turned to me. “Andcousin.”
I stood to greet her. “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person.”
She hugged me tightly. “Likewise.”
“Lyra, bring in the young man now, yes?”
“Of course, Mama.”
“What is his name?” Anna asked when Lyra left the room.
“Kingston. His code name is Reaper.”
She chuckled. “My husband’s was Minerva.” Her voice turned wistful. “Things were very different from how they are now, where entire identities—families—can be erased as if they never existed.”
“Not erased, Aunt Anna. Hidden. Kept from danger,” Katarina reminded her.
She nodded once. “When Horatio and Mikhail were agents starting their careers, our lives had to be shielded in other ways.Peril—” Her voice broke. “Your mother and father were so young when we lost them. Katarina’s too.”
My eyes met my cousin’s. “The same year. The same way,” she told me.
“While Horatio and Mikhail couldn’t prove it, they knew neither was an accident. That’s when everything changed for us.” She looked over at Polina.
“Our hearts were so broken.” The other woman spoke so quietly I could barely hear her. “And we were so afraid.”
“Redbird—that’s Katarina’s grandfather—and my husband were partners,” Anna explained. “They were among the very best intelligence agents there were. They uncovered corruption within the very agencies they worked for, and that put us all in so much danger.”
Lyra returned with Reaper—Kingston.
“This is my…”
“Boyfriend,” he answered for me, winking. “Please, don’t get up,” he said when Anna reached for a cane I hadn’t noticed. He stepped closer and shook her outstretched hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mrs. Hyde.”
She squeezed his fingers like she had mine. “The pleasure is mine, Kingston. And you must call me Grandmama.” She looked from him to me. “Both of you. I sense your boyfriend will soon be joining our family as well.”
I felt my cheeks flush and thought about his earlier words. “Whatever your family needs, whatever this mission requires, whatever dangers come—I’m with you,” he’d said. Had he meant as more than colleagues? When I met his gaze and, in it, I saw the same depth of love I felt for him, I knew he had. “I was telling Charity about the days when Horatio and Mikhail first discovered Argead,” my grandmother continued while Katarina introduced him to Polina. “After the accidents, that is when we moved here, to Switzerland.”
“This estate belonged to my mother’s family,” Lyra added.
I turned to Anna. “Is your family Swiss?”
“We are British by nationality, but we had homes in various places around the world.”
“It was one of the reasons we went into what was tantamount to hiding. The wealth meant all of us were even more at risk. Not only from Argead, but from anyone who knew of it and saw it as an opportunity to exploit,” Lyra explained. “My father and Uncle Mikhail believed we were safest here.”
“That must have been difficult. The time apart.”
“It was. Polina and I worried endlessly. More so when Eleanor, Edgar, and Lyra announced their intention to follow in their father’s footsteps.”
“Eleanor joined the CIA, Edgar joined MI6, and you joined the NSA. Is that right?” I asked Lyra.
