The Double

I heard the door bang open behind me. “That’s enough!” snapped Carrie.

Konstantin’s head snapped up and he glared at his nemesis. She glared right back at him. “Mr. Gulyev,” she said, “if you won’t cooperate, fine. When the assassination happens, I’ll charge you with conspiracy to murder and put you in a deep, dark hole for the rest of your days.”

I slowly stood up, my hand still on Konstantin’s. My eyes stayed locked on his as the realization hit me. I did know why.

I hadn’t been wrong about Konstantin. I’d been right. He wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer.

He couldn’t tell the FBI about the assassination because he wasn’t behind it.

Someone had set him up.

59

Hailey

I POUNDED up the stairs three at a time, too frantic to wait for the elevator.

Carrie had warned me, just before I went undercover, about forgetting who I was. And the whole time I’d been in the mansion, I’d been worried she was right: was I forgetting I was Hailey? Was I turning into Christina?

But I’d had it wrong. That whole time, I’d been me. It didn’t matter what I was called or what I looked like. The person who’d fallen for Konstantin had been me. And it had been me he’d fallen for. And the one time I’d gone against who I was, the one time I’d ignored my gut and tried to be a hard-nosed FBI agent, was when I’d arrested him.

I’d betrayed the man I loved and now he was going to jail for the rest of his life for something he didn’t do.

No he isn’t. Not if I have anything to do with it.

I burst out of the stairwell and sprinted along the hallway. Found the correct room and threw open the door without knocking. Calahan was at a desk, being debriefed by two other agents. All three of them looked at me.

“I need you!” I blurted, my voice raw and shaking.

The other two agents scowled at being interrupted. “It’ll have to wait,” said one. “We’re in the middle of a—” He was cut short by Calahan pushing back his chair. “Agent Calahan, you can’t just—” Calahan got up. “Goddamn it, Calahan, don’t you dare—”

Calahan walked out, shutting the door behind him. Then he turned and looked down at me, ready to help. God bless this man. I led him downstairs and out to the garden: It was the only semi-private place in the whole building. A cold wind was whipping across the open space, sending anyone not in a coat hurrying for shelter. But Calahan stood unflinching, one hand on my shoulder. “What is it?”

I took a deep breath. “Konstantin isn’t behind the assassination. Someone’s setting him up.”

It was the last thing he expected to hear. So many emotions crossed his face in just a few seconds. Shock. Then disbelief. Then anger, that Konstantin had fooled me with a lie, and pity for me that I’d believed it.

“Hailey…” he said gently.

“No! Listen to me! It’s not him! Someone else is behind it and they’re framing him!”

Calahan shook his head. “Then why doesn’t Konstantin just tell Carrie that?”

“Because she’d never believe him! No one will! Except me.” Calahan gave me a look. “I know how it sounds, but I know him. He wouldn’t just murder someone in cold blood, not even one of his rivals.” The wind blew my hair across my face and I shoved it angrily back. “He’s better than that!”

“Hailey, all the evidence points to him. Hell, you found it! You saw the emails he sent to the assassin. You even delivered the money for him. You saw Grigory getting hold of the gun and heading off to deliver it, all on Konstantin’s orders.”

“That’s just it, it’s too perfect! You really think someone as smart as Konstantin would leave that trail? Emails right there on his own laptop? Really?!”

Calahan crossed his arms and scowled. But one thing about Calahan, he’s a champion for the truth. He doesn’t gloss over something just because it’s inconvenient. “No,” he said at last.

“Someone else organized this whole thing.” I told him. “They played us. We were meant to find this evidence, but we were meant to find it after the assassination had happened.”

He glared. I was getting through to him, but he still wouldn’t buy it. He’d had too many years fighting bad guys to side with one. He was willing me to back down. And a month ago, I would have. But a lot had changed. I’d changed. I crossed my arms and stared right back at him. “He’s done plenty wrong,” I said. “But he didn’t do this.”

Calahan narrowed his eyes, rubbed his stubble..., and finally sighed. “Even if you’re right, what can we do? The assassination’s going to happen in less than two hours! We’ve warned Malakov and Baroni that there’s a possible threat to their lives: that’s all we can do.”