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"You will never see ain," Vladi to like and respect the man, he fervently hoped that was true This was it When they got out of here, he was giving notice at the War Department He would marry Olivia, they’d ual babies, and he’d sit at his desk every day doing nothing er

He liked boring He craved boring

But boring, unfortunately, was not to be the ord of the rest of the evening…

Chapter Twenty-four

By the ti had returned to Olivia’s feet, and she didn’t have to lean quite so hard on Harry

But she didn’t let go of his hand

She was still in a panic, heart racing and blood pounding, and she didn’t understand why he was speaking Russian or holding a gun, and she wasn’t sure if she should trust him, and even worse, she didn’t know if she could trust herself, because she feared she e, a o of his hand It was, in that terrifyingin her life

"This way," Vladi to the ambassador’s office, where her parents waited They still had a way to go, or so Olivia assumed from the silence in the halls When she could hear the hum of the party, then she would know that she was close

But they were notquickly At every corner, and at the top and bottoer to his lips as he pressed hiainst the wall and peered carefully around the corner And every ti her with his body

Olivia understood the need for caution, but she felt as if so inside of her were about to burst, and she just wanted to break free and run, to feel the air whistling past her face as she flew through the halls

She wanted to go home

She wanted her mother

She wanted to take off this dress and burn it, to wash herself, to drink so sweet or sour or minty-whatever would most quickly wipe the taste of fear from her mouth

She wanted to curl up in her bed, and pull the pillow over her head-she didn’t want to think about any of this She wanted, for once in her life, to be incurious Maybe toht now, she just wanted to close her eyes

And hold Harry’s hand

"Olivia"

She looked over at him, and it was only then that she realized that she had closed her eyes And nearly lost her balance

"Are you all right?" he whispered

She nodded, even though she wasn’t But she thought she ht, for whatever it was she needed to do