The Dancer

13

"Nico," I demanded. "Tell me what's going on."

I threw my bag into the back and rushed around to hop in the car next to Katerina.

"Why don't we just have Katerina explain," he shot over his shoulder.

I let my gaze fall on her stiff body. Her arms were tightly crossed over her chest and she kept her hard stare on the back of Nicolae's head.

Nicolae sped out of the parking lot and headed back for the highway. He drove only slightly faster than he had been.

"Explain," Nicolae demanded.

She scoffed and mumbled something in Romanian.

"I fucked up," she grunted.

"What did you do?" I asked as calmly as possible.

"I didn't scan the car before I drove to the train station. I was followed and they know where we are."

I clenched my jaw shut because anything that came out of my mouth was going to be a fight. I wanted to call her every name in the book. She could have ruined everything. Carol's life was on the line. My child's life was on the line and she didn't do something as basic as checking the car.

The longer I sat and stared at her, the more angry I got. This was what she was trained to do. If she wasn't so fucking careless, we wouldn't be in this situation. If she wasn't so childish we wouldn't be running in the middle of the night.

But that was exactly what Katerina was: a child. She was barely eighteen and she was entrusted with the responsibility of keeping other people alive. Even though she had training, she was still a child.

I let out a steady breath and released my nails from my palms.

"It's okay," I said quietly.

She whipped her head around to stare at me. The shock that silenced the entire vehicle was damn near tangible. Even Nicolae threw his eyes to me for a moment before returning to the road.

"What?" Katerina sputtered.

"It will be okay. They might know where we are, but they're not here."

"Not yet," she clarified.

"Which means we have time to get in front of this. You made a mistake. It happens."

"I'm sorry, are you high?" She asked in shock.

I rolled my eyes. "You're a child, Katerina. As much as you think otherwise, that's what you are."

"I am not a child," she bit back.

"You're barely eighteen."

"She's right, Holland. There is no excuse for this. She was lazy," Nicolae said.

"If you had known it was going to be this involved would you have brought her?" I challenged.

"No."

"Because she's young and you expect her to make mistakes."

"She wanted this. She pushed to become an agent. Now she will see what happens when agents are lazy."

He hadn't really snapped at me before. Even though I knew he was under a lot of pressure I was still irritated with the tone he used. I knew it was better to address it later. There was no point in pushing him more and pissing him off.

"Fine," I stated despite the fact that it was most definitely not fine.

Nicolae didn't care one bit. He stayed silent and tense. I got it. I understood why he was mad at Katerina, but even I had been too hard on her. She might have been raised to be more mature, but she was still a child regardless of what Nicolae expected.