Free The Spy Wore Red by Wendy Rosnau

Nadja’s mood was in the crapper, and his was no better. But his reasons were better than hers. He was back hunting Reznik, a man he’d already caught once. He never liked doing anything twice. Well, that wasn’t true. There were definitely things worth doing over and over again. He glanced at Nadja’s long legs, let his mind wander for a minute, then his eyes.
    A minute later he was back on track, wondering who had shot at them. He’d changed their flight destination at the last minute, so no one had known they were flying into Vienna except Merrick and Polax.
    He turned his head to the side and the movement reminded him that he needed to tend to his injury. He shrugged out of his coat and dropped it to the floor, then his scarf. Hefting his duffel, he walked into the bathroom, only this time he closed the door behind him.

    Merrick, Tommy and Krandle made their way up the snow-packed trail leading to the cabin surrounded by mountain peaks. The helicopter pilot had set down a quarter-mile away, on the only semi-flat piece of ground they could find.
    The air was crisp and the lake beyond the path was frozen and desolate looking. Winter had definitely come to the Montana mountains.
    Just as they reached the steps, that famous voice that Merrick had always referred to as “the voice that could unsettle the dead” effectively stopped them in their tracks.
    “That’s close enough. State your business where you stand.”
    Merrick could vaguely make out Jacy in the fading sunlight where he sat on the deck in his wheelchair. He wore a sheepskin jacket and jeans and a beat-up cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes. He looked surly and in no mood for company. But then, that was Jacy; he always looked like he had a toothache.
    “I’ve come to ask a favor,” Merrick said as his two counterparts slipped behind him.
    “I don’t do favors. Never really did until Onyxx decided to play dirty. But now I’m done with that. All done.”
    What he was referring to was the way he had been recruited. Onyxx had made a deal to wipe his criminal slate clean if he would come on board. If not, they had been prepared to lock him up and throw away the key.
    “I know that’s what you said you wanted in the hospital, that it was over, you working for Onyxx. At the time I felt obliged to let you have your way. You needed some recovery time.”
    “You don’t see me walking, do you?”
    “So how is it going, the recovery?”
    “Like I said, you don’t see me on my feet, and if that’s what you came up here for, you’ve seen me in this thing, and now you can leave.”
    “I mentioned a favor. It’s not for me. It’s for Bjorn. He’s in the field again.”
    “What the hell is he doing there? I thought Onyxx set him up in a desk job running profiles.”
    “He took the job, that’s true. And he’ll go back to it once…he runs down Holic Reznik.”
    Jacy swore. “The son of a bitch escaped. Is that what you’re telling me?”
    “He escaped,” Merrick confirmed.
    “Who’s Bjorn’s partner on this one, or is everyone on it?”
    “All the boys are on missions of their own. Pierce is in Hungary, and Ash is in Mexico. Bjorn has been teamed up with an agent from Quest.”
    “Quest? You’re shittin’ me.”
    “No. He’s being backed by a female assassin.”
    “How did that happen?”
    “It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in over a cup of coffee.”
    No invitation inside.
    Merrick tried again. “I hope Bjorn doesn’t do something stupid on this one. He was damn upset when he learned Holic had escaped.”
    “I don’t blame him. I read the report. He’s lucky that he walked away from that last mission. He could easily have been sitting beside me, or dead. Reznik is an elusive son of a bitch. He’s an assassin with more than nine lives. He’s never missed a target.”
    It was all true. Bjorn was going to have his hands full.
    “He’s gettin’ too old for field duty, Merrick. You shouldn’t have let him take the