Free Claim Me by Anna Zaires Page A

of all of Mary’s relatives, beginning with distant cousins and ending with parents. I don’t make a single mistake, and when he leaves that day, I know my hard work has paid off.
    My boss believes I’ll make an excellent Mary Becker.
    The next morning, Obenko drives me to the airport, dropping me off at the Departures area. I’m Elena now, so I’m wearing the wig and high-heeled boots that go well with my dark jeans and stylish jacket. Obenko helps me load my suitcases onto a cart before driving away, and I wave him goodbye as he disappears into the airport traffic.
    The minute his car is out of sight, I spring into action. Leaving my suitcases on the cart, I run to the Arrivals area and grab a cab.
    “Head toward the city,” I tell the driver. “I need to pull up the exact address.”
    He starts driving, and I take out my phone. Opening the tracking app I installed a couple of days ago, I locate a small red dot heading toward the city a kilometer or two ahead of us. It’s the tiny GPS chip I surreptitiously placed in Obenko’s phone back at the safe house.
    I may have no intention of carrying out the Istanbul mission, but I certainly found use for the surveillance equipment UUR gave me.
    “Take a left here,” I instruct the driver when I see the red dot turning left off the highway. “Then keep going straight.”
    I give him directions like this until I see Obenko’s dot come to a stop in the center of Kiev. Telling the driver to stop a block away, I take out my wallet and pay him; then I jump out and walk the rest of the way, keeping a close eye on my app to make sure Obenko doesn’t go anywhere.
    I find Obenko’s car in front of a tall building. It looks like some kind of office space, with an international corporation’s logo blazing at the top and the first floor occupied by businesses ranging from a trendy coffee shop to a high-end clothing boutique.
    Slowly, I approach the building, scanning my surrounding every few seconds to make sure I’m not being watched.
    What I’m doing is a long shot: there’s zero guarantee Obenko will visit his sister any time soon. However, this is the only way I can think of to find Misha. Given their recent relocation, my brother’s adoptive parents are still getting settled into their new lives, and there’s a chance they might need something from Obenko, something that will necessitate him to visit them personally.
    If I follow my boss long enough, he might lead me to my brother.
    I know my plan is both desperate and borderline insane. Since I’m walking away from UUR, my best bet is to disappear somewhere in Berlin, or better yet, go all the way to New York. And I’m planning to do exactly that— after I see my brother with my own eyes.
    I can’t leave Ukraine without making sure Misha is okay.
    Two days , I tell myself. I will do this for a maximum of two days. If I still haven’t found my brother by then, I’ll leave. They won’t realize I didn’t board the plane until I don’t meet my handler in Istanbul in three days—which gives me a little over forty-eight hours to tail Obenko before getting out of the country.
    The dot on my phone indicates that Obenko is on the second floor of the building. I’m curious what he’s doing there, but I don’t want to expose myself by following him in. I doubt my brother’s family is here; Obenko would’ve relocated them out of the city—assuming they’d lived in the city before. My boss never disclosed their location to me for security reasons, but from the backgrounds in my brother’s pictures, I gathered that they’d lived in an urban environment, like Kiev.
    Entering the coffee shop, I order a pastry and a cup of Earl Grey and wait for Obenko’s dot to start moving again. When it does, I grab another cab and follow him to his next destination: our safe house.
    He stays at the apartment for several hours before the dot starts moving again. By then, I’ve had lunch at a nearby restaurant and swapped my