THIS ISN’T THE MISSION. THIS ISN’T SUPPOSED TO BE A part of the assignment. Getting attached wasn’t the plan. But after three years with Melina, three years with these girls— their girls —the mission is coming DANGEROUSLY close to an end. They both know what will happen. They’ve been preparing for it. He has, Melina has, even Natasha. Only Yelena is blissfully unaware of how close they are to everything falling apart.
She says those three words in return and something swells in his chest. Perhaps love. Perhaps RESOLVE. Resolve to do something. His thumb brushes over her cheek and he leans in to kiss her. It’s brief and sweet and when he pulls away from her, his gaze is determined.
Alexei glances around the room, as though someone might be peering in on them, listening. But there’s no one. The contact they have with Dreykov is SPORADIC and carefully calculated. That’s the only way they’ve been able to keep their deep cover. Three years they’ve been playing house. Or that’s how it started. He’s not sure when the lines started to blur.
❝ There’s a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. I spotted him a few days ago. We’re close and I think they know it. They just don’t know who. But we could…we could give them the information they want in EXCHANGE for their help disappearing. All four of us. ❞ His accent doesn’t waver. The mission isn’t over yet and if the girls hear them, they need to maintain the act.
SO DANGEROUS, UNKNOWN. Perhaps, she is aware that once this mission is over, Dreykov would cycled her through the room another time, emotions are not something they enjoy. He thinks that what he had done would make Melina wish less to be a mother but in reality? It only made her crave more now that she had to take care of two little girls. Dreykov faked their marriage and union with Alexei but somehow, the lie had turned into a reality.
It’s the General’s fault, she wants to think. A handsome, tall and strong man with a kind heart, and Melina is the best widow of her generation, how hard had it been for their union to be one of partners growing closer? But Alexei is speaking of treason now and she has a streak of fright at the idea of being discovered by this. Big Brother was always watching, even in America. “How sure you are that they would help us? We are Russian, Alexei.” Enemies in a geo-political war that will never end, it feels.
Melina thinks, wheels inside her brain working to this idea. “We cannot trust one man. If we are to settle on a deal, it has to be with the top man.“ The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. That is the top man. “They do not get to touch the girls. That’s the only condition.“ She trusts no one. As far as they are aware, they could have their own version of the red room in America. She leans in, whispers for only their ears to hear. “When can we meet him?“
