by Lexi Blake
“Why?” Becca asked. “He’s a jerk, but I’m pretty sure he’s harmless. Or at least I thought he was until he basically blackmailed me. I knew he was obnoxious the day I met him, but I didn’t think he was abusive.”
A chill went through him as he realized something he’d missed before. He’d been so wrapped up in his own misery he hadn’t been thinking. “How did he know?”
“Know what?” Becca asked.
“Owen, we have a problem,” Robert said, his tone going dark. “Is everyone buckled in? I didn’t see him before because he’s got his headlights off and it’s dark as hell.”
Owen turned his head and saw what Robert was talking about. In the dim shadows given out by the rear lights, he saw the outline of a vehicle following them. His heart rate ticked up and he pulled his SIG, aware of how Becca’s eyes widened.
“Maybe it’s someone out for a drive,” she said, looking around the interior as Robert passed Ariel his gun and she competently handled it.
“At three in the morning? In the middle of the country?” His revelation would have to wait. “With their lights off? I doubt it. Apparently Green was waiting for us, and now he doesn’t even have to deal with the police.”
“Yeah, I was thinking that, too,” Robert said tightly. “Whoever set us up knew what they were doing. Green was probably watching us from a distance and he knew exactly which car to follow. Ari, if I can’t lose him, I’m going to find the nearest police station and I want you to take Rebecca and run in. Give yourselves up. Big Tag will move heaven and earth to get you both out. You call the Dallas office as soon as you can. Owen, find us the nearest station.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
He’d expected Ariel to say that, but the words came out of Becca’s mouth. She was leaning toward him expectantly.
He would have replied to her, would have told her that she damn well better do as Robert said, but that was the moment a shot split the air and the SUV careened to the side. He heard Robert curse, trying to stay in control as they lost one of the tires while speeding down a country road.
Something hit the back of the SUV, just a bumping of metal on metal, but it was enough to send them off the road and rolling. The world upended, and he heard a scream as metal crunched and crushed.
He reached out, trying to get Becca’s hand in his, but his head snapped back and he saw stars. He could have sworn the world was twisting and turning. He saw Becca lurch forward and then back before her body went limp.
After what seemed like the longest time, the car stopped. They hadn’t landed right. They were upside down. The car swayed briefly, as though it would make one more turn. But they stayed where they were, the world going startlingly still.
For a moment all he could hear was the harsh sound of his own breath sawing in and out of his body. Then, the sound of shoes crushing against the ground.
“Hello, Owen,” a familiar voice said. “Robert, if you don’t want me to kill your lovely lady, you’ll drop that. You’ll see I’ve brought a few friends. We can do this the friendly way or the hard way. I personally prefer friendship. Owen is going to make some new friends and I’m going to become very good friends with Dr. Walsh. She seems to be sleeping.”
Owen was upside down, his weight hanging from the seatbelt. He’d dropped his bloody gun. He couldn’t feel its weight in his hand. All he could do was dangle there. Though it hurt like hell, he forced his head around, to look for Becca. A low moan shuddered through his system because her eyes weren’t open.
“Rebecca.” He managed to get her name out of his mouth, a prayer, a plea, a recognition that if she wasn’t alive he didn’t want to be either. Somehow this woman had invaded his soul and taken up all the empty spaces. Everything he’d lost was somehow replaced because he loved this one woman.
“Don’t hurt her.” Robert’s voice sounded tortured.
“It’s okay. Why would I hurt her? Ariel’s never done anything but been lovely to me, and you know I don’t like to kill the beautiful things of this world.” Levi’s voice floated through the vehicle like a wraith about to strike them all.
It was so dark. He tried to let his eyes adjust, but his head was ringing. The gun. He needed to get it in his hands before they came for Becca. He couldn’t let them take her.
“You, on the other hand, have been a pain in my ass for a long time, so I don’t have a single problem shooting you,” Levi said.
And then there was the tiny ping of a gun being fired through a suppressor.
Robert? Fuck all, Green had shot Robert and he was next, and then Becca would be alone. It was so hard to think. His brain wouldn’t work. Pure panic shot through him as the door to the passenger side opened and big hands reached toward Becca’s still form.
Was Robert dead? He’d fucking shot Robert and Owen had no idea how he recovered from that. But he had to because Becca was alive and he owed her. He’d promised her. He had a brief glimpse of Ariel hanging from her seatbelt, her whole body limp. Blood. There was blood on the seat. Robert’s blood?
God, how would he tell Ariel he’d been hanging uselessly while Robert had died? Robert had been through so much, survived McDonald’s experiments, and he’d died on Owen’s watch.
Running on pure adrenaline, he managed to reach the buckle and winced when he dropped to the floor…ceiling. It was an awkward position, but he had to make it work. He had to get out of here, get Becca back. They were pulling her body out of the car.
Gun. He couldn’t see it. It was too dark. He reached for it, trying to get that cold metal back in his hands. If he could get the gun, he might have a chance.
“Not so fast, big guy. I’m afraid you’re going to have to come with me, well, with my friend,” Levi said as something sharp shot into Owen’s calf. “You’re payment. You know no one does things just for the good of humanity anymore. They’re all about the payment. You’re going to have fun in Beijing, my friend.”
He was still trying to reach for the gun when the world went hazy.
God, he didn’t want to forget her. He couldn’t forget her.
He held on to the thought of Becca Walsh as his vision went dark, and he prayed he wasn’t being sent back to hell again.
Chapter Twenty
Becca came awake slowly, her body aching oddly and her mind reaching for any explanation as to where she was. What had happened? She remembered being in the car and Owen had asked her a question.
He’d asked her how he’d known. How who had known? And known what? They’d been talking about something and then…
“I don’t understand why you had to bring them here,” a familiar voice whispered, though she could plainly hear him. Paul. What was Paul doing in the car? “I can’t have anyone know I was involved in this.”
“And no one will,” a deep voice replied. “We came in under cover of darkness and hauled our guests in through your very spacious garage. Ah, old money. Was that a Rolls I saw in there?”
“This is serious, Mr. Green.”
A long huff was heard as though the man making the sound was incredibly bored. “I’m not about to call your neighbors, but where did you think I would take them until we’re ready for transport? I certainly can’t carry two unconscious people through the lobby of my hotel. And poor Mo Chou can’t show up at her condo building with a couple of new friends she needs a bellman to carry up for her. There would be questions. Here, we’re all alone. What’s wrong, Paul? Getting a little real for you?”
The accident. Something had happened and the car had flipped. Not an accident. Those brief moments of terror came crashing back in on her. Someone had shot out their tire and Robert had lost control of the car.
“You’re a man who doesn’t want to know where his food comes from, aren’t you, Paul? You like it all wrapped in plastic so you don’t have to see the dirty work. Did you think she would happily walk away with me?”
“I thought she would do it so she didn’t go to jail,” Paul replied.
There wa
s a long pause before that deep voice spoke again. “And your father? Did you think he would, what? Maybe walk into Mo Chou’s knife?”
“I’m going to shoot him,” a feminine voice said. “Easier and I don’t have to get dirty. Dry cleaning bills are expensive.”
Becca forced her eyes open and gradually figured out where she was. Daylight streamed in through the windows. She blinked, the light far too bright. She was at Paul’s house, the one he kept in one of the wealthiest parts of the city. She’d only been here a couple of times, but she would recognize that chandelier anywhere. His whole home was exquisitely done in old-world elegance. She looked up and saw the balcony across from her. There were two grand sets of stairs on either side of the house, and a balcony landing that ran from one wing to the other. She’d come for a Christmas party one year and wondered why he needed such a large house. There was only Paul and his son since his wife had left.
Where was Owen? Owen had been beside her in the car. Owen had been trying to get through to her. Owen had been offering her a life together, if she was only brave enough to take it.
“Ah, the good doctor awakens.” A man’s face came into view. She’d seen the man in pictures. He was handsome, with dark hair that swept over his forehead and chocolate brown eyes that should belong to someone less evil. He didn’t look like a man who would kidnap people. “You might have a concussion. I don’t know. I’m not the neurologist and Paul here won’t check you out. I think he’s sure if he touches you something bad will happen. The good news is you don’t have any broken bones. You’re probably going to bruise some though. When we get where we’re going, I’ll let all the doctors check you out.”
He was actually smiling at her.
“Leave her alone,” a deep voice growled.
Owen. Owen was here. She sat up and nausea rolled through her.
“Hey,” Levi said, sitting down next to her on the leather couch she’d been laid out on. “Go slow, Doc. You’re okay. He’s okay. I know I played a little rough, but everyone’s good.”
“Robert isn’t,” Owen shot back.
She slowly turned her head. They weren’t alone in the room. The woman she’d met at Casa Loma stood by the wall of windows that dominated the large office. She stood out against the white drapes that had been drawn. She wore all black, her hair in a neat bun. Beside her stood a massive man she’d never seen before. He’d gotten the all-black memo, though. She could see his shoulder holster and the hilt of a gun.
“Robert’s such a baby,” Levi said with a sigh. “One little gunshot and he’s out of the game. I thought Big Tag raised them tougher than that.”
“It’s hard to be tough when you’re hanging upside down in the dark and you’ve been in a bloody wreck. Note I didn’t call it an accident.” Owen sat in a chair they’d dragged in from the dining room. She recognized the highbacked antique chair from the evening she’d spent with Paul and his father and son. She remembered how small Emmanuel had looked sitting in the chair, how fragile he’d seemed. Owen wasn’t small, but she was well aware of how fragile his body could be. He could have all the muscles in the world and one bullet could still kill his light. His arms wrapped around his back. She obviously wasn’t such a threat as she’d been left free to move.
Her heart ached at the thought of Robert being dead. How had it happened? One minute they’d gotten away and the next she was waking up and Robert was gone.
“Stop looking at me like that, Owen,” Levi said with a shake of his head. “He’ll live. I didn’t shoot him in the head or anything.”
“Yes, I was surprised we left two survivors behind,” the woman he’d called Mo Chou said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know they’re going to talk.”
“Yes, well, dead bodies mean something to Taggart and Knight,” Levi replied. “It’s why I left Jax alive. I’m only turning Owen over to you because Tag won’t care about him. And honestly, if Big Tag wants to even the score, he can take Donnie there and send him to MSS. With what he eats, it could bankrupt your entire intelligence program.”
“Like we would want him,” Mo Chou said.
The man named Donnie said absolutely nothing, simply stared at Owen like a predator waiting to pounce.
“Robert’s alive?” Owen seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Levi stood up, smoothing down the vest he wore. “I left Jax alive, didn’t I? I know how to play this game. Or maybe I left Robert alive for other reasons. Maybe I left Jax alive for other reasons. Or maybe it’s one of those foreign boys. One of them had to have given me the information on where you were staying this evening. You moved quickly. I’ll admit that I intended to negotiate with the Canadians for the doc’s release into my custody, but this turned out so much easier. I originally sent you out here to get what I needed, and then my friend would have shared it with me and you would be none the wiser.”
“But then he got greedy,” Mo Chou added. “Like our friend Huisman here, and I’m worried it’s going to bite us all in the ass.”
Levi shrugged. “I realized that the doctor herself would be a much better asset. After all, what do I do if I don’t understand the research? Shockingly, most incredibly gifted doctors don’t end up working for the Agency. All it cost me was Big Tag’s puppies figuring out one of them isn’t what he seems to be. Not my problem anymore if I have the doc and the research. Game over. I win. We all find a new game to play.”
She wanted to get up and cross the space between herself and Owen. Now that she was facing the idea of losing him, she couldn’t stand the thought of never touching him again. “What do you mean you’re giving Owen to her?”
Green put his hands in his pockets. He looked dapper and lean in his pressed slacks, crisp white shirt, and fitted vest. The only thing that marred the image was the gun holster around his shoulder and the hint of metal under his arm. “It’s nothing you need to be worried about. Owen’s taking a little trip to the East. You and I are going somewhere else, but I promise your every need will be met. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”
“I think kidnapping is usually a bad thing.” He was the worst kind of evil, the one that didn’t even realize he was bad. The man in front of her was charming, and if he’d shown up on her doorstep she wouldn’t have been afraid of him until the moment he slit her throat. And he would if he had to. She believed absolutely everything Owen had told her about him.
If she believed Owen about that, why couldn’t she believe him about the rest of it? Why couldn’t she believe him when he said he loved her?
Green merely sent her a charming smile. “You call it kidnapping. I call it the necessary acquisition of valuable resources. You are the key to all of this. I figured that out too late to go after you myself. I take care of my people, Dr. Walsh. I’m sure Ezra and his group have filled your head with all sorts of lies about how I would hurt you, but it’s not true. Play nice with me and I’ll treat you like a queen. You’ll have everything you could hope for.”
“How about my freedom?”
He had the grace to wince. “You’ve got me on that one, but once you finish with the project, I’ll make sure your reputation is restored and that you get full credit for all the good that’s going to come out of this. And you know there will be good that comes from this. You’ll thank me in the end when you win a Nobel Prize for medicine.” He knelt down beside her, every ounce of his charm used to make her believe. “Here’s something they don’t know. I found something in Colorado that led me to another one of her facilities. I found one dose of what Dr. McDonald thought was the cure. I need you to break it down for me so we can move forward with this project.”
“You have a cure?” That cure could be the key to Alzheimer’s and dementia. If McDonald had truly figured out how to reconnect those neural pathways, it could open up a thousand doors.
“I think so. I’m not sure. I only know that I found something she thought was the cure,” Levi replied. “She’d made it specifically for one of the men in Owen’s un
it. She wanted him to remember something. We can use it for something more, can’t we?”
He knew exactly what to say to her. He knew how to get inside her head and coax her.
“Don’t listen to him, love,” Owen said.
“Wait a minute.” Paul seemed to forget he was trying to make himself invisible. He strode across the large room, a steely look in his eyes. “I thought you were going to ensure she never had power again. Now you’re planning on giving her one of the major finds of the century? You’re going to hand over the cure to dementia? That was not our deal.”
Mo Chou rolled her eyes. “I should have known you’d be difficult.”
Green stood again, facing off with Paul. “Our deal was that I wouldn’t turn you over for setting up Dr. Walsh for embezzlement. You get her research and you get to take over the Huisman Foundation. You can be happy with that or not. It’s your choice.”
Mo Chou moved toward the back of the house. There was a hallway under the balcony that Becca thought led to the kitchen and the garage. “My team should be here in half an hour. We’ve got a plane ready. I’m going to make a phone call. Is that creepy kid still around?”
“That’s my son,” Paul said between clenched teeth. “Another reason you should have taken them somewhere else. I have a child. He can’t be involved in this.”
“Maybe you should have thought about him before you started doing criminal things.” Becca was done with that asshole. She managed to get to her feet. “Maybe you should have thought about a lot of things. You won’t get away with this. Cathy knows I wouldn’t do this.”
“Becca, darling, please sit down,” Owen said, pleading in his voice.
Paul stepped into her space. “Cathy doesn’t matter. She can fall in line or I’ll deal with her, too. I’m done being everyone’s whipping boy. I want this project.” He turned to Green again. “I’m every bit as smart as she is, and we can do it all here. I have a whole foundation at my fingertips.”
