Long Lost

by Lexi Blake

  He was alone with the devil. He was going to need it.

  * * * *

  Roni’s head throbbed but she kept as quiet as she could because no blow to the head could possibly make her forget the nightmare she found herself in. Misery swamped her, but she forced herself to focus.

  What had her mother taught her? Assess the situation.

  She was moving. She could feel the motion of a car, but she was in complete darkness. Her hands were tied, but she could move her feet. There was a faint hint of gasoline and the muffled sound of a man speaking.

  Trunk. She was in the trunk of a car, likely whatever Arthur had waiting for him.

  How long had she been out? Were they still in England? Or had he made the crossing into France, from where he would have the ease to go almost anywhere in Europe a road connected to.

  Did Tucker know she was gone? Did he care? Or had she killed whatever he’d felt for her with her doubt?

  It was funny that now she didn’t have a single doubt in her mind. She knew Nina was right. Tucker and her sister had been trying to protect her as best they could. They’d been the ones who had paid and they’d managed to spare her. She couldn’t be angry. When she thought about it, she likely would have done the same thing.

  But none of that mattered now because she was being driven away from him. Fast.

  She’d assessed her situation. Fucked. That was the only way to describe it.

  Now it was time to figure out what her assets were. Was there anything she could use to help get herself out of the situation?

  Suddenly having a locator in her butt actually did seem like a plus. If this was Tucker being stolen away, she could find him. He’d sounded insane that first day when he’d told her it was one of the things he brought to the table, but now she got it. He’d been in this position more than once, and having a GPS locator inserted into his body was a must.

  She breathed in, trying to find a calm place. Panic wouldn’t serve her in any way. She needed a cool head. They wouldn’t kill her right away. They would try to get Tucker to turn himself over or turn over the intelligence she was absolutely sure he didn’t have.

  Did they think he was lying?

  How old was the vehicle she was in? Newer vehicles had trunk releases in case someone got caught. If she could locate it, she might risk rolling herself out of the car when it slowed down.

  It was so dark she couldn’t tell what direction she was facing. She reached out, trying to get a sense of how big the trunk was. She was facing inward. As gently as she could, she turned her body, head aching with every move.

  Arthur was speaking in German. She didn’t hear a response. He was likely on the phone. She listened for a moment, but it was hard to hear over the hum of the engine and the drone of tires beating against the road.

  He was saying something about how he had to do it. The situation was getting out of hand. It wouldn’t work without the drugs and…she lost part of the conversation. Arthur mentioned her and how she was the key to getting Reasor to play ball.

  Playing ball meant submitting to the drugs they wanted him to take. They wanted to be in control of his memories. He said something about what would happen if Tucker remembered and named names. They wouldn’t have anywhere to hide. They needed control.

  She reached out, trying to feel for the release latch. Tucker would trade himself. There was no question in her mind he would do it. Even if he was angry with her, he would be there, trying to ensure her safety. He would do it for his daughter.

  Hell, he would do it for the woman who’d accused him of being a bad guy. He would do it because he was a good guy.

  The car started to slow and Arthur said something about being close.

  Close to what? Were they near whatever place he intended to keep her in? Or was he turning her over to even worse people?

  They wouldn’t let her live. Any more than they would let Tucker live after he gave them what they wanted.

  Her heart was beating in her chest, so hard she worried he would be able to hear it. The car was rolling to a stop. She worked, feeling for anything that might help her. She would run. It didn’t matter that her hands were tied. She would run and hide and find a way to survive.

  It was all that mattered. Getting back to Tucker and Vi was all that mattered.

  The car rolled to a stop and she still hadn’t found the lever. It was hard to maneuver her body. She twisted but couldn’t get her hands where she needed them to be. Frustration welled, threatening to merge with the panic she hadn’t quite banished. It made a big comeback as she heard the door come open and close.

  One shot. She would have one shot at this. Her legs were the only weapons she had. She would have to kick out and get to the ground, run as fast as she could without even knowing where she was going.

  She had to take the chance. There was nothing else to do except fight. Tucker needed her.

  She had to force herself to breathe as the trunk started to come open. She tried to kick her legs out, but strong arms caught her and she felt the pain of a needle penetrating her leg, and the world immediately went fuzzy.

  “Sorry, Veronica,” Arthur said. “I can’t allow you to leave. My name is on that list.”

  As she started to go under, she knew she’d been right. They would never let any of them live.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Tucker looked up and down the street, praying he recognized anything at all.

  Nothing. It was a lovely morning in Paris and the people were already out en masse, walking into the gardens that ran the length from the Place de la Concorde to the Louvre. Tourists with cameras mingled with locals carrying their coffees and walking their dogs.

  He wanted to walk through the park with Veronica. They might not be able to come back to Europe for a long time. Of course if they did take a nice traipse through the park, it might be the last thing they did.

  How did he explain to his newly committed girlfriend that he’d just made a drop to a CIA agent and they had to run because all of their old colleagues would want to kill him now and hey, how about a June wedding? Wyoming was nice that time of year.

  Tucker stopped, the feeling so clear in his head that it could have happened yesterday. He’d stood in front of the gardens and known that it was almost over.

  “Don’t,” a familiar voice said. “He’s got the scent of something.”

  “It would be easier if you would point out the damn apartment building,” Robert groused.

  “And then he wouldn’t have these lovely moments where he looks like a zombie,” Green shot back.

  Levi Green was an asshole but he hadn’t tried anything.

  Yet.

  He shook his head, letting the feeling go because he was on a clock and he couldn’t afford to get sick. He had less than four hours to turn himself over to Arthur Dwyer or they would start sending him Veronica’s body parts.

  They’d already sent him a video of her. She’d been tied up and unconscious, only the faint rise and fall of her chest reassuring him that she was alive.

  Would she still be alive at this time tomorrow? Would he?

  “Hey, you okay?”

  His brother had been with him the whole way. Robert had driven hours during the long night it had taken to get them to Paris. Much of that time had been spent with Big Tag screaming at them over a cell phone. He’d used words Tucker hadn’t ever thought could be intimidating, but when Tag got going, he could really let his rage flow.

  He nodded his brother’s way. “Yeah, but Green’s right. I’m starting to get a sense of the place. I’ve definitely been here before. I’ve been in this park. We’re close to the apartment I took Roni to. I think it was Levi’s place.”

  Green was wearing jeans and a T-shirt he’d borrowed from Robert. They were both slightly too big for him, and he’d complained endlessly about how basic they were. Tucker wasn’t sure why basic was a bad thing, but it was the height of horror for Green. All in all, as road trip partners went, Green was a
n asshole. The man loved to listen to himself talk, but not about what they wanted him to talk about. He’d refused to divulge anything important, but he’d talked a lot about his many missions and how smart he was.

  If he got shot, Tucker wasn’t going to save him. Well, he would try because he’d taken a Hippocratic oath, but he probably wouldn’t try too hard. Was it wrong to call time of death while the patient was still breathing?

  “We should find the hotel.” Robert was looking down at his cell phone. “Owen said he’s already here and he found a place for us to stay.”

  “Or we could stay at my flat,” Green offered. “It’s close.”

  Robert’s eyes rolled. “Yeah, look, man, I’ve been up for hours and my wife is ready to hand me my balls. I’m not up for playing Where’s Waldo’s French Flat. I know we don’t have long, but we all need a nap and some food. MI6 is pissed, and according to Damon, they think they might have a lead on Dwyer.”

  He didn’t need a lead on Dwyer. Dwyer would find him. Dwyer might already be here, following him as he proved to be completely useless.

  He stared out at the entrance to the garden for a moment. There was a merry-go-round just inside the gates with happy children bouncing on their seats as it went around and around.

  Violet would like that.

  Violet had been conceived in this city. Not far from here. He was close, but they were on the wrong side of the gardens. Yes. They were very close. He needed to stop thinking about it and let himself go.

  “Any word from Ezra?” He moved down the steps, certain his brother would follow him.

  “Hey, I thought we were going…” Robert sighed and fell in step beside him. “He texted a few minutes ago. He’s going to try to get here later today, but Solo is pissed. She hasn’t had him arrested though.”

  “She won’t,” Green said, taking up on the other side of Tucker. “I was lying about that. I don’t think she could ever be angry enough with him that she would put his life at risk. I often think Solo’s childhood led her to a bad place as an adult. She’s not able to recognize real love.”

  “When it slaps her in the face?” Robert asked pointedly.

  “I regret that.” Green managed to sound remorseful but then again, if there was one thing he’d learned about the man it was that he was an excellent actor. “Solo and I can be quite passionate when it comes to our relationship. It’s a bit twisted but it’s real. Far more real than anything she has with Beck.”

  He’d talked about his girlfriend back then. Kim. They’d gotten to know each other during the training sessions Green had insisted on. Tucker had bemoaned the fact that his residency didn’t leave much time for a romantic life, and Levi had countered with what happened when two CIA agents were in love and on different continents.

  How long had the man been delusional?

  How long had he been plotting to get Solo?

  It was starting to come back to him, those months he’d spent prepping. Being around Green without bars between them was doing something to him. It was making it far easier to be back in those moments.

  “We prepped for the op. You and me,” he said, the path crunching beneath his feet.

  “Yes, we did.” Green’s voice remained perfectly calm. Of the three of them only Green seemed unaffected by the drama playing out around him. “You were in physically good shape, but I thought you needed some defensive training. You knew how to use a rifle, but you weren’t good with a handgun.”

  “We didn’t have handguns at home.” Though he remembered the gun case where his mom kept two shotguns and their granddad’s rifle. They lived outside of town where it was beautiful and quiet and there were far more animals than people, some of which wouldn’t mind eating him.

  “What’s your impression of how long we trained?” Green asked.

  Tucker let himself walk as his mind roamed. He didn’t think about where he was going. “It was a couple of months, I think. I know we met in Boston. I can remember that meeting. I remember how I felt.” It flowed over him easily now. He didn’t have to fight for it. He could feel the breeze coming off the river and he’d wondered if it was cool where Russ was. “I was hopeful for the first time in months. For the first time since I’d been told my brother died.”

  “I had been investigating some incidents surrounding classified intelligence getting out. I won’t go into it too much, but troop movements were being leaked or sold. That investigation led me to Senator Hank McDonald, and that’s when I started watching his daughters. Faith was of no interest to me, but Hope was.”

  Green had showed him a picture of Hope McDonald that day. The first time he’d seen her. “I thought she looked harmless.”

  “And I told you that was precisely why she was so dangerous,” Green confirmed.

  He turned down a path, the memories whirling in his brain. “You were the first person to believe me when I said I thought my brother was alive.”

  “How did you know I was alive?” Robert asked. “I’ve looked at the report on how my unit died. I didn’t see anything that would raise a red flag. Emily did a good job.”

  “Oh, she didn’t fake that report,” Levi corrected. “That was all Hank McDonald’s doing. He had connections in the military, corrupt individuals who sold out their fellow soldiers for the cash he was offering. I took care of them, by the way. It was a fun weekend project.”

  He stopped and stared at Levi.

  “Hey, I’m a lot of things, but I don’t sell out soldiers, and before you say anything Ezra isn’t a soldier and we’re at war,” Levi said with a shrug. “I keep telling you I’m not the bad guy here. Taggart and his crew might have handled the McDonalds, but there were plenty of people they missed. Retribution shouldn’t simply be saved for the head of the snake. There was a body and a tail to chop up, too.”

  “But not Emily. I find it interesting that she was still hanging around.” Robert’s arms crossed over his chest.

  “She had a role to play. When Tucker didn’t show up for our meeting, I realized it had gone to hell and McDonald had him and she had the intel. I had nothing without that intel,” Green admitted. “I wasn’t exactly working on the books.”

  “The Agency wouldn’t have approved sending me in.” It was the only reason he could think of.

  “There were members of the Agency who were well versed in what McDonald was doing. I found that out fairly quickly,” Levi admitted. “I had to work around people in my own group. I did not agree with the methods McDonald used, and I really didn’t like American soldiers getting treated like guinea pigs.”

  But he seemed to have changed his mind. “You’ve been chasing down her research ever since. Somehow I don’t think you’re going to destroy it.”

  Another negligent shrug of his shoulders. “Destroying McDonald’s research won’t bring back the dead. It’s out there and someone will use it. I’ll feel safer if it’s in the right hands.”

  “Yours,” Robert surmised.

  “Mine are better than most. Tucker, do you want me to apologize for abandoning you? Should I have invaded McDonald’s compound to rescue you? First off, you wouldn’t have even known who I was.”

  If you do this and things go bad, I’ll have to disavow any knowledge of you. You’ll be on a tightrope, Tim, and there won’t be any kind of safety net for you.

  He’d been warned and he’d done it anyway. He’d had to. “I don’t need an apology. You were upfront about what could happen. You didn’t sugarcoat anything. You needed someone who wasn’t on the agency’s radar to infiltrate McDonald’s operation. You had solid proof that Robert was with her. You showed me surveillance footage. And Robert, I knew you weren’t dead because I went to the site of where your supposed accident occurred and talked to some of the locals. There was no accident that day.”

  It was coming back in rapid flashes now. He’d gone into a damn warzone because he’d needed to feel close to his brother, needed to be where he’d died.

  “He went in with a charitab
le group.” Green sounded almost proud. “He used the fact that he was a doctor to get into a place no one else could have gone. I got a report about an American in that area causing trouble. I investigated and when I realized what he was looking for, I knew I had my guy.”

  “What happened to the rest of my unit?” Robert asked.

  “I can’t be completely sure,” Levi began. “But I believe they went into McDonald’s program. They were some of her first subjects. You were the only one who survived. I think that’s why you were her favorite. You were one of the first to handle the therapies well.”

  “I wish I could have saved them.” He hated the idea that his brother’s friends had been dying while he’d been working or sleeping or doing anything at all normal.

  “When I think about what you gave up,” Robert began.

  He shook his head. “I would do it all again.” He found himself on the other side of the park. He’d walked across, not lengthwise but through the middle.

  He was here.

  “It’s on the second floor.” He stared up at the elegant building with stone steps. He could see Roni there. She’d stopped at the top of the stairs and he’d had his breath taken away because she’d been so beautiful, and he’d known that his job was almost done.

  Green nodded. “Yes. I don’t own it anymore. I gave it up after you went missing. The heat was on when McDonald left Kronberg. I had to cool my heels for a while. I knew what had happened when you didn’t show up for our meeting. I knew she had you. I honestly figured she’d gotten the intelligence and that was why she left Kronberg so quickly after.”

  “You didn’t bother to look for him?” Robert was staring up at the building, too.

  “I knew where he was. I knew he was in Argentina. Again, should I have stormed the building and given up everything for a man who no longer remembered who I was?” Green glanced down at his watch. “We’re down to three hours now. I personally don’t care if we get Veronica back, but it seems like a deal breaker for you.”

  You did what? You do understand if she sees me the whole fucking thing could blow up in our faces. She’s met me before. She thinks I’m fucking her sister. Do you even remember why you’re here?