by Wendy Rosnau
Mady started to cry again. Sick of the noise, Holic took a step forward and hit her again. The blow broke her nose and she screamed as blood began to flow.
He would have hit her again if not for the explosion outside that rocked the cabin. Holic hurried to the window and saw that the helicopter had been blown to bits and was on fire. He searched the surrounding area, noted that Bjorn was no longer lying in the snow where he’d fallen after Jakob had shot him. Where had he gone?
“What the hell! Jakob, get in here!”
Holic heard a noise in the back bedroom, then footsteps. Jakob walked into the living room with an odd gait. He was as white as a ghost and his eyes were dilated. More important, his sweater was the wrong color. Instead of white it was red.
Blood red.
Nadja stood outside the cabin window chewing on her lower lip. When she saw Casmir come to the window, her heart started to race. The window opened, and then Quest’s glamour girl handed Alzbet out the window to Nadja.
Nadja hugged her daughter. “Are you all right, love?”
Alzbet snuggled close. “I didn’t like those men, Auntie Nad. Pris left me.”
“I know. They didn’t hurt you, did they?”
“No. But I was scared.”
“But you’re safe now.” Nadja hugged her child again and said a silent prayer of thanks.
“Everything is on schedule,” Cass said, as she slipped out the window. “Holic took the bait, like Bjorn said he would. He didn’t even know I wasn’t you. How’s Pierce Fourtier? I was shocked when he was shot.”
“I think it was in the plan,” Nadja said. “I believe Bjorn knew that Holic would retaliate against him immediately because they have a history. Pierce’s leg wound is minor. He was wearing some kind of special bodysuit, but the shot higher up dislocated his shoulder and he’s in a lot of pain.”
“The redneck and I didn’t hit it off flying up here. He was an arrogant ass.”
“When I left them in the woods, Bjorn was trying to put Pierce’s shoulder back into its socket. Pierce was yelling, and Bjorn was yelling back. Two bulls who won’t give an inch, is what they are.”
“Men,” Cass sniffed. “Can’t live with them, and don’t want to.”
Bjorn’s ill mood was an extension of what had transpired earlier that morning when Nadja had awakened to find his naked body curled around hers in the sleeping bag. She had welcomed his warmth and his strength—dammit!—and it had irked her at a time when she didn’t need to be reminded of how much she had grown to love him.
Yes, it was love.
That’s why she would have hated his plan no matter how ridiculous it was, and this one had been pretty wild. Surely Holic was too smart to fall for a pair of impersonators climbing out of that helicopter. But it had worked, and now she had Alzbet in her arms, thanks to Bjorn.
But it wasn’t over yet. They still needed to retrieve the kill-file and capture Holic…alive.
“Let’s get going,” Casmir said.
Nadja’s thoughts turned to Mady, and she made a sudden decision. “Here—” She kissed Alzbet, then handed her daughter to Cass.
Casmir took the child, unaware of what Nadja intended. But when she saw her climb back through the window, she freaked. “What are you doing? This isn’t part of the plan. We’re supposed to get back to camp as quickly as possible.”
“The plan was Bjorn’s, not mine, Cass. My sister is still inside. What would you do?”
“Don’t ask me that.”
“Holic killed my grandfather. He kidnapped my daughter and…”
Nadja hadn’t meant to say the words, but there they were. She glanced at Alzbet and saw that her daughter’s blue eyes were huge.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I would have picked a different time and place to tell you, but Mommy screwed up. You okay?”
Alzbet nodded slowly.
“So you’re all right with it? Me being your mom.”
Another slow nod.
“We’ll talk about this later, okay? I love you.”
More nodding.
“Cass, get going. Head for the woods. The camp is straight south a hundred yards once you reach the trees.”
“You can be so damn stubborn, Nadja.”
“This coming from the mule. Go on. Go!”
Casmir sprinted through the snow for the dense tree-line while Nadja turned and assessed the bedroom, then walked quietly to the door. She listened, and when she heard running footsteps she had barely enough time to jump back before the door flew open. She was reaching for her Springfield when Holic rushed her and she lost her balance and fell backward.
Like a panther he struck fast, kicking her gun from her hand. It went flying and landed out of reach. Then Holic was there, a knife blade at her throat.
“Don’t be stupid, sweet Nadja. I will kill you now if you wish. Make your move and die, or rethink your position.”
She would rethink it; she had no wish to die. But that might be out of her hands now. She had made a careless mistake, and now it could cost her more than simply the mission. Mady’s life still hung in the balance.
Holic glanced around, saw that Alzbet was nowhere in sight, and said, “Where’s the brat?”
“She’s gone. I sent her out the window.”
“Mady! Get in here, now!”
A moment later Mady walked into the bedroom crying, her cheeks red and bruised. “I’m here, Holic.”
“Sit over there in that chair and shut up.”
Mady went quickly, trying to keep her crying muffled.
Nadja was careful not to react to the rage building inside her. Holic didn’t appear to be as composed as his profile suggested. He was considered the most efficient, intelligent assassin in the business. She suspected that today he was again high on something.
He still had his balance and his quickness, but his hand was swollen, and he was guarding it close to his body. No doubt he was using the drugs as an attempt to escape the incessant pain he’d been forced to live with for the past month. But the drugs hadn’t stolen his suffering completely. His eyes were bloodshot, as if he hadn’t been sleeping.
She felt the knife slide down her neck to her left breast where her heart pounded. She looked up to see Holic grinning at her.
“Get up, Nadja. Off the floor.”
She slowly came to her feet.
“Now take off your sweater and pants.”
When she hesitated, he pressed the blade into her flesh.
“Do it. I want everything ready when Odell arrives. Even one-legged, and his arm broken, I imagine the bastard will find a way to ride to your rescue. After all, he’s the father of your child, right?”
He knew Alzbet was Bjorn’s child.
“Bjorn is like a bad toothache that keeps coming back. But this will be the last time. As for the brat, the weather is about to get nasty. There’s a storm moving in, and my guess is she’ll be dead by morning.”
He had no idea that she had traded places with Casmir, and that her daughter was safe. Or that Bjorn would be a hundred percent healthy coming through that door.
Feeling more confident, she pulled off her sweater, then stepped out of her pants. She felt Holic’s eyes on her, but she refused to let them bother her. She’d been in this position before and she wouldn’t let this man win, not on any level.
“Lie down on the bed, sweet, sexy Nadja. Hmm…you do make a man instantly hard just looking.”
Mady’s crying became audible.
“Shut up, my lying wife, or I will be forced to hurt you again,” Holic warned, never taking his eyes off Nadja’s breasts. “I see that my knife cut you. Take off your bra and let me see how bad it is.”
Pierce was in pain, and voicing it loudly in his Cajun accent. “I’m goin’ to kill that son of a bitch. I’m goin’ to put a hole—”
“I did it for you.”
Both Bjorn and Pierce looked up to see Casmir standing behind them. She had Alzbet on her hip and she was out of breath.
She waited.
He said nothing, just nodded then closed his brown eyes and leaned his dark head against the tree.
“Is this what they call redneck mentality? Okay, hotshot, have it your way. I never liked Frenchmen anyway.”
Bjorn glanced behind her, expecting to see Nadja. When he didn’t, he came quickly to his feet.
“She’s not coming,” Casmir said, as if she knew what he was about to ask. She set Alzbet on her feet beside her. “Nadja said she couldn’t leave her sister behind. She’s stubborn—maybe you already know that. When she sets her mind to something, I know better than to try to change it.”
Bjorn was livid—Nadja had deliberately changed his strategic plan.
When Casmir finished telling him what had transpired at the back window of the cabin, he glanced at his daughter. She was staring at him. He crouched down and said, “You okay, Ally?”
She nodded, then said, “My auntie Nad is my mom.”
Casmir cleared her throat and Bjorn looked up. “About that, uh… Nadja kind of slipped up back there. I’m sure she intended to tell her in a different way and in good time, but it just came out.”
Alzbet tapped Bjorn’s arm. “Can you go get my mom and Aunt Mady? Can you?”
He looked down at her little hand where it rested on his arm. It was small and very red. He took it in his hands and rubbed her icy cold fingers. She wore no hat and her coat wasn’t all that warm. He scooped her up and her little arms went around his neck. Her breath touched his cheek.
He stood and went to where his pack sat in the snow. The survival blanket was coarse, but he wrapped it around her anyway. Then he whispered, “Stay with Casmir. I’ll be back with Mommy.”
She squeezed his neck and hugged him, then her cold lips kissed his cheek.
Chapter 21
Nadja tried to slip into her out-of-body-out-of-mind mode. It’s where she went when she became Q. But it wasn’t working, and she realized Bjorn was right, she was too close to this one—the mission was too personal.
She tried to shut out Mady’s crying, to block Holic’s hand on her body, but she couldn’t do it.
Holic had the knife, and she wouldn’t be so foolish as to make a move with it still in his hand. He would kill her. She knew that’s what he intended before the day was over. He just wanted to play his sick game first.
He ran the knife blade between her breasts, then down her belly. Teased her navel. The tattoo distracted him for a minute. He touched it, looked up at her and smiled as if he knew why it was there.
He bent his head and kissed her stomach.
“There is something very beautiful about a woman’s stomach,” he said. “Yours, Nadja, is exceptional, even after having a child.” He turned his head as if he’d heard a noise. “I wonder where Bjorn could be? Maybe he’s having trouble hobbling to your rescue.”
“He’ll come,” Nadja said. “Maybe not for me, but for the kill-file.”
“Ah, the file. Yes, I suppose that has been of some concern to the intelligence world, as it should be.”
The conversation had distracted him from touching her. She decided to keep him talking. “You killed Kovar.”
“I had him killed, yes.”
“Why?”
“He wouldn’t answer my question.”
“And what was your question?”
“Why he had put your daughter in his will as sole beneficiary.”
His answer surprised Nadja. And in truth, she also wondered why her grandfather would do such a thing. But she would never know. Kovar was gone.
“You killed him for that?”
“Not really.” He smiled as if he’d been caught in a lie. “That’s how it began, but I hadn’t seen a man die in at least two weeks and I was feeling anxious.”
His answer made Nadja sick to her stomach, and she vowed she would have revenge for Kovar’s senseless death. She had thought about killing her grandfather a hundred times, but she knew she never would have been able to do it.
“Where is the kill-file?”
“Tucked away in a place you will never think to look.”
“It’s on his computer.” Mady stood, her voice suddenly stronger. “And if he’s deleted it, there’s an extra copy in the safe back at Groffen.”
Holic came off the bed and angled his head to study his wife. “Have I ignored you for too long, my love? Do you crave my touch again?” He walked toward her, backing her against the wall.
The knife was still in his hand and Nadja was afraid he would use it on Mady. She scrambled for something to say. Anything. She came up with “In the file does it tell you how good I am? How many men have been blown away by me?”
Her choice of words, the innuendo, made Holic turn around. He was again smiling—amused by her, was Nadja’s guess.
He tossed his head, his raven hair moving gracefully around his shoulders, then sent the blade of his knife over his crotch, stroking himself until his erection strained his jeans.
Now that she had his attention, she upped the stakes. “Did you know that no man has survived me. That I’ve killed them all. Afterward, that is. No, there were a few I killed before they…you know. Except for Bjorn Odell, that is. He’s the only man who knows what it’s like to be…there. The only man still breathing years later.”
She knew she had just awakened the dragon with the words she’d chosen. Holic’s eyes lit up like firecrackers. Mady forgotten, he strolled back to the bed. He set the knife down on the nightstand and, in that moment, Nadja knew she had him. Another few minutes and he would be hers.
He sat down on the bed, put a hand on her breast, and leaned forward and kissed her. She kissed him back, teased him into wanting more—needing more. She knew this game well, and suddenly she wanted to play. Wanted to finish what Holic had started.
At that moment the door flew open and Bjorn joined the party.
About time, Nadja thought as the noise jolted Holic off the bed. He spun around and suddenly pulled a gun from his pocket. A short-barreled .32 Seecamp.
When he saw Bjorn in the doorway standing on two good legs with his .38 gripped in his gun hand he looked momentarily stunned. It gave Nadja time to scramble off the bed and retrieve her own .38 where it lay on the floor near the window.
Suddenly Mady turned hysterical and rushed at Holic, screaming, “You killed Kovar. You’ve sent Prisca away. You plan to kill my sister. What else, Holic? What else are you going to take from me?”
For an answer he grabbed her and spun her around using his injured hand. It was obvious that it hurt him, but he went with the pain as he used his wife as a human shield.
“No!” Bjorn yelled, as if he knew what was coming next. Nadja watched as Holic propelled Mady away from him and into Bjorn, saying, “What more, Mady? Your life, my love. Your worthless life.” Then he fired.
Mady’s knees buckled and she dropped to the floor, and in that moment Nadja and Bjorn fired on Holic. Their shots hitting him at the same time.
A week later Bjorn entered Merrick’s office without knocking. Polax was seated in front of his boss’s desk. They were waiting for him and Nadja. But Nadja wasn’t coming. Bjorn had had Polax’s orders for her to fly to Washington intercepted.
“Where’s Q?” Polax asked.
“She’s sitting this one out,” Bjorn offered. “But it doesn’t matter. I’ve got what you need.”
“Then you finally found the kill-list?”
“I have it.”
Polax grinned. “That’s wonderful. And Holic? Is he talking yet?”
“No. But he’s pulled through his surgery. Too bad it didn’t go too well. It looks like he’s got a matching pair of useless hands. I’d say the assassin has retired.”
“And Q’s sister,” Merrick asked, “what’s happening there?”
“The bulletproof vest Mady was wearing saved her life.
She’s cooperating with us, and we’ve gotten some good information we didn’t have earlier. We’ll be releasing her in a few days.”
“And Pierce?”
“Back at work in Hungary.”
Bjorn eyed his boss. It was the first time he’d seen Merrick since his surgery. He said, “You look like shit, sir.”
“Paul tells me once my hair grows back you won’t see the scar. I guess I’ll have to buy a hat.”
They shared a smile.
Bjorn leaned against the wall and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “So this is the deal. I’ll hand over the kill-file, and you—” he directed the next thing out of his mouth to Polax “—agree to retire Nadja from Quest.”
“What? Retire her? Impossible.”
“Make it possible. She’s done enough for Quest. Now it’s time you gave back. You’ve got ten days to get it done.”
Polax screwed up his face, then looked at Merrick. “Is he serious? What kind of an agency is this, Merrick? Who’s the boss?”
Bjorn held up his hand before Merrick could say anything. “That’s not all you’re going to do,” he continued as if Polax’s remarks were never made. “You’re going to relocate her and her daughter. Send them someplace warm. A place where you can see a sunrise and a sunset every day. A two-story beach house. Expensive, but not too big.”
Polax shook his head and again looked to Merrick. “Adolf, reign your boy in. He’s way out of line.”
“She did come through for us, Lev. And she was telling the truth about her double-agent status. She never compromised Quest.”
To his commander, Bjorn said, “And from you, Merrick, I want Onyxx to start looking for Prisca Reznik. Mady’s daughter is still missing. And I need a six-month vacation.”
“Six months?”
“Back vacation. I’ve never taken a day off since I came to Onyxx. Check the records.” Bjorn shoved away from the wall and headed for the door. Before he left, he asked, “Did we ever find out who Kimball was working for?”
“Not yet, but we’re looking into it. I’ll let you know what we find out.”
Bjorn nodded. “In ten days, then.”
