by Lexi Blake
She didn’t mistake him for a second. “Don’t say his name.”
“Why not?” Levi asked in that smooth as silk voice of his. “After all, Beck makes everyone say it. Do you think Beck would go around calling himself by his dead half-brother’s name if he knew how many drugs the real Ezra Fain had run? If he knew that his sainted medic brother was a drug addict who used his position to help drug lords?”
She turned Levi’s way, pointing a finger at him. Well, all her fingers really since her hands were bound together. “You promised you would never tell him.”
It was one of the things that kept her awake at night. It was one of the secrets Levi held over her head. If Beck ever found out, he might kill her himself.
“And I’ve kept it. I’ve kept it despite the fact that I hate Beck and it would be so satisfying to let him know, to send him my report on his precious brother. Do you think I don’t sit up at night and imagine the look on his face? Only the fact that the fucker died kept me from parading him in front of the press.”
“But Ezra did, and Beck’s paid enough for that.” She’d paid. God, how she’d paid.
He sat back and sipped his champagne. “If you say so.” He was quiet for a moment, that hard truth sitting between them. “I think Beck took your arrest well.”
“Did you think he would try to rescue me and then you could kill him in the chaos?” She could break the zip tie, but they were in close quarters. She needed space to have enough force to bust out.
“I knew I won either way,” he admitted with a smug smile. “Any way, really. I’m actually surprised at how it went down. He barely looked up. I rather thought he would go the defiant route and I would get to shoot him. I have to say, it was the one I hoped for. I shot the fucker in Mexico but he didn’t stay down. Damn vests. I know to go for a headshot this time.”
“You pathetic piece of trash.” How had she ever liked this man? Called him her friend? She remembered crying on his shoulder and feeling comfort from him. He’d hidden his inner sociopath well. Or she’d simply refused to see it because she’d needed one person in the world who seemed to understand her.
His eyes narrowed. “And I was hoping we could keep this civil. After all, once I get you to a secure facility, you’re all mine. I will make all the decisions concerning you. I’ll decide what you wear, what you drink, when you sleep, what you eat. I think you should be a little more willing to play ball. My patience is only going to go so far.”
The laughter that bubbled up was far from humorous. It was damn near hysterical. “You’re finally going to do it, aren’t you? You’re going to try to make me into a doll. Your fuck toy.”
“Well, I can’t have you the way I want you so I shall have to make do,” he conceded. “One does what one must.”
Frustration welled up inside her. How could this be her life? “I told you I can’t love you. I won’t ever love you. I love Beck.”
He was silent for a moment, the only sound the tires turning against the pavement. “Then we’ll start over again. Don’t you ever wonder what your life would be like—what our lives could be like—if Beck never existed? If he hadn’t shown up and wrecked everything? Look at the misery he’s caused. What would it be like if you could forget it all and start over again?”
A cold chill went across her skin at the words. “What are you talking about?”
He gave her a tight smile. “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t have the stomach for it. And honestly, if I really ask myself the question, I don’t truly want the you I see now. I don’t want Beckett Kent’s leavings. I want the woman I knew when we first started training together. I can’t have her, so I’ll settle for the next best thing. Solo two point 0.”
She was going to be sick. She knew exactly what he was talking about, had seen the damage it could do. “You have McDonald’s drug.”
“Of course I do. Or rather I have the formulary, and it’s being worked on right now.” He set his glass down. “You can’t go on like this. He’s never going to love you. He isn’t capable of loving you the way I do.”
“You are a fucking sociopath.”
“But I’m your sociopath.”
She felt a scream strangle in her throat. He was crazy enough that he would do it. There was something deeply deranged inside Levi Green, something that had responded to her all those years ago, and it had ruined her life. His obsession was a weed with roots that strangled out anything good she tried to grow there.
“You were the one working with McDonald.”
“Not at all. I really was spying on her. I started the mission with the man you know as Tucker long before she was on the Agency’s radar. I saw her for what she was early on, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the work she was doing was important.” He always managed to sound so reasonable. It was his greatest skill, to hide the psycho behind a veneer of respectability. “I knew if she managed to perfect her drug, she would likely sell it. Shouldn’t our country be the one to benefit?”
“There’s no benefit to taking a person’s memories.”
“Oh, I disagree. It’s going to be to both of our benefits.” He looked at her with a sick resolve on his face. “When I’m done, you will be unburdened by the past. You’ll be free of him. We’ll start over and I’ll treat you like a queen. You won’t know a moment’s despair. You’ll forget that your parents ignored you. You’ll forget that you were nothing but a prop for them. You’ll forget how hard it was for you to get through high school and how lonely you were. And the wreckage Beck wrought on your soul will be gone. You’ll be left with nothing but a husband who puts you first. I do promise that. I’ll always fight for you.”
She’d only thought she’d seen the depths of his madness. “Even when I’ve made it plain that I don’t want you?”
“Isn’t that the stuff of epic love stories? I’m the man who won’t give up, who’ll have you no matter what. Because I know I’m what’s best for you.” He turned in his seat. “I’ve known I had to do something about the situation for a long time, but I needed two things. I needed that formulary, which I picked up from the data we found in Colorado.”
He was so good at rewriting history. “You mean the data Jax Seaborne found and you stole.”
“That data was taken from a secure CIA site, so who was stealing?” Levi asked. “I originally planned to get the formulary from Tucker’s mission. It was precisely why I hired a hacker to add your crimes to Kronberg’s files. This was supposed to go down over three years ago. Never let it be said I’m not patient.”
He’d been planning to steal her memory for a long time. “Why not have the hacker give you the files?”
“They had to come from an op the Agency would approve of. Otherwise I couldn’t use the data the way I wanted to,” Levi admitted. “Do you think I don’t know there are people who watch me constantly? Any data I brought in would be suspect—especially anything concerning you. Unless that data came from a secure place, say, directly from the head of Kronberg’s computer. The fact that my operative sacrificed so much to get the intel out is merely the cherry on top. I mean I had to wait because Tucker was dumb enough to get caught, but it’s really worked out.”
What a tangled fucking web. “So you admit you did this to me. You admit you know damn well I didn’t commit treason.”
“Of course. Sweetheart, this was meant to put you under my control. That’s all. I promise I’ll clear it all up later. I know you would never betray your country. You’re an excellent operative. It’s one of the things I admire about you. You’re brave and strong. Sometimes you’re too queasy to really get things done, but that’s why I’m around. It’s why we make a good team.”
The enormity of what he’d done slammed into her. “You’ve been planning this for years. You meant to do this to me over three years ago.”
“I think I’ve been planning it since I truly understood you were going to marry Beck. I thought he was nothing more than a passing crush. He’s broody and rough and you
were rebelling, but I always knew you would come back to me.”
“We never dated,” she said between gritted teeth.
“People like us rarely date.” Levi took another sip. “We form relationships. For that first year we ate most of our meals together, studied together, when you went for a run, I would go along. It came as a shock when I realized you were attracted to that dull moron, but I got it. I knew he would bore the hell out of you and you would come back to me.”
“I never felt that way about you.” She glanced out the back, trying to figure out where they were going. How long did she have before he would put her on a plane and she wouldn’t see freedom again? How long before he took the most precious thing she owned—her memories?
She saw a black Benz driving behind her. There was something familiar about that sedan, but then there were lots of black Benzes on the road. It was pure wishful thinking that someone would come for her.
“I’m sure that’s what you tell yourself,” Levi replied. “But I know the truth.”
There was no talking to him about this. She glanced out the tinted windows. They were leaving the city. She could see far more green than concrete now. How was she going to get away? If she got on that plane with him, she would disappear, and by the time anyone saw her again she would be some Stepford wife for Levi to show off. Of course there were other reasons he could want her. “I suppose you’ll have my accounts transferred to you.”
She was worth roughly sixty million. That was a lot of attraction for some men.
“I have my own money.” It was the first time he’d looked anything but perfectly satisfied.
She’d made a direct hit. “But nothing like mine.”
“No. I had a small trust that my father managed to not lose when he blew every bit of our family money.” Levi sat up a bit straighter. “When I’m married to the heir to the Solomon fortune, with ties that go across the globe, I’ll be back to my proper place. I’ll show my father that I’m better than him when I bring our family back to some sort of honor. Or maybe I’ll crush him like he tried to crush me. I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.”
He was an angry child with far too much power. She needed to find a way out or she would become another toy he broke. “You can’t possibly think you’re going to get away with this.”
“Of course I will,” he said like it was a foregone conclusion, like the game was already over. “I’m back in the director’s good graces. The data we recovered from Paris ensured that. It’s the gift that keeps right on giving. Have you ever heard of a company called Fitzgerald Inc?”
Everyone had heard of them. “They’re a multinational, one of those mega corporations with their fingers in every pie from agricultural to Hollywood.”
“Including a majority share in a small pharmaceutical company that worked with Kronberg, and more specifically funded Hope McDonald in a direct fashion.”
She wasn’t sure where he was going with this. “I suspect a lot of companies did that.”
“Ah, but did the daughter of a presidential candidate sit on the board of one of those companies? Did she sign off on backroom plans to use McDonald’s research?”
Levi Green had always been the luckiest fucker in the history of time. “You’re planning an October surprise?”
“No, though I assure you we thought about it,” he admitted. “Look, the last thing we need is another Zack Hayes. We’ve had eight years where we couldn’t work the way we need to because it would offend the president’s delicate sensibilities.”
She rolled her eyes. “You mean he took human and civil rights seriously. That must have been very tough on you.”
He completely ignored her and continued on. “Since Hayes can’t run again, we’re left with two candidates. One of them is reasonable and the other is all Captain America huggy. Now we have a way to force the Captain America guy to bow out. Or we’ll arrest his daughter and bring down his whole family. He’ll claim he can’t handle the pressure or some shit and our guy will breeze in.”
Then Levi Green would be in power. And she would be completely fucked.
“Sir, I believe we have a tail,” a deep voice said over the intercom.
Levi sat up and turned. “How long have they been on us?”
“That Benz has been behind us for ten minutes. They caught up when we hit the M25,” the man said. “I didn’t think anything of it until they followed us off. There’s nothing but the airfield going this way. It’s why we selected this spot. No one should be following us. We’re the only departure for hours.”
Her heart rate ticked up and she strained to see the vehicle again. That Benz looked an awful lot like Damon’s.
“Lose him,” Levi commanded. “Or better yet, get us to the airfield as fast as you can. If he wants to follow me in, I’ll shoot the fucker, and I won’t miss this time.”
Levi reached to his side, pulling the SIG Sauer out of its place in the shoulder holster he wore.
It was time to cause some chaos. If she could break free, she was running for that car the minute she could. They would have to kill her before they would get her body on that plane. He was about to find out she wasn’t going gently into that medicated night.
She brought her hands up over her head.
“Don’t do it, Solo,” Levi said between clenched teeth.
She brought her hands down with all the force she could muster and dragged them apart, splitting the plastic of the zip ties. He really should have used cuffs.
Adrenaline started to pour through her system as she readied for the fight of her life.
That was the moment she heard the shot and felt the limo careen out of control. Levi cursed as the limo started to roll. She held on and prepared to make her escape.
* * * *
Ezra’s heart was in his throat as he punched the gas. The limo had turned off the M25 exactly where Nick said it would. They’d been following the fucking douchebag limo for the last half hour, and every single mile had been nauseating.
What had Levi already done to her? Had he drugged her to make sure she couldn’t fight back?
“He made the turn?” Walt’s voice had been steady over the line. He was playing the Overwatch position, and it was something he seemed to do well.
“Yes.” Ariel had spent the drive preparing for her role. The go-bag she’d pulled out of the trunk seemed to contain everything she would need, including a couple of guns. One for her. One for him. “They’re going for the airfield. He’s in a limousine but there’s an SUV in front of him. I believe he’s got at least four men with him. They’ll be armed. Should we expect the police?”
“You will find the police around here are currently dealing with a situation at a local shopping center,” Walt explained. “I don’t have any vehicles within a five-kilometer radius, but you have to be quick. A prolonged firefight is going to catch someone’s attention, even out there. I know the airfield is private and they only have one departure scheduled in the next few hours, but there are at least five employees working. They’ll likely be able to hear gunfire.”
“Are we a go?” Ezra asked, his voice sounding tight even to himself. That wasn’t surprising since his whole fucking body felt like a live wire ready to go off. He hadn’t been this wound up in…he didn’t get wound up. Being emotional during a mission got an operative killed. Even when he’d been angry as hell, he’d been able to turn that emotion to ice in his veins.
“We’re in place.” Nick’s voice came over the system. “Brody and I are outside the airfield. There’s some security. I suspect they’re hired guards and not military in any way. Mr. Green has gotten arrogant.”
No. Mr. Green thought he wouldn’t have any resistance at all. “He didn’t think we would care.”
“Or he wanted a fight and he couldn’t have witnesses to it,” Ariel offered. “You need to stay calm, Ezra. You cannot let him bait you into doing something you shouldn’t.”
“Like stopping the Agency from arresting one of th
eir own?” He was well aware that what they were about to do would kick up a hornet’s nest that could sting them all.
“I meant like putting a bullet between his eyes. He’s got a team with him and they likely believe everything he’s told them. We can’t kill a bunch of Agency employees. If we keep things clean, we might get away with it.”
“You don’t think he’ll bring the bosses down on me?” He said me because he fully intended to take all the responsibility for tilting at this particular windmill.
“I would bet anything that he’s doing this under the table. He would have to or Kim would have gotten notification.” Ariel worked a long-sleeve jacket over her arms and shoulders. It was dark and would camouflage the brightly colored dress she’d worn today because she’d had no idea she would be taking on the Agency. “Otherwise he would have shown up with an actual warrant. He didn’t produce one, did he?”
Why hadn’t he thought of that? Kim had been working for some heavy hitters lately—including the president and his closest advisors. Somehow he didn’t think Connor Sparks would have let this hit his desk without asking some questions. “No, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a deal with British intelligence. The director knew what was going down.”
“Still, they won’t make an international incident out of it,” Ariel assured him. “They can’t because too many questions would be asked. If we can extract her without too much trouble…well, we’ll still have questions to answer.”
“Blame it all on me,” Ezra replied.
“Big Tag has already been informed,” Brody Carter said, his Aussie accent thick over the line. “Beyond listening to him shout every curse word he knows, he’s firmly behind us extracting Solo. He’s already putting a plan in place. We’ve got a safe house ready for you. And don’t worry about the rest of us. Nick and I are back in Soho on assignment. There’s CCTV of us. Thanks, Walt.”
“Glad to help out, partner,” Walt replied cheerily. “And Ezra, you dropped Ariel off for her lunch date. Hayley says you’re really enjoying the fish and chips at Meg’s this afternoon.”
