by Lexi Blake
Nina took a long sip of wine. “Do I think that she brought Robert with her to taunt Tucker? To show him exactly how close he came to saving his brother right before she took it all away from him? Perhaps. I also think if you’d shown even a hint that you knew what was going on, she might have taken you to Argentina and let her boys have fun with you. She liked to let them sleep with women as rewards for good behavior and then they would wake up next to a corpse in the morning. You could have been that for Tucker had she not believed you.”
A fine tremble went through her. Tucker had known how cruel McDonald could be. It was why he’d done what he’d done to Rebecca. If he’d told Rebecca, she would have confronted McDonald. It was her nature. So he’d done something bad to stop something far worse from happening. He’d taken the sin on himself.
She wasn’t a great actress. She didn’t lie well. If he’d told her what was happening, she likely would have given herself away that day when she was in the same room with McDonald. She would have come off as scared and anxious instead of sad that her boyfriend had used her. “He really was protecting me. He promised he would tell me everything when he was done. I think he was planning on us leaving from Paris.”
“Yes, I believe he was.” Nina sighed, sitting back. “Believe me when I say I know how a man who’s using a woman acts. He doesn’t keep her safe. He puts her up as a shield to save himself. I don’t know what Tucker was doing with your sister, but I don’t think that man is capable of what you’re accusing him of. Have you considered the fact that he might have been working with your sister and they were both trying to protect you? That you had two people who wanted so badly to look out for you? What did Katie say when you told her Tucker had left?”
The tears flowed freely now because in this she was absolutely the guilty party. “I never told her. She knew I was seeing him, but I avoided her after he left me. I dodged her calls and then she died.”
Would her sister have known something had gone wrong and saved herself if she’d talked to her about what happened to Tucker?
Nina shook her head. “No. You can’t go there. You can’t. McDonald took her out. Or maybe Kronberg did for all we know. They would have found you and then you and Katie would be dead. Violet wouldn’t have been born. Can’t you see that was exactly what they were both trying to stop?”
She’d been wrong. She didn’t have a lick of proof, but the scenario Nina had put out was the correct one. He hadn’t betrayed her. He hadn’t used her. He’d done everything he could in the best way he’d known how.
She’d betrayed him.
She stood up. “I have to go talk to him.”
Nina smiled. “I’m glad. I honestly believe if he knows you’re with…”
Nina’s words were cut off with the sound of a single ping. It was so quiet, nothing more than a brief puff of air whispering around her as the bullet entered Nina’s chest. Bright red blood bloomed.
Up and left of her heart. But it might have gotten her lung. She needed to seal the wound. It wouldn’t be fatal if she could seal it and keep Nina breathing.
“Well, you obviously didn’t drink the tea as I had planned. She was a bit too smart for her own good,” Arthur said, staring down at Nina as she fell to the floor. He glanced back Roni’s way. “If you scream I’ll put one in her brain. I’m not good with the shooting business. I’m not a damn spy. I missed her heart. She might still live, but only if you come with me. Come now, Veronica. You’re not so out of practice you don’t know that what I’m saying is true, are you?”
He was so close. He wouldn’t miss this time. He couldn’t. Nina wouldn’t survive.
“You should hurry or I’ll shoot anyone who walks in here. Don’t think I won’t. I already drugged the head of MI6 and a German intelligence agent. I have nothing to lose. You have ten seconds to make your decision,” he said, his eyes lit with something that scared the hell out of her.
Truth. He was telling her the utter truth.
“I’ll come with you.” She didn’t have another choice. There was no way she could stand here and watch him kill Nina. He wouldn’t stop there. If she screamed, he would kill her, too.
Arthur grimaced as he approached her. “I think you’ll likely comply until we’re far enough away that I won’t be able to hurt your friend. I told them I didn’t want this job.”
She barely managed to gasp before he brought the gun down on her head and the whole world went dark.
Chapter Fourteen
“She’s stable. You got to her in time and managed to keep her breathing,” Ariel said over the phone two hours later. “The doctors here say she was lucky.”
“What about the intelligence officers?” Tucker asked. He’d had a lot to deal with and he was only now starting to completely understand how fucked they all were.
“They’re both still sedated,” Ariel replied. “But the toxicology came back and the doctors assure me they’re going to be fine. No word on Veronica?”
His stomach rolled and Ezra nodded, holding his hand out to take the phone.
“We’re working on it. I’ve already sent copies of the security tapes to Dallas. They’ll go over it with a fine-tooth comb for anything that might help,” Ezra was saying. “We couldn’t chase after that massive ass because we had to deal with Nina and then our sleeping friends. I suspect Arthur planned to drug Nina as well, but she chose wine over tea.”
He’d seen Arthur carrying an unconscious Veronica into the woods. It had been right there on the security cameras. They would have been minutes behind but he hadn’t been able to chase after them because he’d had a dying Nina and he was the only one with medical expertise. Now it was too late and she was gone.
She was gone.
They were supposed to be talking about how good Violet looked and awkwardly trying to broach the subject of what had gone wrong between them, but he didn’t even know where she was. Had she been drugged, too? What did Arthur Dwyer want?
If he’d thought to kidnap Veronica Croft, there was only one thing Dwyer could want.
Him.
“I found where he had a car hidden in the woods.” Robert strode in, Solo hard on his heels. “We followed the tracks to the road and lost him there.”
“I’ve already talked to Damon and he’s got someone working on the traffic cams,” Solo explained.
He could already see a problem with that scenario. “You don’t know what kind of car he’s driving.”
“No, but we can make some educated guesses.” Solo had her phone out again. “We can check and see if a new car shows up between cameras. It’s not foolproof, but we have to give it a shot. I’m also trying to figure out if anyone is scheduled to fly out of one of the private airfields. There aren’t many around here. We’re fairly isolated so we have a shot.”
They wouldn’t find Arthur. He would be well-funded and he would have a plan. “Who will he call with the ransom request?”
Ezra hung up with Ariel. “I suspect it will be Damon, or maybe me. I don’t know, man. You know what he’ll want, right?”
“We don’t know anything yet,” Solo argued.
He hadn’t thought she could be naïve. “At some point he’ll call and he’ll be willing to make an exchange. Me for Roni. Once he has me, I’ll be taken to some lab Kronberg owns and he’ll give me all those drugs he’s wanted to from the beginning. They’ll do whatever they can to find that intel.”
“And keep us out of the loop,” Robert surmised. His brother was thinking along the same lines. “I’m certain they’ll say something about how Arthur was acting as a rogue agent and they have no idea what’s going on.”
“Then why would Arthur do it?” Solo asked.
There was only one real reason he could think of. “His name is on the list. Or he knows whose is and he thinks getting that list will give him all the power he needs. The question is what will he do with Roni. I can’t see him actually giving her up.”
“Which is why this is an irrational plan,” Robert
said. “He has to know there’s zero way we give you up. Not when he’ll kill Roni anyway. You have to know that. He can’t let her live.”
Nausea threatened to overtake him. “He can’t think he’ll get away with this if she dies. I won’t stop, and Big Tag won’t let him get away with killing me.”
“It’s got to be bad,” Solo said with a shake of her head. “Whatever is in the intel you stole, it has to be damning if he’s risking this much.”
Her cell buzzed and she grimaced. “It’s DC. I have to take this. Ezra, will you please check on Levi? He was fine when I left, but it’s been a while.”
She stepped out of the room and after a few seconds, he heard the back door open and close.
“You have to give me up,” he said. He couldn’t see a way around it. “You have to be careful and make sure you get Roni out of there. I’ll make it a condition of turning myself over.”
He couldn’t leave Violet without her mom. He couldn’t let her die out there for him. He would do anything it took to make sure she got out of this alive and whole, and then his brothers would take care of her. All of his brothers. The blood one and the ones he’d chosen.
How funny was it that when they’d been separated, they’d found their brotherhood again without ever knowing there was an ounce of blood between them. He trusted Robert would see to Veronica’s and Violet’s health and happiness. He could do what needed to be done because his brothers would make sure the people he loved were okay.
Ezra glanced outside, his eyes on his ex-wife as she paced. “Or we could negotiate.”
“How?” Robert asked.
“We do something truly shitty to Solo because she would never go for this plan.” He frowned. “I know I talk crap about her all the time, but I don’t want to do this to her. I can’t think of another way out. I’m worried she’s telling her boss what happened, and they’ll come pick up Levi in the morning and our shot will be gone. She won’t have a choice. Come with me.”
Ezra turned and started down the hallway. It was the one that led to Levi Green’s cell.
But then didn’t all the roads of his life lead back to that asshole?
He followed along. How far away was Veronica now? Had they gotten her on a plane? Was she already en route to Germany? Would he ever see her again?
“This is going to be all right,” Robert was saying as he walked down the hall. “I’m going to make sure of it. I’ve already contacted Owen. He knows what’s happening and he’s monitoring things back in London. I think Damon’s giving MI6 some serious hell.”
“And that will work in our favor,” Ezra added, taking the steps down to the dungeon. “But I don’t think it will work fast enough. We’ve got to move before dawn if we’re going to do this.”
Tucker had a good idea of what Ezra was saying. It was dangerous, and he wasn’t sure they could pull it off. “You think Green will go along with it?”
Ezra slid his key into the door and unlocked it. He’d been down here when all the chaos had started, and Tucker was happy he’d been watching over Green or they might have lost him, too.
He and Robert had heard nothing, seen nothing, until Ezra had come running.
“What the hell is happening?” Green was on his feet, his hands wrapped around the bars. “You think I can’t hear down here? I might not be able to make out what you’re saying, but I know when something’s gone to hell. Don’t you forget you need me. You let some fucking foreign agency take me and you get nothing. Where’s Solo?”
There was a wild look in his eyes that almost convinced Tucker he cared about the outcome. He supposed obsession was a kind of caring. “She’s safe upstairs. Roni’s the one who’s gone, and Nina has a bullet in her chest because she preferred wine to tea.”
Green cursed under his breath before slamming his palm against the bars. “I knew this would happen. Was it MI6, or did that fucker Dwyer show his colors?”
“Rupert is sleeping off a roofie,” Robert explained.
Green shook his head. “Kronberg is touchy. You know what they want, right?”
“Me.” But maybe he could find something they wanted even more.
Green looked to Ezra. “What’s Solo doing?”
“She’s out talking to DC,” Ezra replied, his eyes stony. “I’m sure they’ll have your transport logistics figured out in no time at all. Unless we can come to an agreement.”
Green was back at the bars, a fierce look in his eyes. “You know we can. You know exactly what we need to do. Solo won’t go for it. She’ll play it safe because she won’t want to get you in trouble. Everything she’s doing right now is to put you in a position to get your job back. She’ll sacrifice this whole operation to do it. But you don’t want that, do you?”
Robert seemed to grasp what Ezra was offering them. “You want to break Green out before Solo’s boss can come?”
Tucker stared at the man who’d recruited him and left him behind when the tide had turned. He didn’t want to have to depend on Levi Green, but it looked like he didn’t have a choice. “We need to go to Paris. Green was right that first day. I need to be in the city. I need to stand where it all started and let myself trust my instincts. You remember what it was like when I got inside the Kronberg building a few weeks ago.”
He’d known where to go, known where the safe would be hidden. It had been as though his feet could remember what his head couldn’t. It might be the same in Paris. His body might recall the terrible things that happened that day. But he would need Green to set him on the path. There might be a way around it though.
“You can give me everything you know about where I was in Paris. Roni didn’t know the address, but she gave me some landmarks. I think you know exactly where I was. Tell me,” he said. “I’ll take it from there.”
After all, he hadn’t needed anyone with him in the Kronberg building. He’d made that happen. Maybe he could mitigate the risk.
Green shook his head. “No. I’m going with you.”
Ezra’s eyes narrowed. “Or I could beat it out of you.”
“You think I can’t take a beating? How long do you have? A few minutes before Solo shows up again and you have to get physical with her? You won’t like that. She will fight you on this. You ready for it? Because I survived weeks with some of the best torturers imaginable, and guess what? I. Didn’t. Break. I won’t break because I’ve waited too long for this. I’d rather die than stop now. How about you, Timmy? You got your brother back so it’s okay for the girl to die?”
“I swear to god, I’ll kill you if you stab me in the back,” Tucker swore.
Ezra’s head fell forward with a groan. “She’s going to kill me, but I don’t see another way out. Call Owen. Leave Damon out of it. He needs plausible deniability, but tell Owen to get his ass to Paris. You’ll need support. I’ll get to France if I can.”
But he might not be able to because Solo might take him into custody for what they were about to do. They were fucking her over and hard. She might lose her job over it. And he would do it to save Roni.
He would do anything to save her. But Ezra was missing one important point. “How will they contact us? He didn’t leave a note. Rob and I dumped our cells. Won’t he have to contact Damon?”
Ezra reached into his pocket and came up with a cell phone. It was the cheap kind that wasn’t registered. “I found it by Nina’s body. I slipped it in my pocket or Solo would have insisted on keeping it.”
“You knew exactly what you were going to do the minute you realized someone had taken Veronica Croft,” Green said in a silky tone. “You might have been out of the game for a while, but you haven’t forgotten how to play. Now go and do what you need to do. I’ll take care of this. I promise on my honor I’ll do everything I can to help Tucker find that intelligence. And bring it back to you.”
“You don’t have any honor,” Ezra said.
“But I do, and I mean what I say,” Green shot back. “I won’t even try to get away, and you know why. Beca
use you’re about to distract her, and she won’t ever forgive you for that. She’ll understand exactly what you did, and it will break her in a way you haven’t yet. That’s where I’ll slip in. I’ll come back and give her what she needs, and I’ll be the hero.”
Ezra’s hands fisted. “Somehow I doubt that. Not that she’ll be angry with me, but that she’ll turn to you.”
“But that’s exactly what she does when she’s upset with you,” Green crooned.
“Do you want him to murder you, asshole?” He needed to shut this down.
Green’s eyes slid to the floor. “No. I’m sorry. I can’t help it around him. I meant what I said. I will help you, Tucker. I owe you. I was the reason you were in Paris. Let’s finish this op once and for all.”
Tucker nodded. He couldn’t find it in him to speak. He knew he was making a deal with the devil, but he was out of options.
“Ariel’s going to kill me,” Robert said with a sigh. “I’ll make the calls. There’s a Land Rover in the garage and I know where the keys are. We have to move before my wife gets back. She won’t like this.”
“I’ll go alone. I don’t want to come between you and your wife,” he said.
“I said she wouldn’t like it, not that she won’t understand. I’ll ask forgiveness not permission,” Robert said resolutely.
“And I’ll handle Solo.” Ezra moved to the stairs again, a grim look on his face. “Contact me on the secure line when you can. I’ll be back in London by morning. If I’m not on my way to DC.”
Because Solo would have every reason to turn him in for betraying her. “If there was any other way…”
“There isn’t and we have very little time. Keep that phone on you at all times,” Ezra ordered. “It’s how Arthur Dwyer will contact you. I’ll work on getting Jax out in case we need to go to ground.”
