by Lexi Blake
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?
“We were supposed to meet here, but I brought Veronica.” Green had been angry with him, but he couldn’t have left her behind. He’d intended to tell her everything when they got free. “Katie Croft was working with us.”
“Yes, she was. She had a lot of information about Kronberg, but she had no real idea what to do with it. She couldn’t corroborate it enough to report it, but she could give it to us to help our investigation. You were key to getting her to talk to us.” Green leaned against the half wall that separated the building from the sidewalk. “You did an excellent job convincing her. You played the ‘do it for your country’ card. I think the fact that her mother was a soldier helped her along. She was trying to make Mommy proud.”
“I told you there was no way you slept with her,” Robert said.
“Of course he didn’t,” Green agreed. “No, he had a professional relationship with Katie. She wasn’t the problem.”
“If you say one more word against…”
He could feel the cell phone in his hand. It was early. The sun wasn’t up. He’d stood right here and argued with Levi Green about where they would meet since he’d fucked everything up.
In a heartbeat, he was back in the past.
Three years before
Timothy Seeger held the phone to his ear and glanced back up at the building, wishing he didn’t have to leave. The night before had been everything he’d thought it could be. Roni was the one.
His brother would love her. So would his mom. God, if this worked, they would be a family again soon.
Russ would have problems. Given what he knew about the drugs McDonald had used on his brother, he wasn’t fooling himself. They would face an uphill battle when they got Russell back, but they would get him back.
“Do you even remember why you’re here?” Levi did not bother to hide his irritation with the situation.
“I know I changed the plan, but after what happened with Rebecca Walsh, I couldn’t leave Veronica behind.” It still made him sick to think about what he’d done to Dr. Walsh, but he’d had to step in. Dr. Walsh had been ready to leave. Hope McDonald had given her a dose of the time dilation drug in a mad attempt to convince Walsh to stay. She’d needed Rebecca’s genius. For all her cold ruthlessness, McDonald lost her shit from time to time. She’d panicked at the thought of Rebecca leaving and tried a partial memory wipe. It hadn’t worked and that was when they’d started to talk about killing the pretty doctor. He’d offered them an alternative.
It had been up to him to ensure Rebecca ran and never looked back. He’d used a virtual reality headset to simulate hurting the doctor. He’d known the memories would be vague and murky, and they wouldn’t jive with her physical health, but it had worked. Rebecca was safely back in the States.
He couldn’t put Roni through the same thing.
A long sigh came over the line. “McDonald doesn’t give a damn about your girlfriend. She couldn’t care less. Do you know who she does care about? You. And now we have to meet in the open because I can’t show up at my own damn safe house.”
He couldn’t help it. He wasn’t going to risk Roni. He was too close to getting everything he wanted. What he wasn’t about to tell Levi was that he wasn’t going back to Munich. McDonald was acting suspicious, and he wasn’t entirely sure she didn’t know something was going on with him. It was there in the way he caught her staring at him—like she had plans. McDonald’s plans always involved pain. “Tell me where to meet you. I’ve got a flight back this evening. I would like to spend some time looking like the tourist I’m supposed to be.”
“Meet me at Père Lachaise Cemetery. Go in the main entrance and walk straight up the main street. It will take you to a monument. You can’t miss it. It’s quiet at this time of the morning. We should be able to talk without being overheard. Take the Métro. I’ll be waiting for you there at nine. And watch your back. McDonald isn’t in Munich right now.”
“She’s getting the lab in Argentina ready.” She’d been planning on moving Dr. Walsh there. If she’d accepted the job, Rebecca Walsh would have found herself a prisoner. She would have been forced to work or die. McDonald thought she was close to a breakthrough, and she wasn’t about to let a thing like ethics keep her from getting what she needed.
Was his brother in that lab in Argentina?
“I hope so. I don’t like not having eyes on her,” Levi admitted. “I’ll see you in an hour and maybe we can talk about how to use this to get your brother. Things are shaking out in a way I hadn’t planned. There’s a group in Dallas I’m worried is about to make a move.”
Levi had been talking about some ex-military guys getting involved because their brother had gone missing. “I thought the Taggarts believed Theo is dead.”
He wasn’t. Tim had seen the man not a few weeks before. McDonald had brought him in to work with Dr. Walsh.
“It would have been best for me if they did,” Levi admitted. “I don’t need that group fucking things up. I’ve had this planned for a very long time.”
“I don’t see why we couldn’t do this back in Munich.” Things would have been far easier if he’d made the handoff and gone straight to the States.
“Well, I’m sorry my day job is inconveniencing you,” Levi shot back. “I’ve got more than one operation I’m working on. You’re lucky I could get into Paris today.”
The line went dead and he took a deep breath. He glanced back up to where Veronica was sleeping. She’d looked so delicious wrapped up in the blanket, her hair spread out across the pillow.
He would tell her everything this afternoon and pray she forgave him.
Forty minutes later, he jogged up the steps that led him out of the Père Lachaise Métro station along with what seemed like half of Paris. It was easy to get lost in a city this size, but it was also why it was good cover. He’d dressed for the occasion, a ballcap covering his head and plain T-shirt, jeans, and boots. He could be anyone.
He glanced at the café across the street and realized why Levi hadn’t picked it as their meeting place. It was mobbed. Sometimes chaos was good, but not in this case. They needed to talk. He had a flash drive to pass off. The last thing he needed to do was drop the drive in the crush of bodies.
The flash drive in his pocket was the most important thing he’d ever done. It was proof of what was happening at Kronberg. Everything he’d observed and documented was in his report. The whole of Katie Croft’s investigation was documented there. Conversations he’d managed to record were on that flash drive. All those names, all the people, companies and politicians who supported the McDonalds. There were even a couple of CIA agents’ names in there. Levi had made sure his people got called out, too. Levi had been open and honest about the corruption in his own organization.
He was going to owe Levi Green so much.
He oriented himself and started walking toward the main entrance of the famous Paris cemetery. Tall white stone walls rose to the sides. He glanced down at his watch. He was early but he still found himself walking to the entrance. The minute he walked past the main gate it was like the world receded. The bustle of the street outside was replaced with an odd quiet.
An almost eerie quiet.
Levi had been right. The place was almost empty at this time of the morning. It wasn’t tourist season, though there were always tourists in Paris. A chill was in the air as he started up the stone path that promised to lead to the monument known as the Au Morts de la Commune. He’d had some time on the Métro to look it up.
On either side of him were monuments to the dead. They looked like small stone rooms in the middle of the forest, some ornate, others much simpler.
It was utterly unlike anything they had in Wyoming. His grandfather’s grave was a simple thing. The cemetery there was small. It was pretty, but no
thing at all like the lush garden that was the Père Lachaise.
Russell had a headstone there. Beloved Husband, Son, and Brother. If he was right about Emily, he was damn glad there wasn’t a body buried there because he would have to change that stone. Emily had ties to the McDonalds. He was almost certain she’d had a hand in what happened to his brother. She hadn’t loved Russ at all.
Veronica would love him. He was going to marry her and have kids with her. Three would be good. He’d loved having a brother, but sometimes brothers got in trouble and it would have been awesome to have another one to have shared this particular load. So three it was.
He felt a goofy smile cross his face. He was stupid in love.
She might like this place. It was peaceful. He could hear birds calling. Their sound split the silence in an eerie way. Even the people around him seemed to move solemnly.
There was a road wide enough for cars that seemed to lead to the monument where he would meet Green. There was a single van parked to his left. He moved quickly past it. It was likely a service van of some sort, though he noticed the tinted windows.
He should have grabbed a cup of coffee.
He trudged up the road as it gently ascended. He would make this as quick as possible, get back to Roni, and get to the airport where they would find the first flight that could get them to the States. It would be so fucking good to be Tim Seeger again. How fast could Levi Green turn his real identity on? He wouldn’t be able to go back to Mass General, but he could finish out his residency in Laramie and be close to home. Be close to his brother.
When they took down McDonald, he would get his brother back. He had to believe that. He had to trust that Green would do what he’d promised and save Russ.
Up ahead he saw the place he would meet Levi in about twenty minutes. He took a deep breath and tried to banish the anxiety playing in his brain. He felt like someone was watching him, but then he’d felt that way ever since the day he’d accepted the job at Kronberg and gone undercover.
He didn’t like that van.
He moved off the main road, taking a right and walking on one of the smaller paths. The path here wasn’t cobbled. It was well-worn dirt and gravel, the graves and tombs seemingly hundreds of years old. Some of them were phone-booth sized, the doors on the front mostly closed and locked, though he could see through the fronts. There was no glass in the windows so a person who wanted to could see inside to the stones that marked the actual grave. Some of the tombs had chairs inside or old planters where once flowers had grown. The spaces were dark, disuse apparent.
His mother kept Russell’s grave perfect, despite the fact his body wasn’t there. She went to the headstone once a week and laid out flowers as though she needed the connection to her son no matter what it was.
He was getting maudlin.
“Hello, brother.”
The sound made him turn and then his heart threatened to stop in his chest.
Tall, with broad shoulders and a jaw that could have come from a comic book hero. His brother. “Russ?”
Was he dreaming? Had all of this been one long dream and he was back in bed with Veronica?
Russell’s lips turned up in a grim smile. “No. My name is Robert. I’m sorry you’ve been neglected, brother. Mother told me you were left behind on a mission. It was an accident. Apparently, it was my fault. You know how the meds can be. I forget things. I won’t do it again.”
What the hell? His brother was standing right there and yet every word that came from his mouth sounded wrong. “Russell. Your name is Russell Seeger and I’m your brother, Tim. You are from Wyoming. You were in the Army when a woman named Hope McDonald kidnapped you.”
He wanted to reach out and get a hand on him. If he could just put a hand on his brother, he could know he was real. He looked leaner, his body more sculpted than it had been even during his Army days.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” Russ said with what sounded like sympathy. “It’s hard when you haven’t had your meds for a long time, but I’m not leaving you alone. I promise, it’s going to be fine when we get back to base. And please, call me Robert.”
His body seemed to go cold. This was his brother, but he didn’t know this man. This man stared at him like they hadn’t spent their lives together, like they hadn’t built pillow forts and chased each other across the lawn, like they hadn’t sat up at night and wondered where their dad had gone.
“Your name is Russ,” he said as though he had to remind himself. This was his brother. This was Russell and he could save him. He could find his way back. “Mom misses you so much.”
His brain had started to function again, the shock of seeing his brother giving way to questions. Why the hell was his brother here?
He glanced behind him and sure enough, they weren’t alone. A big man with dark hair was walking up the path behind him. They’d been following him, waiting for a chance to get him in between them.
McDonald was here and she’d sent her boys after him.
“Please, Russ, you have to listen to me. You don’t understand what’s going on,” he pleaded, his heart rate tripling. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not when he was so fucking close to getting out.
He couldn’t be killed by his own brother.
“Mother can’t miss me. I’m with her all the time,” the man in Russell’s body said with a humorless chuckle. “It’s you she misses. I know you don’t remember it but you’re part of a team, and it’s time for you to come home now. You’re off your medications and it’s making everything seem confusing.”
That was her game? He stood in the middle of the path, the dead all around him. It was the living that he was worried about. The big man who’d come up at his back was still, a predator waiting for the right time to pounce. “I’m not the one who’s confused. She’s feeding you a ton of drugs. She’s lying to you both. She took away your memories. Do you honestly believe you were born fully grown in a lab?”
If he could reach his brother, make him see some reason, there might be hope.
“Of course not.” Russell started to move his way. “Everything is going to be so much clearer when you’re back on your meds. Dante, don’t you dare hurt him. You know Mother wants him brought in alive.”
“She said alive,” Dante replied with a shrug. “She didn’t say we couldn’t play with him a bit.”
Dante lunged and Tim took off, leaping over a stone tomb and hitting the ground on the other side. His knees hit the soft earth and he forced himself up. He had to move and keep moving until he could find a way out. There weren’t enough people here and he would bet anything his brother and Dante had continued their training. They would be lethal, and they likely wouldn’t mind hurting a few tourists to complete their mission.
He needed to get back to the street where he could lose himself in the crowd. They wouldn’t want to bring attention to themselves.
He had to shove his way between tombs to get to a parallel path.
He turned to his left, but Dante was already there. He took off to the right as his brother managed to make it through the thicket. He shoved at Russell, rushing past him and turning the first chance he got. Where was he? He had to get back to the main road. It was his best chance, but he could hear them running behind. He cut through another set of graves, scrambling over low tombs. He was confused and probably heading the wrong direction since the path he found himself on started to climb.
“Don’t do this, Tucker.” Russ’s voice rang out. “That’s your name, you know. Mother said you likely don’t even remember your own name.”
He slowed down because they hadn’t caught up to him yet. He slid his body between two standing tombs. They were so close together he could barely manage it.
“Which way did he go?” Dante asked in what sounded like a thick Eastern European accent. “You know what she’ll do if we fail.”
“I’m not going to fail,” Russ replied. “I won’t let another brother down.”
Emo
tion welled inside him at those words. He was letting his brother down by hiding, but he needed more time. He couldn’t let McDonald take him.
If McDonald knew about him…had she already taken Veronica? Had she been waiting when he walked out?
Don’t let her be dead. She can’t be dead.
He bit back bile. How soon would Levi be here? He needed to find the monument. That’s where Levi was supposed to meet him. Levi would be ready for this. All he had to do was get away.
And if he didn’t?
He reached into the pocket of his jeans and felt the thumb drive.
If she got it, there would be no need for him. If he hid it, he had something to hold over her. He could buy himself time, time to save Roni.
“He’s hiding,” Dante said. “He didn’t get away. He’s in one of these bushes or he’s gotten inside the tombs.”
The standing tomb in front of him had elaborate grating. If he went up on his toes, he could push the drive through. If this was one of the older tombs, there might not be maintenance to sweep the inside. The little drive might survive.
He might survive. He couldn’t get caught with that drive on him. McDonald would have everything she wanted and no reason at all to keep him or Roni alive. If she thought Roni knew anything at all, she would take her out or use her in her experiments. That couldn’t happen.
He could hear someone moving behind him. He had to run again or they would be on him.
He pressed up and let the drive slip through the grate.
He turned and started to run.
And was tackled from behind. He hit the ground with a sickening thud, all the air leaving his lungs.
“It’s going to be okay. You’ll see.”
His brother. He was getting taken down by the very person he’d come to find. So close.
“Very good, Robert,” a familiar voice said. “Though you could have taken him closer to the van. Now we have to get him all the way back. Or you could go and ask Tomas to move the van a bit closer. That would be best.”
