“I’ve already got someone watching over them.” It was the first thing he’d thought about as he’d held her in the back of Jax’s van. He’d made the call to Big Tag and someone would be monitoring her father, stepmother, and sister.
“Levi has to be careful about how he works in the States,” Robert pointed out. “He might draw attention to himself if he pulled a stunt like that. That’s why we believe he isn’t the one who was setting you up. Not only does the timing not work, if it could be tied back to him, he would be in trouble with his bosses. I’m almost certain he walked into the situation, assessed it, and decided his best shot was to use the embezzlement scam as leverage. Add in the fact that there was an MSS agent already working the head of the Huisman Foundation, and he cut us loose fast and quick.”
Becca had no way of knowing what they thought. He was certain Ezra would likely want it kept that way, but she was part of the team now. Her life was on the line, and he wouldn’t leave her ignorant. “Levi Green sent us here. We think he intended to let us do the dirty work and he would have shown up at some point and grabbed the prize.”
Or let his plant grab it for him.
His mind sought any other explanation for what had happened tonight. Maybe they’d been unlucky. He didn’t want to think about the fact that one of them could have been lying for years, waiting and watching for his time to strike.
“I don’t understand any of this,” Becca said with a long sigh.
“I’ll answer any questions you have,” Owen replied.
A long silence followed and he watched her in the moonlight, half her face shrouded by night. He should have told her everything that day in the lift. He should have trusted his instincts. There were so many places where he could have turned this thing around, and time and time again he’d missed the moment.
“What you did for Tucker tonight was amazing, Rebecca,” Ari said, her voice soothing. She’d turned so she could get a glimpse of the woman she was talking to. “I wish they’d let me go with him, but I’m glad he’s got River and Jax. I can’t imagine how hard this is on him. He’s been afraid of this since the moment he heard the name Razor.”
“It wasn’t him,” Becca said, the words sounding dull out of her mouth.
He hated how the light in her eyes was dim again. Briefly he’d seen her come alive when she’d been comforting her enemy. He wanted desperately to see anything in her eyes but this grim sadness.
How much time would they have together? In twenty-four hours, they would get the new orders that would move her out of the country as quickly as possible. Somewhere Big Tag had a team together and they would be making plans that would separate him from her.
Was he willing to let her go without a fight? He wasn’t sure she would be alone with him again. She might cling to Ariel, and he wouldn’t have a chance to talk this out with her.
“I’m sorry, Becca. I need you to understand that I didn’t walk into this with the thought of hurting you,” he said. “It wasn’t supposed to go down this way, and I’ll do anything I need to do to make it up to you.”
“There’s nothing you can do.” She leaned against the door, staying as far from him as possible. “This isn’t like Tucker. You knew who you were when you walked into my life.”
“He forgot who he was supposed to be really fast, though,” Robert added, sounding cheerier than he did before.
Ari turned to Robert and send him a wilting look.
Robert shrugged. “It’s true. One minute I had an exotic Scottish lover and the next I was a lonely man. I was looking forward to playing twink to his bear.”
He was about to tell Robert to stop with the sarcasm, but Becca had sat straight up.
“What?” She leaned toward where Robert was sitting. “I thought he was sent in to seduce me.”
It was the most animation he’d seen on her in half an hour. This could get embarrassing, but if it made Becca smile, he would suffer through it. “Not exactly.”
“Not at all is what he means,” Robert replied with something akin to glee. “He wasn’t supposed to get close to you. I was.”
“Really?” Her nose wrinkled up. “No offense, but you’re not my type. I mean you’re attractive and all, but I don’t know that I would have responded to you.”
A deep sense of satisfaction welled inside him. Robert turned women’s heads wherever they went, but he wasn’t Becca’s type. Owen was. “She likes a bit of the bad boy in there. And she loves this accent of mine.”
Becca glared his way. “I think I’ll stay away from bad boys from now on since I got taken by one.”
Before Owen could reply, Robert was chuckling. “I wasn’t going to seduce you. I was going to befriend you, and trust me, you would have wanted to befriend me. I had plans. I bought board games and everything. A couple of rounds of Ticket to Ride, some wine and a nice dinner, and you would have been eating out of the palm of my hand. You would have been thrilled to befriend the new couple in the building. Of course we would have bonded over talking about my surly husband there. He wasn’t going to talk much.”
She finally glanced his way. “You and Robert were going in as a couple? You didn’t mention that to me. When did that change? Did Ezra order it? Speaking of couples, why were Ezra and Ariel posing as a married couple when it’s obvious she’s involved with Robert?”
“I wouldn’t say involved,” Ariel began.
“Because I looked better with Owen than Ezra. I was the obvious choice, and no one consulted me about the whole married to Ezra thing,” Robert continued as if Ariel hadn’t said a thing. “I would have gone with sister.”
Ari snorted. “Seriously, you think I look like lily-white Ezra’s sister? And how would you explain the accent?” She shook her head, but there was a smile on her lips. “He’s insane.”
“He was also staring at the two of you like he was going to rip Ezra’s head off that night at dinner.” It was way better to talk about Robert’s flaws than his own. He noticed Becca had moved closer to him. He wanted to reach out and get a hand on her, but he wasn’t about to push his luck. “You two should be damn glad I got her out of there early because I think she would have figured out something was wrong if you’d spent the entire dinner glaring at Ezra every time he touched his wife.”
“Everyone at that dinner was in on it.” Becca sat back, her hands in her lap again. “The whole thing was done to trick me.”
“The whole thing was done so I could get a feel for who you are as a person,” Ariel corrected quietly. “I really am a psychologist. I wanted to spend time with you so I could evaluate whether or not I thought you were capable of working with McDonald on a project like Tabula Rasa. You have to understand that it was important to know who you were personally. All of these men’s lives depend on who you are. On paper, I would have said no, but getting to know someone in person is important. I didn’t get the chance because Owen hustled you out. And no one changed up the assignments. Owen did that because he couldn’t keep his hands off you, and he knew it the minute you stepped on that lift. He could easily have given you his cover and that would have been the end of it. But he didn’t because he’d been thinking about you since the moment he saw a picture of you.”
He wouldn’t have put it so baldly, but the words seem to have an effect on Becca. She’d turned to him and there was a softness to her expression.
Was this what Ezra had been talking about when he’d mentioned Case and Mia? Had he been talking about letting himself be vulnerable? It wasn’t something he wanted to do, but she’d been made to feel that way and he’d had a hand in it.
“We had two pictures of you,” he began. “One was the picture you use on all your foundation informational materials. You look very professional.”
“And the other?”