The accident. Something had happened and the car had flipped. Not an accident. Those brief moments of terror came crashing back in on her. Someone had shot out their tire and Robert had lost control of the car.
“You’re a man who doesn’t want to know where his food comes from, aren’t you, Paul? You like it all wrapped in plastic so you don’t have to see the dirty work. Did you think she would happily walk away with me?”
“I thought she would do it so she didn’t go to jail,” Paul replied.
There was a long pause before that deep voice spoke again. “And your father? Did you think he would, what? Maybe walk into Mo Chou’s knife?”
“I’m going to shoot him,” a feminine voice said. “Easier and I don’t have to get dirty. Dry cleaning bills are expensive.”
Becca forced her eyes open and gradually figured out where she was. Daylight streamed in through the windows. She blinked, the light far too bright. She was at Paul’s house, the one he kept in one of the wealthiest parts of the city. She’d only been here a couple of times, but she would recognize that chandelier anywhere. His whole home was exquisitely done in old-world elegance. She looked up and saw the balcony across from her. There were two grand sets of stairs on either side of the house, and a balcony landing that ran from one wing to the other. She’d come for a Christmas party one year and wondered why he needed such a large house. There was only Paul and his son since his wife had left.
Where was Owen? Owen had been beside her in the car. Owen had been trying to get through to her. Owen had been offering her a life together, if she was only brave enough to take it.
“Ah, the good doctor awakens.” A man’s face came into view. She’d seen the man in pictures. He was handsome, with dark hair that swept over his forehead and chocolate brown eyes that should belong to someone less evil. He didn’t look like a man who would kidnap people. “You might have a concussion. I don’t know. I’m not the neurologist and Paul here won’t check you out. I think he’s sure if he touches you something bad will happen. The good news is you don’t have any broken bones. You’re probably going to bruise some though. When we get where we’re going, I’ll let all the doctors check you out.”
He was actually smiling at her.
“Leave her alone,” a deep voice growled.
Owen. Owen was here. She sat up and nausea rolled through her.
“Hey,” Levi said, sitting down next to her on the leather couch she’d been laid out on. “Go slow, Doc. You’re okay. He’s okay. I know I played a little rough, but everyone’s good.”
“Robert isn’t,” Owen shot back.
She slowly turned her head. They weren’t alone in the room. The woman she’d met at Casa Loma stood by the wall of windows that dominated the large office. She stood out against the white drapes that had been drawn. She wore all black, her hair in a neat bun. Beside her stood a massive man she’d never seen before. He’d gotten the all-black memo, though. She could see his shoulder holster and the hilt of a gun.
“Robert’s such a baby,” Levi said with a sigh. “One little gunshot and he’s out of the game. I thought Big Tag raised them tougher than that.”
“It’s hard to be tough when you’re hanging upside down in the dark and you’ve been in a bloody wreck. Note I didn’t call it an accident.” Owen sat in a chair they’d dragged in from the dining room. She recognized the highbacked antique chair from the evening she’d spent with Paul and his father and son. She remembered how small Emmanuel had looked sitting in the chair, how fragile he’d seemed. Owen wasn’t small, but she was well aware of how fragile his body could be. He could have all the muscles in the world and one bullet could still kill his light. His arms wrapped around his back. She obviously wasn’t such a threat as she’d been left free to move.
Her heart ached at the thought of Robert being dead. How had it happened? One minute they’d gotten away and the next she was waking up and Robert was gone.
“Stop looking at me like that, Owen,” Levi said with a shake of his head. “He’ll live. I didn’t shoot him in the head or anything.”
“Yes, I was surprised we left two survivors behind,” the woman he’d called Mo Chou said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know they’re going to talk.”
“Yes, well, dead bodies mean something to Taggart and Knight,” Levi replied. “It’s why I left Jax alive. I’m only turning Owen over to you because Tag won’t care about him. And honestly, if Big Tag wants to even the score, he can take Donnie there and send him to MSS. With what he eats, it could bankrupt your entire intelligence program.”
“Like we would want him,” Mo Chou said.
The man named Donnie said absolutely nothing, simply stared at Owen like a predator waiting to pounce.
“Robert’s alive?” Owen seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Levi stood up, smoothing down the vest he wore. “I left Jax alive, didn’t I? I know how to play this game. Or maybe I left Robert alive for other reasons. Maybe I left Jax alive for other reasons. Or maybe it’s one of those foreign boys. One of them had to have given me the information on where you were staying this evening. You moved quickly. I’ll admit that I intended to negotiate with the Canadians for the doc’s release into my custody, but this turned out so much easier. I originally sent you out here to get what I needed, and then my friend would have shared it with me and you would be none the wiser.”
“But then he got greedy,” Mo Chou added. “Like our friend Huisman here, and I’m worried it’s going to bite us all in the ass.”
Levi shrugged. “I realized that the doctor herself would be a much better asset. After all, what do I do if I don’t understand the research? Shockingly, most incredibly gifted doctors don’t end up working for the Agency. All it cost me was Big Tag’s puppies figuring out one of them isn’t what he seems to be. Not my problem anymore if I have the doc and the research. Game over. I win. We all find a new game to play.”
She wanted to get up and cross the space between herself and Owen. Now that she was facing the idea of losing him, she couldn’t stand the thought of never touching him again. “What do you mean you’re giving Owen to her?”
Green put his hands in his pockets. He looked dapper and lean in his pressed slacks, crisp white shirt, and fitted vest. The only thing that marred the image was the gun holster around his shoulder and the hint of metal under his arm. “It’s nothing you need to be worried about. Owen’s taking a little trip to the East. You and I are going somewhere else, but I promise your every need will be met. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”
“I think kidnapping is usually a bad thing.” He was the worst kind of evil, the one that didn’t even realize he was bad. The man in front of her was charming, and if he’d shown up on her doorstep she wouldn’t have been afraid of him until the moment he slit her throat. And he would if he had to. She believed absolutely everything Owen had told her about him.
If she believed Owen about that, why couldn’t she believe him about the rest of it? Why couldn’t she believe him when he said he loved her?
Green merely sent her a charming smile. “You call it kidnapping. I call it the necessary acquisition of valuable resources. You are the key to all of this. I figured that out too late to go after you myself. I take care of my people, Dr. Walsh. I’m sure Ezra and his group have filled your head with all sorts of lies about how I would hurt you, but it’s not true. Play nice with me and I’ll treat you like a queen. You’ll have everything you could hope for.”