Robert’s smile was slightly goofy. “I bet she’s hot when she’s assassinating people. Holy shit. Baby, tell me you murdered Levi Green. We could celebrate by having our first date. You want to go out with me, right?”
“It has to wait,” Ari said. “Green’s alive, and we have to get out of here. We’re going back to London to lick our wounds.”
Robert sighed. “That’s not what I want to lick.”
Before he could laugh, Becca was kneeling next to him. “Owen, are you all right? You went pale.”
The world was going pale. Ariel took a corner and his shoulder hit the door. Pain exploded through his system and he felt himself falling down a deep hole.
He tried to hold on to her, sure that he would lose her this time.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Are you sure this is safe?” Owen asked, staring up at the building where he’d briefly found something akin to peace. Oh, it hadn’t always been peaceful. Sometimes it had been crazy and emotional and chaotic and absolutely the best time of his brief life.
“I want to face him.” Becca sat in the back of the van that would eventually take them to the small airport where he would board a plane to London.
He would board. There was no reason for her to go now. In the three days since he’d passed out from the bullet wound in his shoulder, McKay-Taggart had worked miracles. Phoebe Murdoch had managed to find the proof that was needed to exonerate Rebecca Walsh, and the Huisman Foundation was standing behind her. The story was Paul Huisman had been involved in a plot to help a Chinese agent steal medical research. Jean Claude Huisman had come out in the press vowing to better protect the foundation and denouncing his son, not bothering to mention that he’d been the one having the affair with an MSS agent. Owen rather thought the Agency was working some magic since in all the reports on the news, no one had mentioned the dead CIA employee or the MSS agent’s corpse in the garage. According to the media, Paul Huisman had likely been murdered by one of his criminal cohorts.
“Are we worried this guy is dangerous?” Ezra sat in the driver’s seat, Theo Taggart beside him.
Becca snorted. “Only if you’re something that got mailed to me. The asshole picked up my mail from time to time. It’s one of the reasons he had a key. Apparently he liked to look through it. Jerk.”
Ezra sighed and put the car in park. “I’m sorry we didn’t send someone out earlier, but until yesterday I worried it was too risky. According to my source at the Agency, they’re backing off for now. It’s why we can take the team back to London for a while.”
Where they would have to figure out who the mole was. It was all too clear now that they had a traitor in their midst. Levi Green had been fucking with his head, yes, but he’d also been telling the truth. He had someone on the inside, and they would have to deal with it. One way or another.
And he would have to deal with the fact that she was going to stay here. There was no reason for her to leave her home now. She was high profile after all the press, and that would give her some cover. A bodyguard would keep her safe. It was all about who she wanted to watch over her.
It wouldn’t be him.
“We’re sure he has it?” Theo asked, turning slightly in his seat. His wife had gone home the day before, but not until she’d stopped by the small clinic that had been willing to give Owen and Robert a place to recuperate. Becca had stabilized him in the field, but they’d been separated when they’d driven hours out of Toronto and found a tiny backwater clinic that was willing to take a large donation in exchange for losing all record of their two patients suffering from gunshot wounds.
“Oh, I’m sure,” Becca replied. “He’s waiting to use it against me. I’m surprised he hasn’t gone to the press with it.”
“I think he’s waiting until he can talk to you,” Ezra said. “He’s probably planning on using it as leverage. He’s been leaving voice mails.”
“Someone has my phone?” Becca asked.
“We tossed it out, but that doesn’t mean Jax can’t get into your account and see who’s calling. Carter has been trying to talk to you for days,” Ezra explained.
“That asshole is going to try to blackmail me,” she said.
“He won’t after I’m done with him.” Owen wasn’t giving up. He couldn’t. This would be the first time he’d been alone with her since that day at Huisman’s. He’d woken up laid out in a bed next to Robert’s, and they’d proceeded to spend the next two days complaining about the food and missing their women. At least Ari had come to see Rob. They’d talked about having their first date.
It had made Owen cranky.
“Let’s get this over with if you’re going to do it.” Ezra unlocked the doors. “Theo and I will stay out here in case we need a quick getaway, but remember we just managed to get off the police’s radar. Try not to kill him.”
“I’ll try, but it’s going to be hard.” Becca got out of the van.
“I think he was talking to me.” Owen followed her.
“Well, I’m the one who’s pissed. That weasel.” She strode into the building. “As for you, don’t fight with him. You’ll tear your stitches and then you’ll be late for the plane.” She stopped and looked around. “Wow, it’s weird to be back here. I know it’s only been a few days, but it seems like a lifetime.”
“Becca, I want to talk. I can’t leave for London without us talking.” He wasn’t sure he could leave for London at all.
“There will be plenty of time for that later.” She sniffled a little and turned back to the hallway, moving to the lift. She passed the modern one, toward the one she’d sworn she would never use again. “I’m sure we’ll need to talk about a lot of things. How long will you be in London?”
He hated this polite talk when all he wanted to do was to force her to look him in the eye. “I don’t know that I’ll be going to London at all.”
The lift door opened and she walked inside. “You’re going on the new mission? I heard Ezra talking about exploring what happened at Kronberg with Tucker. I’m going to put him in touch with a woman who worked there. I should have known you would go with your brothers.”
How was he supposed to answer that? He would go if he had to. He owed those men. But he wanted to be with her. “I missed you. I wanted to see you the last couple of days.”
That seemed to fluster her. “I wasn’t avoiding you. There was a lot of stuff that had to be done. I made sure you were stable. The doctors at the clinic seemed knowledgeable. You weren’t in any danger and neither was Robert.”
How kind of her. “The doctors at the clinic were bribable.”
The door opened and she strode out. She didn’t seem to care that they’d been in the very lift where they’d first made love. Oh, she might have been having a good time, but now he knew that he’d been making love.
“Well, they wouldn’t let me take you to a regular hospital.” She stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Shouldn’t we talk about how we’re going to handle this thing? Am I going to distract him while you search for the package? Maybe you should distract him and I’ll look for it.”
Anger and frustration thrummed through his system, and he wanted to get this over with so they could have the fight they’d needed to have since the moment he’d screwed up. He’d been an arsehole, but he loved her. He’d told her he loved her. Now she thought she could pretend it never happened?
“Let me show you how this is going to go.” He turned and strode down the hall toward the apartment Carter Adams occupied. He could feel Becca behind him, racing to keep up.
“Remember what I said about your stitches,” she was saying.
He didn’t give a damn about his stitches. All that mattered was getting rid of the last piece of this mission that existed between them. When he had that damn package in his hands, they could be done with all the stupid things that had come between them and maybe he could finally gain her forgiveness.
He slammed his fist against the door.
“Owen, maybe we should talk,” she said, more tentative than she’d sounded before.