by Lexi Blake
“Did you or did you not recruit Tucker?” Ezra got straight to his point.
Green’s lips closed sullenly.
Ariel crossed her arms over her chest and faced him. “Short questions and answers are in the protocols.”
Green sighed. “Yes, I recruited him. I discovered something was going on with Senator Hank McDonald several years ago. The Agency had heard rumors that the senator might have sold out American military troop movements to the enemy in exchange for money and power. My investigations into McDonald led me to his daughter. I needed someone who could get close to her, someone who could speak her language. Surprisingly enough, most young doctors don’t want to work for the Agency and potentially get their balls shot off. I needed someone with a brilliant medical mind who didn’t mind giving it all up.”
“Why? Why would I give it up?” A vision of a younger Levi Green floated across his brain. He was sitting across from Tucker at an outside café. Boston. They were in Boston. A café in the West End. “I met you in Boston.”
“Yes,” Levi said. “In a small café. That was where we met. Do you remember what we said?”
His whole body tightened as he searched for the memory. He could see Levi sitting there. He’d had a mug of something in his hand and he’d leaned over, an expression of concern on his face. He couldn’t remember what season it had been but an overwhelming sense of hope had come over him. This was what he’d been waiting for. All the months of worry and now he finally had something he could do.
“I was worried about something.”
“Something or someone?” Green asked like he knew the answer to the question. Which he did.
“Someone. It was definitely someone. I was upset and you gave me options I didn’t have before. I’d almost given up when you came to talk to me. You had proof. Maybe it was a picture.” A pain started in the back of his head, but he ignored it. “Why can’t I remember?”
“Because you’re trying too hard.” Roni soothed a hand down his back. “And you’ve had a rough day. I think we should try this again in the morning. He’s been sick once today.”
“Or we could do what we’ll have to do in the end.” Green rolled his eyes. “We can go to Paris. The answers are there. Me telling him who he used to be won’t work. He’s got to see it. Hear it. Smell it.”
“I’m sure you would love that,” Ezra said. “Every time we move you is a chance for you to get away.”
“I don’t want to get away.” Green’s voice went low. “I’m right where I want to be.” He straightened up and sounded more professional. “I want that intel. I worked my ass off for that intel. Years I spent working with him to get the intel and I think it all fell apart because of a girl. That’s right, Veronica Croft. You took one of the best assets I ever worked with and cost him everything. You want to know why we’re all here today? Why I’m in this cell and your boyfriend can’t remember his own fucking name? It was you.”
Tucker stood up and kind of wished Ezra had followed through with his instincts. “Hey, you don’t talk to her like that.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Roni whispered. “I didn’t know who he was.”
“Wait until you realize what she cost you,” Green replied, ignoring her entirely. “When you remember what you gave up for her, that’s when you’ll understand why they called you Razor. I wonder what you would have done if McDonald had given you a couple of days before she wiped your mind. I think you would have shown that betraying bitch beside you how you earned that nickname.”
Robert stepped in front of him, barring the path he’d been about to tread. “Hey, he’s pushing you. Don’t let it work. I think Roni’s right. It’s late. We can start again in the morning.”
“Get another couple of fucks in, Tucker, because I assure you when you remember, you won’t touch her again,” Green taunted.
Tucker saw red and tried to plow his way to Green, shoving Robert out of the way. Levi took a step back, holding up his hands, but Tucker didn’t care. He hit the cage, shoving his arms through and trying to get at the asshole. The tension of the day threatened to push him over the edge.
“Hey, hold up, brother,” Robert said.
But for a moment it was another Robert he saw. He pushed back and they weren’t standing in Clive Weston’s dungeon. There was dirt at his feet and the bus had just pulled away. He was angry. So angry because someone had said something about him. Something nasty. Something about all Seegers being trash and how it wasn’t surprising their dad walked out.
Hey, come on. He’s an asshole. What he says doesn’t matter. Tim, calm down. Mom will kill you if you get suspended.
A pain flashed through him as his knees banged against the floor. Wyoming. It happened in Wyoming. They’d been in the last days of fall, a sharp snap in the air that let him know it would snow soon, and the bus ride into the high school three towns over would seem to take forever. It was only okay because his brother was with him.
This Robert was younger. He was wearing a letterman’s jacket. Ace. Their mom called Russ Ace, and he was Bud because he was younger. He was Russ’s little buddy. Russ was his big brother.
His brother was always there for him. Russ was the best big brother. Until he was killed in action. Except he’d known. He’d known it wasn’t true. He’d known somehow that Emily was lying about what happened.
“I was looking for my brother. That’s why I went into McDonald’s team.”
So many things fell into place. Emily. Robert’s wife. She’d told him. She’d freaking told him and he hadn’t been smart enough to figure it out.
“Yes.” Levi Green was standing close to the bars again, looking like the manipulative asshole he was. “Imagine it. You were a brilliant resident working at one of the most famous hospitals in the world. Massachusetts General. You gave it all up because you didn’t believe that report, the one that chronicled how your brother and his whole team died. It was a good report. I believed it. But there was something in the records that made you think your brother wasn’t dead. You always did suspect Emily, didn’t you?”
Robert gasped and his jaw dropped. “What? Emily? My ex-wife?”
“She’s not really an ex. You didn’t divorce her,” Green pointed out. “Ariel killed her, from what I was told. That makes you a widower, not divorced.”
“Robert, what’s happening?” Ariel asked.
“Is it true?” There were tears in his big brother’s eyes.
“I was looking for you.” Flashes of his life hit him. His big brother standing up for him, never leaving him behind even though he was little and obnoxious. “I couldn’t leave you behind. I couldn’t let you go. Even after I knew what she’d done to you. I knew you wouldn’t remember me, but I had to save you.”
“You’re Tim Seeger.” Ezra breathed the words. “Holy shit. You went looking for your brother and you found Levi. He set you up to get on McDonald’s team, gather all the intelligence on her project.”
“And because of me, he found his brother. It just took him longer than expected, and that wasn’t my fault. Again. You’re welcome,” Green replied.
Ezra started to argue with Levi, but Tucker could barely hear them. Robert was on the ground with him, staring at him with what could only be described as wonder.
“Is this real?”
Tucker nodded, reaching out for the brother he’d spent years looking for. “Is it weird that I don’t think I can call you Russ? I think you’ll always be Robert to me now. But Mom will definitely call you Russ. Or Ace. She called you that because when you were a kid you wanted to play baseball all the time. You wanted to be an ace pitcher.” He tried to remember. It was still foggy. “Mom’s alive. I think.”
She’d been alive. She’d hugged him and asked him to bring his brother home.
“Alive and well and living in Wyoming,” Levi answered. “I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to get her sons back.”
“She could have had them back years ago,” Ezra argued. “You’ve always known, you bastard.”
Robert might not remember, but Tucker did. Robert looked shocked, but it hit Tucker like a freight train. He’d done everything to find his brother, to bring him home.
A piece that had been missing, that horrible aching feeling that he could never talk away or drink away, fell softly into place.
“Hey, brother.”
Robert smiled, lighting up his whole face. “Hey, brother.”
He hugged his brother, wrapping him up. “I know you don’t remember and I’m only starting to, but this is true and real and we missed you. Emily lied about everything. Mom and I…we missed you so much. We never stopped wanting you to come home.”
Strong arms held him tight. “I knew you were special the first time I met you. Ariel. Ariel, meet my brother.”
Ariel’s smile was luminous, the tears on her cheeks glistening like happy diamonds. “My sweet brother-in-law. And I can’t believe I get to be an auntie.”
For all the tension of the day, this was worth everything he’d gone through. And there was only one person here who was missing. “Roni…”
He looked back. But she was gone.
“She snuck out,” Ariel said quietly. “I think Levi got to her.”
“The truth should get to her.” Green stared at the door Roni had left through. “I’m absolutely certain she’s the reason you got caught. You were supposed to meet me that day. You didn’t make it to the drop off. You disappeared and I didn’t see you again until you showed up on the Agency’s radar.”
“When you should have told us who he was.” Ezra walked to the door. “Robert, I need to discuss the new situation with Solo and give Tag and Damon an update. That asshole is the reason we couldn’t find your mother. I suspect he convinced her to hide for protection against retaliation.”
His mother. God, he had a mother and she loved him. The thought made his heart feel far too tight for his chest. His mother would flip when she realized she wasn’t only getting her sons back, she was getting a grandbaby to spoil.
“I thought it was best,” Levi admitted. “And then I didn’t care.”
“I’ll stay and watch him,” Robert promised.
Ariel went on her toes and kissed her husband. “And I’ll go make us tea. Tucker, you have to go talk to her. Unless you believe Levi.”
He watched as Ariel and Ezra walked out the door. And he was left with his brother. And the man who’d given him a shot at finding his brother. The man he shouldn’t trust in any way.
“You should believe me.” Green’s eyes had gone hard. “Everything was fine until you got involved with that woman. We were almost out. You would have met me that day and we would have left. Instead it went to hell.”
He couldn’t see it. “She wouldn’t betray me.”
“She would. She had a lot at stake. After all, her sister was involved,” Green pointed out.
“How did you know her?” Her sister’s death was an agony for the whole Croft family.
Green shook his head. “No. No more information tonight. I’m tired. I’ve been dragged across the ocean and I’m not talking again tonight. In the morning, we can renegotiate.”
“Ezra will love hearing that,” Robert pointed out. He turned to Tucker. “Go and talk to Roni.”
Why had she walked out? For all the joy he felt at the breakthrough he’d just had, anxiety bubbled up.
Levi Green knew how to lie, but he also knew when telling a bit of the truth could be devastating.
He nodded his brother’s way and went to look for the woman who should have been his wife.
To find out if she was the reason he’d been sentenced to hell.
Chapter Twelve
Roni’s hands were shaking as she walked out of the house and into the gorgeous gardens. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to be outside, but she couldn’t breathe in that house right now. She stood under the elegant roof of the gazebo at the edge of the garden and tried to calm down.
That’s right, Veronica Croft. You took one of the best assets I ever worked with and cost him everything. You want to know why we’re all here today? Why I’m in this cell and your boyfriend can’t remember his own fucking name? It was you.
The words rang in her ears. She’d sat and watched as Tucker had regained the precious memory of his brother and all she’d been able to do was run through a thousand scenarios where she’d tipped off Dr. McDonald.
It didn’t make sense. She hadn’t talked to McDonald. Not often. She’d been the lowest-level researcher there, and McDonald barely acknowledged her presence until the day she’d knocked on her door in Paris. Before that day, she would have said McDonald didn’t even know her name.
But she had talked to people in the labs. She’d mentioned on more than one occasion in the beginning that she didn’t think Steven Reasor was the mean guy he pretended to be. He’d had a fierce reputation and she’d told a couple of the women she’d worked with that she didn’t think he was so bad. She’d even told one of her friends there that she’d spent some time with him. She’d wanted to gently rehab his image.
Had that been enough to make McDonald take a second look at him?
Would he ever forgive her if it had?
“Are you all right, Veronica?” a soft voice asked.
She turned and Arthur was standing just outside the gazebo she’d fled to. He was a shadowy figure, but there was no way to mistake his accent. “What are you doing here?”
“I was out for a walk. It was tense in there and the two intelligence agents are not great traveling companions,” Arthur admitted. “I was getting a drink when I saw you running out here. I was worried. I know you don’t believe me, but I really am here to save Kronberg’s reputation. I’m not some undercover agent. And we used to work together.”
She wasn’t buying that one. “You never liked me.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know you. I didn’t think I needed to know you. Allow that it’s been a couple of years, and discovering how McDonald used us all was a humbling experience. I’m not as arrogant as I once was. Is Steven all right? Or should I call him…what is his name now?”
“Tucker.” It fit him better than Steven. Though that wasn’t his name either. Tim. Timothy Seeger was his legal name, and his brother was Robert. He’d gambled his life to find his brother. And then he’d risked years of his investigation for her. How close had he been to getting out? Would he have made it if he hadn’t taken her with him?
“Tucker. I will try to call him that. It’s odd because he’s so obviously Steven Reasor to me. Is he feeling all right? Have you examined him? I heard he was sick earlier in the day.” Arthur managed to sound concerned.
“Physically he seems fine. His vitals are strong. Rebecca had been monitoring him,” she explained. She knew she should walk away, but it occurred to her that Arthur had answers she needed. “He was sick earlier because he pushed a memory. How much do you know about what was done to him?”
“Enough to have nightmares about it.” Arthur stepped into the gazebo and settled himself on the bench across from her. “McDonald’s research is terrifying. And yet I’m intrigued. I can’t help it. I’m a doctor. There are practical applications to her research that could do great good in the world.”
Yes, it was the ethical quandary they all had to face in classes and seminars. Most medical professionals didn’t have to deal with it in the real world. They didn’t have to decide on a basic level if the horror of how an idea came to be made the idea unusable. “The end justifies the means? I think if we start down that road, you know where we go.”
“Of course,” he said mildly, as though they were talking about the weather and not torturing people to further medical science. “That’s the argument. If we use those dark experiments, we open them up to being normalized. It’s Pandora’s box. We all know that on an academic level. It’s different when the box is sitting right in front of you and all you have to do is open it and almost guarantee yourself a Nobel Prize.”
“You truly believe you could ke
ep a lid on where the research came from? Because I know I would go straight to the press,” she threatened. He needed to understand he couldn’t walk in and continue McDonald’s research.
He waved her away. “Too many people know. I couldn’t kill them all. I’m sorry. That was supposed to be a joke.”
She stared at him. “My sister was killed because she knew about the research, so forgive me for not finding it funny.”
“I’m sorry, Veronica,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean to offend. I wanted to talk to you about my role in all of this. You were right that I wasn’t at the airport that day.”
“Yet you knew I went to Paris with Tucker.” It was odd how easy it had become to think of him as Tucker. He was a new man, though she’d seen sparks of him in her Steven.
Who would Timothy Seeger be? His memory was coming back and she would have to deal with a third version of the man she’d come to love.
“After Rebecca left there were rumors about what had happened between them.” Arthur’s voice had gone low. “Nasty rumors. She left without notice. A doctor of her reputation doesn’t do that. It was the first time I got called into the corporate offices. They were worried about a possible lawsuit.”
Rebecca had told her a bit about what had happened. Tucker had told her more. “I know what happened between them. What were the rumors?”
“That Steven had done something he shouldn’t have. It ranged from him saying nasty things to her to outright physical violence. It was a nightmare scenario for the company, and they wanted someone to quietly investigate. They didn’t trust McDonald to tell them the whole truth. They didn’t want anything on the record. I was on McDonald’s periphery. They asked me to find out the truth. I hired a private investigator. He followed Steven and rapidly discovered that the two of you had a much closer relationship than you wanted people to understand. That was when the company brought McDonald in. You being close to Steven was a red flag, but it was another relationship we were truly worried about.”
She was confused, but then that seemed to be her perpetual state lately. “What relationship? And why would I be a red flag?”