by Lexi Blake
“You’ve said that a couple of times.” He wasn’t sure how they’d done it, but this part of the cemetery was quiet. Oh, there were enough people walking by that he was certain Dwyer wasn’t suspicious, but Tucker knew an agent when he saw one, and the pair that had just passed them while arguing over a map of the cemetery had definitely been agents.
Damon had worked quickly, but then the whole London team had been monitoring his ass. Literally. He was fairly certain the tracker was in one of his butt cheeks.
He was going to put one in Roni’s.
Except she likely would hate him because from what he could tell, he had been involved in her sister’s death. He’d been the reason Kronberg decided to kill Katie Croft. “Do you want the actual data I stole or not? Rob, can you check this one? Shine a light in there.”
Robert stepped up and pulled out the small flashlight he was carrying for just this occasion. He’d been frisked by the big guard Dwyer had called Kurt. “This one has nothing at all in it.”
They were moving down the row of tombs. The “cure” hadn’t crystalized his memory down to the actual tomb he’d shoved that drive into. But he was sure he was on the right path. It was one of these. He remembered the grave he’d had to scramble over to get away from his brother.
“Of course I want that data,” Dwyer replied. “But we can’t spend the afternoon here. We should come back when it’s dark.”
“I’m not leaving Roni with you.” He knew exactly what would happen if he allowed himself to be taken into custody. He wouldn’t ever leave it again. “Give me fifteen minutes. If I can hand it to you, we can make this a clean break.”
“You remembered where it was. How do I know you don’t remember what’s on it?” Dwyer asked.
Robert sent him a knowing look as he moved on to the next tomb.
They’d already figured out that Dwyer’s name was on that list. Kronberg had panicked when he wouldn’t take the drugs they’d offered to “help” his memory along. “I never looked at it. I had a mission. I was supposed to break into that safe and get the thumb drive. I then went to Katie Croft’s house and I uploaded the information she’d found during her investigation. I read neither report. I uploaded Katie’s information with her permission. She’d been working with my CIA contact for months.”
“You could be lying,” Dwyer countered.
“Do you honestly believe I memorized a list of names?” He was glad Damon had been in the city. It made him perfectly safe to do what he needed to do. And there would be none of these questions when he did find the drive because someone had been watching him all along. It would make it far easier for him to have a normal life if the world’s intelligence agencies believed they had what he’d stolen that day. He could fade into the background and find a normal life. He would move to where Roni wanted to raise Vi and be a part of their lives. If she would let him.
Dwyer looked around, his anxiety apparent. In some ways he felt sorry for the bastard. He knew what it was like to be shoved into a job he hadn’t been prepared for at all. Green might have given him some training, but there was far more to the spy business. After all, he’d proven to be bad at it. He hadn’t even known he was being followed those weeks before that fateful day in Paris.
“I would have tried,” Dwyer said, looking around again as though he were starting to understand something was wrong. “I think we should go. You’ve already broken our agreement once.”
By bringing Rob with him. “He’s my brother. He wouldn’t let me come alone.”
The tomb in front of him made the hair on his arms stand straight. The grating on the dilapidated door was so familiar.
“How can I know you didn’t bring someone else?” Dwyer looked to Kurt, who was guarding his back.
Kurt simply frowned. “I didn’t see anyone else, boss.”
“Robert, I think this might be it.” He pointed to the door. “I was in between these two tombs, hiding from McDonald. I made the decision to dump the thumb drive because I didn’t want her to get her hands on it.”
“It’s here?” Dwyer moved forward.
Robert shined the light inside. “There’s a statue. I’m sure it’s some kind of memorial.”
“Open the doors,” Dwyer ordered. “It could have fallen on the floor and been missed. I doubt they do more than basic maintenance on these. Some of them are covered with leaves and vegetation.”
He had to hope that was the case here. He would hate to think someone had found it and it had sat in a lost and found or been dumped in the trash.
“It’s locked.” Robert gently pulled on the ornate doors that locked the tomb off from the world. “Does anyone have something I can use as a pick?”
He’d come prepared. After a heinously long lecture where Damon used some very British threats, they’d prepped with the flashlight and a couple of paperclips he’d manipulated. “Here. Try this.”
Rob took the paperclip and went to work on the lock.
“I don’t like this,” Kurt said. “It’s too quiet.”
Kurt proved he was far better at this game than Dwyer.
He wouldn’t have long to get the information he wanted. He turned to Dwyer. “Did you have a hand in Katie Croft’s murder? I mean we’re sharing, right?”
The question seemed to shake Dwyer. “She was close to putting together some details we didn’t want connected.”
That sparked his memory. Katie had done excellent work. He hadn’t read her final report, but she’d walked him through her research. She’d managed to get financial records that tied Kronberg to a man named Nieland. He ran a vast corporate empire. “She connected Kronberg to the Nieland Corporation. She thought Al Nieland was the head of The Collective.”
Simon and Chelsea Weston had taken him down with the help of the McKay-Taggart team long before McDonald came on the radar, but the connections had been there for a brilliant reporter to find.
Katie had been putting together the labyrinthine arms that connected The Collective.
She’d given him her data because she’d worried about reprisals. She hadn’t trusted anyone with the story because The Collective owned many media outlets. She’d put all her hard work in Tucker’s hands because she’d believed he loved her sister.
He’d failed her so badly.
The gun made an appearance. “Yes, the board knew about her investigation. It was precisely why we brought Veronica onto the team. We thought she would be a good tool against her sister. She turned out to be one for you, too. McDonald didn’t understand how bad it was getting. She should have handed you over to us, but she was arrogant. She thought she was the only one in danger. She didn’t think about the company at all. Instead of learning your secrets, she dosed you with the drug and anything you knew was lost to us.”
How odd to think that McDonald’s mistake had very likely led to Roni’s relative freedom. If she’d known he had valuable intel, she would have used Roni against him. She would have tortured her and given her any number of drugs that could have hurt their baby. Losing his memory had saved his daughter.
He would take that. “Rob, I think we can finish this now.”
He had enough. He knew what had happened.
“I’ve been here before.” Rob had gone an ashen shade and he stood in front of the door, the makeshift lockpick in his hands.
He hadn’t counted on this. Not for a second had he thought Rob might remember. “Hey, let it go. You can’t get sick now.”
“Open that door,” Dwyer insisted.
Kurt moved in. “I’ll do it and then we have to go. Something is wrong. I think we’re being watched.”
Robert had a hand to his head. “I was here and you were here.”
“Let it go, Rob. It doesn’t matter.” The last thing he needed was his brother to lose his shit.
“You tried to tell me. You begged me. God, you begged me,” Rob said.
There was a loud bang as Kurt kicked the door to the tomb in.
He had to pray he�
��d given Damon and Owen enough time to get Roni out. They’d promised they would do it the second Dwyer walked away.
“What’s wrong with him?” Dwyer glanced around like a man who knew something was about to happen.
That was the moment the intelligence agencies made their play. The couple who’d argued moments before were back, guns drawn and shouting in German for Arthur to put the gun down.
The head of MI6 rushed in from the right with a couple of his people. “Stand down, Dwyer. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Oh, he will come home with me and face what he has done,” the German intelligence officer said.
Dwyer looked like a deer in the headlights. He started to turn, but Solo was there. She frowned at Dwyer, cutting him off.
She looked Tucker’s way, her eyes narrow with irritation. “You’re going to get a spanking, little boy.”
Yeah, he’d known he would be in trouble with Solo, but they would have to work that out later. Robert was standing by the doors of the tomb, and the man who’d just walked in had a gun.
“Robert, get out of the line of fire,” he said.
Kurt stepped out of the tomb, holding the drive in his hand. “It was there.”
The moment he realized he was caught, he brought up his gun and fired at the first person he could. Solo.
Luckily Solo moved fast. She ducked and rolled, and before the shot had stopped ringing through the trees, she’d taken her own.
Dwyer turned Tucker’s way as his guard hit his knees, a hole in his chest.
“Why couldn’t you have stayed dead?” Dwyer asked.
And Tucker knew what he was about to do. Dwyer raised his weapon and he heard Solo shout out. The world seemed to slow down and he knew Dwyer wasn’t going out alone. But then Arthur had always been that way. Arthur had been far closer to McDonald than he’d let on. Yes, now that he was staring at Dwyer, he remembered how the man had worked with her, had been the bridge between her and the higher-ups.
This was what he’d been trying to protect. He’d panicked when he’d realized Tucker might actually remember working side by side with him.
But it didn’t matter now because Dwyer pulled the trigger.
He heard a roar and suddenly he was tackled, his body slamming against the rocks and dirt. His head hit and the world went woozy. His breath was knocked out of his chest and pain flared through him. He could hear the sound of another gun going off. He saw Dwyer hit the ground not far from him. And then his brother was staring down at him.
Robert. Robert had thrown himself in front of Dwyer’s bullet.
“Rob?” He could barely speak. His head was throbbing.
Robert’s head came up. “Couldn’t do it again. Couldn’t let them take you. I’m so sorry, brother. Forgive me.”
“What? Are you okay?” He was pretty sure he was okay since he hadn’t felt a bullet hit his body.
“Tell Ariel I love her,” Robert said.
What the fuck was happening? His brother was draped across him, dead weight on his body. But he couldn’t seem to make his brain work. His vision was in and out.
Concussion. He’d hit his head. But something worse had happened to Rob. He was sure of it.
“Hey, Tucker.” Solo was above him, staring down. “I’m not great with the medical stuff. He’s got a bullet in his abdomen. Should I wait for an ambulance?”
“Rob?” He was so woozy. What was happening to Rob?
His brother stared down at him. “We almost made it. Almost made it all the way home.”
Robert’s head dropped down and Tucker’s heart threatened to explode.
“Move him off now,” a familiar voice said. “Lay him out and I’m going to need something to stop the bleeding.”
Roni. Roni was here and she was taking charge. In a group of intimidating people, all of them with guns, his Roni was handling them, ordering them around.
He prayed his Roni could save his brother.
They’d almost made it. It was his last thought as the darkness took him.
Chapter Seventeen
“Is he here yet?”
Roni turned at the sound of her mother’s voice. It had been a week since that horrible day in the cemetery and it felt like everything had changed. Not all of it for the better.
One thing was fantastic though. Her mom and daughter were back. Her mom walked out of the apartment with Violet on her hip.
“He’s supposed to be here any minute.” Tucker hadn’t left Paris when the rest of them had. He’d stayed at his brother’s bedside while he recovered. “He texted me that they were in London finally.”
“Texted you?” Her mother’s brows rose. “He can’t call?”
“I told you we’re in a weird place.” She’d saved his brother and he’d been profuse in his appreciation of that act. But he’d also been distant. He’d been diagnosed with a concussion and he hadn’t complained when she’d stayed with him that first night. When he’d been released, however, he’d explained that he could take care of himself and she should go to New York to be with their daughter.
Instead, she’d come to London and brought her family here. To wait for him.
“Physically he’s all right?” her mom asked.
She reached out to her baby, who grinned that adorable, way-too-like-her-father grin and came into her arms. Roni breathed her in, so grateful to have her back. “He’s fine. Robert’s fine. They wanted to hold him for a few days because he started to develop an infection, but it’s cleared up now.”
Her mom put her hands on her hips, her general pose. “Then what’s the problem that he can’t call? Does he even know Violet’s here?”
She grimaced as Vi started bouncing up and down in her arms. “He doesn’t know I’m here so he wouldn’t know about Vi, either. Or at least I’m not sure he knows. The last time we talked in person I was going to New York to be with you. It’s what he suggested.”
“Because he thinks you turned him in to McDonald?”
She shook her head. Despite her mother’s attempts to get her to talk, she’d worked her way around this subject. “No. He knows that’s not what happened.”
“According to Taggart it was Tucker’s relationship with Katie that got him in trouble,” her mother said flatly. “That and a true clusterfuck of a situation. It seems to me everything happened at once and that led to him being caught. I don’t understand why he would blame you.”
She felt her eyes widen because she’d been trying for days to figure out how to tell her mother Tucker had known Katie. “Mom, I don’t think he was using Katie.”
A frown crossed her mother’s face. “Of course he wasn’t. I’m a little worried Katie was using him. She was always ambitious. If anything, it was that CIA agent that used them both. What is that look about?”
“I didn’t think you knew about the connection between them. I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain it to you. And you’re right about Green. We had this big debrief and Solo got Levi Green to admit he was the reason Katie didn’t think anything was wrong. When she didn’t hear anything from Tucker, she called him and he told her to hang tight.”
Anger welled fast and true. She hated Levi Green. When everything had gone to hell, Levi Green hadn’t tried to save Tucker. He’d shut everything down, including leaving her sister in the dark about the fact that McDonald and Kronberg were on to them. He’d planted that bomb as surely as whichever Kronberg paid assassin had.
Her mom reached up and gently wiped away the tears she hadn’t realized she was shedding. “I know about that, too. I’m angry, but anger isn’t going to help us today. We’ll get that bastard in the end. I promise.”
She sniffled, shoving the rage down because her mother was right. “How did you know?”
“Taggart’s been keeping me up to date on everything,” her mom explained. “I’ve been playing this online war game with the Dallas boys. Taggart’s a fairly good tactician, but no matter what he says, his hand eye coordination could use som
e work. In the middle of shooting the shit out of each other, he gave me updates on what was happening. I also know way too much about his wife’s pregnancy cravings. They are not all food.”
“I’m still trying to process the fact that Katie had this whole thing going on in her life that she never talked to me about. I really thought Green was a guy she was dating. I’m kind of shocked my sister thought she needed a cover with me.”
“She was obviously trying to protect you,” her mother pointed out. “She knew she had something dangerous and she tried to turn it over to a professional. And don’t start in on how you probably could have saved her. She didn’t talk to me about it, either, and I had connections that could have helped. Your sister was always independent. I would give anything to have her with us today, but I’m not going to play games with what could have been. That’s the way to waste your life.”
The thought of her mother finally moving on brought tears to her eyes. “I think Tucker was trying to help her. But Mom, when I first found out about their connection, I accused him of a whole lot of things that weren’t true. I don’t think he’s going to forgive me for that.”
“Have you asked him to?”
She’d tried to connect with him. She’d sat at his bedside while they’d diagnosed his concussion. When they’d gone to the debrief, she’d been beside him as she’d told her side of what had happened. But after it was over, he’d sent her away. “Not directly, but he’s been so worried about his brother that I didn’t want to push him.”
There was the sound of a door closing and then Nina Blunt was walking down the hall. The lovely redhead looked like she’d never taken a bullet to the chest. She was coming out of the apartment Tucker had once shared with Robert. She locked it behind her and smiled as she caught sight of them. “Hey, you two, I was wondering if you were going down to greet our lads. Ariel texted me to say they’re almost here. I wanted to make sure Tucker’s place was ready for them.”
“He’s staying in his apartment.” The minute the words were out of her mouth she realized how dumb they sounded. Of course he was. As far as she knew, he wasn’t aware she was home. When had she started to think of The Garden that way? It wasn’t truly. Tucker was home and wherever he was—that was her home.