by Katie Reus
Wesley was silent so Levi continued, “If his plan is to poison water supplies, then blackmail the government into buying the antitoxin, if he’s smart, he’ll go one step further and forget the blackmail.”
Selene nodded, realizing she’d been thinking along the same track. Theoretically Tasev could do any number of things with the knowledge that Isaiah Moore owned a pharmaceutical company but if she was a criminal, she’d want to make millions off the very people she’d targeted. And doing it legally would be a giant kick in the teeth. It was kinda poetic in a fucked-up way.
“Instead of blackmailing the government, he might think bigger and opt to want to mass-produce the antitoxin,” Wesley said, his voice thoughtful.
Because if the toxin made it into any water supply, everyone would be scrambling to find an antitoxin. And if Tasev got in bed with Isaiah, they could be heroes and make a fortune.
“Either way it won’t matter because it’ll never get that far,” Selene said. “But after our first meet it’ll give him an incentive to bring us onto his home turf and introduce us to the creator of the toxin. I just need inside his base of operations.” Something Wesley already knew. It was the whole basis for her going on this op.
“Take me off speaker,” Wesley said.
Though Selene could tell it annoyed Levi, she did it. “It’s just me.”
“How do you know he won’t hang you out to dry? Selene, you don’t owe him this much. He was just doing his damn job when—”
“I know and that’s not what this is about.” Not completely. “Have his credentials come back yet?” she asked, knowing that Wesley would already have a partial file on Moore pulled up on his computer. It would take hours to do a deeper investigation into Levi’s alias, to make sure that it would stand up to Tasev’s scrutiny, but Wesley would have enough now to make a decision.
“You know they have.”
“And?”
“And, I don’t like this at all.”
She closed her eyes and looked away from Levi. “During our meet I’ll plant a tracker on Tasev.” With the micro-technology they had at their disposal, it would be easy enough to get it on him unseen. Well, depending on Tasev. He wasn’t one to let a pretty face sway him so flirting was out. Especially if she was posing as Levi’s lover. And the problem with the trackers was that they eventually disintegrated. So if Tasev didn’t return immediately to his base, then it might not work anyway.
“You should just let me bring him in,” Wesley said, changing topics, clearly talking about Levi now.
Standing, Selene moved away from Levi and strode to one of the bullet-resistant windows. She looked down at the beach, stories below. “You’re free to do whatever you want,” she murmured. Because no one let Wesley Burkhart do anything. He did whatever he damn well pleased. Something they both knew.
“You’re putting me in a tough situation.”
She snorted, but didn’t respond. It didn’t matter what she said, he’d go with his gut in the end. He always did.
“Damn it, Selene.” Now he was really in a snit, though he’d curse again if he heard her use the word “snit” in relation to him. After a long pause in which they both attempted to wait each other out, he finally sighed. “If his ID is solid he can go with you but this changes nothing.”
“I know.” Even though Wesley had decided to let Levi go about a year ago, now that he was back on their radar, her boss wanted Levi brought in. It didn’t mean Selene was going to help him.
“No matter what we’ll be following you via satellite and tracker.”
“I know,” she repeated. For this op there would be a team of agents on standby but no one directly tailing her. It was too risky. Tasev was careful so even though she planned to use the NSA’s micro-technology on herself, the tiny trackers could be disabled electronically. Tasev would never know she had one on herself or Levi. He’d just have to send out an electronic pulse to disable any in the vicinity and it would neutralize their trackers.
“He could hang you out to dry,” Wesley said, reiterating his earlier statement in a rigid tone.
“He won’t.” He might try to screw her over in the end, but she didn’t think he’d actually hang her out to dry. Not in the sense that he’d leave her to fend for herself on an op. She still wasn’t positive that he wasn’t going to let his need for revenge drive him, so she wanted to keep him as close to her as possible. Like that old saying: Keep your enemies closer. Not that she liked thinking of Levi as an enemy.
“If Tasev killed his wife, he could. You don’t know how Levi will react. And we need Tasev alive, at least at first.”
“No, you need Schmidt alive.”
“If Tasev has more cells, we need him. He could have sent more than two teams out.”
“How’d you find out about that anyway?” she asked.
“Anonymous tip.”
“Bullshit.”
“That’s all I can say.”
“Fine. You know what I want but you make the final decision. What’s it gonna be?”
“Levi’s in. Just get Tasev’s base and we can end the bastard.”
After they disconnected she turned to find Levi sitting on the edge of the bed, his dark eyes glittering with too many emotions to define. “So?” he asked, his voice hard.
“You’re in for the op.”
“You didn’t give Wesley all the details.”
“I will. He trusts me to make calls in the field.”
Levi watched her with a mix of confusion and caution, as if she was some exotic animal he couldn’t figure out.
“What?” she asked, feeling self-conscious under his inspection.
“I can’t figure you out.”
Frowning, she gathered her clothes from the bed. “How so?”
“You weren’t in the military.” A statement. “But you’re trained. And I know some of Selene Silva’s cover ID was based on truth, though you’re too young to have done all of the ops. So that means they started building the ID with you in mind, even before you were allowed in the field.” They couldn’t have created her to be a trained assassin if she didn’t know how to use a multitude of weapons and he was willing to bet she was responsible for some of the operations that created the cover ID.
“If there’s not a question in there, I’m getting changed.” She started for the bathroom, needing some space from Levi.
To her relief or disappointment, she wasn’t sure, he didn’t try to stop her. Once inside the bathroom she sagged against the closed door. As soon as she was dressed they’d have to go over the plan for tonight in serious detail and if she was posing as his lover she knew that she’d have to be comfortable around him in the way that lovers were.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, especially since she wished she knew what it was like to be his in the bedroom.
• • •
Tasev ended the call he’d just made when it went straight to voice mail. Again. He’d called each man he’d sent out. Twice. No one was answering. On a mission everyone went dark, but everything should have been in place by now and they should have been on their way back to Miami. For eight of his men to completely fall off the radar meant only one thing.
They’d been caught.
Or betrayed. He’d been so careful, sending in small but trained teams. This had been his testing ground. Staring at his phone for only a moment longer, he shoved it into his pants pocket and strode from the room. The mansion he used as his base was expansive but the man he wanted to speak to was nearby.
Moments later he found Grisha talking to one of the perimeter guards, laughing about some stupid sports team. That was something Tasev didn’t understand—sports. Their fascination with such idiocy wasn’t his concern now.
Both men looked over when they saw him, the guard straightening. Grisha’s posture didn’t change as he nodded in respect at Tasev.
With a jerk of his head, he had the other man scurrying away. The property was surrounded by a high wall and in addition
to his static guards, he had men constantly moving around with no specific agenda other than to keep the grounds secure. Not to mention he had anti-surveillance hardware in place everywhere, making this place virtually impenetrable.
“You never told me how you got those blueprints,” Tasev said. When Grisha had acquired the plans he hadn’t asked how he’d gotten them. Tasev thoroughly checked out anyone he did business with but he didn’t micromanage. He was too busy and anyone stupid enough to cross him ended up tortured and dead. Now, however, he wanted to know how the man had acquired such sensitive material.
“No, I didn’t.” There was no sarcasm in his statement, but definitely an edge to his voice.
“How did you get them?”
Grisha paused a long moment, the scar around his neck pulling as his neck muscles clenched. Likely in annoyance. Finally he shrugged. “A woman I fucked gave me access.”
Different architecture firms had done the plans for each plant. Before Tasev could point that out, Grisha continued, “She works for the firm who designed the Florida plant and had a contact with the Georgia firm. I can be very persuasive,” he murmured, clearly pleased with himself.
Tasev relaxed a fraction, but didn’t let his guard down. “My men haven’t checked in,” he said, gauging the man’s reaction.
It wasn’t much, but his eyebrows slightly raised. That might as well be full-on surprise for a normal person. It didn’t mean Tasev trusted Grisha, but he was reacting the right way at least. “Can’t you track them?” Grisha asked.
“They went dark right before the op.”
He nodded once. “Of course.”
Since he didn’t plan to torture Grisha to find out if he’d been the one to betray him—yet—he changed topics. If Grisha was guilty, Tasev would give him enough rope to hang himself in the next twenty-four hours. “What did the German say at your sit-down?”
“The female is beautiful and intelligent and he believes she is The Wolf. She knew too many details about some of the confirmed kills. And she knows her weapons. Interestingly, he said that she left Shah’s party with a man who was supposed to meet with him later that evening. Isaiah Moore.”
Tasev frowned at the familiar name. The German had forwarded it to him along with a short list of people interested in doing business with Tasev, and Moore’s name had been on it. He was the only one who hadn’t done the preliminary meeting with the German. Instead of voicing his thoughts, he just nodded. “Thank you.”
Making his way back to his office, Tasev knew exactly whom he’d call to find out if his men had been arrested. He had various people in law enforcement on his payroll—of course they didn’t know his real name. He also planned to find out how his men had been caught. No one had known what they were doing except Grisha but Tasev had put a tail on him when he’d gone to see the German so he couldn’t have betrayed him. All his vehicles were bugged and he hadn’t made any calls or texts. Unless . . . He pulled out his phone and texted the guard he’d ordered to follow Grisha.
Less than ten minutes later Matvei arrived at his office, looking nervous as usual. It didn’t matter the situation, Matvei always looked guilty of something. Which was frustrating because he was impossible to read. Luckily the man was too dumb to ever cross Tasev.
Tasev had left his door open because he didn’t want to be bothered with having to get up. “Close it behind you.”
Matvei nodded, his shaggy blond hair falling over his forehead. “Everything okay?”
“When you followed Grisha this morning was he ever out of your sight?”
Matvei blinked, his blue eyes revealing surprise at the question. “No. Not once.”
“And he went straight to the German’s?”
“Yes.” He quickly launched into a recap of the route Grisha had taken and how long it took him to get to the German’s. It was clear Matvei was proud of himself for tailing Grisha.
But Tasev was certain Grisha knew he’d been followed. He wasn’t a mindless soldier like Matvei. “That’ll be all,” he murmured, dismissing the man.
The closer he came to completing his mission the more ruthless he’d been in spying on his own men. It wasn’t impossible that Grisha had betrayed him, but he would have had a very small time line in which to contact anyone. So whom would he have contacted? And why would he have gotten the blueprints in the first place?
Tasev frowned at his own paranoia. Just because it seemed as if Grisha was the only man who’d known about the op this morning didn’t mean it was so. Any of the eight men he’d sent could have mentioned it to the rest of the crew. Still, Grisha had been with him for the shortest period of time so he was automatically suspect for anything. Well, Matvei had been with him for relatively the same time frame but he didn’t know enough to betray Tasev anyway. His gut told him that Grisha wasn’t guilty, but he had to know for certain.
And laying a trap for Grisha to fall into would be easy enough. He’d just have to give him something too big to pass up. If he said nothing Tasev would know he could be trusted.
Chapter 11
Safe house: a house in a secret location, used by spies or criminals.
Levi slipped on his custom-made Armani jacket, almost completing the civilized appearance he was going for. He and Selene had come back to the place he’d been staying a few hours ago. He hadn’t been willing to stay at the NSA-owned condo, safe house or not.
When he reached for the tie he’d laid on his mattress, Selene strode into the bedroom and shook her head. “I’d lose the tie.” Wearing loose gym shorts and a sports bra, she had two small boxes in one hand and a zipped-up black garment bag in the other. Momentarily distracted, his throat tightened at the sight of her sweaty and half-naked.
Ignoring her statement, he frowned at what she was holding. For the last half hour she’d been working out in the backyard area. Every time he’d looked outside she’d been doing push-ups, sprints, tabata crunches, and other forms of cardio. Less than five minutes ago he’d seen her shadowboxing in the empty pool. Watching her had been mesmerizing. She hadn’t said, but it was like she had a routine before a mission.
Which wasn’t out of the ordinary. Most operatives did. But that didn’t explain the other stuff. “What the hell is all that?”
“Clothes for me and something for us,” she said, tossing the garment bag on the bed. She handed him one of the boxes.
“Where the hell did it come from?” he shouted.
“I had it dropped off. And before you get all crazy, let’s not pretend that you planned to come back here after tonight.” Her testy tone dared him to contradict her.
He gritted his teeth, hating that she was right. This place was burned now that she knew about it—and clearly the NSA—and the only reason he’d come back was to wipe down anything he might have missed. He’d already packed up his meager belongings a couple of hours ago and moved them to another safe house. He was ninety percent sure Selene hadn’t followed him, but even if she had, he wouldn’t be staying at that place either. He always tried to think three steps ahead. “I thought you were wearing the dress,” he said, indicating the black gown she’d brought from her condo and hung in the closet.
She snorted. “I changed my mind. If we’re going through with your plan, we’re going to paint a picture of a unified front.” She unzipped the bag to reveal a pantsuit similar to his. Black, sleek, Armani, and definitely made for her long slender body. Her legs would look a mile long in the pants. From experience, he knew the NSA would have her measurements on file so it made sense they would be able to have the suit made on such short notice. It was also smart to dress similarly. It would make it clear that they were more than business associates without having to say a word to Tasev.
Though he tried to remain unaffected by her, his gaze trailed over her slightly sweaty body, landing on the outline of her nipples in her sports bra, skimming over the flat planes of her stomach and down her legs. The woman had tan, shapely runner’s legs and right now all he could think about w
as what it would be like to have them wrapped around his waist. Or his face.
He jerked at the image of that and tore off the top of the box in his hand with more force than necessary to reveal a simple, likely platinum, watch. He recognized the brand as being insanely expensive. “A watch is an ineffective way to track us,” he said, looking back up at her.
She rolled her eyes and pulled out her own watch, which was a smaller, feminine version of his. “There’s no tracker on it. Watch me.” With elegant fingers, she grasped the middle of the timepiece and twisted the band back and forth in what he realized was a combination of sorts. It clicked open and she grasped the ends and pulled, revealing a retractable garrote wire.
His eyebrows rose. “Impressive.”
“When they scan us, it’ll show up as a normal electronic device and even if they use an electronic pulse to disable it, it won’t affect the weapon. The code is two clicks clockwise, five counterclockwise, then three clockwise.”
As she’d instructed, he clicked until his watch revealed the weapon. Hell, yeah. He didn’t mind going in unarmed because his hands were the ultimate weapon but he liked having something like this as backup. And he was glad Selene had something to protect herself with. Not that he planned to let anything happen to her, but he knew more than most how things could go sideways in the blink of an eye. After reviewing it, he retracted it and put the watch on. A perfect fit. Not that he’d expect any less from Burkhart.
“We need to leave in an hour,” he said, meeting her gaze again.
“I know. It won’t take me long to shower and get ready.” When she started to move past him, he held out an arm.
“From the moment we leave here we’re playing a role.”
She frowned at him. “This isn’t my first op, Isaiah.” She smoothly used his alias, as she’d been doing most of the day.