The edge of her lips curled. She squeezed his fingers back.
Then the train was there, and Alberto was first in line to get on, cutting in front of the woman with a stroller and young child in tow. Max and Lucy took their time getting onboard. They got on one carriage down. It was crowded and Max glanced anxiously through the window. The beeps started, warning that the doors were about to close.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he said.
Sure enough, Alberto jumped off just before the doors closed. Another train approached the opposite platform. He dashed onboard while Max swore into the phone at Regan. “The guy bailed at the last minute. Jumped on the train heading out of the city. Can you head to the next station?”
“We’ll never make it in this traffic.” Regan’s voice was calm. “Something spooked him. He’s in the wind now.”
“Did he take his cell with him?” Maybe they could track him and maybe he’d lead them to the girls.
“Negative. It’s still sending a signal from the apartment.”
“Did he make us?”
“I don’t know, did he?”
Max didn’t think so, unless he was a RADA-trained actor. The guy was making sure he wasn’t followed, which didn’t exactly scream innocence.
“Get off at the next stop, and we’ll pick you up,” Regan told him.
Max hung up, and it took him a second to realize he was still holding Lucy’s hand.
“Sorry.” He let her go, wishing unaccountably he didn’t have to.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lucy couldn’t believe they’d lost their only suspect. Dammit.
She climbed into the van and sat dejectedly at the end of the bench.
“You two sure you didn’t tip him off?” Regan asked.
Lucy pondered how the guy had acted when they’d followed him. He’d been hyper-vigilant and on edge before he’d headed into the subway. He hadn’t noticed them except for that brief glance. She shook her head. “He was spooked before he even saw us.”
“Maybe he’s always twitchy.” Max commented.
“He has a drug problem. I was getting meth-head vibes from him when he walked past us in the hallway,” Dexter said.
The thought of Kristen and Irene being at the mercy of a guy like that made Lucy’s stomach twist. “Did you hear anything from inside the apartment?”
Regan shook his head.
“How long before the locals get there?” Could Irene and Kristen be inside right now? Could they need medical attention?
Regan shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. “Apartment is rented out to a guy name of Manuel Gonzalez. Dexter is running a background check on him looking for any links to Alberto. There’s a chance Manuel is another of the kidnappers, but he might simply be a friend letting Alberto stay. Or Manuel might be fictitious, and the place is being used to hold the girls, but I’m not buying it.”
“Why leave his cell phone behind now? Was he tipped off the cops are looking for him?” asked Max.
“That would be my guess,” said Regan.
Lucy was inclined to agree. “With all the surveillance cameras and the facial recognition in the city, why get on the subway if he thought the cops were after him?”
“That’s why he wore the ball cap and glasses,” Regan told her. “My bet is he got off at the next stop and has a vehicle parked there or someone is picking him up. Call your contact at PFA. Remind them to track Alberto’s cell in case they are only staking out his home. We want them to find that apartment.”
Max did just that. He spoke to Agente Ramon, and it sounded like she was giving him shit about knowing how to run an investigation.
Lucy wasn’t impressed. For all the woman’s tight clothes and confident swagger, Ramon hadn’t been the one finding the physical evidence or following Alberto into the subway—no, that had been the FBI and Lucy. She wished they hadn’t lost him. Dammit.
Max caught her gaze for a second before he looked away. Lucy figured Ramon was flirting with him again and didn’t like how that made her feel. Slightly ill. Definitely jealous.
Dangerous emotions designed to get her into trouble.
Max hung up. Rubbed the back of his neck. “They have eyes on his place of work and also on the family home where he lives with his mother. Ramon says they’re waiting on the warrant for the cell phone number and records.”
“We could go back to the apartment,” Lucy looked up. “One of us could deliver a parcel or something. See if anyone answers the door.”
“I like how you think, lady.” Jon Regan held her gaze. “But I’m serious about the fact we can’t risk getting caught down here. Our TacOps careers would be over. And that would be a massive loss for our country.”
“Amen,” Navarro muttered.
“What if the girls are in there?” Lucy demanded. “What if Kristen needs medical attention?”
“I know it’s difficult to not jump on every lead, but you need to keep your eye on the endgame.” Regan’s expression was not unkind. “We’ll pick up any noise or movement inside that apartment and have a camera on the door to monitor if anyone enters or leaves. Argentine police aren’t far behind.”
“If the kidnappers are there, we run the risk of instigating an armed standoff if we corner them, which is never good for hostages,” Max added.
“We’ll drop you back at the embassy and then go monitor the apartment from a safe distance until the locals arrive.” Regan checked his watch which looked like a real-deal Rolex and then glanced at Max. “I want you to go back to your hotel room around five tonight. Valet park the Mini and one of us will go over it to find the tracker and put it in the glovebox so you can ditch it when the time comes. Order room service and maybe snuggle for an hour—nothing X-rated.” He was teasing, but it made her blush. “I’ll give you a call and you can devise some sort of emergency and rush out of there. Head back to Lucy’s place—”
Max stiffened beside her. “I was going to check into another hotel.”
Regan rolled his eyes. “And give us another place to monitor? Fuuuck.”
“It’s fine,” Lucy said. It seemed almost inevitable. “You can sleep in the spare room again.”
“Bad luck, buddy.” Regan grinned.
“Don’t be an asshole,” Lucy snapped.
“It’s my natural state of being.” Rather than looking shocked by her words, Jon Regan looked satisfied. “Figured you weren’t as submissive as you liked to pretend.”
Shoot. Lucy looked away. So much for training. Regan knew exactly which buttons to press.
Navarro pulled the van to a stop in the same place they’d picked them up. Max jumped out and held out his hand to help Lucy.
“Thanks.” The door slammed shut and the van sped away. Lucy stared after them. “Interesting friends you have.”
One side of Max’s lips quirked up in a smoking-hot smile. She put her head down and started to march across the grass toward the embassy. She had a job to do.
Max fell into step beside her. He was quiet, and she had to clamp down on the desire to fill the silence.
They headed straight up to the ambassador’s office. Stacks of money were piled on the coffee table and couch.
“Where have you been?” Catherine Dickerson snapped when they walked through the door. Everyone looked up with wide eyes. Kevin sat next to his dad, counting bills.
“If you’re talking to me, ma’am, I was following a lead.” Max took the ambassador’s anger on himself.
Lucy didn’t miss the fact he angled himself slightly in front of her. She didn’t think she’d ever met a better human being.
“What lead?” the ambassador asked.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” said Max.
“Lucy?” Miranda pressed.
Lucy’s mouth dropped open in surprise.
“She’s not at liberty to say either,” Max said firmly. “What’s the problem?”
Catherine wiped her hand tiredly over her face. “We don’t have enough mone
y for the ransom. Phillip was able to mortgage the property in the States and had a banker’s draft arranged through a friend of his at the bank.” When she looked up, she appeared to be fighting tears. “We only have six hundred eighty-three thousand here. That’s sixty thousand short.”
“I have six thousand I can add. Sorry it’s not more,” offered Miranda.
Lucy was taken aback at her generosity. It wasn’t as if their pay was spectacular.
Iain Bartlett added, “I can add a thousand.”
“Me too,” Lucy added. She kept cash in her apartment for emergencies.
“I have permission to add fifty thousand to the pot,” Max told them calmly.
“Is it tagged in some way?” Catherine’s lips pinched, caught between hope and disapproval.
“We won’t risk our child’s safety for the sake of a few thousand dollars,” Phillip added sharply.
Except they wouldn’t have enough money without those “few thousand dollars,” Lucy thought with irritation.
“There are transponders located in the bags, but they will never find them. And better to have some idea where the money is in the event they don’t release the girls as promised,” Max admitted.
“No dye packs or traceable bills?” Phillip asked.
Max shook his head. “Only the transponders that look like wires in the structure of the bag. Even if the kidnappers find them, they won’t know what they are.”
Catherine blew out a long breath. “I hope to god you’re right.”
“That still leaves us two thousand short,” said Phillip.
“I have that in my savings, Mom, right?” Kevin asked.
All eyes shifted to him. Kristen’s brother looked uncomfortable but determined. “Can someone take me to the bank to withdraw it?”
Lucy fought the urge to cry.
Phillip’s eyes glistened. “I’ll do it, son.” He ruffled the kid’s hair and broke the spell.
“Do the Lomakins have the money they need?” Catherine asked.
Max crossed his arms, which inadvertently showed off the muscles in his forearms. Lucy tried not to notice. “I plan to call the negotiator working with them and check on their progress shortly.”
Catherine rested her hands on her waist and surveyed the room with forced positivity. “Okay. If everyone can retrieve the cash they offered, Phillip and I will be eternally grateful. And we will pay you back when we are able.”
Phillip nodded and he, Kevin, Miranda and Iain Bartlett left the room. That left the ambassador, another DS agent, Lucy and Max in the room. Catherine started placing stacks of bills into batches.
“I’ll run back to my apartment and grab my cash,” Lucy offered.
“Help me out for a few minutes first,” Catherine said over her shoulder. Lucy immediately obeyed. Max looked more hesitant.
“I need to get back to the Negotiation Center. A new negotiator arrived earlier along with that money from DOJ—”
Catherine turned to the DS agent who stood against the wall. “Give us the room.”
He left, reluctantly.
Lucy went to follow.
“You may as well stay, Lucy. You already know more than I do.”
She hesitated. “Yes, ma’am.”
Once the DS agent closed the door, Catherine bit out, “Did they cut off my daughter’s finger today?”
Lucy watched Max exhale slowly. Then he went over to move some bills into what Lucy figured out were thousand-dollar piles. “That’s what they wanted us to believe, yes.”
Catherine’s chin rose and she looked away. “Do you really think they’ll release Kristen and Irene tomorrow?”
“In my experience, when a kidnapper agrees to a price and that cash is delivered as per their instructions, they will release the hostages, but it might take a few hours.”
“What about…” Catherine’s eyes shifted to Lucy again. Lucy pretended to be engrossed in creating neat stacks. “The other possible players.”
She meant the Russians. Lucy wasn’t supposed to know, and the FBI obviously hadn’t updated the ambassador on the latest developments with Max and the honeytrap the Russians had tried to spring on him.
“The FBI is working on it, ma’am. Currently, I’m waiting to hear if the Argentine Federal Police has tracked down a possible suspect—”
“What?”
“They didn’t tell you?”
Catherine’s nostrils flared with anger. “They did not.”
Max straightened. He’d done that on purpose, Lucy realized. Deflected the ambassador away from grilling him.
“I really need to get back to the Negotiation Center. I need to collect that money from the Legat’s safe, talk to the Lomakins’ negotiator to make sure they are on track, and update my people.”
Catherine’s gaze sharpened. Then she laughed. “You distracted me.”
Max smiled. “I gave you information. I would love some answers myself. Especially when the Comisario General promised to keep you up to date, did he not?”
Catherine inclined her head and went to sit behind her desk. “He did. And I intend to see that he keeps his promises. I’ll call you if he tells me anything useful. In the meantime, please bring that money here ASAP.” She looked around at the piles of money. “I have never been more grateful for, nor more resentful of, inanimate objects.”
“I’m sorry you’re going through this, ma’am,” Max said quietly.
The ambassador nodded sharply. “Let me deal with Comisario General Fuentes. I will pass on any progress he’s made to you.” Both Lucy and Max started heading to the door. “SSA Hawthorne.”
He stopped. Turned. “Yes, ma’am?”
“Don’t mess this up. I want my daughter back alive.”
* * *
Max’s phone rang.
“I found Miguel,” Eban said.
“What? How?” Max was striding back to the Negotiation Center with Lucy at his side.
“Haley Cramer’s firm managed to identify a smartphone that was likely being used to message Kristen and post on social media. Phone was registered to someone who is deceased using a false address. It was turned off the day Kristen was kidnapped and hasn’t been turned back on since.”
“That’s not suspicious at all.”
“Yeah, really.”
“Can you send me a list of locations where it was used?”
“Sure. What’s happening down there?”
“I’ll tell you later.” When he couldn’t be overheard. “Do me a favor and transfer the kidnappers’ number back to the Negotiation Center will you?”
“Sure thing. I’ll call you back. Quentin says ‘Hi’ by the way.”
“You spoke to him? I take it he’s having fun?”
“Seems to be living the high life.”
“Good for him.” Max grinned. “Did you speak to Darby?”
“Briefly.” Eban closed up again.
“Right on.” Max gave the guy a break. “I need to do something. Call you back in a few.”
Lucy’s stomach rumbled loudly. She wore a worried frown. She flicked a glance at him and then smiled in confusion when she caught him staring at her.
“What is it?” she asked nervously.
“We skipped lunch again.”
“It’s becoming a habit.” She sounded sad, and it had nothing to do with food. Trying to get these girls home safely was becoming a race against time. Stopping for lunch seemed wrong and yet that was exactly how burnout started—by not taking the time to deal with the basics. There was always a crisis in his world. Someone always needed saving. But today he’d rather go hungry.
He reached the Legat’s office. The large office area was empty except for one lone agent.
Max strode to the Negotiation Center and gave a perfunctory knock on the door before walking in.
“Jen!” He hugged the woman who was based in San Fran. He’d helped train her a few years ago at CNU. She was one of the best negotiators he’d ever encountered.
“Max
! I have a suitcase for you. I left it with security because I’m too lazy to carry it up all those stairs.”
“I’d kiss your feet, but I don’t want to get weird.”
“Too late for that.” They grinned at each other. Jen looked behind him to Lucy and held out her hand. “I’m SSA Jennifer McCreedy. Most people call me Jen.”
“Lucy Aston. I’m one of the ambassador’s assistants but was reassigned to help Max navigate the city and the language barrier.”
“Nice to meet you, Lucy.”
“You have the rest of the money?” Max asked.
Jen kicked a big black bag on the floor. “We arrived together via an official diplomatic transport plane. I felt pretty special even without the black passport.”
“Let me grab the rest of the cash and take it up to the ambassador’s suite and have her sign for it. That way I don’t need to worry about being responsible if it disappears.”
“Things are happening fast,” Jen commented.
“You have no idea.”
“I’m going to run back to my apartment to pick up that extra cash,” Lucy told him. “I’ll meet you back here in half an hour.”
“Be careful.” He didn’t like the idea the Russians were tracking her vehicle.
Max headed off to deliver the Fed’s money to the ambassador and her security team, making sure she signed the official forms some bureaucrat at headquarters had forwarded him.
He called Andy on the walk back down to the Legat’s office. The Lomakins had the cash, and Andy had them creating thousand-dollar bundles to keep them busy.
“I don’t usually do drop offs but this time I might have to,” Andy muttered quietly.
“No way. I’ll arrange a diplomatic car to pick up the cash as soon as it’s ready. We’ll hand over both sets of money together.”
“That would be great. I’m not comfortable with this amount of cash in this house. Also, it’s a good excuse to punt the kidnappers to talk solely to you while I carry out babysitting duty.”
Max’s thoughts exactly. “Can it be ready in an hour?”
“I’ll have it ready. Then I’ll shoot these two full of single malt and Benadryl and see if I can get them to sleep for a few hours.”
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