“She’s right,” his boss said. “You know she’s right.”
“Megan is going to lose her mind over this,” Dimitri warned.
“Then I suggest you don’t tell her until you’ve retrieved Rudi’s files,” Tessa said.
“We can protect Claire until Rudi is put away.” Joe didn’t look any more pleased with the situation than Dimitri felt.
“Could be months,” Dimitri reminded him.
“We can do it. I’ll talk to Harry, see if he can cover the costs.” The third partner in Benson Security had made millions developing a security programme for the government. He was also Claire’s cousin.
“I don’t like this,” Dimitri said.
Joe nodded. “What choice do we have? Like the commander said, we can’t protect Claire at the expense of those women.”
No, they couldn’t. “Do we tell Megan?” He looked at Callum.
The man pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not until the meet with Rudi is over. We can’t risk what she might do. She’s a loose cannon as it is.”
To her credit, Tessa didn’t gloat over winning the argument. “Trust me, gentlemen, I want Rudi off the streets as much as you do, probably more. Now tell me what I can do to help.”
Dimitri tuned out Callum’s answer. “I’m going to call Rudi,” he told Joe as he passed him at the door.
“What you going to tell him about having Johnny’s phone?”
“The truth. That the guy was an ass and I’ve got him locked up tight until I sort out this thing with Rudi.”
Joe nodded. He cocked his head towards Tessa and Callum. “You okay with this?”
“Like you said, we don’t have much choice so I guess I have to be.”
“Megan…” Joe didn’t need to say anything else.
“Yeah,” Dimitri agreed.
Megan was seriously going to blow when she found out there was a change in plans. Dimitri just hoped they could all deal with the fallout.
Chapter Seven
Megan walked into the conference room the following morning to find that each place at the table had a gasmask in front of it.
“Just in case.” Ryan beamed at her.
“Funny. Oh so funny.” Megan was beyond mortification. Who knew it was possible? But all it had taken was some dodgy Chinese food, an explosive stomach and a ride across London in a car with her flatmate.
“You’re our secret weapon.” Ryan was loving every minute of this. “If we ever need to clear a building we’ll just take you to Chinatown first, then send you in. Ten minutes and the enemy will be out cold.”
“Or they’ll surrender.” Joe grinned at her.
“Everybody’s a comedian.”
Ryan and Joe laughed loudly before occupying each other with toilet jokes.
Megan pulled up a seat beside Dimitri. It was on the tip of her tongue to apologise for screwing up the meeting. Instead what came out was, “I blame you. I’m sure it was the broccoli.”
She’d expected some ribbing, maybe a lecture about being unprofessional. Instead his eyes softened when he looked up at her. He brushed her cheek with his knuckles. A gentle, caring touch that disarmed her.
“You okay?” His voice was soft, for her ears only.
“Yeah.” She swallowed hard at the huskiness in her voice.
“You did good last night, Buffy.”
The words went straight to that secret place inside of her that protected the core of insecurity she was terrified the world would see. “I made noise. That’s how he caught me.”
“You couldn’t help it.”
Megan was vaguely aware of Joe and Ryan winding each other up in the background, but all of her attention was on Dimitri.
His warm hand rested on the curve of her throat as his thumb brushed the edge of her jaw. “He would have found you anyway. He came in from a direction that made you easier to spot. It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”
“Rubbish. We’re partners. Remember?”
Something flickered in his eyes and he looked away from her. His hand dropped back to the table. “Yeah, we’re partners.” His voice was louder. “You did great disabling him. Professional. I was impressed.”
Alarms went off in Megan’s head at this sudden coldness. Then she realised what she’d seen in his eyes was guilt. Stupid man, probably blamed himself for her getting caught.
“Lake’s classes,” she confessed. “He drummed those moves into us.”
“No, not just the classes. You have an instinct for this business. And you’re freaking lucky.”
There was no denying it, she was definitely lucky.
Whatever he was going to say next was lost as the door opened and a burst of colour rushed in. The woman was wearing a bright pink T-shirt with Hello Kitty on it, lime green jeans and her bobbed hair was dyed pastel blue with purple streaks. She blinked unnatural lavender coloured eyes at everyone. Megan knew at one glance that she’d found a stand-in for Claire. Julia was lovely, but Megan missed the like-minded mischief her twin was capable of. This woman looked like she was more than able to make trouble with Megan.
“Did I miss anything exciting?” the woman said with a cheeky grin.
“This is our tech liaison.” Callum came in behind the woman, spotted the gasmasks and glared at Ryan. “She’s going to go over our comms system with Megan after the meeting.”
“Hi.” Megan waved at the woman. “I’m Donaldson, Megan Donaldson. You must be Q.”
The woman grinned. “I wish. Just call me Elle.”
“L? Is that a code name?”
“No. It’s my name.”
Megan ignored Dimitri’s groan. “Do I get a poison dart pen and camera shoe?” She really hoped she did. So far being a gun-for-hire did not live up to the hype.
“Very Man From Uncle,” Elle said. “I like. Unfortunately, you don’t get any cool tech. We’re totally standard ops here.” She pointed at her laptop. “There’s some wizardry on the programming, hacking side, but you won’t get any gizmos from this department.”
“Bummer,” Megan said. “This gig isn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.”
“I know,” Elle said with a pout.
Callum slammed his mug down on the table. Somebody really needed to teach the guy how to call a meeting to order without getting all grumpy. “We about ready to start?”
“Wait.” A thought popped into Megan’s head. She pointed at Elle. “If she’s the tech liaison, what’s the point of Rachel?”
“I’ve been wondering that for years,” Elle mumbled.
“Rachel is division manager,” Callum said as though that would put an end to the discussion. He had a lot to learn. “Before we get into it—Joe, what’s the status on Durand? Our captive mentioned to Megan and Dimitri that he was still in Scotland.”
Megan instantly dropped the issue of Rachel’s purpose as worry for her twin took over. She’d been so occupied with stomach problems the night before that she’d had to trust Dimitri to get the word out about Claire. Obviously he had. She wanted to pat his head and tell him good boy. But she didn’t.
“Grunt says there’s no sign of him,” Joe said, “but he’s on the lookout. Lake too. They’ve got guys on Claire twenty-four seven. They managed to track him to a clinic outside Edinburgh where he demanded someone re-stitch the wound in his ass, where Megan shot him. Apparently he burst it open making a run for it.”
Was it wrong that Megan felt all sorts of glee at that news? She didn’t think so.
Joe looked at her. “He’s gunning for you. He knows you aren’t Claire and he’s looking for payback.”
Megan stiffened. “Did he tell Rudi that Claire is a twin?”
“As far as we can tell, Durand hasn’t been in contact with Rudi since the Scotland screw up,” Joe said.
Megan didn’t know what to make of that and from the looks on the faces of her teammates, neither did they.
“Keep an eye on things,” Callum told Joe.
“Let us know the instant you hear something.” Joe nodded as Callum pointed at Dimitri. “Fill everyone in on the status of your contact with Rudi.”
“I called him last night on Johnny’s phone. He was pissed about losing his head of security for the house, but I promised to return him after the deal went through.” Dimitri looked around the table. “I think Johnny’s days working security will be over pretty fast if we hand him over.”
“Good for Johnny that he’s getting a holiday courtesy of Her Majesty then,” Ryan said.
“Safer,” Dimitri agreed, and Megan knew even Johnny Rotten would rather be locked up in prison than wearing cement shoes at the bottom of the Thames. “Anyway,” Dimitri said. “Rudi’s checking me out. Thanks to Elle, he’ll only find what we want him to find. An ex-army guy turned private contractor, looking for a fast buck and crazy enough to kidnap Claire to get it.”
Megan held up her hand. “Wait. Why is that a cover story? That’s what you’ve done.”
“Elle buried the parts we didn’t want him to find. Parts like I’m working for Benson Security now. Parts like I have a sister called Katrina Raast. Elle gave me another last name, a different birthplace. Made sure the connection to Katrina was buried deep.”
“Oh, okay.” She felt a bit embarrassed at asking the question.
Dimitri gave her a heart-warming smile before turning his attention back to the group. “We have a tentative meet for Friday morning. At his house.”
“That’s two days from now.” Megan thought she’d have more time to prepare. Now it was happening it seemed awfully fast. She looked at Dimitri, she’d only known the man two weeks and yet she was going into a situation where she had to trust him with her life. He stared back at her and it was as though he could read her mind.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he promised.
For once Megan didn’t remind him she could take care of herself. “Is that enough time to set up cover?”
“We’re all over it,” Joe said. “We’ve been watching the house and grounds for days. Cover is under control.”
The door opened and Julia appeared. She clasped her iPad to her chest like a shield and spoke to her feet.
“Rudi’s wife is on the phone. She wants to talk to Joe.” Her cheeks flushed red as she started to back out of the door.
“Take the call here,” Callum ordered. “Put it on speaker.”
Julia took the phone from the top of the cabinet against the wall and placed it in the middle of the table. She pressed the flashing button and nodded at Joe who gave her a dazzling smile.
Callum pointed at Julia and mouthed “stay”. Her frown of disapproval at being ordered around like a dog disappeared quickly and she scurried to sit in her usual spot behind the huge plant.
“Hope? It’s me Joe. We’re in conference right now. I’ve got you on speaker with the team. Is that okay?” His voice was gentle, coaxing.
“Yes, yes, that’s fine.” The woman’s American accent was mid-western.
“What can we do for you, Hope?” Joe leaned towards the phone.
“Um, I um remembered some stuff. I don’t know how helpful it is, but I thought, you know, you said to call if I ever…”
“No. That’s good. You did the right thing,” Joe crooned. “What did you remember, honey?”
The room was deadly silent as they waited for her reply. People seemed scared to breathe, let alone move, in case they spooked the anxious woman.
“It was after a party in the house in Romania. I was pretty drunk. I spent a lot of my time drunk…” Her voice faded out, heavy with shame.
After everything she’d lived through, the last thing the woman should feel was shame. Megan caught Joe’s eye and saw he agreed.
“We understand,” he said. “You did what you could to make it through. No one here is judging you, Hope.”
There was a pause. She cleared her throat and they heard her take a shaky breath. “We were in our suite after the party and I had conked out on the bed. For some reason I woke in the middle of the night. I was thirsty and battling another hangover. I wanted water and some aspirin. I staggered out of the bedroom aiming for the kitchen area off our lounge. Rudi was at his desk. He was shocked to see me. I saw him unplug a tiny USB drive from the computer and put it on his finger. It was such an odd thing to do that it stuck with me.”
Joe’s smile was slow and wide as he looked over at Julia’s hiding spot. “Give us that shot of Rudi again, babe. You know the one I mean.”
Megan heard her tap at her iPad and the lights dimmed. Rudi appeared on the wall.
“What do you mean ‘put it on his finger’, Hope?” It was clear from his excitement that Joe already knew the answer.
Every eye in the room was on Rudi Abramovich’s hands. More specifically, on the oversized gold insignia ring on his wedding finger.
“It was his ring. The one he always wore.” Hope’s voice echoed through the room. “I know it doesn’t make much sense. But I saw it, Joe, I promise you. Somehow that ring connects to the computer.”
The computer expert looked up from her laptop, straight at Joe. “You think it’s a hidden flash drive.”
Joe nodded. “I’m sure of it. It makes sense. Every source we’ve tapped said that Rudi doesn’t have a dedicated computer that he takes with him wherever he goes. The information has to be moving around with him somehow. If he’s carrying it in a hidden storage device, that would explain a lot.”
Elle must have noted Megan’s frown because she elaborated. “A flash drive is essentially a tiny storage device, or a thumb drive. The smallest one I’ve seen was tinier than a penny. It could definitely be hidden in a ring and it would have more than enough space for Rudi’s business files.”
“I may be blonde, but I know what a flash drive is, Elle,” Megan said to the blue-haired tech. “I’m just wondering why the guy keeps his files in a ring. Doesn’t anyone else think that is seriously dumb? What if he forgot to take it off when he showered? Or lost it down the garbage disposal?” She looked at Joe. “Are you sure you aren’t just stretching here?”
Joe faced the speaker phone. “Hope, honey, tell us exactly what you saw.”
They heard her suck in a breath. “When I staggered into the room, he snatched the ring from a USB port in the computer. I remember thinking it was weird that his ring was stuck to the computer. When he pulled it off, there was something sticking out of the ring. He pressed the centre of the ring, the insignia part, and the thing sticking out disappeared. He quickly slipped it on his finger and then he…he became angry about me being in the room…he…”
Yeah, they all knew what he did. She didn’t have to say it. Every person sitting at that table had read through years’ worth of medical reports, filed from a variety of different hospitals, listing broken bones, split lips and swollen eyes. Everyone knew exactly what Rudi did when he wasn’t pleased with his wife.
“It’s okay,” Joe said. “We don’t need to hear the rest. You did good, Hope. This is good information.”
“You did great,” Elle agreed. “We already knew Rudi kept a backup of his records in a secure information site that’s off the grid in Switzerland. Now we know where his localised files are kept too. It makes everything so much easier.” Elle was typing and talking at the same time. Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
“I didn’t know about the Swiss thing,” Megan said.
“Read the reports, Buffy, don’t just look at the pictures.”
Dimitri grinned when she gave him a death glare in response.
“Okay,” Elle said, “then most of us knew his record archive was kept offline. Hence unhackable unless you’re on-site. And let me tell you getting into the Swiss facility would be a bitch. That’s why we were hoping he kept a copy on his personal computer. Now we know exactly where to look. This is good.” Her eyes went wide. “Tell me, Hope, does Rudi call the ring his Precious by any chance?”
“Um…” Hope said.
“Nev
er mind.” Elle waved a hand as she muttered something about one ring to rule them all.
“This is insane,” Megan said. “The guy keeps his business files in a ring. Seriously? Who the hell works like that?”
“Paranoid assholes who peddle in flesh,” Joe said.
Megan’s lips pursed. “Well, we need to get that ring.”
“No? You think?” Ryan said, which made Megan lob her gasmask at his head.
“There’s more,” Hope said, bringing their attention back to the phone.
Everyone stilled.
“Go ahead, Hope,” Joe said. “We’re listening. Anything you can tell us will help.”
The woman cleared her throat. “As I said, we were in the Romanian house that night. There’d been a party of some sort. I’d been told to dress up and impress. Rudi flew in fashion from Milan for the event and a makeup artist to make sure I looked my best. It was all about how I looked. He became very angry when he thought I wasn’t perfect.” She paused. “I got a bad feeling as soon as we went downstairs. The ballroom was crowded and I recognised some faces as being high up in European politics, not the kind of men who usually attended Rudi’s parties—although it wasn’t through his lack of trying to reel them in.
“Halfway through the evening a group of women I’d never seen before turned up. They were all decked out in couture, but looked like they weren’t used to wearing clothes like that. They each had the same look in their eyes. Glassy. I realise now that they were drugged.”
Megan felt Dimitri tense beside her and without thinking she placed her hand on his thigh. He relaxed slightly under her touch.
“The women didn’t mingle,” Hope was saying. “In fact there were a couple of guys, hired muscle, watching over them, guarding them. Rudi’s personal henchman, Durand, was there close to the women. I hated that man almost as much as I hated my husband. Whenever Rudi wasn’t looking he’d…touch me.”
There was a pause. Megan met Dimitri’s eyes. They’d known Durand was part of the organisation. They’d known Abramovich trusted the man. What they hadn’t known was just how wrapped up in the whole thing he’d been. Now they knew and the answer wasn’t comforting. Durand was in Abramovich’s business neck-deep.
Reckless (Benson's Boys Book 1) Page 6