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“We meet tomorrow,” he declares. “Cornerstone Hotel on Virginia Beach. Go to the penthouse elevator and my people will let you up.”
I’m familiar with the hotel, which is tucked away from the commercial beachfront. It’s a luxury resort that should be busy this time of year, attracting tourists to the autumn foliage. There has to be an opportunity to get someone’s attention. I need to stay alert. Can’t give in to the fog that refuses to clear my brain.
“She will be,” my captor says to Bryce. “If you agree to two conditions.”
Pause.
“No police involvement, for one thing.”
Pause.
“Nikolay Petrov comes too,” he says with a smirk. “Use this number when he arrives from Moscow. We’ll go from there.”
The man keeps his eyes on me when he hangs up, cutting off Bryce’s bellows.
My father? Before I can process any connection, the bulky man beside me turns and reaches around my neck.
There’s a prick near the site of the first injection.
Blackness returns.
Before Ana’s kidnapper hangs up, I’ve already launched myself over the table and grabbed Lysander Wolfson’s neck.
In a blink, I realize how I had been played. Lysander let himself get caught. It was the best way to draw me and an agent away from Norfolk. Urgency was built into the plan because he had already disappeared once.
I fell for it. I fucking fell for it and now Ana is in the clutches of a kidnapper. The give of Lysander’s neck muscle to the force of my grip is satisfying, but only for two seconds.
“Bryce. Jesus, Bryce, we need to question him,” Louis says, pulling me back.
I lessen the pressure but keep my hands wrapped around his airway.
“You motherfucker. Do you know what you’ve done? If anything happens to her—”
“Nothing will happen to her,” he squeaks through bulging eyes. “If you bring him her father, nothing will happen to Ana.”
That’s when the man’s final words echo in my brain. Nikolay Petrov. Ana’s father. Why?
“What does he want to do with Petrov?”
“Let me go,” he says weakly.
Disgusted, I push him roughly and he nearly tumbles off his chair. Rubbing his neck, he says, “It was never personal, OK? Ana was just a way to get to her father who hasn’t left his Russian headquarters in years.”
“Who do you work for?”
“This guy, he’s big-time real estate from Florida. Two years ago, he started to move into Virginia purchases. When we were introduced, our interests were… aligned.”
“You’re not saying a goddamn thing, you piece of shit. I want names. Addresses. Meeting points.” I grit the words out.
Killing him is preferable to talking, but I have no choice. He’s our main lead, apart from the location of tomorrow’s meeting.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to wrap my mind around next steps:
Need to reach my people on the ground, to ensure Kina and Jake are alive.
Should get Sergei up to speed and their father on a fucking plane.
Must get as close to Ana as safely possible, while pulling all the necessary strings for a clean extraction.
