Page 118 of To Catch a Sub

“I was Damien’s prisoner.” Shame crawled up her throat. “I escaped, but I don’t know why he’s…fixated…on me.”

“Because you escaped,” Rolf said.

She shook her head. “No, he was…odd…before I escaped.” Odd wasn’t the right word at all, but she couldn’t bring herself to use terms that would have been more accurate. Obsessed. Possessive.

Landon scrubbed his face with his hands. “I need to you to give me more details. Everything you’ve been keeping to yourself. But I don’t want you to think I’m trying to entrap you. Or accusing you.” His gaze briefly dipped to her side, then bounced up to her face. “I’m not.”

“Even if I, hypothetically, stole something from him?”

Landon’s brow arched. “In that case I’d call you stupid and tell you to return it.”

That shocked a laugh out of her. “You’d call me stupid?”

“Stealing things from Russian organized crime is objectively stupid,” Landon countered.

“Yes, it is… Which is why I didn’t steal anything. Anything except information.”

“Espionage instead of property theft?” Landon asked, a slight smile playing around his lips. With each word of their exchange the panic retreated a little further and the ground felt firm under her feet once more.

“Everything I say next is hypothetical. I’m not confessing.”

Rolf frowned, but Landon was smiling at her in a knowing way.

“I love hypothetical crime.” Andrei lounged back in his chair, totally relaxed.

“Hypothetically…I heard that several Russian oligarchs were planning to use a broker based out of Novgorod to move their art collections in advance of sanctions and potential seizure,” she said slowly.

Each of the men nodded. They would, of course, know more than the general public about what was happening in Eastern Europe and the discussions in both the EU and UN about sanctions.

“I wanted to know how the art was being transported and where it was going. If it was being sold off, or just moved so it couldn’t be seized.” Colette scooted forward in her chair. “It’s multiple museums worth of priceless art, masterpieces that should be studied. They’re all locked away in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Relocation is a unique opportunity.”

“To steal things?” Rolf’s stern disapproval made Colette shoot him a smile and a wink.

Rolf’s eyes narrowed. Even seated the big man was menacing. But Landon was right there, seated next to him. Landon wouldn’t let Rolf hurt her.

Her unshakable belief in that statement was further proof that she wasn’t rational when it came to Landon.

“I figured out who the broker was. Moving collections like this to vacation homes and other real estate holdings in France, Italy, even here in England is a massive undertaking.”

“That’s where the art was going?” Andrei asked.

“That’s what I assumed before I went. Secondary or tertiary estates. Or maybe some yachts.” Colette grimaced. The idea of priceless art on a boat, even if it was a half-billion dollar yacht, made her art-loving soul cry.

“And you wanted to find out how it was going to get there so it could be transported.” Landon was clearly thinking it through.

Colette arched a brow. “Yes, with my team of mercenary ex-special forces commandos I’d intercept the armed convoys, and steal billions of dollars of art all at once.”

They all looked at her.

“Right, that’s not how you operate,” Landon said dryly.

She inclined her head in acknowledgement.

“You wanted to know where the art was going.” Landon corrected.

“Hypothetically, yes.” And then later she could steal a few select items and swap them with forgeries to delay discovery. Assuming Colette’s forger had time in her schedule.

“The idea of you stealing something from Russian billionaires is going to give me an ulcer,” Landon grumbled.