“Yes. We’re planting chatter that you’ve been hired by another high-profile company to procure the same thing Roxy Energy is after.” She gave me a hard look. “Your neighbor, Mr. Halifax.”
“What do you mean, they want to procure him?” That sounded scarily close to—
“They plan to kidnap Mr. Halifax. The ransom will be the Buchanan Group signing a contract that gives Roxy Energy exclusive access to a new technology Mr. Halifax and his team have patented.”
“A clean energy technology patent? What do they plan to do with exclusive access to it?”
“Holdithostage, most likely, driving up other energy prices, holding back the US from moving to a safer, stronger energy grid.”
I groaned. “So, my vacation really is over. I’ll have to warn Gage.”
“You will not. If he pulls back or seems spooked, Roxy Energy will get suspicious. You will lie low—like you were supposed to have done this past week—and let Volkov and company think you’re working the mark at the same time they are. When they’re ready to make a move, we’ll insert you as the broker to deliver him.”
“When will that be?”
Gage was in the wedding of the season next weekend, and then his mom was coming to town, and he’d be celebrating the holidays with his family. I couldn’t leave them all in danger.
“Possibly not for weeks from now,” X said. “When I know, you’ll know.”
I sincerely doubted that, but since I’d made this whole mess worse by intentionally getting caught on camera with Gage, I was in no position to argue.
“I have to tell him something. He watched two men get shot today and saw men in black pour out of unmarked black vans. He knows something’s up.”
“I have a call in to Bob.”
I didn’t know who Bob was or what he did in the government. I just knew when X called him, very important problems got handled by very important people.
“He knows he has seven more minutes to get back to me with the clearance to share some basic information with Mr. Halifax. We’ll be at your apartment building in eight. But I’m warning you, Kat, do not tell him one word more than that. If you piss off the senator who has to sign off on this, even I won’t be able to protect your ass.”
CHAPTER 19
GAGE
My hands shook as I raised a glass of whisky to my mouth. I hadn’t expected to be drinking again just twelve hours after the guys poured my drunk, sorry ass into my bed, but I also hadn’t expected to see my neighbor/crush shoot someone.
Mr. Whiskerbottom Fuzzypants ventured out from his kitchen box and came to the sofa, where he twined around my legs. He let out a low, plaintive yowl, a noise I’d never heard from him.
“Am I upsetting you?” I scratched him behind his ears. “Sorry, little dude. My nerves are shot. It’s been aday.” He hopped up beside me and mrped. “Did you know about your mom? What is she? A cop?” I remembered Monday night when we’d talked about her work at the State Department. “Is she a spy?” I raked my hand over my face. “Please let her at least be one of the good guys. No, she’s definitely one of the good guys,” I reassured Mr. Whiskerbottom Fuzzypants.
Christ, I was talking to the cat like he might answer me. I threw back the rest of the whisky, then wrapped myself in a blanket from Kat’s coffee table and slumped down to wait with her furry companion curled up beside me.
Kat entered the apartment fifteen minutes later. She’d removed her hat and let her hair down. Now she pulled off her coat, kicked off her shoes, and hurried toward me. She sat on the coffee table in front of me, her eyes searching my face.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “You were going into shock earlier.”
That was the understatement of my life. “Of course, I was in shock. My girlfriend—sorry, neighbor—pulled a pistol and dropped a guy from twenty feet.”
“A Glock.”
I shook my head. “What?”
“I pulled a Glock 34. My personal field weapon of choice. And it was eighteen feet. The reason I’m telling you this is because I need you to understand: This wasn’t a fluke, it wasn’t a lucky shot, and it wasn’t my first shooting.”
She held her hand out to me. I didn’t take it.
“You don’t work for the State Department, do you?”
She shook her head. “I’m a top-tier undercover asset for an agency that operates under the black budget. In layman’s terms, I’m a spy working for an off-book agency that reports directly to a secret senate subcommittee. You wouldn’t believe the hoops my boss had to jump through to get approval for me to tell you that, so obviously, you can never tell another living soul.”
