“I’m operational.”
“Are you?” He met my eyes and cocked a brow. “Because what I’m seeing is a man who’s ready to charge in without a plan and get himself killed.”
“I’m not going to get myself killed.”
“And we’re not going to getGracekilled, either, because we’re going to do this smart.” He gripped me by the biceps before I could resume my pacing. “We had solid security on this house—two men on the doors, overwatch, and two men inside. The breach wasn’t your positioning. It was Dr. Caulfield. A vetted expert who’d been compromised before any of us ever heard his name. We knew he was a risk, but we underestimated how much.”
“I had him.” The words scraped out of my throat. “I had Caulfield by the throat. I should have snapped his fucking neck.”
“And you let him go,” Arthur said evenly. “You let him go because it kept her alive. That was the right call.”
“The right call.” I tried to laugh, tried to pretend it didn’t matter, but the sound came out wrong. “The right call was to stand still while a man held a knife at her throat and walked out of this fucking house?”
“Yes.” Arthur didn’t hesitate. “It was.”
Memories flooded over me. Her head on my shoulder on the train. The way she’d held my hand that night at Jean’s. Her flourish when she handed me my ridiculously no-frills black coffee at her café. Brain chemistry, my ass. I’d fallen for that woman on day fucking one.
I shoved the memories down. They weren’t helping.
“It’s obvious you care about her,” Arthur said quietly. “That’s not what undermined the security.”
“That’s exactly what undermined it.”
He didn’t push, didn’t argue, but the challenge was clear in his eyes. I was being a grade-A asshole because those green eyes were gone. I wasnotlosing her.
“All right.” Arthur turned to the room. “It’s almost eighteen hundred now, and sunset is in two and a half hours. We roll out in an hour to be there once the sun goes down. I have two more men who’ll start monitoring the property now, and we’ll join them. When we spot Grace, we call the authorities, and they’ll take care of it.”
“And if they don’t take care of it?” I folded my arms. There was too much waiting in this plan. “If they’re on his payroll?”
“Then we go in.”
Radek helped an unsteady Aleš into a seat at the table.
“If that happens, we’ll be entering a private residence,” Arthur said, making eye contact with each of our men. “We’ll be armed, trespassing, and likely committing assault. Possibly worse. Anyone uncomfortable with that should stay here.”
Nobody moved, and even Aleš nodded.
“Good.”
Dmitry resumed his sketching, adding interior details to the collection wing. Merlin worked his phone, doing whatever the fuck Merlin did when he was about to be very useful.
The team was doing their thing, too. Gathering intel. Making plans. Preparing to execute. Merlin would get us inside. Dmitrywould put us in the right corridor. Arthur would keep me from being impulsive and getting Grace killed.
And I was standing here with my arms folded, trying to let go of the image of her face mashed against the car window. Of Richter’s hand in her hair. Of the look she’d given me in the half-second before the driveway turned and took her out of sight.
“One hour,” I said.And then I’m going to get my fucking sunshine back.
Chapter 34
Grace
The room was beautiful,and I hated every inch of it. Silk wallpaper in a deep burgundy. Heavy brocade curtains framing windows that overlooked a manicured garden two stories below. A four-poster bed with a cream duvet and an antique writing desk with fresh stationery, in case I might want to send someone a thank-you note.
I’d tried the windows first. Locked or sealed or reinforced—they wouldn’t budge, and when I’d smashed the heel of my shoe against the glass, it hadn’t even vibrated. The door was locked from the outside.
My phone was gone. My purse was gone. And the egg was definitely gone.
So here I was. Sitting on a kidnapper’s guest bed, alone and phoneless, in a little castle outside Prague.
