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He nodded, but Linc could also see he was having trouble not laughing.
“Keep going, Gideon. What else did you find out?” Leila asked.
“Vugar has a mansion in Florida, and his private plane left Germany for Miami a week ago.” Gideon pulled a picture of a beautiful home in Florida. Linc noticed a dog near the gate. With dogs, this would be a little tougher to break into than the home in Syria.
“That just lends more credence to the fact that it was Vugar who was behind the kidnapping attempt, and he was out after Leila,” Gideon said, pointing out the obvious.
“I’m the only thing that’s going to flush Vugar out of hiding, aren’t I?” Leila asked the room in general.
“No,” Linc said vehemently. “We know where he is. We’ll take him out.”
“You can’t do that,” Leila sighed. “You don’t have probable cause for a search warrant, and if you did, this would have to be handled by the FBI.”
“Leila’s right, he’s out after her. Somehow, we have to convince him she’s alone and he can take her,” Gideon said as he turned off the presentation.
Kostya looked up from his phone. “We have little time to put together a plan to set Leila up as a target, if that’s what she wants to do.” He looked over at Leila with a compassionate expression. “Somebody went through your family home last night. They tore up the house from top to bottom. All of us agree. They had to be looking for something that would explain where you might be.”
“I still want to go over there and get some of my things,” she said stubbornly.
“You can’t.” Linc said. “If you go there, something could happen to you, and I could never live with myself.”
“Linc is right; they’re going to have that house under surveillance,” Kostya explained. “Unless we want that to be where we make our last stand to get Vugar, I suggest you don’t go in there, and instead let one of us get whatever you need.”
“Won’t they see you and try to stop you?”
“There are so many FBI agents milling around your house right now, one of us stopping by won’t make a difference,” Kostya assured her.
“Leila, what are you planning on getting? You have clothes with you here. You have your laptop. So, what is it you need?”
Linc watched as she bit her lip.
“I wanted to get some of the stuff Dad would like so I could send it to him. It was a stupid idea. There’s no need to do that.”
Linc laced his fingers through hers and squeezed her hand in support. “It’s not a stupid idea. I totally understand. But it’s not worth the risk, is it?” he asked.
“No, it isn’t,” she agreed. “How do we set up a trap for Vugar to kidnap me?” she asked Gideon.
“I see your dad owns some property at the Lake of the Woods, in Virginia. Have you been?” Gideon asked.
“Almost every year of my childhood. I love that place.”
“Because your dad inherited it, he rolled the title into your family trust. Therefore, it didn’t pop up when I did an initial search for properties owned by you or anyone in your family. But I found it late last night.”
“That would be a great place to make a stand,” Leila said. “It’s easy to defend.”
“That’s good to know, Leila.” Kostya gave her a sharp nod. “Gideon, how do you know they’ll find this information if it took you and your team this long to find it?”
“Easy.” Gideon smiled. “I’m going to change the name on the title from their LLC as the owner and put down Grant and Miray Cloud. I’m going to do this after we get set up at the cabin.”
“I guess we better get moving again,” Linc said as he stood up and held out his hand to help her up off the couch.
24
It was dark by the time they started driving up the dirt driveway that led to the summer cabin Leila remembered so well. A dog ran around the side of the house and was at her window, licking the glass when they parked behind the cabin.
“Roscoe, I can’t get out, you dufus. You’re too heavy. Move back.”
The next thing she knew, Linc was out of the stopped vehicle and was over to her side in an instant. With a few muffled words that Leila couldn’t understand, he got Roscoe sitting beside him so that he could open the door and let her get out.
