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He shot left, jumping the fence and running.
His name was shouted over and over—Cal, Beatrice, Rory—but all he could hear was the roaring of his world as it collapsed. A giant cavern inside him opened.
Jordy waited for him there, silent, sad, beckoning him to follow. Not to find someone else who was lost—no, he realized with sudden clarity—the only one who was truly lost was him.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Cal moved so fast Beatrice nearly missed grabbing his arm. “I’ll go after him.”
“No, you won’t.” She adjusted her sunglasses, watching Moe disappear into the distance. “He needs time to sort this out.”
Cal seemed startled at her non-emotional response. “B, he just found out he was adopted, that his birth mother was kidnapped and tortured, and his father is an ass. He’s going to be even more messed up than he already is.”
The others stared agog at her, various emotions playing over their faces. Her heart hurt for Moe, and out of all of them, she might understand his current frame of mind the best. Her relationship with her own mother had been nothing like this, and yet, she’d been abandoned, at least emotionally, by her as well. “He’s known he was adopted since he was eight,” she informed them. “That wasn’t news. The rest, yes.”
She honestly didn’t know what to say to him, what to say to the woman inside who might be his mother.
But that’s why she was good at her job. She knew how to shut down emotions and focus on facts. The terrorist was still unconscious, Bryant Maddox was in the wind. Once Moe calmed down and thought things through, she knew exactly what he was going to do.
She prayed she could get there first. “We don’t have much time. Get the watch, untie Romalov, and leave it on him. Load Lori and Parker in my SUV with Emit. The rest of you in the other one.”
Rory’s jaw dropped open. “I know what you’re thinking, but this isn’t our gig anymore, and that kid needs us.” He pointed after Moe. “Flynn and the Brits can handle Maddox and Lydia.”
She kept the irritation from her voice. All the pieces on this twisted chess board were laid out and she was about to call checkmate. “No one is taking this mission from us. Cal, go get Parker and Lori. Emit, get the watch. Rory, untie our guest.”
“And me,” Gus grunted. “What can I do?”
She pointed a finger at him. “Keep your mouth shut. If I find out you’ve been involved in tricking us in any way, or if you so much as blink wrong, I will personally tear off your balls and feed them to your bear.”
“Jeez, lady.” His hands went up in a surrender gesture and he took a step back. “Lydia contacted me yesterday and asked after the mine and quarry. She wanted to know about the entrances and exits. She didn’t say why, only that she was hunting a terrorist. I swear, that’s all I knew until your operatives passed by me when I was hiking with Oscar. I followed them, saw some of what happened, and tried to help.”
Reading people was Vivi’s area of expertise, but Beatrice had been around long enough she could tell when folks were lying. Gus was telling the truth. “We’ll be out of your hair in about thirty seconds, but the CIA will probably pay you a visit and want your statement regarding all of this. Everything you heard Lori say needs to be erased from your memory. You either voluntarily pretend you don’t know what went down in that cabin, or I’ll make sure—”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Look, all I want is to be left alone to live out here in peace. You all walked intomyterritory. That’s why I left you fucking people a long time ago. I hate this shit, and I don’t want anything to do with it.”
Rory was shaking his head as he packed up his laptop and shoved it in the SUV. “Go ahead and fire me, boss.” He drew out a weapon and checked the chamber, then stuck it in his waistband. “I’m going after him.”
She didn’t bother ordering him to stop or come back. It would’ve been pointless. Instead, she glared at the others. “Get moving.”
When they’d done what she’d ordered, Emit handed her the watch and they stood over Romalov’s body. He was groaning, beginning to awaken. “You’re sure about this?”
Lori seemed to know what she was thinking and called out from the open rear passenger door. “Lydia already disabled the tracker so you wouldn’t be able to find her or the watch.”
Emit chuckled. He lowered his voice so only Beatrice could hear. “She found the obvious one. The insides of the top and bottom cases are lined with a composite material that has multiple trackers.” He shrugged. “People always disable the first one they find, but they rarely look for more.”
“Brilliant and practical.” She tossed the watch in the dirt. Leaving it directly on Romalov’s body would be too obvious. From what Parker and Moe had told them, he didn’t know about Lori, and he didn’t know that she and the team had shown up. He would wake, realize the others were gone, and come to his own conclusions about why they had deserted him. With his superior attitude, he would believe they feared him and his men. As long as he could walk, he’d grab the watch and head for the border, knowing his sponsor would take care of him. “We’ll track it all the way to Maddox.”
Cal stood a few feet behind, watching them. “And then?”
She started for the SUV. “We’ll do what we do best. Bring a bad guy to justice.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Moe sat in the wet, stinky underground passage with his back against the cool stones and his eyes closed. He heard footsteps and swore under his breath. He knew the slight difference between the man’s two legs, Rory having only recently overcome his lower body’s paralysis. At one time, the wanker had been an elite assassin for the CIA. Maybe Moe could hire him for a final job, this time a personal favor.
“I’m turning in my resignation,” Moe called to him. “ I can’t stand seeing your ugly face every day.”
“Pussy move to flee on us like that.” Rory was breathing heavily, and Moe realized he must have run all the way. He stopped, propped his ass against the tunnel wall and bent over, hands on his knees. “But fucking understandable. No wonder you’re so screwed up.”
