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“What?” Disbelief colored his face. As if the wind had been knocked out of him, he sunk into his recliner. “It can’t be.”
“Why not?”
“She’s far too smart to let it.” He was vehement. “I’ve known her since she was a girl. Like her father, she had one of the most brilliant minds I’ve encountered. She used her intelligence to help other people, like I’ve tried to do. Until, that is, she turned on us.”
Ian rocked slowly in the chair, as if he had all night to sit there and chat. “You considered her your equal?”
A bit of fire had Lippenstein straighten again. “Intellectually, she was superior to me. I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but she had limitations.”
Ian tensed, half expecting Vivi to burst from her hiding place and demand he explain that little bomb. When she didn’t, he relaxed slightly. “Like what?”
“Well, obviously, she thought herself above the law.”
“Prior to her defection, what limitations did she have?”
“Why are you asking me this? She’s dead. What does it matter?”
Ian stopped and leaned forward, lowering his voice and injecting steel into it. “It matters because someone betrayed her. Regardless of what you think, I know for a fact she was controlled by someone else. If it wasn’t you, then you better help me figure out who it was, because I’m not leaving until I do.”
The man blustered, fidgeting with the sleeve of his robe. “You can threaten me all you want, but it wasn’t me. If Command & Control doesn’t know who it was, I’m sure I don’t.”
“He’s lying.” Vivi stepped from behind the curtain, no longer able to restrain herself. “I can hear it in the cadence of his voice.”
The man’s shock had him scooting back in his chair. “Genevieve?”
He nearly tipped the recliner over when she flicked on the stun baton and raised it to his chest. “They blackmailed you, didn’t they? They wanted to know how to control me, so they came to you. There are only three of us who knew my trigger—you, me, and Dad. He’s dead. That leaves you.”
Ian had to give her credit for her dramatic entrance. The man couldn’t seem to form words, couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact he was staring at a—yep, Ian had to say it, at least mentally—ghost.
“I…” He pressed into the chair again. “How is it you’re…?”
“Alive?” She moved the stunner closer to his chest. “I may have limitations,” she said with a sneer, “but I’m one hard bitch to kill.”
His gaze fell to the weapon, Adam’s apple bobbing. “I had nothing to do with it. I would never manipulate you.”
She leaned forward and waved the weapon in his face. “Do you know how I know you’re lying? It was the way you phrased the threat. You said, ‘He’s all you have, and if you don’t do as instructed, I’ll take him from you,too.’”
His Adam apple bobbed again. “What…what are you talking about? How does that implicate me in this?”
“One word. One common, every day word.Too.”
The saggy jowls quivered. “That’s not a hypnotic trigger word.”
“It refers to Dad. Losing him sent me into a panic for months. You’re the only one who knew that. You treated me. You figured losing Ian, the man I loved,too, would affect me the same way. Potentially breaking me. My mind.”
“Your deduction has flaws.”
“Does it?”
“I have no idea who Ian is.”
She was smart enough not to take her eyes off the man, simply flicking a thumb over her shoulder. “I didn’t have a chance to officially introduce you. Dr. Lippenstein, meet my husband.”
Ian gave the guy a lazy salute.
“He’s a trained killer,” Vivi went on. “He gets testy when people set up his wife and then lie to her. So, doctor.” She stepped away and rested her hip on the edge of the desk. “You better start talking.”
“I…” Clearly he was at a loss for words yet again. “You.” He peered at Ian. “I’ve seen you before.”
