Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(80)

Yeah, she knew that. They’d deal with the consequences of grand theft another time. “How good are you at outrunning bullets on foot?”

Olivia turned over the motorcycle.

Sasha jumped on the back.

“Ten minutes.”



AJ hung up the phone and exited the main lobby of the building where he’d been hanging out in full view of security and the street. He walked up to the guard and smiled. “I’m sorry, but do you validate parking?”

The guy nodded. “You have your ticket?”

AJ patted his pockets, went through the motion of opening his wallet. “I must have dropped it.”

The guard held up a hand, pulled a ticket from under the desk. “I got ya covered. Next time just bring it by when you check in.”

AJ took the validation and walked through a back, unsecured hall and found the stairway leading to the underground garage. Employees were moving in and out, either leaving for a late lunch or returning from an early one.

AJ used the distraction of his cell phone and opened a text screen. He hesitated by a pillar and watched as cars entered the garage.

He followed one down another level and walked past it when a man parked. AJ put the phone to his ear. “Have to work late,” he said to no one while the guy got out of his car, a sack of food in his hand.

He knelt down and untied his shoes, pulling the laces out. After the owner of the car turned the corner and he heard the sound of the door opening and closing, AJ moved in.

Within ten seconds he was in the car, thirty seconds later the engine was running.

He heard Sasha before he saw her.

She wasn’t alone.

Sasha slid into the front seat, the other one jumped in the back.

“Don’t ask, just drive.”

The routine AJ understood. The blonde in the back ducked behind the seat, Sasha had already untied her hair, which was covering her face. AJ found a forgotten paper bag behind the seat the second he got in the car and now held it over his face as he pressed the validation ticket into the slot and exited the garage.

Once on the road, Sasha looked around the car. “You couldn’t have found something with a little more speed?”

He looked over at her. “What happened to your face?”

The blonde in the back seat snorted. That’s when AJ looked through the rearview mirror and saw bruises forming on the extra person in the car.

AJ took it slow through the streets of DC. The last thing he needed was to get pulled over in a stolen car.

Sasha kept looking around the outside of the car. “Pick it up, AJ, we need distance.”

AJ took the corner fast enough to press her against the door, put the car in overdrive, and hit the freeway. Both hands on the wheel, he asked questions.

“Who is she?”

Sasha turned in her seat. “Olivia.”

AJ did a double look in the mirror.

“You broke into my flat in Berlin,” she told him.

“The missing roommate,” AJ concluded.

She looked out the back window. “The only living roommate.”

“Which made you a suspect,” Sasha said.

“Why would I kill a PTA president and an insecure accountant from Wales?”

AJ turned in his seat. “You’re leaving out one victim.”

“Watch the road, Hofmann.”

He turned back to swerve and avoid hitting a car on his left.

“I didn’t take out any of them. Especially not Amelia.” She leaned back in the seat.

Sasha reached over, placed a hand on AJ’s leg. Support and understanding swam in her eyes.

“You worked for Pohl?”

“Not something I’m proud of. I didn’t know what the hell I got myself into until I was in too deep to dig myself out. I thought I was the one going in and taking out the Osamas of the world.”

“I can’t imagine Pohl letting you leave.”

“He isn’t, is he? I’m sure he’s behind all this. The first time I saw you in Amelia’s condo, I thought you were working with him. The Sasha Budanov. You were slated for his kind of shit if there ever was one.”

Sasha stared at her.

AJ watched from the corner of his eye.

“How do you know I’m not working for him now?”

“I don’t. Except that having someone shoot at both of us is going a little extreme to gain my trust.”

“Shooting?” AJ asked.

Sasha waved him off.

“Not that I give a flying fuck. I’ve wanted to put a bullet in my own brain more than once. If it wasn’t for Amelia, I would have a long time ago. Now I just want to find out who took her out and make them pay.”

That was a party AJ could go along with. Making someone pay, that was . . . Suicide, not so much.

“Seems sloppy of Pohl to kill all your Richter roommates to flush you out.”

“Killing them is what he does. Or the people he hires us for, anyway. Bullets and execution, that’s his style. Shooting out the wheels of a car is sloppy. Room for error. I didn’t even catch on until Jocey ended up dead. I only found that out when I saw you in the flat in Germany. I recognized you and knew something wasn’t adding up.”

AJ glanced through the rearview mirror. “How did you know who I was?”

“You’re Amelia’s brother. The professional car thief that really should find a better way to use your talents.”