Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(110)

“Then how did they find us? Do you think it was CCTV?” Becca’s hands were balled in her lap, a sure sign of her tension.

He wanted to reach over and hold her hand, promise her everything would be all right, but she wouldn’t take comfort from him. “Maybe.”

What he wasn’t saying, what Robert and Ari had to know, was that there was only one way Green could have caught up with them.

Someone had betrayed the team.

What did they really know about Nina Blunt? She’d hired on to McKay-Taggart and Knight only a few months before.

But then hadn’t something gone wrong with the Colorado mission? Nina hadn’t been around for that one. Pieces were falling into place, and he didn’t like the way this puzzle was filling out.

“So you think he wants me for the same reason Ezra does?” Becca watched the road out of the window. “I would think I was useless without the actual drug. Do you think he has it and he wants someone to reverse engineer it?”

“He could have any number of people do that for him,” Ari replied. “He needs you to figure out the protocols. Her techniques were about more than drugs.”

“He wants me to be the new Hope McDonald. Why would I ever do that? I’m certainly not going to sell my soul to get my career back. I love my work, but I would be dishonoring every vow I took when I became a doctor. He would have to kill me first. How does he think he’s going to get me to help him?” Her eyes widened and she turned in her seat. “Owen, my family. What if he uses my family to get to me?”

“I’ve already got someone watching over them.” It was the first thing he’d thought about as he’d held her in the back of Jax’s van. He’d made the call to Big Tag and someone would be monitoring her father, stepmother, and sister.

“Levi has to be careful about how he works in the States,” Robert pointed out. “He might draw attention to himself if he pulled a stunt like that. That’s why we believe he isn’t the one who was setting you up. Not only does the timing not work, if it could be tied back to him, he would be in trouble with his bosses. I’m almost certain he walked into the situation, assessed it, and decided his best shot was to use the embezzlement scam as leverage. Add in the fact that there was an MSS agent already working the head of the Huisman Foundation, and he cut us loose fast and quick.”

Becca had no way of knowing what they thought. He was certain Ezra would likely want it kept that way, but she was part of the team now. Her life was on the line, and he wouldn’t leave her ignorant. “Levi Green sent us here. We think he intended to let us do the dirty work and he would have shown up at some point and grabbed the prize.”

Or let his plant grab it for him.

His mind sought any other explanation for what had happened tonight. Maybe they’d been unlucky. He didn’t want to think about the fact that one of them could have been lying for years, waiting and watching for his time to strike.

“I don’t understand any of this,” Becca said with a long sigh.

“I’ll answer any questions you have,” Owen replied.

A long silence followed and he watched her in the moonlight, half her face shrouded by night. He should have told her everything that day in the lift. He should have trusted his instincts. There were so many places where he could have turned this thing around, and time and time again he’d missed the moment.

“What you did for Tucker tonight was amazing, Rebecca,” Ari said, her voice soothing. She’d turned so she could get a glimpse of the woman she was talking to. “I wish they’d let me go with him, but I’m glad he’s got River and Jax. I can’t imagine how hard this is on him. He’s been afraid of this since the moment he heard the name Razor.”

“It wasn’t him,” Becca said, the words sounding dull out of her mouth.

He hated how the light in her eyes was dim again. Briefly he’d seen her come alive when she’d been comforting her enemy. He wanted desperately to see anything in her eyes but this grim sadness.

How much time would they have together? In twenty-four hours, they would get the new orders that would move her out of the country as quickly as possible. Somewhere Big Tag had a team together and they would be making plans that would separate him from her.

Was he willing to let her go without a fight? He wasn’t sure she would be alone with him again. She might cling to Ariel, and he wouldn’t have a chance to talk this out with her.

“I’m sorry, Becca. I need you to understand that I didn’t walk into this with the thought of hurting you,” he said. “It wasn’t supposed to go down this way, and I’ll do anything I need to do to make it up to you.”

“There’s nothing you can do.” She leaned against the door, staying as far from him as possible. “This isn’t like Tucker. You knew who you were when you walked into my life.”

“He forgot who he was supposed to be really fast, though,” Robert added, sounding cheerier than he did before.

Ari turned to Robert and send him a wilting look.

Robert shrugged. “It’s true. One minute I had an exotic Scottish lover and the next I was a lonely man. I was looking forward to playing twink to his bear.”

He was about to tell Robert to stop with the sarcasm, but Becca had sat straight up.

“What?” She leaned toward where Robert was sitting. “I thought he was sent in to seduce me.”