Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(117)



“Stop looking at me like that, Owen,” Levi said with a shake of his head. “He’ll live. I didn’t shoot him in the head or anything.”

“Yes, I was surprised we left two survivors behind,” the woman he’d called Mo Chou said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know they’re going to talk.”

“Yes, well, dead bodies mean something to Taggart and Knight,” Levi replied. “It’s why I left Jax alive. I’m only turning Owen over to you because Tag won’t care about him. And honestly, if Big Tag wants to even the score, he can take Donnie there and send him to MSS. With what he eats, it could bankrupt your entire intelligence program.”

“Like we would want him,” Mo Chou said.

The man named Donnie said absolutely nothing, simply stared at Owen like a predator waiting to pounce.

“Robert’s alive?” Owen seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Levi stood up, smoothing down the vest he wore. “I left Jax alive, didn’t I? I know how to play this game. Or maybe I left Robert alive for other reasons. Maybe I left Jax alive for other reasons. Or maybe it’s one of those foreign boys. One of them had to have given me the information on where you were staying this evening. You moved quickly. I’ll admit that I intended to negotiate with the Canadians for the doc’s release into my custody, but this turned out so much easier. I originally sent you out here to get what I needed, and then my friend would have shared it with me and you would be none the wiser.”

“But then he got greedy,” Mo Chou added. “Like our friend Huisman here, and I’m worried it’s going to bite us all in the ass.”

Levi shrugged. “I realized that the doctor herself would be a much better asset. After all, what do I do if I don’t understand the research? Shockingly, most incredibly gifted doctors don’t end up working for the Agency. All it cost me was Big Tag’s puppies figuring out one of them isn’t what he seems to be. Not my problem anymore if I have the doc and the research. Game over. I win. We all find a new game to play.”

She wanted to get up and cross the space between herself and Owen. Now that she was facing the idea of losing him, she couldn’t stand the thought of never touching him again. “What do you mean you’re giving Owen to her?”

Green put his hands in his pockets. He looked dapper and lean in his pressed slacks, crisp white shirt, and fitted vest. The only thing that marred the image was the gun holster around his shoulder and the hint of metal under his arm. “It’s nothing you need to be worried about. Owen’s taking a little trip to the East. You and I are going somewhere else, but I promise your every need will be met. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

“I think kidnapping is usually a bad thing.” He was the worst kind of evil, the one that didn’t even realize he was bad. The man in front of her was charming, and if he’d shown up on her doorstep she wouldn’t have been afraid of him until the moment he slit her throat. And he would if he had to. She believed absolutely everything Owen had told her about him.

If she believed Owen about that, why couldn’t she believe him about the rest of it? Why couldn’t she believe him when he said he loved her?

Green merely sent her a charming smile. “You call it kidnapping. I call it the necessary acquisition of valuable resources. You are the key to all of this. I figured that out too late to go after you myself. I take care of my people, Dr. Walsh. I’m sure Ezra and his group have filled your head with all sorts of lies about how I would hurt you, but it’s not true. Play nice with me and I’ll treat you like a queen. You’ll have everything you could hope for.”

“How about my freedom?”

He had the grace to wince. “You’ve got me on that one, but once you finish with the project, I’ll make sure your reputation is restored and that you get full credit for all the good that’s going to come out of this. And you know there will be good that comes from this. You’ll thank me in the end when you win a Nobel Prize for medicine.” He knelt down beside her, every ounce of his charm used to make her believe. “Here’s something they don’t know. I found something in Colorado that led me to another one of her facilities. I found one dose of what Dr. McDonald thought was the cure. I need you to break it down for me so we can move forward with this project.”

“You have a cure?” That cure could be the key to Alzheimer’s and dementia. If McDonald had truly figured out how to reconnect those neural pathways, it could open up a thousand doors.

“I think so. I’m not sure. I only know that I found something she thought was the cure,” Levi replied. “She’d made it specifically for one of the men in Owen’s unit. She wanted him to remember something. We can use it for something more, can’t we?”

He knew exactly what to say to her. He knew how to get inside her head and coax her.

“Don’t listen to him, love,” Owen said.

“Wait a minute.” Paul seemed to forget he was trying to make himself invisible. He strode across the large room, a steely look in his eyes. “I thought you were going to ensure she never had power again. Now you’re planning on giving her one of the major finds of the century? You’re going to hand over the cure to dementia? That was not our deal.”

Mo Chou rolled her eyes. “I should have known you’d be difficult.”

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