Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(65)

He would have thought this was all an elaborate plan to catch him red handed, except he’d witnessed Levi and his bigger, more muscular partner torture the security director of the Huisman building the night before. He’d been behind a two-way glass so there was no way for his employee to know he’d been there. The security head had yielded all the passwords needed to erase the camera footage from the night before. No one would be able to see Levi Green sneaking into the building, hiding from Dr. Walsh, and then searching her office.

He’d been certain in that moment that Levi had no plans to turn him over to his father.

He’d been just as certain that if he didn’t give the man what he wanted, he would be the one in that chair, and he wouldn’t come out of it again.

“I find Dr. Walsh to be in the way,” he said, trying for a perfectly bored tone. “In my way, specifically. She’s brilliant but she’s not much of a team player, if you know what I mean.”

Mo Chou gave him a roll of her eyes that could have come from any American female. She’d been in the West for too long, it seemed. “You mean she’s smarter than you and more capable, and you don’t stand a chance against her in a fair fight so you’re going to play dirty.” She shrugged. “It’s not a bad play. I would do it if I ever found myself with someone smarter in the way. Ask Levi here. It’s his standard move. Didn’t you fuck your rival’s wife? I liked that one. Solo always thought way too much of herself.”

“Maybe I fell madly in love with her and wanted her for myself,” Levi said, his voice steady, though there was something about the way his shoulders had stiffened that made Paul wonder if this wasn’t a difficult conversation for the man.

It was the first time he’d seen the agent shake even the slightest bit.

“I doubt that. I would believe you would do it for revenge before I would believe there’s a beating heart in your chest. Everyone knows you’re the reason Fain got burned,” she said, obviously relishing having the CIA operative unsettled. “You’re not one to let anything get in the way of the job.” She turned back to Paul. “So how were you planning on getting rid of her? She’s got a sparkling reputation. I should know. I’ve done a careful study of every doctor in that place. I’m concerned with a couple of new hires, though.”

“Taggart plants,” Levi said.

Mo Chou nodded as though that explained everything. “Then this is about that crazy bitch Hope McDonald. Is he still trying to figure out who those boys were?”

“That’s irrelevant,” Levi insisted. “What’s important is that I want access to Rebecca Walsh and I want it now. She’s got something I need, and it’s more than a bunch of old research, though I want that as well. I need her in my custody and ready to work.”

The Chinese operative waved a hand as though it should be simple. “Why don’t you just do what the rest of us would do? Kidnap her and smuggle her out of the country.”

“I like subtlety, besides I have some very stuffy people watching me right now. I have to be careful. This president is a little squeamish about torturing American citizens. Hopefully we can get his ass out of office soon and go back to the easy way. Until then I have to play this cool and that means finding a way to make Rebecca Walsh come to me.”

“That’s where I come in.” Paul was happy with the even tone of his voice. He could handle this. Yes, he was caught between vipers, but he had fangs of his own. “I began setting up Dr. Walsh a little over a year ago. She’s got a charitable foundation. She pays attention to the actual work she does, but she’s not as careful with the money. Over the course of the last year, I’ve managed to take around a million dollars from accounts Walsh has access to for her research at Huisman and funneled them to her charitable foundation as donations.”

Mo Chou’s scarlet red lips tipped up at the corners. “Aren’t you a sneaky one? Still, there are ways for a forensic accountant to track that back to you.”

“Well, I didn’t intend to actually have her arrested,” he admitted. “I intended to find the crime and have her fired. You know most of the time crimes like this aren’t reported to the authorities. It tends to cause our donors to worry we’ve been lax and think twice about backing us. I would have taken over the department and her research would have remained here at Huisman.”

“That’s changed,” Levi explained. “I need her arrested.”

Mo Chou nodded. “Ah, and you’ll be waiting right there to ‘save’ her, I suspect. You’ll agree to help get the charges against her dropped in exchange for her returning to the US and working for you. She might not. This isn’t exactly a hellhole. What’s Canadian jail like? I bet it’s the politest general population in the world. You would have better odds if we were in a Third World country. Or Russia. Fucking Siberia is the worst.”

“Jail is jail, and this is a woman who’s never faced a moment in her life when she wasn’t the smartest, most accomplished person in any given room.” Levi seemed much more comfortable now that he wasn’t talking about some woman named Solo and they’d moved on to his evil plans.

“I agree,” Paul added, feeling confident in this as well. His original plan to rid himself of Rebecca Walsh meshed beautifully with what the CIA agent needed. Once it had been explained to him, he’d understood how they could help each other. “She’ll do anything to stay out of jail. She’s been very sheltered.”