Complicate (Deliver 9)

He glanced behind them, confirming they were alone. Then he gave a nod.

“Why Chicago?” she asked Cole.

“Your th sounds get lazy. Instead of zis, you slip into dis. Da hard drive, instead of za hard drive. You’ve used fer instead of for, among a dozen other little tells.” Cole switched to Russian, speaking each word with flawless articulation. “You use Midwestern slang that doesn’t make sense to native Russians.”

He was right. Goddammit, she knew it happened sometimes and tried to cover it. But nothing slipped past him.

She blew it. The gig was up, and she had no idea what to do.

Pacing, she grasped at strings, desperate to fix this. “Tell me who bought the hard drive, and I’ll let you go. Right now. Just give me a name, and you’re free.”

Mike went still, his gaze cutting to her. This wasn’t part of the plan, and he didn’t like it. If Cole went free, he would hunt her down. After everything she did to him, she expected nothing less.

“You won’t let me go.” He twisted his arms in the rope. “Even if you tried, you won’t succeed. You’re not in charge.”

“What are you talking about? I’m leading this—”

“Thurney Bridge.”

Her neck went taut. He’d mentioned that before, and she’d looked into it. There was a bridge in France by that name, but she found nothing else. Nothing related to Cole Hartman.

“Five months ago,” he said, “a hitman killed Rylee Sutton’s neighbor, two motel clerks, and when he attempted to kill Rylee, he mentioned Thurney Bridge.”

Vincent Barrington. That corrupt son of a bitch. Putting hits on innocent people? What else was he doing behind her back?

“That wasn’t me.” Her heart pounded. “I don’t know anything about that.”

“Your boss was behind it.”

“He’s not my boss.”

“He.”

Shit. She’d just given way another detail. For the love of God, she needed to keep her mouth shut.

“Your boss knows the connection between me, Thurney Bridge, Marie Merivale, and the hard drive,” he said. “That suggests he has access to classified information.”

She pressed her lips together, refusing to confirm or deny.

“So how do you fit in?” He slowly released a breath through his nose. “You posed as a Russian swallow to get hired for this job. Your boss sent you here to capture me and seduce me into talking. Not an uncommon tactic, but complicated. Physical torture would’ve been simpler.”

She shared a look with Mike. Trusting Cole was out of the question, but if she disclosed their strategy, there might still be a way to use him.

“I wasn’t just hired to seduce you into talking.” She met Cole’s steady gaze. “I was hired to seduce the person in possession of the hard drive.”

“So you can steal it.”

“Yes. My employer doesn’t give a fuck how I get it, just as long as it’s in his hands by the end of the year.”

Cole nodded, his expression pensive. “You kept me alive, with all my limbs, because you need me to help you steal it.”

“That would make things easier.”

“I don’t do retrievals of that nature.” He relaxed into the floor, his chest glistening with sweat and scratches from her nails. “I’m not a goddamn thief.”

“I know. That’s why you’re in this position.”

“What do you know about me?”

“For the past seven years, you’ve accepted jobs that involved finding missing persons and information. Information such as secret trafficking routes and criminal headquarters, which often puts you deep in the bowels of cartels and organized crime syndicates. But you’ve never taken a job related to politics or government intelligence. I assume you’re bound by loyalty to your country or some sort of legality related to the job you held in the government. How am I doing so far?”

“Not bad. Your boss gave you this intel?”

“Yes.”

Vincent knew a lot about Cole, but he’d only given her the bare minimum. Without Vincent, she wouldn’t have connected Cole to the hard drive. She wouldn’t have even known he existed.

“You deceived your boss about who and what you are.” Cole inclined his head, eyes tapered. “He believes he hired a sex spy when in reality, you’re here with your own agenda. You don’t intend to deliver the hard drive to him. You want it for yourself.”

A chill swept down her spine, and her neck twisted impulsively toward the exit, her eyes scanning every shadow and nook in the warehouse. If Vincent or his men knew the truth, it was game over.

Vincent thought she didn’t know what was on that hard drive. He believed she and Mike were just here for a paycheck.

“He’s going to kill you,” Cole said, reading her mind.

“Not if I kill him first. Listen to me.” She crouched beside his hip and set a hand on his thigh.

He flinched and bared his teeth, looking for all the world like he wanted to rip her to shreds.

“You hate me. Fine.” Her heart in knots, she removed her touch. “But if we work together, we can survive this.”