Page 50 of The Fallen One

Like the good psychopath I was, I watched the scene a few more times, including the shocked little O-shape on her mouth after she’d bumped into her computer right before the attack.

What’d you figure out?

I finally went for my phone and made my first call. “Hey, sorry to wake you,” I said as soon as Griffin picked up.

“It’s okay, I’m sure Tomas was about to get up soon to be fed,” Griffin answered, sounding groggy and out of it. “What time is it?”

I checked the time on the laptop, my stomach turning at the image of Diana paused on screen. “It’s zero three hundred.”

“Who is it?” I overheard his wife, Savanna, ask.

“Carter, sugar,” he told her. “Go back to sleep.”

Hearing her voice was going to make this next part that much harder. “I’m sitting in an office at the White House right now.”

“Yeah, okay. Wasn’t expecting that.” Now he was awake.

I closed the laptop before I lost my mind staring at the screen. “The President needs a favor from me. And to do it, I need to become the man I was after Rebecca died. You were at my side then, and I hate to ask this of you, but?—”

“I’m on my way,” was all he said, zero hesitation.

“This is going to be different,” I warned. “And you’re married with a baby now. If you want to opt out, say the word, and we’re good. The White House will know you were with me back then, and?—”

“On my way.” He hung up before I could offer him a way off the hook again.

Relieved, but still feeling guilty for asking for his help, I did my best to shrug off the emotions I wasn’t all that accustomed to and focused on the next call.

I scrolled through my contacts, stopping at the name LIONESS in my phone. I’d never been more grateful I’d opted not to delete Alyona’s number.

It’d be morning in Germany, so I wouldn’t be waking her. True to form, she didn’t make me wait long, picking up on the second ring.

“Carter. Fucking. Dominick.” My name came from her mouth slowly and with purposeful intent. It actually pained me to hear her say it. “Who pissed you off this time to have you coming back to me?”

21

DIANA

UNKNOWN LOCATION

I’m alive. They need me, I had to remind myself, catching my thoughts starting to spin out of control again. Fear was a vise grip, securely holding my throat. So strong it squeezed off the blood flow to my brain, making me even dizzier.

Bahar, William, Bonnie, and I were inside a windowless room, most likely a basement based on the ground and stale air. Our hands and feet were bound, backs to the concrete wall and our asses parked on the cold cement floor.

I had no idea where the others from the lab were, but one of the masked men had wordlessly plucked Pierce, along with his dog, from the room a few hours ago. The fact he’d yet to return didn’t do wonders for my current state.

Every night since we’d been taken, we’d been moved together to a new location. Tossed like trash into the back of a truck where we’d spend hours on the road before being dumped into another dark, dank room like we were in now.

We knew our captors spoke in Serbian because Bahar’s grandmother was from Serbia, and although Bahar didn’t speak the language, she’d recognized it.

The masked men hadn’t spoken another word in our presence since the night of the hit, though, no matter how much we’d begged them to tell us what was going on. And William had done quite a lot of begging—offering everything from our research on a silver platter to every dime in his bank account if they let him go.

“It feels like nighttime again,” Bahar said, not lifting her head from where it rested on my shoulder just as the door to our prison opened.

“Diana Mackenzie.” A man loomed in the shadows of the doorway, then began stalking toward us. William cowered against me on my other side as the masked stranger said, “Secretary of State’s daughter, hmm?”

You know I’m more than a scientist. Does that make me your bargaining chip, too? Leverage?

The man quietly took a knee before me. It was too dark in the windowless room, and I’d lost my glasses at the lab, so I couldn’t clearly see his eyes through the slit of his mask, but I could feel the dangerous gleam pointed my way. A wicked energy buzzed off him.

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