Page 12 of Elusive Promise

"I don't know. It seemed ridiculous when I first heard it, but I trust Bree's instincts, and Wyatt also seems to be on board. Also, when I think about my own situation last year with Sophie, I wonder if we plugged all the FBI leaks. Vincent was an agent for twenty plus years. He knows how to work the system. He has friends all over the world."

"Or we could just be running into problems on our own. It's not like we don't do dangerous work and make enemies along the way. I can't imagine Vincent being as devious as everyone is suggesting. And why would he have an innocent girl kidnapped to get to me? He could have just kidnapped me. Or killed me."

"You might have been supposed to die tonight—just like the guards."

"Maybe." She frowned. "Jasmine did say something odd to me—she was happy that I'd reached out to the family for an invitation to the party and that I'd asked to speak to her. I didn't do, either. The invitation was forwarded to me from my stepfather's assistant."

Damon's profile tightened, as he thought about her comments. "It sounds like someone wanted you at the party."

"It might not be about Vincent; it could have to do with my ties to Bezikstan or even to my stepfather."

"Well, I'll call Vincent back in the morning and see what else he has to say. Any other interesting guests at the party?"

"I spoke to Neil Langdon, an old teacher of mine, and his son Ben. I also talked to Jasmine's sister Anika." She paused, debating her next words. Maybe she needed to say them out loud to see if they made sense. "There was a man at the party. He was watching me. I don't know if he was just flirting or if there was more behind his smile, but I felt myself not wanting to look away."

He glanced over at her. "Did you speak to him?"

"Not then." She cleared her throat. "I honestly don't know if I dreamed this, but it's possible he might have pulled me out of the bedroom and into the stairwell."

"Seriously? Why didn’t you say that before?"

"Because my brain is foggy. Everything feels very dreamlike in my head. I don't know his name, but I'm also pretty positive he didn't have anything to do with the kidnapping."

"How can you be sure of that if you don't even know if you dreamed him up?"

"I guess I'm not sure, but if my dream was real, then I can say he was shocked to learn Jasmine had been taken. He didn't know what was going on."

Damon sent her a concerned look. "What did he say to you?"

"He asked me what had happened, but I couldn't really speak. He dragged me into the stairwell and opened the window. Then he told me to wait until help came, and he left."

"Why wouldn't he have waited with you? He clearly didn't want to talk to security."

"No, but why would he rescue me if he was one of the kidnappers?"

"I can't answer that. Would you recognize him if you saw him again?"

His handsome face and compelling green eyes flashed through her head. "Yes. I think so."

In fact, she didn't think she would ever forget him, and that bothered her more than a little bit.

"It's possible one of the security cameras caught a glimpse of him as he moved through the party. Maybe you can come down to the office tomorrow and take a look."

"I will do that. I just wish I could do more. I'm really scared for Jasmine. The kidnappers murdered the two guards. They won't be afraid to kill Jasmine."

"They could have left her in the room to die and just taken the ring. So, I'm going to go with the assumption that they want to use her in some other way—ransom, more than likely."

"Then why haven't they made contact yet?"

"I don't know," he said grimly.

She didn’t, either, and her gut told her no news was probably not good news in this case.

A few minutes later, Damon pulled up in front of a two-story brownstone in Greenwich Village. "There are two flats in this building. The bottom apartment is empty. You'll be on the second floor. We'll have an FBI police officer posted downstairs for extra protection."

"Okay." She'd spent time in FBI safe houses before. She knew the drill. She just wasn't used to being the person who was in danger.

Damon walked her up the stairs and into the building. A uniformed male with sandy-brown hair and brown eyes, who appeared to be in his early thirties, was waiting in the lobby.

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