Page 69 of Lethal Game

"I can't believe my father didn't tell me this," he muttered.

"It wasn't his proudest moment, or mine. Which is why Iwould like nothing more than for you to take Novikov down."

"I want to believe that, but you sat on the Daniel Hunt information for too long."

"It wasn't my secret to share, not until I had a reason to think his cover was blown."

"Which happened yesterday. What did you do today?"

"I've been looking for him. Where was Hunt staying?" Mick asked. "He could have left a clue behind."

"If he did, my team will find it."

"We're on the same side. Give me the name of the motel."

"I don't think you have a need to know," he said and then hung up the phone. They might be working toward the same goal, but he didn't trust Mick, and he wasn't even sure he believed the story Mick had just told him. But that was something he'd worry about later. He got back on his computer. He had a lot of loose threads now, and he needed to tie some of them up.

As if on cue, his phone vibrated with a text from Savannah. She and Beck were at the nightclub. Pieter Moldev has been there when they first arrived. Beck had spoken briefly to him, but he'd been in a hurry to leave. They'd waited another half hour, but there was no sign of Dominic Ilyin, so they were going to leave.

He thanked her for the update, wishing their trip hadn't been a complete waste of time, but it had been worth a shot. There was still a chance Moldev and Ilyin would reconnect at some point. They just needed to keep on it. Tomorrow, they'd regroup and figure out if there was another approach they could take.

Alisa heard Jason working in the den when she went downstairs and decided to leave him be while she went into the kitchen to see what she could find for food. She'd taken a shower and put on her leggings and one of her favorite T-shirts, which had beenin the bag Jason had packed for her. She was still scared and confused, but she was also hungry.

She checked the freezer first, excited to see a large frozen pizza with mushrooms and sausage. She pulled it out and set it on the counter. Then she turned on the oven to preheat while she opened the refrigerator, happy to find a bag of salad as well as cucumbers, tomatoes, and salad dressing. As she pulled dinner together, she felt a sense of normalcy that was very soothing. It was nice to focus on something besides her racing and terrified thoughts.

At the sound of footsteps, she turned around, happy to see Jason coming into the kitchen.

"I thought you were upstairs sleeping." His gaze swept her face with a concern she was fast becoming addicted to.

Maybe caring about her safety and well-being was just his job, but it felt more personal than that, especially when they kept ending up in each other's arms. "I took a shower instead. I needed to clear my head. Thanks for packing my favorite T-shirt."

"It looked like something you wore a lot. I can go by your place tomorrow and get you more clothes."

"Tomorrow," she echoed, taking a sip of her wine. "I think I'm going to stop planning for tomorrow. It seems pointless."

"That might be true. What are you cooking?"

"Pizza. It's almost done. Do you want wine?"

"Sounds good," he said, pouring himself a glass.

"Did I hear you talking to someone earlier?"

"My CIA contact, Mick Hadley. While we don't know where your father was born, I'm guessing it was somewhere in Russia or Eastern Europe, which meant his asylum had the CIA written all over it."

"Were you right?"

"Yes. Mick said your father helped them avert a chemical weapon attack thirty years ago and, as a thank-you, they got him away from Novikov and out of the country. The CIA createdyour father's new identity as Daniel Hunt. He was told at the time he could never work as a chemist again. Your father abided by that until this year, when he decided to help Henry with his new therapy."

"He risked his secrets to help Henry cure cancer. There's nobility in that, right?"

"I think so. I'm sure your father thought he could work in the background with Henry, and no one would ever know. That might have been the case if he hadn't run into Tatiana at the lab. She was probably the only person in LA who would have recognized him."

"So Tatiana told Novikov that my dad was in LA. And that's why he came here to launch an attack? Because of my dad?"

"It's possible that he was already coming here but your father was an added incentive. Novikov's brother was killed during the aborted bombing that your father was responsible for thirty years ago. Novikova may not have just needed a chemist, he may have also want revenge."

"Great," she said dully. "This gets worse and worse."

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