Page 99 of Lethal Game

His phone dinged again, and she leaned forward to see the text coming in.

Novikov didn't kill your father. She did. He was mine. She's yours.

"Who sent this?" Alisa asked.

"I don't recognize the number. It's probably a burner phone." His heart pounded against his chest at the four short sentences.

Another text came in with an address:Office Suite 2207, 420 Pierce Street.

"Damn," Jason muttered. "Pierce Street is just around the corner.

She followed his gaze to the skyscraper across the street, less than three blocks from the hotel-mall complex, probably just far enough to be safe from the release of toxins and just tall enough to see everything.

Jason threw the car into drive and sped down the street and around the corner. They parked in front of the commercial building that reached high into the sky.

"You should stay here," Jason said.

"No way," she told him. "Not alone in this car. I'm going with you. Novikov is dead, and it doesn't seem like Stephanie can hurt us anymore."

He hesitated, then said, "Okay, but stay close. This could be a trap."

"Trust me, you do not have to tell me that."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

He should probably call Flynn and get his team over here, but first, he wanted to see for himself what was going on. Taking Alisa with him might be a bad idea, but after everything they'd been through, he couldn't stand to leave her behind, and she had already proved to be as brave as anyone he'd ever met.

Novikov definitely appeared to be dead in the photo, courtesy of who, he had no idea, but he had a gut feeling. Stephanie could tell them what had happened.

When they reached the front doors, he found them wide open. Whoever had taken out Novikov had made it easy for them to get in. There was no one in the lobby, so they took the elevator to the twenty-second floor, and the office suite listed in the text. That door was also conveniently unlocked.

He entered first, with his gun in hand. Stephanie was tied to a chair with her back to the door, facing the window, and Novikov was six feet behind her, lying on the ground. He checked Novikov first, looking down at the man who had evaded capture for three decades, the man his father had been obsessed with taking into custody, the man who had taken his father's life and had almost killed them.

Novikov had once been invincible. Now he was lifeless, hispower destroyed, his evil curtailed. He hoped Novikov had seen the bullet coming and realized he was going to die, that he'd finally lost.

"Who's there?" Stephanie demanded, her voice filled with fear. She tried to twist around to see them, but she was tightly strapped to the chair.

He hated to admit it, but her fear pleased him. He had protected and cared about her from their partnership days to the aftermath of her injuries. He'd always been there for her. And until this past week, he had never had any reason to doubt her patriotism or her integrity. But she was not who she had appeared to be. He had completely misjudged her.

He didn't know exactly what she'd done three years ago, but he did know that earlier today she'd been with Novikov. She'd used her badge to get herself and Alisa's father into the building, onto the restricted floor where the vice president had been staying, and she'd also used that badge to kidnap the vice president, to kill a member of the Secret Service.

It was hard to believe she was the same person he'd partnered with.How had he never seen this side of her?

Standing up, he told Alisa to close and lock the door. He took a quick look into an interior office and bathroom. There was no one else in the suite. They were alone.

"Jason?" Stephanie said. "It's not what you think."

As he walked toward the back of her chair, he could see the view from the window in front of her. The hotel and mall complex were supposed to be on fire now, and Novikov had picked a good location to watch and enjoy his personal fireworks.

But the show hadn't happened. He must have been disappointed. It was surprising he hadn't left as soon as he'd realized time had run out on the bombs.

Perhaps Novikov's own time had run out before that.

Finally, he walked around the chair and faced Stephanie. She'd been hit hard across the face. There was blood around hernose and down her chin, and her eyes were worried, but also defiant.

"So, this is where you and Novikov were going to watch the buildings explode," he said. "How excited you must have been to see the fireworks, to know you were safe here in this room, while thousands were going to die or be dosed with a deadly toxin."

"Novikov forced me to help him. I was his victim and then his pawn," she returned.

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