Page 87 of Poison Evidence

“Because we can’t have him balking because of love at this point. Now he’ll be too afraid for MacLeod to step out of line. Make him choose between Sevick and MacLeod—his honor or his love—and he’ll be off his game during the handoff.”

“He might not love the woman.”

“This is the Hammer. He kills without remorse, but he has never used a woman for a mission in this way.”

“Because he never needed to.”

“He could have used Undine Gray. She was vulnerable when she had the panic attack, and he could have cemented his role as her dive partner—which is what he should have done. He didn’t. Be grateful I know how to push his buttons, because you could never take on the Hammer by yourself. If he realizes who you are, you don’t stand a chance. If I’m right, then he’s just fallen in love for the first time. He’s finally got a reason to live and won’t be taken easily. But with MacLeod’s life hanging in the balance, he’ll fall in line to save her.”

He had to stay one step ahead of everyone and come up with a new plan for handing over the AUUV. A warning to Luke was in order, to protect both him and Ivy.

Scenarios ran through his head as he paced the tiny cave. He followed each one to the logical conclusion, and no matter how he played it, someone died. Sometimes it was Luke. Sometimes Ivy. Usually it was Sophia and Yulian.

He’d planned carefully. Sophia would video chat with him from a specific hotel in Taiwan. From there, she and Yulian would travel to the Philippines and then on to Jakarta, where he had stashed enough money for them to start a new life wherever they chose. Sophia knew her way around the dark web and had the language skills and tradecraft to obtain passports and whatever else they needed.

But now he needed to control the whereabouts of Ivy and Luke while Sophia and Yulian were en route to safety—without revealing his own location. He’d enlist their help, except he was fairly certain Luke was honor bound to take Dimitri in custody, and he had Ian Boyd with him to make sure he followed through.

If Dimitri were taken, Sophia and Yulian were dead. And Ivy was vulnerable.

This was his every nightmare come true, why he didn’t get attached, refused to make friends. Refused to fall in love.

“It took me days to make the poison tree map,” Ivy repeated. “We didn’t back up to the Navy database because Zack Barrow and his terrorist buddies knew how to track the signal. The information is gone, and it would take me the same amount of time to recreate it.” Not entirely true, but close enough.

“Gone because Dimitri deleted it,” Ian said.

She nodded. What could she say? The Raptor operative was pissed at Dimitri, and frankly, so was she. But she also understood why Dimitri had done it. Explaining to Ian and Luke served no purpose except to further alienate the two men who’d traveled halfway around the world to rescue her.

Luke had sat right there in the room when she admitted to the FBI agent she’d had sex with Dimitri after she knew the truth about him.

Luke and Ian didn’t trust her judgment when it came to Dimitri, and she couldn’t really blame them either. In their eyes, she was a pathetic fool who’d fallen for her captor.

She needed their respect if she was going to be able to use them to help Dimitri.

“Surely you remember something,” Luke said.

She did, but she kept her face blank. Her acting skills were improving. She hoped. “The area was huge. There are lots of poison trees. I didn’t memorize it because we had the database.”

She paced the hotel room. She’d been released from the hospital after twenty-four hours, and now here she was, back in the hotel where her ordeal began. Her arm throbbed and was in a sling. She’d get a hard cast tomorrow, but for now it was splinted and bandaged, and she was taking strong painkillers that couldn’t mask the fear and hurt she felt both for and because of Dimitri.

“He’s searching for the AUUV right now. You can help us narrow down the area and find him,” Luke said. “We want tohelphim, Ivy.”

So maybe her acting skills weren’t improving. “You want to detain him. That’s why you came to Palau, isn’t it?”

“No,” Ian said. “Alec sent us to Palau to rescue you, but you refuse to leave.”

She shrugged. No way was she leaving before the AUUV was found.

“We’re going to take a boat out and search near the cave island with or without your information,” Ian said. “But that involves risk to us. Don’t send us in blind.”

The guilt she’d been battling over lying settled in her belly. Ian was a good guy. He’d taken down Patrick. Cressida was a friend, and she’d be pissed that Ivy wasn’t doing all she could to help her boyfriend, who’d come all this way to rescue her. Then there was Luke Sevick. He’d been nothing but kind. This was a shitty situation all around.

In keeping her silence, she was betraying her friends and her country. But to lead them to Dimitri…that was another betrayal.

It was Russia’s lost AUUV, and Dimitri was returning it to them. His actions weren’t actively against the US. Not here.

But she doubted anyone else would see it that way.

She cleared her throat. “Take me with you.”

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