Page 103 of Take the Sub and Run

“I could only aspire to be as much of a dick as you are,” Landon said.

“I don't like this new happy version of you. You were easier to deal with when you were brooding and tortured.”

“I was never tortured. I do the torture. I am the torture,” Landon muttered.

“This conversation is making me stupider.”

“You didn't have far to fall on that front.” Landon laughed at his own joke. “Here’s Colette.”

“Andrei?”

“Yes.” He took a moment to switch mental gears. “I’m…I’m just calling to ask how it’s going. With Sofie.”

Colette was silent for a long moment. “What do you mean?”

“This is me calling as a friend, not as an Interpol agent.”

“Very well…” She still sounded confused.

Time to be blunt. “How is it going planning the heist with Sofie.”

“The heist? To steal from the Vatican? We haven’t…I don’t actually think it’s possible.”

Andrei sat forward, stomach now churning. “No, I mean stealing the paintings from the house in Belgium.”

“What house in Belgium?”

“Fuck.” Andrei jumped to his feet. "I gave Sofie a dossier on her father. The main thing, the thing I put on top of the stack, was about a house in Belgium. I think her paintings are there.” He quickly ran Colette through the information he'd gathered from the custom’s investigation.

“She didn't tell me any of this. I was waiting for her to call and tell me how it went when she saw you. I haven’t heard from her. I had hoped maybe she was still there.”

“She was here two days ago. I mean…she probably left yesterday since it was the middle of the night when…” Andrei realized he was starting to ramble and stopped, forcing himself to think. “I'll check if and when she booked a flight.”

“Did she tell you that now she has her passport? She was so proud that she got it. She called her father and made him overnight ship it to her from Vatican City. Confronting him made her so nervous that she threw up, but she did it.” The hopeful pride in Colette's voice was hard to hear.

The image of his sweet Sofie, so anxious and scared by a phone call to her father that she had to vomit made him in turn feel ill.

“She told me, but… Fuck. Colette, can you and Landon go to her house and check and see if she's there?”

“I'll call her too.”

“Thanks.” Andrei felt like a moron because for everything he knew about her, he didn't have her damn cell phone number and hadn't been able to find it in any of their databases. “Can you, uh, send me her number?”

“Of course. And I'm sure she's just at home. Hopefully she's painting. I don't know how long she normally goes without painting, but I don't think she's picked up a brush since that night at the gala."

That calmed his jangling nerves. Sofie probably was at home painting. Maybe she hadn't even opened the envelope he gave her. Or maybe she'd flipped through quickly, not realizing that he put the most pertinent piece on top.

“I’ll call you when we get to her place,” Colette assured him.

“Thank you.” Andrei was up and moving too. To check her flight information, he needed to be in the office on a secure connection that could access aviation administration records for the EU.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Colette said, but Andrei heard in her voice the same sinking dread he felt.

The old house was bigger than she’d imagined. There had been no pictures of it, even on Google Maps. She’d expected something modest based on the one description she’d found of the property as a “stone farmhouse.”

Instead of a single-story stone structure in disrepair, this was a three-story stone structure that felt and looked more like a country estate with a well-maintained drive. Off to the side, what looked like an old barn and several smaller buildings were in disrepair, more closely resembling what she’d been expecting of the house as far as condition.

She’d also expected it to be abandoned, but at first glance, it looked too well maintained for that.

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