Page 34 of Assassin's Game
“What’s going on? Is it X?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to deny it, to explain. What was it about this woman that made me think I knew her? But just as Remi had stepped to the far end of the room to talk to Leah, I knew I couldn’t give details to strangers, no matter how trustworthy they seemed.
I cleared my throat. “It’s a personal matter.”
“More secrets?” she asked.
I met those brilliant green eyes—and ignored the instinct to spill out everything. I wouldn’t risk my family, no matter what strange emotions this woman generated inside me.
At my silence, she glanced to Remi, then to the stairs, then back to me. “Is Levi returning?”
“No. Not right now.”
Some spark of something—concern, fear, doubt?—lit in her eyes. Behind her, Rhys and Monty looked suspicious. And impatient. They had a deadline, and our personal crisis wasn’t part of that, not for them.
I dropped the arms I’d tightened across my chest to hold myself together. “We should begin working on a plan.”
“I’m still not convinced this is the best step to take,” Rhys argued.
Remi hung up as he crossed back to us. An almost imperceptible nod told me Leah was on her way. “I don’t understand why this has come up at all,” he said.
Knowing the past few minutes had taken over everything else in our minds, I jerked my chin at Mikaela. “Show him the e-mail, please.”
She found the e-mail on her phone and passed it over. In the meantime I summarized. “X has given Mikaela’s team seventy-two hours to get this job done. And we are no closer to finding a single clue to his identity, much less location. Our only lead is Sullivan, and if someone else takes him out…”
“Our only lead dies with him,” Mikaela finished. Her long black hair was tied into a simple ponytail at the base of her neck, the end hanging over her shoulder. I noticed that whenever she was thinking, working out an issue, considering her options, she ran her fingers through the hair and her eyes would go unfocused. I wanted that look in her eyes at other times too.
Not right now, Elijah.
Remi handed her phone back. “X is as much a threat to us—”
“For reasons you refuse to disclose,” Rhys growled.
Remi raised a so-what? brow and kept going. “As he is to you. We have as much incentive to find this asshole as you do—and if anyone could find a lead, it’s Eli. Which means it’s not going to happen.” He looked to me, face grim. “I say let’s get Sullivan and figure this thing out.”
We settled at the conference table with the intel we had on Sullivan. “The bank is out,” I began. “Too much security to try and take the man there on such short notice.”
“What we need,” Mikaela said, “is a time when he’s alone. Which is almost never.”
“Our boy has an active social life,” Monty added.
I already knew that from the information I’d gathered on his computer. I also knew we only had three days—or two and a half, now—to make this happen. “Any chance he’ll be at home tonight?”
“Might be our best bet,” Remi agreed. It was easier to take someone when they weren’t holed up in their personal fortress, but we’d done it before, with scarier targets than a bank CEO, even one this powerful.
Maris cleared her throat. I looked to her, noticed once again how like Mikaela she was despite their different coloring. No one would miss that they were related. Right now she was carrying on a wordless conversation with her sister. “Tell us, Maris,” I said, keeping my tone neutral. The woman didn’t seem timid, but after spilling the beans in the Humvee, she was probably being extra careful of anything that might come out of her mouth.
Maris cleared her throat again. “I noticed something peculiar about Bram’s electronic calendar.”
“What was that?” Remi asked.
Seeming to get the picture that we weren’t dismissing her, Maris reached for the printout of Sullivan’s calendar among the papers on the table. “I noticed he has a weekly event scheduled at a downtown country club sort of deal, same night every week, a guys’ night or socializing to benefit his connections, maybe?”
“Right,” Monty said. He sat to her left, Titus on her right. Monty tapped the paper. “You were going to verify all the events on his calendar. That one checked out, right?”
“They do have a weekly meeting,” Maris agreed. “But it’s not on Tuesday. It’s on Wednesdays.”
Rhys grunted. “So Sullivan’s hiding something on Tuesday nights.” And today was Monday.
