Page 85 of The Agent
Dawn gave a choke of disquiet from the back seat. “Shouldn’t you call in some real backup? Like the police or the FBI? Leland and I are not exactly commandos.”
“You and Leland are not even supposed to be here,” Tully said. “I’m just worried aboutyoursafety.”
“You mean we’re not supposed to burst through the door with guns blazing?” Leland asked as he loaded the gun with practiced smoothness. Tully had insisted that both his partners learn gun skills when KRG got successful enough to attract international attention.
“If you do, I may shoot you myself,” Tully said.
Dawn gave a crack of laughter. “Good to know your position on the subject.”
Tully remembered Van Houten’s voice with a cold shudder. “I’m serious. Van Houten will kill Natalie in a second if he thinks Regina has double-crossed him. Because he wants Regina back, he’s decided to shift all the blame for Regina’s flight to Natalie. So his hatred is targeted entirely at her now.”
“Shit!” Dawn said.
Tully had stronger words for it but he just drove, keeping the taxi in sight until Leland had the tracking program up and running. In the city it was easy to keep vehicles between his car and the cab. Once they got through the tunnel, it would be more difficult to hide, so he was glad to have Leland’s tech wizardry.
Until it gave him too much time to think. Sheer terror flooded through him like a frigid tide as he realized something. “He knows he can’t get away with this. He’s going to leave the country.”
“I had that same thought,” Leland said quietly. “I’ve been working on hacking into his confidential financial information.”
“Why is it bad that he’s leaving the country?” Dawn asked.
“There will be no legal consequences for his actions here,” Tully said.
“Oh.” She was silent a moment. “Oh, I see.”
The tension in the car ratcheted up to a whole new level. Tully tried not to picture Natalie’s blonde hair matted with blood or her blue eyes staring but empty of life. He’d been to too many crime scenes, which allowed him to vividly imagine what she would look like in death.
“Shit!” he said, his hands clamped so tight around the wheel that even with the leather padding it dug into his palms.
“Easy,” Leland said, his fingers flying across the keyboard even as he spoke. “We’ll get her out of this. I have total confidence in you.”
“We broke up this morning,” Tully said. “I was sulking instead of doing my job to protect her. This is on me.”
“You had a bodyguard with her,” Leland pointed out.
“I should have gone to meet the woman she took in, Sarah Lacey. Get her vibe in person.”
“What do you think you would have found out?” Dawn asked from the back seat.
“That she was a phony, a plant.”
“How?” Dawn prodded.
“I trust my instincts.”
“I’m not sure you could have convinced Natalie not to take her in unless you had some kind of proof,” Dawn said. “She’s pretty protective of her abused wives.”
“Jenya wanted to take her to a safe house but Natalie refused,” Tully admitted. “That reminds me ... I need to call Deion.”
He called through the car’s voice function. Deion picked up and said, “Jenya is going to be fine. She was drugged with a fairly heavy dose of rohypnol. The hospital is monitoring her overnight but they aren’t concerned about her recovery.”
“That’s good news.” Tully loosened his grip on the wheel slightly. “Stay there until she wakes up. Although I should warn you, she’ll be pissed as hell that someone got the drop on her,” Tully said as he imagined Jenya’s reaction.
“That’s a relief,” Dawn said after Tully disconnected.
Now that Jenya wasn’t in danger, Tully shifted to anger. “She got a heavy dose. She could have died. Another strike against Van Houten.”
“Are you really keeping track?” Leland asked.
