Page 152 of To Catch a Sub

“Did you tell one of the bounty hunters where we were so they could get to her?”

Novak smiled. The fucker smiled. “Why would I do that? I don’t have a tracker in her.”

“No, you don’t, so you better have a damned good plan for finding and rescuing her.”

“The alleged kidnapping is being handled by the London Metropolitan?—”

“What the fuck do you mean alleged?”

Novak sighed. “Agent Malik, surely you’re not so naive that it didn’t occur to you that Ms. Beaumont may have orchestrated this herself? It’s a very real possibility. I might even say it’s the most probable option.”

Landon saw red. “Don’t you fucking dare. She was kidnapped by a psychopath because you let it slip where we were, or where we were going…” Landon trailed off, realizing how many people it would have taken to pull off that ambush.

Someone to cause a traffic issue at just the right time.

The officer who directed him to turn down the narrow alley.

Someone to push that water-filled barrel off the roof and cause the crash.

Five men who’d approached the car.

The traffic officer and the roof pusher might have been one of the five who attacked the car, so at a minimum five people, more like seven to eight.

There was no way, even if they’d been watching Club Alibi, that ambush could have been organized in the time it took them to get from Harringay to Dalston.

It would have taken hours to set up, not minutes. They’d been waiting. Ready.

Because they knew roughly when and where he and Colette would be.

Novak had said no when Landon offered to bring Colette in right after their phone call this morning. Novak had pushed the meeting to five o’clock.

Because he needed to give whomever he’d fed the information to as much time as possible.

“I told London Metro exactly who Ms. Beaumont is.” Novak squirted some hand sanitizer onto his palm, leisurely rubbing his hands together. “And what she’s capable of. They’re treating this matter accordingly.”

Landon stared at the other man, hoping he was wrong. “She’s under Interpol’s protection,” Landon said slowly.

“Informants are, by their very nature, not always trustworthy. A major expenditure of resources to find someone—who may have orchestrated this because we didn’t do exactly what she wanted—would be irresponsible.”

“What’s your endgame, Novak?” Landon ignored the fluttery feeling of panic. “You going to wait until you think she’s gathered enough information to help your case, then rescue her? Force her to play spy after everyone told you what a fucking terrible, amoral idea that was?”

“I know where you had her,” Novak said in a low voice. “The club no one knows much about. There are rumors as to exactly what it is. That’s why you’re worried about her, isn’t it? She’s your little sex pet now.” Novak laughed. “Or maybe you’re hers.”

“Do you know where she is?” Landon demanded, ignoring the taunt and watching the other man’s eyes.

“No. Why would I?”

Liar.

Landon’s gut churned as a terrible new possibility occurred to him. What if Novak wasn’t a shitty, zealous agent willing to do terrible things to make his case, but instead a shitty, zealous double agent. Damien Tarasov had the kind of money and power that would make buying someone’s loyalty possible.

Maybe it wasn’t a bounty hunter who’d taken her, but Damien himself.

If Novak was Damien’s man, then Novak’s initial plan to send Colette in to gather information was just a ploy to get Colette out of an Interpol safe house and back in Damien’s custody. No doubt something would have “gone wrong” with her tracking chip, so Interpol couldn’t find her once Damien had her.

Novak could wait a few weeks, then discover “evidence” of her death. There’d be internal reviews, and reprimands for getting a witness killed, but what would Novak care if he was demoted or transferred. If he’d gotten Damien something the man desperately wanted, whatever reward was on the line would outweigh the reprimands.

This morning when Landon ensured that plan was dead as a doornail, Novak had to improvise. He forced them to leave the safety of the club by demanding they come in to the office, then set the time for late in the day to give Damien’s men hours to plan the ambush and kidnapping.