“She’s trying to save her own skin.”
“That’s not it. Even though she knew you and Logan had betrayed her and were coming for her, she went to her farm. Family is so important to her that she was willing to risk her life to defend that farm because her parents had left it to her.”
“People do all sorts of odd things when they perceive something has value.”
“It wasn’t the monetary value. Sarah stayed on the farm because she had a connection to her family through the land. That connection is what’s most important to her. You inspired that loyalty in her, too. That’srealvalue, Dr. Bell.”
“I do not perceive that she has value.”
“Then you don’t see her, Dr. Bell. She is loyal in ways that I, even as a member of the tightest military outfit, the Navy SEALs, cannot fathom. If you win her over,” which meant she had to stop saying shit like she perceived Sarah had no value, “she will do anything to remain loyal. She will defend you in a fight. She’ll sacrifice everything that she holds dear to save you. She is simply the most amazing woman I have ever met.”
“Again, unlike your friends Micah and Tristan, here, she does not add value to my organization.”
Nevertheless, Blaze pressed on. “I’m responsible for her being involved in this at all. I dragged her into it when I was trying to pressure you.”
“And that is why she will be eliminated.”
Blaze had to knock that thought out of Bell’s head right then. “Butit didn’t work.You didn’t budge. Saving her was a wasted effort on my part, and it drew me out into the open. Sarah was adecoy.A decoy isvaluable.”
Mary Varvara Bell looked at him, tilting her head a little bit. “Go on.”
He saw Sarah’s head turn toward him out of the corner of his eye.
“She’s been arguing with me this whole time that she wouldn’t leave the farm even though she knew your mercs were coming to kill her. She said her community would protect her.”
Bell snorted a laugh.
“Connections are the most important thing to her. She feels connections like you and I feel cold or see white,” Blaze said, shrugging his shoulders and looking around at the stark room because his hands were still zip-tied behind his back. “If you let her go, she could be your most important asset.”
“And you?” she asked.
“You’re going to kill me, anyway. I know that. But if you let Sarah go, I’ll get the weapons for you. The question is, do you want the weapons or not?”
“You aren’t negotiating foryourlife.”
“I wouldn’t waste your time, but I’ll give you everything wanted, guns and worse, if you leave Sarah out of this.”
“Interesting.” Dr. Bell leaned back in her chair and studied the white ceiling far above them.
Blaze caught Micah and Twist throw dark glances at each other.
Logan wasn’t included.
Yep, Micah and Twist had been coerced into working for the bratva. They weren’t converts to the cause.
“Yes, interesting,” Mary Varvara Bell said as if she were continuing a conversation with herself, and then she straightened. “How about this: you give me everything I want and continue working for me, and Sarah’s life is contingent on your good behavior.”
Nope, dammit, Bell had gone in a different direction. “That’s not the deal.”
“It is now. Love makes you weak, you see, Lieutenant Commander Robinson. It reveals your flaws. That’s why when you threatened Sarah to get tome,I couldn’t let her live. I can’t have a weakness that can be exploited.” Bell’s rehearsed smile chilled him. “But if she’syourvulnerability, that’s a different situation.”
Ultimately, Blaze agreed to her terms because, as Bell had said, Sarah was his vulnerability, and he was responsible for her.
She would live.
But Mary Varvara Bell had one last barb for him. “If she goes missing, whether on her own or if you ferry her away somewhere, I will kill you, and then I will find her and kill her.”
She gestured at Twist, Micah, and Logan, still standing behind her. “With our computer resources and manpower, not to mention our connections, it won’t take us long to find her.”
