Maisie had seenwaytoo many police procedurals in her time not to know what was happening here, or not to guess that, wherever Brent was right now, the guys who’d led him off were probably saying the exact same thing to him. And knowing Brent, he was probably singing like a canary.
Except I can’t sing! I don’t know any of the songs they want!
But Maisie knew she’d have to say something – even if it was just to take up the time until Rhys got here. And she had no doubt he was on his way right now.
Please Rhys, just get here soon!
But, she guessed, it was time to start the performance.
“Okay, okay,” she said, slumping her shoulders in what she hoped was a convincing way. “I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Chapter 16
“Aren’t you curious about how we found you?”
Rhys looked around from where he’d been staring at the horizon, as if he could somehow make the boat go faster with the power of his mind. Trent was steering the boat cheerfully, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.Heprobably could’ve gone undercover as the kind of douche who’d go swanning about in a pleasure yacht, no sweat. Rhys was mildly surprised to see that he hadn’t cracked a beer.
He supposed that he was kind of mildly curious about how they’d known to come here… not that he’d admit it to Trent. Encouraging him in literally any kind of endeavor only made him worse.
“Not really,” he muttered.
Apparently even that was too much encouragement, because Trent barged straight on.
“Hec called us. Apparently he’d gotten some sort of panicked message from your secret friend Michael – who really isn’t all that secret, by the way – saying that you were under attack while on a luxurious tropical getaway. So we asked Robb if we could come out here –”
“Iasked Robb.Youwere already halfway out the door,” Euan interjected.
“– And now here we are, come to save the day! We’re old hands at the whole ‘meet your mate and immediately encounter some kind of ridiculous peril’ thing,” Trent went on. He paused. “I assume you only just met?”
“Yeah,” Rhys said. No point in trying to cover it up – and Trent would get the truth one way or another, anyway.
Trent continued to yammer on, re-telling the story of how he met his mate Zina for the millionth time – London, secret mission, she shot him, helicopter ride, same old, same old – as Rhys tuned out, watching the green hills of the Whitsundays rising from the sea as they sped past, thinking about all the ways he would destroy those fucks who’d dared to take Maisie.
It was beyond comprehension. How could anyone think that Maisie was a spy?
His griffin provided him with a helpful visual representation of what exactly it planned to do to her captors, and Rhys was less put off by that kind of thing than he normally would have been. Griffins could be pretty bloodthirsty once their anger was up, but he knew he’d have to be very careful, given that itwasthe Agency he was going up against – he couldn’t just let loose. Even the best possible outcome would still probably end up with him in even deeper shit than he already was in.
Still, if it came down to it, he’d forfeit his position at the Agency in a heartbeat if it meant Maisie was safe. There was nothing more to it than that.
Euan’s phone buzzed.
“Hey Michael,” Euan said as he answered it, and Rhys was suddenly giving him his full attention. “Yeah, we just left the island on the Agency boat –”
“Superyacht,” Trent called out.
“– And we’re on our way to Brisbane now with Agent Richardson, in pursuit of a helicopter with his mate on board.”
Euan frowned at Michael’s apparent answer.
“They’ve taken her to Townsville?”
The boat did a sudden veer to the right as Trent swung it northward, and Rhys wondered what the hell was going on.
Townsville was a weird choice… though at least it was closer, so they would catch up quicker. And he knew that any boat belonging to the Agency would have a few not-so-legal bells and whistles that would make it go faster than it probably should, and that Trent would be familiar with all of them.
It also probably meant that these guys were acting in a less than official capacity, if they weren’t going back to headquarters. Rhys’s jaw clenched.
“Where are you? Are you somewhere safe?” Euan continued into the phone. His eyebrows went up slightly, which for Euan was about the equivalent of a scream. “You’re at thezoo?”
