I trust a dog better than any person.
Voices drew their attention across the penthouse. Kowalski and Yuri exited the kitchen and crossed the room. The two massive men wore matching expressions of disgust. In fact, they looked like roided-out brothers. The pair bore pale scars across the dark stubble of their cheeksand over their shaved scalps. Both were also former navy men, which showed in their salt-roughened complexions.
“What did you learn?” Tucker asked Kowalski as the pair joined them.
“Not all that much.”
Yuri rubbed a set of bruised knuckles. “But I made sure he wasn’t holding back.”
“Whatdidhe say then?”
Kowalski grunted his frustration. “Bastard doesn’t knowwhohired him. Or evenwhy. All he was given was an address to deliver the woman to.”
“In Moscow,” Yuri added.
Tucker shared a look with Kowalski.
Where Valya had last been spotted.
Kowalski shrugged, indicating that the two circumstances might not be related.
Still, Tucker continued to trust his gut.
She’s involved with this, but how and why?
There was only one place to find answers.
“We need to get to Moscow,” Tucker said. “Check out that address.”
“I can arrange transport.” Bogdan pointed across the room. “What about our guest in the kitchen?”
“For now, keep him under wraps,” Tucker said. “We don’t want to alert whoever hired him.”
“Then better to simply dump him in the Neva,” Yuri offered.
Tucker shook his head. He had no sympathy for the bastard—especially after he had shot at Kane—but Radic could prove useful later.
And another might, too.
The bedroom door burst open. The kidnapped woman strode out, her eyes flashing angrily, her cheeks flushed. The botanist still wore the same coveralls. The back of her hand bled, from where she must have ripped out her IV. She spoke rapidly in Russian, clearly having had enough and wanting to be set free.
The doctor and nurse followed, urging her back with soft words, but she shook them off. She cast a suspicious glare around the room.
For better or worse, Tucker stepped into her path and held up a palm. “Dr. Stutt,mne zhal’,” he apologized.
She gave him a furious look.
He hoped she spoke English. “We’re trying to make sense of all this, too. We were tailing the man who met your assailants.”
She lifted a finger to a purpled welt under an eye.
“He was hired to take you to Moscow.”
“Moscow?” She frowned, then took a deep breath. “Why?”
“I don’t know. We believe there is far more at stake here. If you return home, I fear you’ll remain a target.”
The muscles of her jaw tightened as she considered his words. “Then what am I to do?”
