Apparently Kate’s former fiancé hadn’t moved out all of his belongings as Scott was able to locate a fresh T-shirt to replace the ruined one he’d helped pull off Colt. He thought Colt might object, but other than the fact that his mouth was a tight line, he accepted the loaner without a word.
Having exhausted his nursing skills, Scott let Colt rest while he went into the kitchen to get some food and fill the other guys in on what was going on. The calls took a while, and it was after nine by the time he went back into the living room to check on Colt, who had just woken and was looking a little less close to death’s door.
Kate came in a few minutes later. She jellied a little at the T-shirt but collected herself quickly. “I found a few bits of code that may have been left over from what Natalie originally loaded, but it’s nothing that would have bypassed security or enabled anyone to listen in on a conversation in the Tank. Mick must have learned the information from someone else who wanted to make it look as if Natalie had done it.” She paused and looked at Scott. “I think Natalie was telling the truth.”
Scott didn’t need confirmation, but it was nice to get. He decided to check in on Natalie and fill her in. He’d left her his burner phone in case she needed to reach him, and he’d taken one of the backups he had in his bag.
He wasn’t alarmed right away when she didn’t answer, figuring she might be sleeping after the long night. But it seemed strange that she would have turned off the phone.
He felt the first prickle of unease and decided to call the senator. Dalton answered and it took a minute for Greythorn to get to the phone. He started to apologize for the delay, but Scott cut him off. “I just called Natalie, and she didn’t pick up.”
“She came down a little while ago and said she wasn’t feeling well,” the senator explained. “I assumed it was morning sickness. She said she was going back upstairs to rest and asked not to be disturbed. Do you want me to check on her?”
Scott hesitated. He didn’t want to wake her if she wasn’t feeling well, but she’d never complained of illness before. Of course, he didn’t know squat about pregnancy. “That’s all right.” It was nothing that couldn’t wait. “Just have her call me when she wakes up.”
When the phone rang a couple of hours later, Scott assumed it was Natalie. He was wrong.
“She’s gone,” the senator said. He started apologizing, saying that he knew Scott had trusted him and he didn’t know how it happened, but Scott cut him off.
His heart seemed to have stopped beating. “What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
“The night nurse went to leave and her car was missing. The guards said she’d driven out a while ago. But it wasn’t her; it was Natalie. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think....”
Scott didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. It felt as if he’d taken another knife in the gut. It was the same feeling he’d had when he’d discovered Natalie was a spy.
He couldn’t believe it. She’d left him. She’d waited until he was gone, and she’d run at the first opportunity.
He’d thought she trusted him.
Blind spot.
He was a damned fool.
Twenty-three
Natalie told herself she was doing the right thing. She didn’t have any choice.
She’d been waiting to hear from Scott so she was surprised to see her parents’ phone number when the phone buzzed at a little after seven. Her parents woke up early, but they usually waited to call until after nine.
It wasn’t her parents. The voice on the other end of the line told her he was in her parents’ kitchen right now, and he was going to kill her family if she didn’t bring him the laptop.
She’d told him she didn’t have it and didn’t know where it was—which was the truth. He’d replied that she better find it soon. She had twenty-four hours to get it to her parents’ house.
“But that isn’t enough time,” she protested, looking at the clock. Getting on a plane would be too risky. “It’s at least an eighteen-hour drive from here.”
“Then you’d better hurry up and find it. And if I were you, I’d figure out a way to ditch that SEAL boyfriend of yours and keep him out of this. I wouldn’t want him toget in the way. Do anything, call anyone and they’ll all be dead.”
And just in case she didn’t believe him, he handed to the phone to her sister.
“I’m making pancakes with the policeman.”
Natalie’s blood went cold at the sound of her sister’s voice; he wasn’t bluffing. The past few days fell away as if a dream. Without Scott around to fill her head with unrealistic fantasies, the truth of her situation came back to her full force.
She’d made a mess of her life, but she wasn’t going to make a mess of his. And she wasn’t going to let anyone die for her mistakes. Not her parents, not her sister, and sure as hell not Scott.
She’d figure a way out of this or suffer the consequences on her own.
It ripped her heart out to leave him like this, but it was better than the alternative. They’d never had a chance. The reluctant Russian spy and the officer in America’s most elite SEAL team were hardly a match made in heaven. This had only hastened the inevitable.
