Vivi grabbed the second tablet and started scrolling, her frown deepening. Then she set the tablet aside and looked up at one of the cameras. “I want to see Sabin. Now.”
On cue, the television on the wall flickered to life.
“That’s not possible.” Malcolm Raines appeared on screen, seated at a desk in an anonymous office with no distinguishing features visible in the frame.
As if they needed more proof that they were being watched.
Raines nodded toward the equipment. “I trust you’ve found everything you need to begin planning?—”
“I’m not planning anything until I see my brother,” Vivi said, stepping toward the screen.
“Ms. Cavalier?—”
“No.” She cut him off. “You will not get any-fucking-thing from me until I see Sabin. Alive. In person.”
You tell him, Viv.
Jesus, she was magnificent. Brilliant, fearless, always three steps ahead. Was it any wonder he’d fallen head over heels in love with her when they were teenagers?
Raines’s expression didn’t change. “You saw the proof of life yesterday.”
“I saw a video feed that could have been recorded anytime. For all I know, you’ve already killed him.”
“We haven’t. He’s alive and unharmed.” A pause. “Mostly.”
“Then it shouldn’t be a problem for me to see him today.” She also paused, waiting the same extended beat as Raines had. “Or I don’t cooperate.”
Dom moved to stand beside her, close enough that their shoulders nearly brushed. She glanced at him briefly, surprise flickering across her face before her attention returned to the screen.
“Ms. Cavalier, I don’t think you understand the position you’re in.” Raines’s tone remained frustratingly level. “You don’t make demands.”
“I’m not making demands. I’m stating facts. You need me. You need my biometric access to the facility. You need my knowledge of the layout and the security protocols. And you need my cooperation to pull this off without raising alarms that would lock down the entire place.” She stepped closer to the screen. “So either I see my brother today, or you can find yourself another thief.”
“We do have other options,” Raines said, but he was bluffing. His expression was still one of mild indifference, but Dom had spent enough years reading people in high-stakes situations to catch the fractional delay before Raines responded. It was the tell of a man recalculating.
And Vivi saw it, too.
“Do you?” She cocked her head. “Then why go to all this trouble to get me specifically? Why not use one of your other operatives? Why drag Dominic and me across the Atlantic if you had better options?”
Dom couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at his lips.
Raines was silent for a long moment. “I’ll give you five minutes with him. And the conversation will be monitored.”
“Twenty.”
“Ten.”
“Fifteen.”
The phone rang on Raines’s desk. He picked it up and must have muted the sound on his end because they could no longer hear him as he spoke to whoever had called. When he hung up, a muscle twitched just below his eye.
The sound clicked back on. “You can have fifteen.”
Ah, so they weren’t the only ones being watched in this situation. As much as Raines wanted them to think he was the puppet master, there was someone also pulling his strings.
Dom filed that away.
Vivi nodded once. “When?”
