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I slip to the bedroom, grab two guns. One for me. One for her.

Then the satellite phone rings.

The same trick I used.

That’s a hell of a coincidence.

She crouches by the door, vial in hand, just as one of my colleagues bursts inside.

She stabs the vial into her throat.

Her eyes go wide as the body hits the floor. "What the fuck is Elena’s girlfriend doing here?"

Chapter

Twenty-Two

JAMIE

After I check Camille's pulse, to make sure she's alive, but sedated enough she'll be out for the next half hour, I look through her phone.

At a glance, it’s the same as any 30-something woman’s phone.

A Spotify account packed with techno. An email inbox filled with advertisements. And half a dozen casual text threads, including one with Elena.

The usual things lovers share.

No mentions of a mission to steal an important laptop or kill the people who took it.

No orders from a handler, either. Not even in code.

That must hiding in plain sight in one of the apps. Probably the knitting app. I click on the icon of a ball of yarn, but it’s password protected.

So I tell Matteo I found nothing.

He nods in understanding and tosses her over his shoulder like she’s a towel he’s carrying home from the beach.

“How do you want to do this?” I ask.

He sets her on a chair in the kitchen and secures her hands with cuffs he keeps in the pantry.

I shoot him a really look. Who keeps handcuffs behind the olive oil?

He shrugs if it works, it works with a casual flair that takes my breath away.

This isn’t the Matteo who blushed the first time I asked him to tie me up. This is someone far more, well, like me.

He’s ahead of me here, too. Not just because I’m still arranging my memories. Because he knows something I don’t.

I try to find a clue in his eyes, but I only see glee. The pure, raw bliss of knowing you have the upper hand.

My heart thuds against my chest. My veins buzz with desire.

Has he been this devious all along? Or am I rubbing off on him? God, I want to rub off on him again.

Ahem.

I have a woman to interrogate. And probably more showing up after her. Business, then pleasure.