Fearless: Complicated Creatures Part Three (52 page)

“I’ll call you tonight after I meet them, Sammy,” Carey assured her.

Alejandro stood by the desk as Sam hung up the phone. “We should go, Wyatt,” he reiterated moodily.

Sam sat back in her chair, regarding him. “Since when do we run from a fight?”

Alejandro crossed his arms. “There is such a thing as a tactical retreat, Wyatt.”

“No.” Sam shook her head. “I’m not running from that asshole. In fact, I’m going to bring him to my door.”

Alejandro blinked. “Come again?”

“Easiest way to catch a rat is to set the trap, Alejo—cut off all his options and make him so mad, all he can think of is revenge.”

“Wyatt, be serious.”

“I am being serious. I’m not running from this asshole. If I do, I’ll always be looking over my shoulder, living in fear, and I won’t do that.” Sam glanced out the French doors again. Jack was still talking on his phone. He paced a few steps, pushed a hand through his hair, then met her eyes through the glass panels.

If you’re in, you’re all the way in…

Jack smiled slowly, nodding at her with a thumbs up.

His brother was in—another ally.

That man continued to surprise her. He was going to keep his word. He was going to stand by her.

April—Late Night

Tel Aviv, Israel

R O X A N N E

J
aime Roman was
a good-looking guy in a nerdy, chic way. He had the same vital handsomeness as his older brother—the luxurious dark hair, the lush mouth made for kissing. And those silver eyes? Watching him work, Jaime was like a leaner, younger Silicon Valley carbon copy of Jack.

He was also fast. Like,
I’ll-break-this-code-in-ten-minutes
fast.

“You guys need to get on a plane immediately,” he said flat out.

“Why?”

“The last time the tracker pinged on Haug’s software was at Ben Gurion Airport twenty minutes ago. Lightner’s heading out of the country,” Jaime explained.

“Do we know where he’s heading?” Rox asked.

“I figure Lightner can’t fly commercial, right? So I hacked into the Ben Gurion’s VIP passenger manifests and got a list of private planes leaving within the next two hours. There are only four this time of night,” Jaime continue.

Relief rippled through her. “Jesus, tell me something good.”

Jaime made a face. “The bad news is that each flight has multiple men listed, and none of the aliases you gave me are coming up. The next best thing to do would be to call him on the burner number that Haug gave us—see if we can get a trace on the phone he’s using if the number he gave her actually works.”

“Can’t he just switch out the SIM card after the call’s done so we can’t trace the number?” Rox asked.

“Not if I drop the bug in his phone’s OS,” Jaime answered. “Once I get a lock on his number, I can turn whatever device he’s carrying into a hot mic.”

“So we’d basically be listening in on all his calls?” Rox asked.

“We’d be listening to
everything
,” Jaime replied with a sly grin. “Calls, conversations, breathing—anything he does or says anywhere near that phone will be ours.”

Rox’s brows rose. “Are you sure you’re not NSA?”

Jaime’s smile was quick and light as a hummingbird, even as he typed like a madman. “They wish. I’m better.”

Scary. As hot as little Roman was, she’d have to be careful with him. He was a little too talented and a little too astute for her liking, though admittedly useful. She wasn’t surprised, now that she’d met him, that Jack and Jaime had figured out her identity. Between Jack’s persistence and Jaime’s inquisitiveness, those two were a force to be reckoned with.

Jaime finished typing and looked at her. “You ready to call him?”

Rox nodded. Avi came to stand beside her, his presence sending a hot riff of awareness down her spine. But she remained focused as Jaime pressed a button, and the sound of a dial-tone followed by the
blurp-blurp
of a foreign ringtone rang out.

The phone was answered, but nothing was said. Just the low-hum whir of airwaves and static over hundreds of miles’ distance filtered through the speakers on her laptop. The hairs on the back of her neck raised as the silence grew latent. Somehow, Rox
knew
Lightner was on the other end. She could have sworn it. He had a distinctive but intangible air about him—something magnetic and repulsive at the same time—like being drawn to danger even though you knew it would hurt you.

“You never call me anymore, baby,” Rox drawled in a low, taunting voice. “A girl might begin to take that personally.”

Avi glanced at her in askance. She hadn’t told him that Lightner had figured out her real identity when he’d run her fingerprints off the champagne glass she’d held at the Parisian club where she’d tracked his mistress down a few months ago. The paranoid bastard had been watching her watch his side piece, and now Lightner was one of the hallowed few who knew her true identity. Seemed like that circle was growing wider every day…

“I’d be better if I had your face under my heel, Lightner,” Rox replied casually, watching Jaime on the screen. He gave her a thumbs up.
Keep him on the phone
, he mouthed over the screen as he typed.

“So that
was
you at the Port of Ashdod…” Lightner clucked his tongue.

“It was,” Rox confirmed. “And a few of my friends.” Avi squeezed her shoulder lightly. “I was hoping we could get reacquainted—seeing as how our time together got cut short in London when I shot you and all. Your son isn’t half as interesting as you are,” she taunted.

“Forgive me for not staying longer. And you’ll pay for what you did to my son.”

“Promises, promises…. Thanks for my new playmate, by the way,” Rox replied. “Frederica Haug’s very beautiful—or she
was
before I was done with her. You seem to have a preference for treacherous women.”

“What can I say?” Lightner responded. “There’s something supremely seductive about a woman with a highly cultivated taste for danger. Most women fear the fire. Women like you become it.”

“Then why are you running away from me?” Rox asked, enticing. “Think of all the fun we could have together. You—tied to a chair. Me—holding a hack saw.”

“My darling, you
are
a hack. That analogy is perfect. But I am running
to
something actually. Do forgive,” he replied, his British accent starched and polished.

Jaime started winding his finger fast in the air.
Keep him talking, keep him talking!
he mouthed.

“Where do you have to go, Lightner?” Rox asked. “Jack Roman has your company, Sam Wyatt has your men, and I have your money. You’re down to one warhead when you thought you’d walk away with four.”

“It’s amazing how many militias and third-world countries would love to get their hands on a nuclear warhead,” Lightner replied airily. “I think I’ll start a bidding war.”

“Don’t delay the inevitable, Lightner. You know I’m going to get you. And when I do, I’m going to lay you out and carve you slowly while you scream,” Rox promised darkly.

Lightner laughed at that. “You have a silver tongue, Roxy.”

She stiffened, angry he’d used her real name. She ignored Avi’s intense gaze, his hand touching her shoulder as he looked at her in askance.

“And you have a forked one, Lightner. I’m going to enjoy cutting it out of your mouth.”

“I almost hope you catch me first.”

“And why’s that?”

“What man doesn’t enjoy being chased by a beautiful woman?”

“The kind of man who values revenge over practicality,” she responded, cutting. “You’re devious, cocky, and intelligent—and you may think that’s enough to elude me, but I’m going to nail you, Lightner. I’m going to nail your ass right to the wall.”

“Oh, please do,” he responded with a smile in his voice. “There’s nothing I enjoy more than being nailed by a woman who knows how to do it.”

Jaime sat back from the keyboard suddenly, giving her two thumbs up with a wide grin. And that was a relief, because Lightner hung up just then. Rox breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Holy shit, please tell me you got it,” she said.

“Oh yeah,” Jaime nodded, his silver eyes bright with excitement. “Listen—” he clicked a few keys.

There was a moment of silence before they heard Lightner say, “Once we get to Istanbul, there will be men waiting to retrieve the canister.”

“And will you be continuing on to Paris, sir?” an unknown man replied.

“No,” Lightner replied. “We’ll be going straight to Houston, Texas from there. Wheels up in five minutes.”

*

April—Late Night

Wyatt Ranch, Texas

S A M A N T H A

“That cocky son
of a bitch,” Samantha marveled, sitting back in her leather chair as she listened to the recording Jaime had made of Lightner’s directive to head to Houston. Alejandro stood in front of her desk again, his arms crossed. Jack stood beside her this time. She glanced up at him, grinning. “Tell Jaime I’m buying him a Maserati for being a genius.”

Jack gripped his neck as he sent her a sheepish look. “Maybe now’s not a good time to tell you he put a tracker on your phone before you left for Afghanistan, then.”

Goddamn it, Jaime
. It was just like him to do some shit like that.

“Forget it,” she rescinded, rolling her eyes. “He’ll be lucky if I don’t whack him with my cane next time I see him.”

“What the fuck—where’s
my
Maserati?” Alejandro asked.

“Here’s your Maserati,” she answered, flipping him the bird.

“Okay, we’re almost at the airport,” Rox interrupted. “We should be in the air in fifteen minutes.”

“Come back to the U.S.,” Sam told her.

Alejandro shot her a
what-the-fuck
look from across the desk.

“Wait—
what?
Why?” Rox protested. “We’re tracking that bastard’s every move. Jaime has his phone hot miked and we’re tracking him via satellite. I can hear that asshole breathing if I turn up the volume enough.”

“Istanbul is a short flight. You’ll never beat him there,” Sam reasoned. “Look, I know you’re geared up, ready to cut Lightner’s head off, and stick it on a pike, but he’s too far ahead of us right now. If the exchange is happening at the airport, we can’t stop it. We have to find another way to get ahead of him.”

“I want this guy’s head, Sam,” Rox argued. “He’s mine.”

“Rox, think clearly. You’re playing the short game by going after him in Istanbul. I’m willing to bet that if Lightner was planning on heading to Houston—he’s already got something in mind, whether he’s the one who executes it or not.”

“How can you be certain?” Alejandro asked across from her.

“I can’t be certain,” Sam admitted. “But he’s attacked me without being present before. Look at what happened in Rio with Carey, and then later in London with Jack. This man is a chess player,” she reasoned. “He’s thinking four, maybe five moves ahead.”

“
Tesoro
—you can’t honestly be willing to let this guy sell this warhead in an hour’s time,” Jack interjected, his expression grave.

“Absolutely not. Just because we can’t bust him doesn’t mean we let him do this deal. Rox, have Avi alert all major agencies to the exchange right now. We need to give Mossad and Interpol a public win here—and those agencies are in the best position to pin him down as soon as he lands.”

“Wyatt, if they get involved, there’s a very good chance you’ll never lay hands on him again. Taas is an Israeli manufacturer,” Alejo reminded her. “What happened at Ashdod will be extremely embarrassing if it gets out—especially for Mossad. I’ve worked with them before on ops. Those guys don’t fuck around. There won’t be a trial. If they get him, we’ll never see him in one piece again.”

“Sam—I want this guy,” Rox interjected, her voice low. “He knows…” she didn’t finish the sentence, but Samantha suddenly realized what she meant
. Lightner knew who Roxanne was…

“How?”

“Does it matter?” Rox returned, frustration evident. “That slimy bastard could be extradited, he could escape, he could work out a deal—any number of things could go down where he gets out of this—”