Chapter 7 #2
Her heart nearly burst out of her chest, but Delaney said again, “Yes.” Because it had to be said. He had to be protected. She did not want any target on his back.
“Yes—what?” he bit out.
“Yes, you should be removed from the situation.” The words shook but she said them.
“Thank you for saving me, but you can’t stay with me.
Not while there is a target on you.” A target there because of her.
This was one area where she and Jezebel were in complete agreement.
“You should leave. Get really, really far away from me. As fast as you can.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “You’re serious?”
She was. Delaney nodded.
Ryan cleared his throat. “Already told you, I can take over bodyguard duty. Go, Nash. I’ll watch over her.”
From the sound of Jezebel’s plan, no one would be watching over her. The woman wants to send me back to Kurt. I may as well be walking to my death if I follow that plan.
Maybe Delaney should come up with her own plan. One that involved running…by myself. And not looking back.
A hum came from Jezebel. “You’re dismissed, Nash. For your own safety, you need to leave the area. There is a case waiting in Berlin that can use your special skills.”
That was it. Nash would be leaving. And maybe once he was gone, she could plan her own escape. She did have some resources and contacts that she could use. A few people—some slightly shady—owed her favors.
“The fuck no,” Nash stated, very clearly. “We are not sending her back to that prick. Come up with another plan because if she goes back to Kurt, we will never see her alive again. We’ll find her in pieces, the same way we’ve found some of his other victims.”
Pieces? Delaney’s eyes closed. Her chest ached. She had to remind herself to breathe.
“She’s a civilian.” Nash’s voice edged with a thread of anger. “She can’t handle him. That’s like sending a lamb to infiltrate a lion’s den.”
“Well, there is another option, I suppose,” Jezebel mused.
Her eyes flew open. “I would love to hear another option. One that does not involve me being found in lots of pieces. Though, for the record, Kurt promised me a watery grave. There was zero talk about being cut up.”
For just an instant, she caught a glint in Jezebel’s dark eyes. As if…as if…
She’s definitely manipulating this scene. I don’t think she ever intended to send me in undercover. She’s trying to scare me. Why? Such an unnecessary tactic. Did the woman not understand that Delaney was plenty terrified enough? Additional scare tactics were not needed. Talk about overkill.
“If you don’t want to go back to him, then you could lure Kurt Wellington out into the open. You could push him past his control, make him take risks that would cause him to be vulnerable, and allow us to trap him.”
“Trap him,” Delaney repeated. “Love it. I much prefer that plan.” Jezebel should have led with that one.
Except… “How do you want me to lure him?” A shake of her head that sent her now drying hair over her shoulders.
“I mean, isn’t he already hunting me? Do I just go out of hiding?
Wave a red flag and shout, ‘Come and get me’ to him?
Will that work for you? Sorry, but I’m new to the spy business and have zero clue about how this works. ”
“And she uses humor when she’s terrified,” Nash muttered.
“Guilty,” Delaney whispered.
Jezebel pursed her lips. “A red flag will be necessary for Plan B to work.”
Plan B. How many plans were stirring in the woman’s mind?
“Before we get into logistics, though…” Jezebel began to slowly pace around the room. Her considering stare swept over Delaney. “Are we absolutely certain that you don’t want to embed with Kurt for a time in order to acquire additional intel for us to use against him?”
“She’s not getting in bed with the bastard,” Nash growled.
Jezebel blinked. “I believe I said embed. Not in bed.”
“She won’t be doing either,” Nash threw back.
But Jezebel stared at Delaney. “The choice is yours, my dear. It’s your life, after all.”
Yes, a life she’d prefer to keep living. “I would really love to hear more about Plan B.”
Jezebel’s gaze cut to Nash. “In order for Plan B to work, are you willing to stay in the line of fire, Nash? Knowing how very much Kurt Wellington wants you dead?”
Ryan strode forward. “Told you all already, I’d be the bodyguard. I know everyone heard me. This is too personal for Nash. He needs to be removed from the situation, just like you said before, Jez.”
“No one is removing me.” Nash’s voice was definite. “I’d like to see someone try.” A dare.
Jezebel’s eyes gleamed. “Last chance on this, Nash. You can walk out the door and be on a plane for Berlin within the hour.”
“I’m not leaving Delaney.”
Okay, he was going above and beyond. She poked at his shoulder.
He spun toward her. “No.”
“Nash, listen. I put a target on you. This is way more than you bargained for when you got the call from your sister about my wedding. It’s too dangerous.”
“Like Berlin won’t be dangerous? Like my other cases haven’t been dangerous?” His eyes glittered at her. “I’m staying with you. I can take the sonofabitch down and protect you at the same time. Done.”
“Well, if that’s your decision.” Jezebel’s smooth voice. “It will certainly work for Plan B.”
Ryan swore. “Just spit it out already, Jez. What’s the plan?”
Nash turned back toward Jezebel.
Jezebel’s gaze darted between Nash and Delaney. “You two were involved, many, many years ago.”
Delaney poked at him yet again. “You told her?”
His jaw locked.
“I excel at uncovering a person’s painful secrets,” Jezebel informed her as she paced in front of the sofa. “I’m incredibly resourceful that way.” A delicate sniff. “I am quite sure Kurt will uncover your past association, as well. After all, he is rumored to be quite resourceful himself.”
Okay, it almost sounded as if Jezebel admired Kurt. Scary.
“He will discover that the two of you were former lovers,” Jezebel continued.
Delaney could feel the heat in her cheeks.
Jezebel stopped pacing and positioned her body about two feet from Delaney. “He’ll think you called on your ex to rescue you. That will certainly piss him off. Hit him hard in his pride when he realizes your ex-lover carried you from the church.”
An enraged Kurt was not a good thing.
“He wants you back.” Jezebel straightened her already straight shoulders. “And he’ll fight to get you back. We need to get him on our turf, though. Not just be running blindly as we throw a net to catch him. We have to get him into a situation that we control completely.”
Where would that location be, exactly?
“He wants you back.”
Jezebel kept repeating that point.
“He’ll come for you. We have to make him step out and walk into the light. Make him pay for his sins. And what better place to pay, than in the city built for sin?”
Delaney was trying to follow along. She really, truly was. Sin City. “Vegas? Are you talking about Vegas right now?”
“Um.” A nod from Jezebel. “When Kurt finds out that you dashed off to Vegas in order to marry your ex, I think he’ll come running to stop you. He’ll be so enraged that he won’t be thinking straight. He’ll take unnecessary risks. Make mistakes.”
Delaney took a step back. Then another one. “You cannot be serious.” Was she still dreaming? Still upstairs asleep in bed? Because there was no way the woman was actually suggesting that Delaney and Nash run off to Vegas in order to get married.
“Kurt Wellington is an international criminal. We are lucky to have him on American soil right now.”
Uh, Kurt was only on American soil because of their wedding. Normally, he resided in Milan, but he was an American by birth, just as she was, and he’d wanted them wed in the city where he’d grown up so long ago.
“He’s disappeared. Vanished, according to my intel. But he is still hunting you. So when he finds out that you’re heading to Vegas, I believe that he will head there, too. I believe he’ll want to stop Nash from marrying you because Nash interrupted Kurt’s own wedding to you.”
“You…” Another step back. She was seriously considering running out of that cabin. “You want me to go to Vegas and marry Nash?”
“Pretend marry. We can fake the ceremony.” Utter unconcern from Jezebel. “Or it can be real and we can just get it annulled later. Please, calm yourself. It’s not like I’m asking you to fuck Agent Quinn.”
Four frantic steps back.
Fuck Agent Quinn. Delaney fanned herself because she was flushed and way too hot.
“He’ll come after you. I believe he will do anything necessary to stop you from marrying another man.”
Delaney choked down the lump in her throat. “Will you define ‘anything necessary’ for me? It would be super helpful if you could do that.”
“He’ll kidnap you. Attack Nash. Break laws.” A shrug. “And we’ll catch him in the act. Have him dead to rights. We’ll have everything monitored and recorded, and there will be no chance of him escaping or worming his way out of a conviction.”
“Provided you catch him in the act.” Delaney hated the knots in her stomach. “Provided he doesn’t succeed in, oh, I don’t know, kidnapping me and possibly killing Nash.”
“He won’t kill me.” Utter certainty from Nash. “And he won’t take you from me.”
“There is, of course, a Plan C, as well,” Jezebel announced.
“Plan C,” Delaney gasped out. Am I in the Twilight Zone? Plan C had to be better than the other two options, right? Please, be better.
Jezebel’s expression hardened. She motioned toward the two men who stood near the door.
They immediately shifted position, surging forward.
“I take you into protective custody right now,” Jezebel informed her.
“My guards and I will spirit you to a secure location where you will stay for the foreseeable future while I assemble a team to track down Kurt Wellington. Once he is tracked down and apprehended—hopefully, without a major loss of life—then we will begin the trial process. Though, again, tracking him may prove impossible. Once he’s aware that we are hunting him, I do expect him to vanish. ”
Right. Because of all the passports and his international, criminal connections.
Delaney’s head hurt. “Let’s think positively and say you do catch him. Then what?”
“The trial will be based purely on the testimony that you can provide because there is no body for the man who was supposedly murdered.”
“Uh, there is no ‘supposedly’ about it. Kurt murdered him! I saw the killing with my own eyes!” The throbbing in her head intensified.
“But there is no body, and it will be your word against Kurt’s. Just as it will be your word against Kurt’s regarding him holding you prisoner in a closet and him attacking you with a knife.”
Jezebel had certainly been thoroughly briefed on a great deal of information. Nash must have updated the woman when Delaney had been sleeping. One hell of an update, from the sound of things. “I saw Kurt kill a man. I watched him commit murder with my own eyes.”
“And do you know where the body is?” Jezebel asked her.
Delaney shook her head.
“Not having the body makes the case much harder to prosecute. We also don’t know the victim’s identity.” A pause. “Do we?”
“I can describe him. Sandy brown hair, blue eyes, stubble on his cheeks. A scar sliding under this chin.” She pointed to her own chin to show the spot.
“I don’t know his height because h-he wasn’t standing.
Medium build.” Her hand fell. “He was scared. So scared. Begging to live and Kurt…” Delaney stopped.
The memory of that shooting was far too vivid in her mind.
Jezebel advanced toward her. She reached for Delaney’s hand. Lifted it. Stared at the marks on her wrists. “We should photo her injuries.” Brisk. “Keep a log. Get a full statement. At the very least, we could try him for assault.”
Assault. “And how long would Kurt serve if he was convicted of assault against me?”
Jezebel stared at her. “He’s going to have a very, very good lawyer at his trial. And the trial is contingent on us actually catching him. As I said, Kurt will have plenty of passports and plenty of contacts so that he can vanish easily.”
“Vanish…” Delaney pulled in a deep breath. “And just go kill someone else, somewhere else.”
Jezebel let her go. “It’s what he does.”
“Unless I go back to him and gather evidence.” The original option from Jezebel. Plan A.
A growl rumbled from Nash. “You’re not doing that.” Nash was adamant. “You go back to him, and you’ll have no protection. He’ll kill you.”
“But…but Jezebel said—”
“Fine.” Nash’s eyes were filled with fury.
“Maybe he won’t kill you right away. Maybe you’ll somehow manage—as a complete civilian with no training—to send us some intel that we can use against him.
Then he’ll figure out what’s happening, and he’ll make you vanish.
Could be that he just kidnaps you. Could be that he takes you out of the country and there is no one that you can text for help.
Because you’ve disappeared and even the CIA can’t find you ever again. I can’t find you ever again.”
Yes, he made Plan A seem chilling. “Then I think I’ll take what’s behind door number two, please.”
“What?”
She rolled back her shoulders. “Plan B.” Her gaze did not waver from his. “Nash, will you marry me?”