Chapter 17
“Idon’t know what to take. I thought we’d have more time before Smith was released.” Ysabel looked from the closet to the suitcase on the bed.
“Evidently, Smith is not an easy patient and wants out of that hospital. Take whatever you’re comfortable in and enough for a couple of weeks. I’m sure Val will take you shopping as soon as Smith goes back to work. Val loves shopping.” He took out his matte black credit card and lifted it in two fingers. “I’m giving you this to use for anything you need while I’m gone. There’s no limit on it, so have a good time with Val.”
“No limit?” Ysabel smiled and reached for the card. Harbinger lifted it a bit, stalling her grasp. “But you have to promise me you’ll buy some lacy underwear.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “But you ruin them.”
“Because they take too long to take off.” Harbinger lowered his head and kissed her. Sighing, she leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.
“Ah, dude … You have an incoming call from Pierre. This is the second call in the last two minutes.” Con’s yell down the hallway broke them apart.
Harbinger lifted his head and groaned. “I will be so glad when he’s gone.”
“Con is a sweetheart.” Ysabel laughed and took the credit card, putting it in her handbag with her passport.
He headed over to the nightstand and picked up the phone he’d muted. “What?”
Pierre responded, “A courier should be arriving within the next five minutes with the Stradivarius. I would like to speak to my daughter.”
“So would I,” Harbinger said and hung up the phone. He put his earpiece in and tapped it. “Courier inbound with a violin.”
“You know they put those old-fashioned Tommy Guns in violin cases, right?”
“You watch too much television,” Harbinger told the techie.
“Is that possible? Television is my bestie. And I’m not stupid. I know the dimensions of a Tommy Gun and a violin are not compatible. The Tommy guns of that era were at least five and three-quarter inches longer than a standard violin.”
Harbinger stopped and put his hands on his hips, watching Ysabel take slacks out of the closet and fold them into the suitcase. “How …”
“I have an IQ of 160. I’m not just a pretty face.”
He blinked at that bit of information. “Noted. Let me know when the courier arrives,” he said before putting the device back into listening mode.
Ysabel glanced at him. “Did I hear something about a violin?”
“Your father is sending a courier with your violin.”
She blinked, and a smile spread across her face. “Really?”
“So he says.” Harbinger wouldn’t be surprised if it were a different one. He couldn’t see the man expending the effort to locate and obtain the instrument or giving the expensive violin to Ysabel. With what he’d learned about Pierre, there was always some kind of self-centered motivation.
“Hey, I can read the documents.” Con’s voice cracked in his ear again. Harbinger ignored it. “Damn, dude. There are ledger book pages here detailing payoffs to some pretty high-placed officials. Even in the United States. Hold on. Okay, I’m making huge leaps and not reading everything here. Oh, yes, there are bank accounts and addresses for each of the deposits. Hello … I know a couple of these people. They’re black hat hackers. Wicked sharp. Dude, offshore accounts, no private Swiss accounts. Oh, lookie there. Nadia has her own little ventures going on. Hold on, let me check …”
Harbinger tapped his earpiece. “You do talk a lot.”
“To myself when I’m working,” Con admitted. “I think Nadia is siphoning or diverting money. It’s a shell game. See the ball, under this cup, but surprise it didn’t stay there, type of thing. She’d need one hell of a computer person to do that for her. Someone in … hold on, I’m following the dots …” Harbinger listened to a furious clacking of computer keys as Ysabel moved from the closet and dresser to the suitcase.
“This one or this one?” Ysabel held up two different dresses.
“Both.”
Harbinger smiled at her when she rolled her eyes. “Not helpful. I have limited space.”
“Then neither, add more lacy things. You know how much I like them.”
“Dude, you’re not muted,” Con reminded him. “The source of the transfers is here in France. Oh shit. Dude, the IP address is in Pierre’s building.”
Harbinger sat up. “Meaning?”
“As I said, total and complete wild ass guess here, but maybe Nadia and Pierre are working together. I need to validate so much of this, but my gut says I’m not far off base. I could be wrong. I have to be. These transfers have been going on for, hell, three years, no—four.”
“How has Molchalin not discovered this?” Harbinger was confused.
Con grunted. “Too much money? Who knows.”
Harbinger didn’t buy that rationale. He asked, “Would you have found the movement of monies if you didn’t have the information in front of you?”
“Eventually, maybe, but like, do you hire accountants for illegal money, or do you just assume it’s where you put it?”
“Good question. Are you sending this to CCS?”
“Of course. They’re probably asleep, though. It’s early over there.” Con swore. “You’ve got a Vespa outside. Woman courier with a violin case.”
Harbinger frowned. “A woman?”
“Fuck, dude, the Corsica goons are following her into the building. Two, no, three of them.”
Harbinger grabbed Ysabel as she walked past him. “Come with me.”
“What? What’s happening?” Ysabel squeaked as she jogged with him down the hallway. Harbinger opened the guest bedroom door, marched through to the closet, and opened the comm room door.
“What is this?” Ysabel was looking everywhere at once.
He didn’t have time to explain. “Later, I promise.” He pointed at Con. “Do you have your weapon?”
“Always.” Con’s usual smart-ass demeanor vanished. “I’ve got her. Be careful.”
“Always.” He kissed Ysabel, gently pushed her into the room she’d never seen before, then shut the door after her. Three men, one woman. Nadia—it had to be Nadia—and the goons were her backup. She was who they were waiting for. Harbinger jogged into the front room as a knock sounded.
He stopped, drew a deep breath, and opened the door. Nadia was there with a violin case. It was Ysabel’s. He’d seen it enough to recognize the gray leather and red topstitching.
He also recognized the nine mil in Nadia’s hand.
“Back up.” Nadia’s Russian accent was immediately discernable.
Three men rounded the corner at the sound of her voice. Harbinger held up his hands and backed into his apartment. Nadia’s sneer reminded her of Smith’s when he was pissed. Her hired goons walked in first, and she followed them. Nadia shut the door, and one at a time, her hired muscle screwed silencers onto their weapons. Nadia dropped the case, and it bounced onto its side. She kicked it toward the wall and moved in, looking around, seemingly taking in the grandeur of his apartment.
There was a similarity between her and Ysabel, but Nadia looked more like Smith than she did Ysabel. Her features were more masculine and hardened.
Nadia brought her attention back to him. “Where is she?”
Harbinger stepped back and to his right as one of the men moved through the apartment. “Not here.” His eyes never stopped moving as he answered. He was assessing his enemies and looking for weaknesses. Nadia sighed and put her weapon down on the coffee table before sitting down and crossing her arms.
Harbinger moved again, putting his hands by his sides and centering his weight on the balls of his feet. He heard the man come back into the room.
“Clear,” the Mafia muscle said from directly behind him.
Nadia made a tsking noise. “I didn’t ask you where she wasn’t. I asked you where she was. You’ll learn the cost of wasting my time.” She flicked her hand toward the largest of the men. The meat handed his weapon to the one who’d been behind Harbinger, bringing all three men into his view, which was perfect for his intent. When the Mafia muscle turned toward him, he was ready.
Harbinger smiled at the guy. He’d been storing one fuckton of a lot of aggression and was more than happy to take it out on those three amateurs. That caused the man to falter for just a second. It was all the time he needed. Striking out with his right foot, he smashed the side of the knee of the man holding two weapons. Harbinger felt bones and cartilage snap under the force of his kick and heard the crack as weapons clattered to the marble floor. The man cried out and fell. Harbinger’s next strike was to the throat of the man approaching him. He hit hard enough to collapse the trachea. The big man grabbed his throat and dropped to his knees, rasping in a weird, breathless cough.
Harbinger launched toward Nadia, kicked her in the chest, which pushed her back into the couch. At the same time, he grabbed Nadia’s weapon. The last man standing pointed his gun at Harbinger and fired. The bullet’s song zapped past his ear, but the blast of Nadia’s nine mil was the last thing the man would see because Harbinger didn’t miss. The bullet Harbinger fired entered the man’s skull just a fraction above his eyes. The man fell backward into the spattered remains of his brain.
Harbinger unloaded the nine mil and dropped the magazine and bullet from the chamber before turning back to Nadia. Harbinger kicked the other weapons away from Mr. No Knee as he followed her. The woman scrambled on her hands and knees toward the front door.
He grabbed the back of her shirt and lifted her up. She scratched and clawed at him with her nails and tried to bite him, screaming obscenities in Russian. Harbinger grabbed her by the throat and pushed her against the door, squeezing hard enough to silence her. “Con, take care of the police response.”
“On it.”
The woman quieted. In Russian, she hissed, “He will kill you.”
Harbinger glanced over at the men on the floor. One was dead, one was dying, and the other was lying in a heap, moaning. He turned back to her. In perfect Russian, he responded, “Your father doesn’t scare me.”
“No, you fucking idiot. Pierre. He will kill you for touching me.” She sneered at him. “Abrasha will kill you if Pierre fails. But he won’t fail.”
“Your uncle isn’t that concerned, I assure you.”
“He isn’t my uncle. He and my mother were adopted from different families. He is not blood relation.”
Harbinger’s fingers tightened against the woman’s throat. He connected the dots. Pierre and Nadia were together. Nadia assumed the man would be her knight in shining armor. But Pierre didn’t give a shit about anyone but Pierre. A lesson Nadia would soon learn, no doubt. “Still not concerned. You’re dead, and so is Pierre. Your father will kill you. I’ve seen the documents your mother gave Ysabel.”
All the color in Nadia’s face drained. “That is a lie. She didn’t take anything.”
“No, she didn’t take anything. She copied everything and had it laser inscribed on a ring that was in the envelope. Hundreds of pages of documentation, including payoffs to well-placed government officials, even in the United States. Imagine how mad your father will be when his people are arrested.”
Nadia licked her lips, and her eyes darted everywhere but at him. Harbinger added, “I know you’re double-crossing your father, Nadia. How long do you think it’ll take before he finds out and kills you and Pierre?”
Nadia, eyes wide with fear, looked up at him. Bingo. The woman was in bed with Pierre, and they were definitely screwing over her father and, from the feeling he got, each other. She grabbed his hand around her neck and tried to pry it away. He squeezed just a bit harder. She panted, trying to breathe. “He won’t believe you.”
“Evidence is hard to deny, and unless you tell me everything you know about Pierre Archambeau and this crypto heist, he’s going to blame you.” His fingers squeezed a little tighter.
“And if I talk?”
“If it’s the truth, I won’t kill you today.” Harbinger stared at the woman, letting her know he wasn’t joking. She licked her lips again and shook her head. “You have to protect Pierre and me. You have to hide us. My father has eyes everywhere.”
“Except Pierre’s bedroom?” Harbinger lifted an eyebrow.
“He knows. He doesn’t care.” She stopped trying to pry his fingers away from her throat. “I have your promise you’ll protect us?”
“No.” Harbinger stared at the woman. She wasn’t getting any protection from him. Not after what she and Pierre had done to Ysabel. “You talk, or I kill you. I have the documents. I’m in control of this situation. Not you, not Pierre, not your father.”
Nadia stared at him for a long time. “Pierre is stealing the money. Do you really love her?”
As if he’d chitchat with her about his love life. “How is he stealing the crypto?”
The woman almost smiled at his lack of answer, but she didn’t. Instead, she said, “The program. I know nothing about it, but my father gave it to Pierre to use to gain access to the electronic keychains that hold the crypto. The program won’t work against the chains because they aren’t a firewall. They’re a combination of numbers that it takes a supercomputer to defeat.”
“Pierre is stealing all the money, even the money that is Abrasha’s from this event?”
Nadia frowned. “What do you mean? All the money is being stolen at Abrasha’s directive. There’s a list of names Pierre is to target. Thirteen in total.”
The fucker. Of course, Pierre didn’t tell him the truth. Harbinger stared down at the woman. “How long have you been sleeping with Archambeau?”
“Does it matter? He’s promised that when he gets this money, he and I will disappear, and I won’t have to deal with my father again.”
“When is the heist?”
The woman looked up and to the left before she lied. “I don’t know.”
Con’s voice came over the device in his ear. “Police have been diverted. Contacting Guardian about the mess in the front room.”
Harbinger jerked the woman off the wall and turned her around. It took him less than a minute to pat her down and remove her cell phone and a small knife at her ankle. He switched to English, “Con, I need flexicuffs. There’s a go-bag in the far-right corner of the room. Let CCS know there’s one here for interrogation.” He grabbed her arm and moved her away from the front door.
Walking through a vase that shattered from the bullet that missed him, Nadia stepped over the dead man as if he were a bump on the sidewalk. She didn’t flinch or glance at the man, who was now passed out from the pain of a shattered knee. “I have more information. If you promise to protect Pierre and me from him. I will tell you, but you’ll never get extradition or a conviction for my father. Too many people owe him.”
Con walked out into the living room. “Here.” He handed Harbinger two large flexicuffs. “I figured you’d want to make sure she wouldn’t try to run away.”
“Good idea.” Harbinger put the flexicuffs on the woman. As he finished, Con’s hand landed on his shoulder. “I’ve got her. You’ve got another problem to deal with. We have a team inbound to help take out the trash. I’ll wait for them.”
“Thanks.” Harbinger checked Nadia’s restraints and stood up.
“The powers that be are up to date. The team will be here shortly.”
“Got it. Her phone.” He tossed the device to Con, who popped open the back and pulled out the battery. He lifted the phone and showed it to Harbinger. “Same tracker.”
“Tracker?” Nadia’s eyes bounced between the two of them. “That can’t be. These are clean phones.”
Con snorted. “Yeah? Who told you that? Daddy Dearest?” Con reached into his pocket, pulled out a knife, and pried the gold square away from the base of the phone. He handed it to Harbinger. “You know where that goes.”
“Done.” He grabbed the tracker and went back to the comm room. He opened the door, and Ysabel launched herself at him. “I thought you were going to be killed. They all had guns. The vase shattered. He shot at you!”
Harbinger held her tightly as he reached for the Faraday box and dropped the tracker into it along with the one Pierre had in his phone. He then wrapped his arms around her and rocked her until she pulled away.
“I watched everything. You were so fast.” Ysabel’s hands were shaking against his chest. “You shot him.” She closed her eyes. “But he was going to kill you. I saw him trying to point the gun at you when you were moving … and then the vase … then your gun … He could have killed you.”
“I’m fine.” He pulled her in for another hug.
“This is what you do. Your security job. You hunt these people, right?” She arched her back so she could look up at him.
“My responsibilities are more than just hunting people who are dangerous, but at the base of it, what you saw me do today is what can happen when I am called to work,” Harbinger told her as much as he, in good conscience, could.
She turned and looked at the monitor. “I tried to get out when I saw the guns. I tried to come to help you, but Con stopped me. He told me you were one of the best in the world at what you do. Then I saw …” She blinked rapidly and shook her head. Pulling a shaking breath, she lifted her eyes and looked at him. “You could have protected me. Eight months ago, when my father convinced me to leave you. Being with you was the safest place I could be.”
“It was and always will be.” Harbinger wrapped his arms around her as she leaned into him.
Ysabel turned her head toward the monitor. “Is that my sister?”
“That’s Nadia, but you don’t have to claim her as a sister. She’s never treated you like one.”
Ysabel nodded. “What did you say to her? Were you speaking Russian?”
“We were. I was asking her questions.”
“Did she answer?”
“She did, but I don’t know how much to believe.” The woman had caved a bit too early and too easily. Someone as hardened as Nadia … a person who could step over dead bodies without missing a beat, was someone he didn’t expect to spew out information the way she had. It was counterintuitive. Harbinger believed her words to be a well-planned scheme at best and a set-up at worst. He was hedging his bets and putting all his chips on the scheme and set-up. And he’d put Pierre behind all of it.
“I don’t want to leave you, but honestly, I can’t wait to get on the plane.” Ysabel sighed heavily. “You’ll be safe, right?”
“You know I will be. I have too much waiting for me at home not to take every precaution.” He squeezed her a bit as they hugged and rocked back and forth.
“Jinx is inbound to sit on that bitch, so your damn techie can continue to get us information off that flat. Harbinger, we’ve bumped the departure of the aircraft. A car will be outside your door in five minutes. Get her to the airstrip.” Fury’s voice disturbed the quiet connection between him and Ysabel.
“The name’s Con.” Con chuckled, and Fury growled.
Harbinger stopped rocking and realized he hadn’t silenced his communications device. So everyone and their brother had heard what Ysabel and he had said to each other. Well, fuck it. At least he wouldn’t have to repeat it in his report. “I copy. We’ll leave as soon as Jinx gets here.”
Ysabel blinked up at him, and he explained. “We’re leaving as soon as someone gets here to watch Nadia. The plane’s departure has been bumped up, and our car is on its way.”
He took her by the hand and headed to the bedroom, purposefully walking between Ysabel and the sight in the living room. “I’m almost ready. I just need the things from the bathroom. Anything else I can buy,” Ysabel said to herself as she marched straight into the bathroom.
“I’m online, H. I’ll talk with her on the way back to the States. I’ll make sure she feels welcome and knows the job is off-limits.”
“Thanks,” he responded. “How’s Smith?”
“Smith is fine,” the man answered for himself.
“So he says,” Val countered. “Does she know she’s got a half-brother?”
“No.” Harbinger hadn’t sprung that on her yet.
“I can tell her,” Smith replied. “Unless it’s something you want to do.”
“No, go for it,” Harbinger said as she came out with an armful of bottles and pouches.
“And can I say for a moment there I thought Nadia and her uncle were doing the nasty.” Val sighed.
Harbinger chuffed out a puff of air. “They are.”
“Yeah, but they aren’t blood relation, so it’s less gross. Kind of. Maybe. Okay, still gross.” Val made a shivering sound.
“The car is pulling up. Right behind the team.” Jewell’s voice broke into the conversation. “I burrowed into your security feed when Con took over watching Nadia. I didn’t want any more unannounced surprises,” she said by way of explanation.
“The car’s here.” Harbinger tapped his comm device into listen mode and helped her zip up her suitcase.
She grabbed her purse and checked for her passport and the credit card he’d given her. “I can use my own.” She handed it back to him.
He shook his head. “If you use your card, it’s a way someone can track you. I’d rather you use this for any purchase until we get everything sorted.” He folded it back into her hand. “Besides, I’d want to replace all that fancy lace I’ve ruined along the way.”
She smiled for a moment and then put the card back into her purse. “Only so you can ruin it again.”
Harbinger lifted his eyebrows a couple of times. “Definitely.” They laughed together before he took her hand in his and lifted her suitcase. “I want you to stare straight forward when we walk through the living room. Just look at the door, not Nadia, not Con, and not the men on the floor. There are also several other people in the front room.” He’d heard the team announce their arrival.
“Hey, anyone, can you verify a really big, really pissed-off-looking man named Jinx is supposed to be here?” That was the female member of the security team.
“I can,” Fury said. “He has a scar running from his little finger to his elbow on his right arm. He’s there to take over watching that bitch.”
“Good. I was going to clock her if I had to listen to her mouth any longer,” the woman said.
“Giovanni, since you’re there, you can interrogate her for us.” Fury chuckled. “Have Jinx in the room with you when you do it.”
“Plausible deniability. I didn’t kill her. He did.”
A deep, resonating voice came across the line. “No, she killed her. I didn’t.”
Fury snorted. “I think you two will work well together.”
“What information am I getting?”
“Anything you can,” Fury said. “Release the hounds.”
“Done.”
Harbinger interrupted. “Outbound.”
“Come out. I’ve checked the violin case. There’s a violin in there and three trackers. I’ve eliminated all of them.” A new voice.
He glanced at Ysabel. “Ready?”
She nodded, and he opened the bedroom door. As they moved into the living room, Spike came out from under the couch, and one of the team members scooped him up. “We’ll take care of him until you’re back.”
“Thanks,” Ysabel said at the same time as Harbinger. Harbinger was impressed with the team. Black plastic sheets covered the two dead men, and the medic was working on the unconscious one. Harbinger nodded at who he assumed was Jinx. The man stood to the side, silent as a sentinel, but he knew the look. Jinx dipped his chin in return.
Nadia started to spew cuss words in French at Ysabel. The woman standing in front of her reached out and slapped the shit out of Nadia. “Manners,” she reprimanded.
Ysabel glanced at Nadia and then at Harbinger. Her eyes were wide, and the slightest hint of a smile flashed across her face. Harbinger winked at his fiancée. She took her violin case from one of the team members on the way out the door.
They were followed down the stairs by the same man who had held the case for her, and he watched over them until they were inside the limo. Harbinger put up the security screen and made sure his comm was turned to listen only.
Ysabel looked at him, and she narrowed her eyes. “I wanted to slap her. Such language!”
Harbinger chuckled and diverted the conversation. “Check the violin.”
She pulled the case closer to her and opened it. Taking the instrument out, her fingers caressed the wood, and she lifted it to examine it. “There’s a new scratch here in the purfling and a small ding here near the saddle.” She plucked each of the four strings. “G, D, A, and E.” She frowned and twisted a tuning peg and then plucked the last string again. “She’s fine.” Ysabel smiled at him. “Thank you for getting her back for me.”
“She’s part of you. I’m just surprised he surrendered it. It’s valuable.”
“And mine.” Ysabel nodded. “I own it. He didn’t make it to my first performance as first chair. I didn’t expect him to, really. He rarely showed up for any of my milestone events. He apologized and told me I could have anything I wanted. I told him I wanted him to legally transfer the violin to me. I have the papers in a safety deposit box.”
Harbinger cocked his head. “Why?”
“I hate to admit it, but somewhere inside, I knew he didn’t care for me the way a father cares for a child. Things people said as I grew up. The fact I was in the United States for four years at school, and he never came to see me. He was controlling but distant.” She shrugged. “All the things that didn’t quite make sense then do now. I often wondered why he didn’t marry. I guess his mistresses were enough.”
“Perhaps.” Harbinger doubted the man could pretend to love someone long enough to marry them. “I believe he has psychopathic tendencies.”
“What do you mean?” Ysabel asked as she placed her violin into the case.
He shrugged. “He manipulates people, has a complete disregard for anyone but himself, no apparent empathy, and he has yet to speak the absolute truth to either of us. Yet he’s able to maintain an appearance of a normal life.”
Ysabel leaned back in the seat and nodded. “That makes a lot of sense.” She sighed. “And still …”
“You love him.”
“I do.” She nodded. “He’s my father.”
“And that’s another reason I love you. Your love is deep, and it’s true.”
She leaned into him, and they rode in silence for several minutes. “You killed those men.”
“I did.” She witnessed it; there was no need to deny what happened.
“It was easy for you, wasn’t it?”
“Easy? To take a life? No.” He always weighed the crime the individual committed against his legislated punishment. If he ever doubted, even for a second, the Council was wrong, he’d walk, and he’d made that abundantly clear.
“No, I mean …” She shook her head. “The way you did it. The training, you were swift, and everything you did was with precision. You hit notes that others can’t. Ahhggg.” She lifted her hands in the air. “I don’t know how to say it, but you’re …”
“Skilled.”
“Yes!” She slapped her thighs. “Yes, skilled. You’ve practiced these moves.” She jabbed out in front of her.
“All the time,” he admitted.
“Can you teach me?”
He frowned. “Why?”
She turned and blinked at him. “Because I never want to be in a prison with a rat again.” She shivered. “A rat, Heath.” She put her hands out in front of her. “That big. If you teach me, I can defend myself.”
He took her hand in his. The prison and the rat were all on her father. That bastard had orchestrated everything. He knew it, and Nadia had confirmed it. Pierre, his colleagues, and Nadia were her only threats. He hoped to eliminate each from her life in one fashion or the other. “I can teach you, but some of the work is hard on the hands.” He lifted hers to his lips and kissed them. “I would never forgive myself if you were injured and couldn’t play. How about I teach you what I can without compromising your music and promise that, for the rest of my life, I will protect you and keep you from harm?”
She stared at him and smiled. “For the rest of my life.”
He tapped her ring. “When I get back, we’ll get married. Plan any type of wedding you want.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want a big wedding. I just want to marry you. The wrapping isn’t important. What we are is.”
“Then we’ll find a judge and get married as soon as I get home.” The car slowed down, and he looked out the window. He could see the shiny black jet Guardian had sent for her, Val, and Smith.
When Ysabel tapped him on the shoulder, he turned back to her. “As soon as you get home, I expect you to damage more lace.”
Harbinger moved in one motion, pushing her back until she was prone. “I love you. Never question it. Never doubt it.”
“I know, and I will never doubt it. I love you, Heath.” She pushed his hair back from his brow. “Come to me when this is done.” He lowered and kissed her with the emotion lodged in every fiber of his being. When the car stopped, he lifted away. “We’re here.”
Ysabel sighed. “Heaven? I agree.”
He chuckled and helped her sit up. “There’s Val and Smith.” Another vehicle approached. He turned back to her. “It’s time.”
He opened the door and stepped out while the driver retrieved Ysabel’s suitcase. She handed him her violin, and he held her hand as she exited the vehicle. It was time, but damn it, he didn’t want to be separated from her again. And yet she’d be safer with Val while he and Guardian tried to unscramble the web of deceit Pierre had spun around them. It was time to do his job, even if it meant taking out the father of the woman he loved.