Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Li pulled his wife’s hand up to his lips, kissing it with deep affection before running for the door. “I’ll get the London office on the line.”
Brody looked down at his son. “I’ll bring her back to you. I promise.”
And where they would go from there, he would have to see.
* * * *
Steph put a hand to her head and tried to stifle a groan. Her brain was fuzzy and there was a dull ache at the base of her skull. What had happened? “Brody?”
“Ain’t here, luv, and I, for one, am happy about that,” a deep voice said. A familiar voice.
Alfi.
It came rushing back to her. She wasn’t safe and in bed with Brody. She’d given all that up. She’d walked away and she would be shocked if Brody ever spoke to her again.
Not that he would get that chance since she was likely going to die soon.
“Where are we?” Her throat was dry, the words hard to get out.
“No idea.” Alfi was sitting across from her, one knee up as though he was casually relaxing on what looked like a concrete floor. His back was against a bare wall, his eyes on her. “I suspect we haven’t gone far though. They tried to knock me out, too. Picked me up in front of the petrol station. I bet they drank my beer, too. Anyways, after they showed me off for the cameras, they shoved me in another car, and that’s when I got the old head swipe. Lucky for me, I got a really hard head, but I kept quiet. Let them think it worked. We couldn’t have gone more than twenty minutes from wherever the hell I was.”
“Sanctum.” It was all coming back to her now. Every bittersweet moment. “They took you to Sanctum, which means they know a lot about me and who I was with. They knew we would be at the club.”
Alfi winced. “Well, I might have mentioned that, but they didn’t say that’s where we were going. Well, they might have said it, but I don’t speak whatever the fuck they’re speaking. Then we got here and they tossed me in. It’s some kind of a warehouse. There’s one window, but it’s too small for me. I might be able to save you if I can figure out how to shove you up there.”
She looked around the room as her vision cleared. The floor was concrete and the walls completely bare. There was nothing in the room at all save for the blanket she was lying on and a couple of bottles of water. A shaft of light came from above. There was a small window up at the top of the wall. Maybe twelve or fourteen feet up. But she rather thought Alfi was underestimating her curves. Besides, he didn’t know what she did.
“I can’t leave. I made a deal with Anya’s brother. If I let him trade my life for hers, he won’t kill Brody and Nate.”
“Bastard,” Alfi spat. “First off, Brody’s a hard man to kill. Second, what kind of a person threatens a baby?”
“I don’t know. What kind of a person steals a thumb drive off a dying man?” Alfi wasn’t innocent in this, and she had a few questions for him.
Alfi sat up straighter. “Well, it wasn’t like he was going to do anything with it. And he asked me to take it. Begged me, really. He woke up and I was the only one there. He told me where it was and begged me to keep it safe.”
“And your version of keeping it safe was trying to sell it back?”
“Didn’t get that far.” His voice went low. “I never even got to look at the damn thing. I tossed it in the back of the Jeep and I don’t know what happened to it.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I thought I heard ’em coming and I didn’t want it on my person. I rather thought I was keeping it safe at the time. If they’d caught us, they would have searched me,” Alfi argued. “Anyway, by the time I got you to Guinea and I had a chance to look for it, it was gone. I don’t know where it is. When I realized that de Vries had figured out my name and that I had something to do with you getting away, I decided to come to the States. I found out Brody was here and decided sticking close to him was my best bet. Knew he wouldn’t let you die. Except apparently he has.”
“Brody didn’t know a thing about this,” Stephanie explained. “I made the choice to trade myself for Anya.”
A low chuckle came out of his mouth. “Should have seen that coming. You’ve got a death wish, Doc.”
“I don’t.” Maybe she had before, but all she could think of now was seeing Brody and Nate again. It was all she wanted in the world. One more day. One last hour. One more minute with them. “And I don’t know if I would have traded myself in if it had just been about Anya. I promised Brody I would let him handle that.”