“Roger that, Sir,” Belov replied as he got busy on his laptop. Five minutes later, he was done. “Transferred. Thirty-five million dollars to account number 9832930991882.”
Milekhin raised his phone to his ear. “Olga. They’ve transferred the money. Do you see it?” He waited for a beat. “All there? Excellent . . . I’m taking Ms. Kincaid with me . . . You don’t need to deploy the kill code; I’ll let you know when I’m done so you can cancel it.” His cold eyes roamed over Caitlin’s body like a snake about to suffocate its prey. His brows suddenly furrowed. “Olga?”
Milekhin’s expression was one of alarm as his eyes flew to Porter whose face remained impassive. Milekhin backed away from the group as he repeated, “Olga? Olga . . .” He looked at his phone as if it were poison and punched a number again. Milekhin was growing more agitated by the second. He looked at Porter accusingly. “What did you do to my wife? I heard her cry out . . . the line got cut.”
“Do you honestly believe we’d choose a criminal over one of our own agents?” Porter taunted.
“You just killed her,” Milekhin sneered, pointing to Caitlin. “My wife and I die, the kill code gets deployed.”
“No, it won’t,” Porter said. “When we transferred the money, we attached a program that took over your wife’s computer when she verified the funds. It logged in to the assassin’s website and cancelled the kill code. I got confirmation just when you lost contact with your wife. It’s over.”
“What are you saying, Porter?” Caitlin asked, not quite believing what the admiral’s words were telling her.
“You’re free, Ms. Kincaid,” Porter smiled at her. “Sorry for abducting Travis, I had to make it believable to Milekhin that you were under duress. I was going to explain everything later; although, I think no amount of explanation is going to appease your husband.”
Oh, my God. Caitlin’s head was spinning from all this misdirection. So, was Porter a good guy after all? Caitlin knew what a kill code was. It was an intent to contract the services of an assassin.
“Belov, take Milekhin into custody.”
Belov stood up and walked by Caitlin. Before she knew what was happening, Belov shot Milekhin, and hauled Caitlin into his arms, pointing his gun at Porter.
“What’s the meaning of this, Crowe?”
Okay, was this another of Porter’s mind fucks?
“Good. I’m sick of the name Belov. Let’s stick to Crowe for the duration of this affair, shall we?”
“Let her go.”
“You crazy?” Crowe twisted the muzzle of the gun against her temple. “What’s locked in this head of hers is worth a fortune.”
“She’s done enough.”
“You’re letting your sentiment for your boy Travis Blake get in the way. You’re getting soft. I don’t want to work for weak men,” Crowe sneered. “Now, I want you to enter your code to reverse the thirty-five million. And Ms. Kincaid and I can disappear.”
“You’ve got it set up to load into your offshore account.”
“Bingo.”
“You think I’d simply hand you thirty-five million dollars?”
“One call from me, Travis gets it in the head,” Belov said.
“No!” Caitlin screamed. “You hurt him, I’ll never help you!”
“Oh, I’ve got all methods of coercion. Drugs, pain,” he whispered in her ear. “Sex.”
Obviously, Crowe boy here had underestimated her. Did he forget that she was once a specter agent? She grabbed the wrist of his gun hand and pushed it away at the same time she cracked her head into his chin; then she stomped her heel into his instep. She had purposefully worn sharp-heeled boots for exactly this purpose. Crowe howled in anger and pain.
Breaking free, she scampered toward Porter. She saw the admiral raise his gun and shoot at a point behind her. Twisting her head, she saw Crowe go down.
A door crashed open.
“Caitlin!”
Travis! She whirled around, her eyes catching his. Her heart burst with relief. He was safe! She made to run toward him then grew alarmed when his eyes flashed with horror.
“Caitlin, look out!” Porter shouted behind her.
