She turned and strode back into the bedroom.
“They’ve taken her to ground.”
Alexandr Komarov’s gaze flickered away from his aquarium and landed on his henchman who had entered his study. His man inside the CIA had underestimated the strength of the specter agent. Adler thought they were myths, but Komarov knew better because he had a few as members of his Bratva. Unfortunately, they were away on assignments, and he had to use some of his lower level crew.
Taking down Jase Locke wouldn’t have been easy if the man hadn’t already lost half the blood in his system. He was almost dead when they shot him. He had been useless for information, refusing to give up anything on his partner. His lover.
Caitlin Kincaid had his money. There were rumors that she had amnesia, which would explain why Locke had nothing to bargain with. Not that the man could negotiate out the death sentence Alexandr had condemned on him. Locke murdered his two sons. There was no forgiveness for that. His sons should have been the next in line to take over the Bratva. The double-crossing Locke turned out to be an embedded deep cover agent known as specter agents—a special division of the CIA. Locke’s cover was blown—ratted out by one of the specter agents during a meeting. A bloody shootout occurred and Locke disappeared, along with $100 million of Komarov’s money.
The experimental branch of the CIA known as Project Infinity was rife with corruption. The loose oversight and billions of dollars passing through the hands of their agents from money laundering schemes were too tempting to keep most of them honest. And so the project imploded, and the agency cut them loose. The few that were honest were hunted down and assassinated. The corrupted specter agents dispersed and joined the organizations they were tasked to infiltrate. They had become the deadliest enforcers of the mob.
“How could she just disappear?” Komarov asked. “Don’t we have eyes inside the embassy?”
“We do. But we have a big problem.”
Alexandr remained silent, which was a signal for his man to continue.
“The man who subdued her at the embassy is a security specialist, Travis Blake.”
“The name sounds familiar.”
“Blake Security Inc. is a rapidly growing security firm.”
“What kind of security?”
“Mostly executive protection. One of the best on the U.S. east coast.”
Alexandr cursed. “So you’re telling me she could be on a flight to the U.S. right now?”
“Yes.”
“How could this have happened?” Alexandr roared as his henchman cringed. He had been so goddamned close to his goal with a fucking man in place to execute his plan. “One little girl and those three idiots couldn’t handle her.”
“She moved quickly—“
“Fucking Adler underestimated her. You know how our friends can get . . . a little crazy,” Komarov said.
“Yes, sir.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Komarov turned back to his aquarium to calm his rising frustration. “The timing of a security specialist showing up and taking Ms. Kincaid tells me someone is aware of what she knows. I want you to find out everything about Travis Blake. See if he has any weaknesses—family members—anything we can use to make him give up Caitlin Kincaid.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alexandr waved his hand to dismiss his henchman. At least he had flushed out the elusive Ms. Kincaid, and they weren’t exactly at a loss for where she could be. Travis Blake was a dead man for even thinking he could steal that money.
3
The Gulfstream550 landed at Dulles International airport at 2:00 a.m. Nate and his team who were working a BSI assignment in Frankfurt also hitched a ride back with Travis. The men stole curious glances at the blonde woman sitting beside him. Only Nate had known Caitlin five years before. Travis decided to get used to calling her Caitlin. That was what she wanted, and he conceded that it would be less confusing for her to adjust to her life with him. As revelations started piling up like an avalanche, he wasn’t even sure Sarah Quinlan was even her real maiden name. Nate had dug up some information that prior to being Sarah Quinlan, she may have been Sandra Deacon. His source was unnamed. He only said that he was an ex-CIA operative who had direct involvement with the specter agent projects.
He watched her bend over to stuff her eReader into her backpack. He needed to take her shopping. She had nothing. Travis suddenly had a fierce desire to take care of her, to spoil the shit out of her. Three years’ worth of what he wanted to do for her, what he wanted to show her, and he couldn’t wait to get started. He just hoped she was up for it. She still wasn’t comfortable with him, so he tried not to be too pushy in tryingto pick up where they had left off. There was no catching up because she didn’t have a single fucking frame of reference with him. He certainly noted how her eyes flared in appreciation as they traveled up his body at the hotel. She was interested. And he struggled to keep his cock down and not have it jerk in attention. Sex had never been a problem between them. They were a combustible pair who couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
This forced restraint from his side was going to drive him crazy, if not kill him first.
The plane had pulled into a private hangar. His Escalade was already parked there, so when they disembarked the plane, he nodded to Caitlin to head in the direction of the black SUV as he rolled his suitcases behind him. The sum of his wife’s belongings were in a damned backpack. He cursed John Cooper/Jase Locke all over again. Even as she tried to hide it, Travis knew Caitlin was devastated with the death of Locke, so he was trying his damnedest to hide that he actually hated the bastard and would’ve hunted him down and killed him all over again if given the chance. Not only for taking his wife, but for also getting her hurt. When he undressed her yesterday, he found scars on her leg and face that were not there before. He had skimmed his fingers along her face while she slumbered, tracing the scar that started from her hairline by her temple and ran parallel to the lines of her jaw. Fury started to ratchet up inside him again.
“Everything all right?” Caitlin glanced back questioningly at him.
“Huh? What?”Shit.
