Merrick's Eleventh Hour. Wendy Rosnau
off.”
“He just happened by at the right moment?” Merrick laughed. “They say timing is everything, but that’s a bit hard to swallow, honey.”
“I don’t care what you think. I know what happened. Cyrus saved my life.”
“So he’s your hero.”
“I’m alive because of him.”
“What reason did he give you that I wanted you dead?”
“Onyxx business. A conspiracy you believed I was involved in?”
“What conspiracy?”
“He told me that my boss at the art gallery was a Russian spy. That you’d been onto him for years. That’s why you married me. That you’d found evidence that I was working with him.”
“Were you ever working as a spy?”
“No.”
“Then how could I have found evidence that you were? There was no conspiracy, Johanna. If you were abducted, it was Cyrus who ordered it, not me.”
“You’re lying.”
She seemed so damn sure about what had happened. Adamant that he had tried to kill her. Had she met Cyrus for the first time in the warehouse? Suddenly he knew it was true. She was speaking the truth. At least her version of what she believed happened.
“I overheard those men talking when I came to in the warehouse. They were talking about how you wanted me to die.”
“They were Cyrus’s men, not mine. He’s an international criminal, Johanna. A rogue agent from Onyxx. He had you kidnapped and put in that warehouse.”
“No! It was you,” she screamed at him. “You wanted me dead. Go to hell, Adolf, and take your lies with you!”
“I’ve spent years in hell, Johanna. It’s familiar territory.” He reached out and pulled her off the berth and roughly hauled her to her feet. She cried out, and he let go of her before he could do something he would regret. “That you would think I could kill you is—”
“You’re no saint…Icis. That’s right. I know all about your days as an assassin. That part of your life you neglected to mention when you married me.” She had climbed back on the berth and wrapped her arms around herself. “I saw your file. Before Onyxx you were a hired killer.”
“It’s true, I was a government assassin. A mercenary for hire before that. Cyrus used that information to cast doubt so you would believe him, Johanna. He used you.”
“No.”
“Yes, and you doubled his reward by climbing into bed with him and giving him a son. That must have made him laugh all the harder.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Merrick pulled his phone from his pocket. He’d downloaded the e-mail he’d received years ago from Cyrus. He hit the keypad then grabbed her hand and placed the phone in it. “Take a look, Johanna. That’s what Cyrus sent me the day you disappeared…shopping. The day he let me believe he had killed you. That and four little words. Game on. Your move. I watched my wife die on a computer screen, and for twenty years until two days ago, I believed it was true. He did that. Your hero did that!”
Chapter 4
Cyrus got the call on the island. He’d just finished running Erik through a tactical course that would have killed him a year ago. He pulled his phone from his fatigues and saw that it was Kipler.
“What is it? I told you I didn’t want to be interrupted. It better be a life-altering problem or—”
“They’re gone.”
“Who’s gone?”
“Callia and Zeta. One of the guards took them to Kerkyra and they never returned to the car.”
Cyrus glanced at Erik, then walked far enough away to keep from being overheard. “What the hell do you mean they never returned to the car?”
“They were shopping at the market square. When they didn’t come back to the car after two hours, Endre went searching for them. He called me after he couldn’t find them. I’ve sent the men out to search the town, but they’re not having any luck.”
“What time did they leave the house?”
“Midmorning.”
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