“The same God who just maybe brought you into the life of a woman who can keep up with you. Challenge you. And... who needs you. Even if she won’t admit it.”
Oh, she’d admitted it. Right there in his arms earlier tonight.This old woman selling mangoes asked if I was buying fruit for my husband. And for a second... I almost said yes.
Okay, he might be reading between the lines, but it had sounded like... something.
His phone buzzed against his thigh. He almost ignored it, but something—instinct? desperation?—made him pull it out.
A text from Chloe.
Chloe
I’m sorry, Skeet. I really am. I’m the fool for betraying you. Please meet me at the house?—
His heart hammered as he showed Ham the screen.
“Sounds like a woman in love to me.”
Before Skeet could respond, his phone rang. Unknown number.
“Answer it,” Ham said, voice suddenly alert. “Put it on speaker.”
“Skeet Blackwood.”
“Mr. Blackwood.”
He recognized the voice, and everything inside him froze.
“I believe you have something that belongs to me.”
Ham’s jaw tightened as he met Skeet’s gaze.
“And I have something that belongs to you.”
Oh, no, no?—
“Skeet, don’t—” Chloe, being stupidly brave.
A slap sounding through the phone had Skeet on his feet.
Ham too.
“Volkov—don’t?—”
“Hurt your wife?”
He stilled and Ham met his eyes. Then a soft chuckle drifted from the speaker. “Perhaps we could arrange an exchange. The research data on the thumb drive for Miss Silver. I think you’ll find that mutually beneficial.”
The thumb drive? The one from the laptop? He didn’t have it.
Still—“Where?”
“At the wharf. One hour. And come alone, Mr. Blackwood. Any deviation from these instructions and Miss Silver will disappear permanently.”
The line went dead.
Overhead, the clouds broke and rain plinked down, wetting his screen like tears. Skeet stared at it.
“You’renotgoing alone.”