“No, I’m perfectly healthy.” She tried not to sound like a panicked stalker, but she had to see him today. “I can be there in thirty minutes. Just a short visit, okay?”

“I suppose that will be all right. Call when you get downstairs and I’ll clear the security so you can come up.”

Abbie hung up feeling like a huge weight was beginning to lift from her chest. Hope was taking the place of fear. She handed the phone to Hunter, so excited she wanted to hug him and hating the fact that she hesitated. “You heard. He’s going to see me when I get there.”

Hunter pocketed his phone. “I hope he agrees to help your mother.”

She knew the word “today” was at the end of that sentence in Hunter’s mind. She understood that he had an important job of some sort to do, but she had to get her brother to help.

No matter what it took to convince him.

Chapter Forty

Linette had six more steps until she could get inside her office and shut the door.

She’d been given the time for the bombing. Saturday-tomorrow-at 2200. She’d asked if that was Eastern Standard Time and Vestavia said he’d been told it was, but he hadn’t sounded convinced.

No information on the city yet, but Vestavia expected to have that in time to get his people on the ground at the bomb site. What did Vestavia want his people to do once they arrived on-site if the bombs were already set?

Would his people detonate the bombs?

Vestavia always made her feel like she had to check to see where she stepped. He kept her on edge, particularly with this project. Might just be feeling jumpy because she’d never been included at this level.

Inside her office, she locked the door and sat down at her desk, excited and terrified. She wanted to share as much as possible with her online contact, whose group had proven they put her information to good use. But if Vestavia was telling the truth, that he was only sharing certain details with each of his three lieutenants, would he be able to figure out that the information passed along had came from her?

Or would he think someone connected to Bardaric had tipped off the FBI or a domestic defense organization?

She lifted her hands to the keyboard. A movement stopped her. The doorknob turned slowly, then the door opened.

Basil walked in grinning. One cheek pooched out with the caramel candy he sucked on. “Ready to buddy up some? I’m the one in the know.”

“No thanks.”

He closed the door, then sidled across the room and leaned two hands down on her desk. His sickeningly sweet breath breezed across the short distance separating them to nauseate her. “I don’t think you realize just how unforgiving Vestavia is,” Basil said.

“I believe I know the Fra just fine.”

“I don’t think so, little girl. You’ve never seen what he’s capable of.”

She had the urge to tell Basil stories of her time with the older Fra she’d bet would turn even a strong stomach, but she sat still with her robotic mask in place, though nothing deterred him.

“When I first came into the Fratelli with eight other guys, one of them showed up a minute late for our first exercise in fieldwork. Vestavia wanted to make an example of him. The kid couldn’t have been more than twenty-two. He was stripped and stretched spread eagle over a metal grate out in the woods. Vestavia had us build a fire under the kid. He’d been gagged. I swear his eyeballs popped out of his head when we lit the flame. Not a big fire that would engulf him. No, this was a roasting pit, and he was the main dish. We had to stand back a ways when the smell got bad. He lived most of the day until it rained. Buzzards showed up and started ripping into him. He finally died, but it took a while.”

“Your point?” she asked in a nonchalant voice. Eating any cooked meat would be difficult for a while.

“Just want you to know what you’re risking if you fail him.” Basil chuckled and stood up. “I heard worse was done when he was banging Josie. That was one mean bitch.”

“I do not wish to discuss the Fra or his associates and suggest you take care what you say.”

“Boss is across town at a party schmoozing city officials who think he’s their most upstanding citizen. Why’d you think I came by now?”

Her skin quivered with a touch of fear. “Please leave.”

“Sure thing. See me to the door.” He crossed his arms, declaring he was content to wait.

Linette gritted her teeth and stood up, walking around her desk.

He lunged and caught her arm, yanking her against him.

She shoved her fist between them. “Don’t be stupid!”

“Been called a lot of things, babe, but not stupid. Especially since we both know they only promote someone with a genius IQ to lieutenant.”

She had no one to back her in a dispute, but he’d been right about her intelligence. She’d figure out a way to stop him from playing with her as if she were a puppet. Or a blow-up doll in his case. “Leave now or you’ll regret this.”

“Only thing I’ll regret is not having planned enough time to take you right here in the office.” He reached up and fondled her breast.

She stood perfectly still, not fighting him. “You should take care not to risk angering Fra Vestavia,” she warned.

“You wouldn’t dare say a word to Vestavia. You complain and he’ll yank you off the team and give you to me for sure. The Fratelli would suspect a woman of flaunting herself, even you.”

She didn’t say a word. Basil was right.

And he was going to be a problem whether the mission succeeded or failed.

Chapter Forty-one

Hunter left the limousine parked a quarter-mile from the address north of downtown Chicago. Abbie had jumped out, raring to go meet her brother. He hoped she could convince her brother to help her.

If not, Hunter had to find her somewhere safe to hide soon.

Things would turn ugly when he encountered BAD.

She wore a suede coat he’d picked up for her in Bloomington, where he’d changed into jeans and a black turtleneck pullover. The down vest he wore was all he needed with the late-afternoon temperatures hovering in the low fifties.

She surprised him by taking his hand when he reached for hers. They walked along at a quick pace, dodging a woman with a little white dog and another lady with a stroller. When Hunter located her brother’s six-story building, Abbie used the phone on the wall next to the entrance to his apartment to call him so he could key the security code to unlock the door.

Hunter kept an eye on the area, but nothing out of the ordinary moved around the quiet neighborhood.

“Hi, it’s me.” Abbie listened and raised her head to face a security camera, then nodded at Hunter and said, “He’s a friend of mine and he’s healthy, too.”

She frowned, listened, and rubbed her head. She’d had a headache on the way back, but this seemed to be a new headache. “Uhm, let me find out.” She covered the phone and turned to Hunter. “He doesn’t want anyone else up there but me.”

“That’s a negative.” Hunter eyed the camera, not caring if the guy didn’t like what he saw.

“He’s sickly. I read in the file he’s a hemophiliac,” she explained. “I’m just going to go up for maybe ten minutes and come right back down.”

“Tell him I’ll stand outside the door.” That was more ground than Hunter would normally give.

She told her brother, then covered the phone again. “He said he has elderly residents nearby who get upset if anyone lingers in the hallway.”

“I’m not letting-”

She cut him off. “I know you’ve been holding off all day to turn me over to somebody and I do appreciate the trouble this is causing you. I have to talk to my brother now, because the minute you hand me off my mother’s dead if I don’t make this work. I can’t live with missing this chance for her. If you aren’t going to let me go up there to see my brother then just kill me now because I will fight everyone to the death who tries to stop me. I need ten, maybe fifteen minutes. If I’m not back down by then, come and get me.” She lowered her voice. “I know you can get inside this building.”