“What should we do?” I desperately hoped Thor would flop on the bed, lace his fingers behind his head, cross his ankles, and say, “Nothing. We’ll deal with it in the morning.”
He didn’t do that. Instead, he and Consuela stared at the wall as if they couldn’t quite believe our room was next to whoever stole the box. It really wasn’t that surprising. The hotel only had a handful of suites, and they were all on the same floor.
“Well?” I sounded snippy, but it had been a long day and I needed dinner, a drink, and a decent night’s sleep.
Neither responded. Not to the question. Not to the tone.
“Fine,” I huffed. “We do nothing. For now.” My stomach rumbled, and I went to the desk and opened its single drawer.
Yip. What are you doing?
“Room service.”
Yip. Please order me bacon. With a side of bacon.
I glanced at the menu, which was in Turkish, and huffed my frustration. “I’d kill for a hamburger.” No. I wouldn’t. There had already been too much killing. “I’d love a hamburger, but I can’t read this thing.” I shook the offending menu.
“I bet they speak English. Just ask for a burger.” Thor offered me an encouraging grin (the man had way more patience than I did). “Ask for two.”
Yip. I want one, too.
“I thought you wanted bacon.”
Yip. Put the bacon on the hamburger. Duh. Like me, Consuela was snippy.
“Three hamburgers it is.” I picked up the phone and ordered.
Thor glanced at the wall separating us from Yurgi’s box, then stepped onto the balcony. His hands tightened around the railing, and I could see the tautness in his neck and shoulders.
Yip. You need to tell him you left the goods in a dressing room.
My confession would do nothing for his obviously high stress level.
I gathered my courage and joined him on the balcony. Together, we stared at the turquoise sea and golden sun that hovered above the horizon.
“Are we doing the right thing?” he asked.
“You mean going after the box on our own, not calling the cavalry?” The cavalry was Mr. Brown.
“Yep.” He popped the “p.”
“The box belongs to Yurgi, and it ensures his safety. I’d prefer not to involve Mr. Brown.” Or his agency. Our agency. If Mr. Brown got involved, my stepfather would never see his box again. And, according to Yurgi, the box was all that stood between him and an umbrella tip dipped in thallium.
A cloud settled on Thor’s brow, as if my answer troubled him. “What if the contents of that box could change the course of the war?”
“I don’t believe they can. The world already knows Putin is a killer, and no court in Russia would find him guilty. He’d never submit to an international court. The contents are an embarrassment to him. Nothing more.” If that were true, why did so many people want them? I sighed my frustration.
“You’re tired.” Thor covered my hand with his.
I let the warmth of his fingers distract me from my impending hissy fit. “We’re all tired.”
Thor nodded and stared at the setting sun. Its rays gilded him, and he really did resemble a god. “Things will be clearer after we’ve slept.”
I stepped away from the view. And him. I needed a moment alone. Time to process. “I need a shower.”
Twenty minutes later, I stood in front of the fogged bathroom mirror. I’d conditioned the tangles out of my hair and moisturized skin that had spent too much time in the sun, but I hadn’t figured out why half of Europe wanted the box. Were we even in Europe?
I heard Thor answer the door and speak to someone, then the scent of hamburger reached me.
I pulled on my new maxi-dress and went looking for my meal.
Thor sat at the table on the balcony. He turned a beer bottle in his hands and stared at the horizon.
“You waited.” I took the seat across from him.
Consuela hadn’t. She had a bite of bacon in her mouth and a wry smile on her doggy lips.
I spread a napkin over my lap and ignored Consuela’s may-I-have-your-bacon-too look.
Silence reigned as we gobbled hamburgers and French fries. Finally, when I’d finished the last delectable bite, I met Thor’s gaze. “There’s something I should tell you.”
He cocked a questioning brow.
“I left the box’s contents at Beymen.”
His mouth dropped open.
“In an air-conditioning vent. Carrying those items around seemed like a bad idea.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “In a vent?”
I nodded. “In the dressing room.”
He looked at his watch. “How late is the store open?”
“They’re safer there than with us.”
“What if the cleaning staff—”
“Trust me.” I wrinkled my nose at the remembered dust. “No one has cleaned that vent in a long time. The vents are not part of the cleaning staff’s duties.”
Yip. I told you he wouldn’t like it.
“Hush,” I told her.
She snorted. The day anyone successfully told Consuela what she could or could not do would never come.
Thor rubbed a palm across his forehead. “I guess it won’t hurt to leave them there overnight.”
The muscles in my back relaxed.
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
His question had my back tensing again. “We were following the box. That seemed more important. Speaking of which—” I checked my phone, then nodded toward the wall that separated us from the thief “—it hasn’t moved.”
“Presumably the thief is meeting someone. If they leave, we follow.”
That meant staying up all night to monitor the tracker.
“We could steal it back.”
Yip. That sounds exciting.
Thor frowned at me. “We don’t know how many people are in that room or if they’re armed.”
“Fair point.” It wasn’t as if I wanted to steal it. Not when there was a bed calling, Poppy, come to me. I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed.
Thor rubbed an open palm across the back of his neck. “For the sake of argument, let’s say we took it. Where would we go?”
“The boat,” I suggested.
“If there is a second tracker, and they follow us, I don’t want to be at sea.”
I pictured a hole blown into the side of the boat with no land in sight. “I agree.”
Thunk! A rhinoceros had just charged the wall that separated our room from the box. That or an elephant. Maybe a small explosion. Had we missed C4 when we searched the box’s contents?
I stood fast enough to tip my chair. I grabbed for it, barely stopping it from crashing to the balcony’s tiles.
Consuela growled.
“The box?” Thor asked
I snatched up my phone from the table and opened the tracking app. “Still next door.”
“Let’s go.”
I went to put the phone in my pocket and realized I’d bought a dress without them. Drat.
“Consuela, you stay here.” Thor spoke with authority, as if he expected her to obey.
Yip. Not likely.
“We don’t have time to argue, not with a dog.” He scooped her up, dropped her in the bathroom, and closed the door.
“She’ll be furious with you.” And Consuela’s fury was best avoided.
“She’ll forgive me when we come back with the box.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. The yips coming from the bathroom sounded angry and vicious.
He jerked his chin toward the door to the corridor. “Let’s go.”
I followed him into the hallway, where the door next to ours stood ajar. I was starting to hate half-open doors.
With the tip of his gun, Thor widened the door’s angle.
I peeked around him.
The hotel room was a shambles. Cushions tossed, chairs tipped, and a large man lay unmoving on the floor next to the wall that separated our rooms.
“Dead?” I asked.
Thor checked his pulse, then grimaced. “The box?”
I glanced at my phone, groaned, and kissed hopes of a decent night’s sleep goodbye.
“On the move?”
“Yes.”
We left the dead man on the floor and raced toward the elevator.
“What about Consuela?” We could go back for her.
“She’ll be fine.”
“She’ll be furious.” More than furious. She’d go full-on Kujo.
“I’ll risk it.”
It was his funeral. “You’re a brave man.”
His answering grin drooped at the edges, as if even his lips were bone weary. “Because I locked a dog in the bathroom?”
“Because you’ll be the one to let her out.”
The elevator door opened, and he stepped inside.
With one last glance at the closed door to our room, I followed him.
“How fast is the box moving?” he asked.
“Slowly.”
“Good. They’re still on foot.”
I leaned against the elevator’s wall. Every time we thought we knew what was happening, the situation became more convoluted. “Who stole from the thief?”
Thor left off glaring at the floor indicator and glanced my way. Our gazes caught. “Are we sure we want to follow?” he asked.
No. Not at all. I wanted a night’s sleep, morning coffee in bed, then a leisurely breakfast. I did not want to chase a box through a strange, dark city. “Yurgi says the box has kept him safe. Now it ensures my mother’s safety.” I had to go after the box.
“It’s not the box that keeps them safe,” Thor replied. “It’s the contents.”
I frowned at him. “Are you saying we should let it go?
“I’m saying it’s not worth our lives.”
“So, we’ll be careful.” We stepped into the lobby, and I glanced at my screen. “Outside and to the left.”
“Very careful.”
We exited the hotel and paused. Night had fallen, and a light breeze touched my bare shoulders. I shivered and breathed in the briny scent of the sea. The dot on my phone moved at a steady pace. “Left at the corner.”
Streetlights cast yellow circles on the pavement of the near empty road. We hurried to the corner and found another deserted street.
“There.” I spotted a figure running through the twilight and pointed. Then, I ran. My espadrilles thudded against the pavement, and my breath came in short, quick pants.
Thor ran next to me.
The figure ahead of us glanced over her shoulder.
A woman? The thief was a woman?
Thor put on a burst of speed and caught her arm, jerking her to a stop. “You have something that doesn’t belong to you.” His gaze fixed on the shopping bag in her left hand.
The woman said something Turkish and stared at him with terrified eyes, as if she had no idea why two Americans had chased her down a dark street.
Thor released his hold on her, and she took a small step backward.
I checked my phone, then pointed at the bag. “That’s ours.”
“No English.”
Well, that was an inconvenience I could happily ignore. “Who do you work for?”
She lifted the bag, clutching it close to her chest. She was convincing as a scared victim. If I hadn’t seen the dead man and if I didn’t know she had the box, I’d believe her.
“You have our box.” I held up the phone and pointed at the red dot, then I took a step closer to her. “Just give it to us. You can go.”
Nearly a decade of kick-boxing lessons was the only thing that stopped her heel from meeting my head. Instinct took over, and my arm blocked her kick. I felt the impact travel to my shoulder.
I’d done this a hundred times—a thousand. I softened my left knee as my right leg swept at her ankles.
She fell.
Hard enough to earn a guttural exclamation.
That would teach her to underestimate a woman in a maxi-dress.
She scowled at me, then her gaze traveled to Thor and she tightened her grip on the box. Our box.
“You okay?” asked Thor.
“Not a scratch.” I’d have a bruise tomorrow. “Let’s get out of here.” I reached for the box, but the woman scuttled backward, just out of my reach.
I advanced another step, and her gaze fixed just over my left shoulder and her eyes widened. The old there’s-a-bigger-threat-behind-you ploy.
As if I’d fall for that. “The box.”
Next to me, Thor grunted, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him sink to the pavement.
“Mark?”
His body spasmed, and my heart rose to my throat.
“Mark!”
A hand grabbed me from behind, and I opened my mouth to scream.
A damp cloth pressed against my face. I struggled. Twisting. Kicking. But the world went dark.