Cassy spotted the same white Caddy SUV she’d seen passing them, a bulky, foreign-looking man wearing jeans, a white shirt or pullover, and a dark suit jacket standing beside it, and she pulled up short.
“What?” Donni said.
“The guy by the SUV. I think he’s one of Hardy’s people.”
“Oh shit, oh shit,” Donni said.
The man spotted them.
“Run,” Cassy said, swiveling on her heel.
Donni was frozen to the spot.
“Run, goddamnit!”
“Where?”
“I don’t care, just run!” Cassy said. “I’ll meet you at the stock exchange.”
Donni turned and sprinted away, and the man by the Caddy suddenly shoved a pedestrian aside and headed toward Cassy, who was rooted to her spot for a long moment. She managed to speed-dial Ben’s number, then turned and headed the same way Donni was running.
Ben answered on the second ring. “Hi, darling, what’s up?”
“A man in a white Caddy SUV was waiting for me and Donni and now he’s heading my way. I think he might be one of Hardy’s people, and I think he means to kidnap me.”
“Listen to me, Cassy. I want you to head someplace more public than a street corner, maybe a bank lobby that will have security.”
“I’m running.”
“Tell me everything you can. You said a white Caddy SUV. Plates?”
“New York,” Cassy said, and she gave Ben the first three numbers.
“One man?”
“On the passenger side, chasing me. Another driving.”
“Describe the man chasing you.”
“Dark, large, wearing jeans and a jacket. I think he’s foreign.”
“I have you on your GPS tracker. You’re two and a half blocks south of BP; run there if you think you can make it.”
Cassy looked over her shoulder. The man was shockingly close, less than thirty feet away now, and gaining. “I can’t make it, Ben. He’s right here.”
“Stop right now. Turn around and take his picture and send it to me. Then start yelling. Cause a public scene. That will stop him.”
“Ben—”
“Do what I say, Cassy, your life depends on it.”
She pulled up short, turned around and took the man’s photograph, and hit the send button.
He was on top of her.
She raised both hands over her head. Her heart was racing, and she was sure that her legs were going to give way.
An ambulance, its siren blaring, came across Nassau on Maiden Lane at the same time the man reached her. He opened his jacket so that she could see the gun in his belt.
“There’ll be no trouble, Ms. Levin, if you will come with me. I promise that we will not harm you. But if you make noise, we will.”
“What do you want?”
“Something that doesn’t belong to you from your office.”
“I don’t have the flash drive. I left it with my boss.”
Leonid took Cassy’s arm, and turned and started back toward the Cadillac.
She tried to pull away, but he was too strong. “You son of a bitch,” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help me! Help!”
“We’re going to the precinct station,” the man said, loudly enough so that the few passersby who were taking notice could hear. “With or without the handcuffs.”
She didn’t know what to do.
“Then we’re going to fetch your boyfriend.”