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Mine.
He wondered if she’d heard him whisper that word in the final moment of orgasm.
And if she did, what did she think? They’d been together such a short time, but it
hadn’t taken long for him to realize this was the woman for him. Not just as the other
half of his team but as someone with whom he was completely in sync. And not just for
work. Forever.
Adam and Nicki were waiting for them in a corner of the lobby and Lane repeated
everything for them.
“Holy shit!” Nicole was silent for a moment. “All right. I’m going to get Adam onto
his contacts. With even this tiny lead we have a pretty good chance to find out who
Octo really is.”
Lane glanced across the lobby to where Raul was seated in one of the big wing
chairs, casually leafing through a magazine. “I see The Bull is still on the job.”
“Yes. He’s keeping track of the three heads of Kopf for me, as well as Liebermann
who has come through the lobby twice in the past hour.”
“Anyone with him?”
She nodded. “Two men. He snapped their photos with his phone and sent them to
Maddie to run through the face recog software.”
“Any word yet on Arturo Franzoni? Any clue as to where he could be?”
“I’m still on it. Again, I’m using Adam’s contacts from his Mossad days since
everyone else has come up dry.”
“You’d think that since Italy froze the Kopf assets as they asked, they’d let him go,”
he pointed out.
“I think they want to hang on to him to force everyone else’s hand.”
“Won’t the threat of a bomb do that?” Lane asked.
91
Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand
“They may be trying to cover all bases. There’s a sound of desperation in their
messages and in everything they’re doing. Snatching the Italian Minister of Finance
shows how frantic they are.”
Lane repeated to her what Isabella had told him about the bomb threat some time
ago at Gottfried’s home.
“I’m guessing they’ve already tried going through channels to reclaim the stolen
art—I’ve got Dan checking on that—and haven’t gotten anywhere. This is a personal
thing, Lane, not political. Thousands of Jewish families had valuable art conscripted by
the Nazis and have been fighting for generations to get it back.”
Lane raised an eyebrow. “And they’ve traced enough of it back to the three heads of
Kopf that they’re taking these drastic actions?”
“Again, Dan’s getting that information, using every person he ever worked with
overseas to call in favors. He knows we’re running out of time.”
“Lane.” Isabella put a soft hand on his arm. “You have no idea of the passions
involved with regard to this stolen art. It’s worse than a blood feud.” She looked at
Adam and Nicki. “Adam, I’m sure you can understand. Think of it. People were swept
from their homes, their property confiscated and if they weren’t killed they were left
with nothing. Families have struggled for generations to reclaim what they lost. This is
very, very personal.”
Lane shook his head. “I hear you. And I agree with you on the desperation.
Blowing up eight finance ministers will definitely send a message to the countries
where Kopf has assets.”
A dark-haired man in an impeccable suit approached them and looked at Nicki.
“Miss Welles?”
“Yes?”
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Until Twilight
“I’m Charles Deschamps.” He pulled a flat leather wallet from his pocket and
flipped it open to display his credentials. “I’ll be escorting you to the hall where the
meeting is scheduled for tomorrow.”
“Excellent. And you have the G8 security heads together for us?”
He nodded. “Right this way.”
The eight people gathered in the small meeting room all had one thing in
common—very grim expressions on their faces. They had a number of questions for the
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