“You’re Alex?” Anatoly asked. “She talks about you all the time.”
“Don’t try to butter me up,” Alex said with a glare.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock at the back door. Hawk told Samuels to answer it.
“Expecting someone so soon?” Alex asked.
“It’s a favor for Blunt,” Hawk said.
Anatoly strode across the hardwood floor and welcomed Petrov inside.
“What’s so urgent?” she asked. “You know I need to get out of here.”
Hawk slipped out of the corner and jammed his gun into Petrov’s back. “Slowly, slowly,” he said in Russian. “Put the bag on the ground.”
Petrov followed his instructions and kept her hands in the air. “What is the meaning of this, Anatoly?”
Anatoly put his hands in the air, too. “I had no choice. They were going to kill me.”
“And I’m going to kill you when this is all over with,” Petrov said with a snarl.
“Good luck with that,” Hawk said. “You’re going to be in prison for a long time.”
Samuels grabbed Petrov’s wrists and bound them together with a zip tie. “We know everything. The Chamber is finished.”
“You can’t prove anything. And you can’t take me out of this country without permission.”
“Good thing they have it,” came a man’s voice from the top of the stairs. “Besides, we found your fingerprints on mechanisms inside the explosive devices.”
Jinjing Bao descended the steps and stopped at the foot.
“As I live and breathe,” he said. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this day.”
“Jinjing?” Petrov said, her face turning pale. “I-I tried to call you. I-I tried to let you know. It wasn’t personal. It was just—”
“You said you loved me,” Bao said as he walked toward her. “Then you murdered my father and disappeared.”
He recoiled and delivered a powerful blow to her stomach. “That was for my father.” Then another hit. “That was for lying to me.”
Doubled over in pain, Petrov tried to stand straight but struggled. “I never meant to hurt you—or fall in love.”
“Save it,” Bao growled.
“It started off as a job, but I swear my feelings for you were real.”
Bao gestured toward the door. “Get this woman out of my sight, Hawk. I don’t ever want to see or hear from her again.”
Hawk grabbed Petrov’s arms and shoved her toward the door. “Let’s go. You’ve got a date with a maximum security prison, if you’re lucky.”
CHAPTER 37
HAWK PUT PETROV in a straightjacket once they boarded their private jet at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Cinching the drawstrings tight, Hawk showed no mercy. If Petrov lost circulation in her arm halfway across the Atlantic, he wouldn’t have any pity for her. Petrov had acted ruthlessly and lawlessly—and Hawk was ready for justice to be meted out in every form as painful as possible.
A television in one corner of the plane was on where a news anchor described how a terrorist attack on Verge in Kuwait City had sent the market reeling in recent days. Hawk looked up from securing Petrov.
“There was another attack on Verge?” Hawk asked.
“That’s what the man said,” Samuels responded. “From the footage, it appears they got one of the main towers this time as well as several holding tanks.”
“But how did they—?”
Hawk stopped and glared at Petrov. “Just another reason for me to despise you.”
She smiled arrogantly. “Just blame me for everything now. If you don’t like it, Petrov and The Chamber did it. Sounds about par for the course with how you Americans operate.”
“We also kill terrorists who prove to be a threat to our country, which doesn’t spell good news for you.”
“You sure are a cocky bastard,” she said. “And you don’t know as much about me or The Chamber as you think you do.”
“I know enough to get you convicted,” he said. “That’s more than enough.”
“We’ll see if you’re still singing this same tune in a few days.”
Hawk yanked on the cord, causing Petrov to wince.
Once he finished and the rest of the team was loaded on the plane, he tapped on the door to the cockpit.
“We’re all set back here,” Hawk said.
Nothing.
Hawk took a deep breath and exhaled. He glanced around the cabin and rapped on the door again. “Hey, Cap. You in there?”
It was quiet for a moment more.
“Sorry, I’m here,” the captain finally said. “Just going through my checklist.”
“Okay. Well, we’re ready when you are.”
“Roger that.”
Hawk took a seat directly across from Petrov. “I hope this is a most unpleasant flight for you.”
She frowned and shook her head. When she opened her mouth to speak, Hawk held up a device that had been sitting on the arm of his seat. “No talking—or this is going in your mouth. Understand?”
Petrov nodded.
“I’m glad we see eye to eye on that.”
Hawk’s phone buzzed with a number he didn’t recognize.
“Hello?”
“Please hold the line for the President of the United States,” came the reply.
A few seconds of silence followed by a click and then the voice of President Michaels.
“Listen here, Brady Hawk,” Michaels said. “I know you probably think you’re some damn American hero who deserves a parade when you get back, but I want to warn you ahead of time that nothing could be further from the truth. If you think capturing Katarina Petrov is going to exonerate you from all the sins you’ve committed in the name of this country, you’ll be in for a rude awakening.”
Hawk didn’t react.
“You still there, boy?” Michaels asked.
“I know what kind of man you are,” Hawk said. “I don’t scare too easily, if that’s what you’re trying to do here.”
“I’m coming for you—and you’re going to rue the day you ever considered crossing me.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong, sir,” Hawk said. “But if that’s how you want to play this, I’d advise you to watch your back. When you’ve betrayed as many people as you have, you can’t always see your downfall coming.”
Hawk hung up his phone as the plane lurched forward and began to roll along the tarmac.
“Was that Michaels?” Alex asked.
Hawk nodded. “That son
