Page 49 of Lost to Thievery
Owen laughed under his breath.
“Yes, sir, Director Devereux, sir.” Liam leaned closer to us, pulling up his shoulders. “There’s no shame in trying, right?” he whispered.
“Oh, that was pretty shameful,” Owen quipped.
I laughed at the look on Liam’s face. It was rare for him to feel embarrassed. “Any reason you boys are following me?”
Owen turned towards me, excitement lighting his face. “Yes, actually. Claudia called. You remember Claudia?”
I smiled devilishly. “Of course. The pretty Interpol agent you had a fling with. The one who has a thing for—”
Owen slapped a hand over my mouth. “Don’t you dare, Ava!” He looked around the room to see if anyone was listening before slowly releasing me.
“No, I don’t like what’s happening here. Don’t silence her. It’s her constitutional right to say whatever she wants. Now finishyour sentence, Ava. Claudia has a thing for what?” Liam’s eyes were sparkling with mischief.
Owen narrowed his blue eyes at us. “This is a dangerous road you’re about to go down.” He pointed at me. “You’re not the only one with embarrassing dirt, kid. I can destroy you both. So choose your next words wisely.”
A giggle bubbled from my throat while Owen struggled to keep the smile from tugging at his lips as he stared me down.
I held my hands up in mock surrender, struggling to keep my face serious. I wasn’t going to say anything anyway.
“Clever girl,” Owen said, straightening his tie with a grin.
I forced a smile. The soft gurgling of a stream and the crackling of a campfire drowned out Owen’s and Liam’s bickering. The green pine trees swayed in the wind as I watched an appreciative grin form on Grayson’s lips. He was always gorgeous, but when he smiled, he looked otherworldly.“Clever girl.”
I hadn’t known the impact that that moment would have on me. I hadn’t known how the heat I felt in my stomach in that moment would spark a hungry wildfire that blazed only for his smiles and praises. I hadn’t known how that fire’s hunger for more, more, more, would overpower everything else that once made me happy. Nothing could satiate it, but him. And in that all-consuming fire’s wake, I had lost myself.
“Earth to Ava!”
I blinked up at Liam. He was staring at me like I was the Mad Hatter. “Where do you float off to? It’s kinda creepy, you know.”
I rolled my eyes at him, shaking off the memories. He’d been looking at me strangely since I blew that kiss at him back at the cabin. “Why did Claudia call? Does she have a lead on the Apparitions?” I asked Owen, my stomach fluttering at the thought. I was desperate for more of those puzzle pieces. And I was desperate to be done with it all. To move on with my life. To live formeagain.
“She thinks so. They have another art thief in custody. In Russia. A bit lower down the food chain, but she thinks they might run in the same circles. There’s a chance the woman might know them.”
“Russia,” Liam nodded appreciatively. “The land of honey and hard liquor. I call dibs on a window seat.”
Ava
WesteppedofftheFBI’s jet, right into Interpol’s black, unmarked SUV. Owen sat up front with Claudia while Liam and I sat in the back seat, playing a silent game of Punch Buggy, except we got to punch each other for spotting any Volkswagen car.
Russia was every bit as beautiful as Grayson had once described it. We drove through grassy plains with magnificent mountains in the distance, looking like a scene that came from a painter’s brush.
But the holding facility that Claudia pointed to stood out like an ugly, festering sore against its beautiful surroundings. The brick walls were almost black with years of accumulating dirt, and the barb-wired fence around the building was rusted and overgrown by mostly dead weeds. The feeling emanating fromthe building made my chest constrict. This was a bad place to be. Nothing good happened behind these walls.
Claudia rolled down her window when we reached the first security gate and handed her badge to the guard. She spoke in Russian, and the man dipped his head low, scowling into the car. He spoke in Russian to Owen, which Owen seemed to understand as he flashed his badge to the guard. Liam and I followed suit. Satisfied, the guard whistled, and the gate opened.
We were led through the facility by another guard. I struggled not to gag at the stench in the building. And I wasn’t alone. The guard was the only one whose face wasn’t scrunched up in disgust as he prattled on to Claudia in his language. He led us through a narrower corridor and ushered us into a dark, tiny room with a window looking into an interrogation room.
There was a woman handcuffed to the rusted table, an expression of absolute boredom on her face. She looked completely at odds with the dirty, pitiful interrogation room. She was devastatingly beautiful. Her long, jet-black hair was pin straight and fell thickly over her shoulders to her middle. Her skin was pale and features sharp, making me think of Snow White. Even the dark green prison jumpsuit couldn’t make her look bad.
“Raina Westbrooke. Caught red-handed trying to steal a Valentin Serov painting,” Claudia informed us. “She’s not talking. But I figured you would want to take a swing at her,” she said, nodding to Owen with a smile.
Owen studied Raina for a while. “Do I have anything to offer her?”
Claudia shook her head. “No deals. The best we can do is offer a sentence at a softer prison, if she’s helpful.”
Owen sighed but nodded. He turned to me. “I want you in there with me. If she has any connection with the Apparitions, you will know which scent to hunt, which questions to ask.”
