Page 96 of The Lazarus Protocol

Ice was supposed to thank her for that? “What do you want?”

She’d tried to kidnap Stephanie, shoving her over the side of the ship so her people could pick up the former CIA agent, fish her out of the river, and take her with them. When that didn’t work—because Division Zero stopped her—she’d taken Kai instead. Scrabbling for any angle she could get. Picking up whatever cards were put down in front of her so she could see what she had and formulate a play.

He stepped closer. “Seems to me like you’re working with Earthnet, not against them.”

She nearly launched out of the chair. “How dare you!” But caught herself and cleared her throat. Shifted in the seat.

“The enemy of my enemy?”

She actually laughed at that. “No deal.”

“Like I said, what do you want?” Ice let silence hang for a second. “Kai for that book you’re after?”

“Steph gave it to you?” Vesper shook her head. “That waste of space.”

Interesting that she assumed Steph had the book and would’ve turned it over to the team. Ice said, “Why keep trying to kidnap her?”

“Try?” She scoffed.

“So that was you in Turkey.”

They’d rescued her from Vesper, or men who worked for her, and brought her back. Then her half-sister tried to take her again. Probably a good thing she wasn’t here right now.

Vesper shrugged one shoulder. “She refuses to do anything but stubbornly cling to loyalty to that piece of trash she calls ‘father’ and will not give me what I want.”

A rustle behind him interrupted his train of thought, but Ice was pretty sure the sound came from a small animal. “I guess you just weren’t persuasive enough. Maybe you should try harder next time.”

Vesper laughed, but there was a shadow to it. “Do you want a job? I could use a guy like you on my team.”

Things weren’t going well for her. “I already have a job I like.”

A woman like this would never understand a man with a dark past and his need to do work with good people so he could feel clean. Live right.

Sure, he skirted the gray areas and kept to the shadows, but that was only to aid the cause.

Ice let out some impatience in his tone and his body language. “How do I get Kai back? Because I don’t really care about your sister, to be honest.”

“Don’t call her that. She’s not my blood.”

“You think I care?” Ice glanced around, then roared, “Where’s Kai?”

She didn’t flinch.

“Why did you take him?”

“Because I could,” was the only answer she gave him. “Too bad someone else wanted him more than me.”

Ice’s stomach clenched. “Where is he?”

“Not with me.”

“What happened?”

The skin around her eyes contracted. Almost a wince, but not quite. “Someone took him from me. Killed all my guys—the ones who were left.”

“They didn’t kill you?”

“I’m not that easy to take out.”