He was barely conscious now, and as adrenaline pumped through her she knew she needed to get him away from the warehouse before the Russian came back with the water Victoria had requested. Otherwise David wouldn’t get the help he needed.

She was about to lift David on to his feet, when her brain registered a ringing sound. “Can you stand?” she asked. He waved his hand at her, in what would be a convincing shoo-away if it hadn’t been for the table he was leaning against scraping back on the concrete floor.

Victoria stirred at the sound of the phone, but didn’t come to. Thank God. Molly wasn’t sure if she could knock her out, although she was fairly certain she could outrun her. She made sure David was upright and likely to stay that way for a second, and went back to Victoria’s things. Phone. She had a phone. Where the hell was it?

She looked through the whole bag, and then started on the zipper pockets. There. Front pocket, along with a gun. She took the phone and left the gun.

A car door slammed outside, and without hesitating she went for the gun, tucked it into David’s back pocket, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Gotta walk now, okay? Come on.”

She half dragged him to the opposite side of the warehouse, behind some large wooden crates, to a window. Shit. There was water out there. She sat David down on the concrete, “Shhh.” She laid her fingers across his mouth and felt him nod beneath her hand.

She took the phone and dialed the only number she knew by heart. Her boss’s—Harry’s.

Harry picked up the phone immediately. “Hello?”

“Harry, it’s me,” she whispered.

“Who? I can’t hear.”

Molly looked at the phone. It had all the bars.

“Molly,” she ground out, peeking through the crates. The Russian was in the building now. And the whole place suddenly seemed like one big echo chamber. She hung up the phone, and texted Harry instead.

It’s Molly. Kidnapped by Russians with David Church in warehouse by the sea in Athens.

God, she hoped they were still in Athens.

He’s injured, but told me to get Sadie Walker on it?

She waited for a reply, and then realized that the text notifying ring would echo all around the warehouse basically identifying where they were. She fumbled for the settings, but it was too late.

Shit. She stuffed the phone into her pocket without reading the reply and looked for somewhere to run. She considered pushing David out of the window, but worried that he wouldn’t be able to stay afloat without her there. They sat in silence as the minutes ticked by. She was worried if she waited much longer to make a decision he’d bleed out in front of her.

She made her decision. She would leave David there, and give the Russian what he wanted, and try to buy some time. She held her hands up and stepped out from behind the row of shipping crates.

What?

The Russian was gone.

So was Victoria, and the broken chair, and her suitcase. It was like nothing had happened there. Even the pool of David’s blood had gone. Had she imagined the whole thing?

A noise came from behind her, she turned to find David, holding a gun out, leaning against one of the crates.

“They’ve gone,” she said.

He slumped, and she ran the few short paces to his side and slipped his arm around her shoulders again. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

It took forever to cross the warehouse with David barely able to stumble, let alone walk. Every step that echoed around the building worried Molly that someone would come out of the shadows and kill them. She didn’t care so much about herself, but she needed to get David to safety. Get him a doctor.

After about ten minutes, her own legs started wobbling under both their weight. She was sweating hard. She hoped it was a side effect of the drug she’d been jabbed with, but the exertion was killing her. At least that’s how it felt. She was cold, sweaty and shaky. Just a few more steps to get out.

Just a few more steps.

Just a few…

She reached for the door handle, but it was farther away than she thought.

A few more steps. Her fingertips scraped the metal of the door. She pulled it open with the rest of her energy.

Daylight.

And the metal-on-metal cocking of a lot of weapons.

“Hold it.”

“Hands up!”

“Show me your hands.”

She slumped to the ground, her last action was to try to make sure David fell on her, and not the hard ground. He did.

She didn’t care about the guns. Relief was the last emotion her consciousness registered.

They had American accents.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

She came to in the back of an ambulance. The only other occupants were a paramedic and a woman in a HELLO KITTY T-shirt. Molly had an oxygen mask over her face and a drip in her arm.

“Where’s David?” she asked, her voice muffled by the mask.

Hello Kitty looked at the paramedic, who nodded and lowered the mask.

“I’m sorry, honey?”

“Where’s David?” Molly noticed there were straps holding her to the bed. She struggled against them, trying to understand what was going on.

Hello Kitty undid one of the restraining bands. “You’re not a prisoner. We’re transporting you to the medical center at the embassy. I’m Sadie. Harry’s friend.”

Molly wanted to feel fear, or hope, or relief, but there was no emotion inside her. Like at all.

“I know you’re feeling strange, but that’s the chemical we’re giving you to combat the drug that you had in your system. We don’t know what it is, so we’re giving you a generic drug that will counter the effects of most sedatives. The only side effect is that you’ll feel weird for a while. It’s artificially equalizing all the hormones and chemicals inside you.

Molly nodded. “Sadie?”

“I’m glad I found you. I think Harry might have killed me if I hadn’t.” She gave a rueful smile. “Is there anything you can tell me about what happened to you?”

Molly told her what had happened to her since the assassination.

“We can’t find any evidence of the kidnapping in the warehouse, Molly. I’m sorry. So that means we don’t have anything actionable to take to the Russians. Or to the United Nations. It’s just a wash right now.” Sadie stared out of the side window, with a frown.

And then she realized that Sadie hadn’t told her what had happened to David. Her brain knew that was wrong. Something was wrong. But her body couldn’t process the feeling. Well her brain was going to have to do the job of her heart too. “Where’s David?”

Sadie looked at her watch. “I’m waiting for an update. He’d lost a lot of blood, I’m afraid. But they’re doing their best. Harry and Matt told me he was a strong guy. We’re just hoping he’s strong enough. You did a good job with the credit card and the bandage, by the way.” She smiled and checked her watch again.

“The credit card,” Molly said. “I took it from Victoria Ruskin’s purse. There must be some way you can trace her with that?”

Sadie held her gaze for a moment. “We also have the gun that was in David’s possession. With the credit card, maybe eventually we’ll be able to make something stick. But it’s not much.

Molly made a decision. “If you take me to David, I’ll give you two other things that might help you. One thing I’ll give you now. The other thing, later.”

She handed Sadie the notes that had started everything.

Molly sat by David’s bed. There was no freaking way she was going to let him walk away from her again. Mission or no mission. Injury or no injury. As long as she had eyes on him she felt…nothing. Dammit. Enough with this antidote or whatever it was.

She traced the tube of the IV attached to her wheelchair and found the plastic tap, and turned it off. Then she took out the needle from the back of her hand. It hurt. On TV, the tough guys yank it out like it’s nothing, but it hurt like hell. Turns out nothing is really like it is on television.