“You’ll keep it here as long as I need you to, bitch.” Baz shook his head. “Good help really is hard to find these days.”
“Or it could be no one wants to work with you.” It had been that way at SIS. Only Damon had been able to really stand the man, and now she understood why. Damon held himself apart because he believed everyone would leave him one way or another. Baz had offered him company, but Damon hadn’t been emotionally involved. It had been the best relationship he could manage.
“No one can keep up with me. Move.” He gripped her elbow, forcing her to walk beside him.
She couldn’t forget about that gun in his coat. And there was a possibility that she was wrong about the waiters. If they really did belong to Baz, he could still make good on his threat. She had to do everything she could to keep her people alive.
How quickly they’d become her people. A few short days and she knew she would care about them forever.
“Damon could keep up with you.” For some reason she wanted him talking. Baz seemed to love to talk. Even if he was insulting her, he wasn’t fully thinking about what was about to happen. She needed to keep him engaged. He was moving toward what looked like a forest of cement slabs. The Holocaust Memorial.
If she could get away from him in there, she might have a chance, but she had to find Damon first.
If she ran, what would happen to her friends?
“We’re meeting him in the south corner. And he certainly can’t keep up with me now. I saw to that. Poor Damon with his damaged heart. It’s rather fitting, actually. He’s always had a metaphorical one. I just made it real.” He stopped in front of a bench. “Sit here.”
She sat on the bench, Baz firmly behind her with a hand close to her throat. She was sure they looked somewhat affectionate. Just two tourists enjoying the beauty of Berlin.
“Damon, you’re not here,” Baz said into his device.
She couldn’t see him, but she knew he would be touching the device in his ear, the one he’d taken off Simon’s unconscious body. “I guess you don’t want her. Well, I wouldn’t either. She’s a bit chunky. Look, you don’t have to take the girl. I’ll pay you well. My employers are willing to write you a check. And you know I’d be more than happy to get rid of her for you. It would be my pleasure.”
Damon walked out from between the slabs, moving with none of his normal grace. His chest was working, moving up and down as he forced his lungs to take in oxygen.
“Oh, look, you ran. You know, I remember a time when you could run for hours and I wouldn’t even be able to tell. You were so fit, so young.” Baz’s voice lowered, taking on the intimate tones of a lover.
Damon didn’t look at him, his eyes steady on her. “Are you all right, love?”
Penny nodded. Just being in the same space with him, seeing that he was alive and whole, brought a calm to her she hadn’t possessed before. “Yes. I’m fine. Damon, you can’t give it to him. You know that, right?”
Damon’s face softened. “You’re telling me what I can’t do again. It’s a pattern with you.”
She could see people moving through the columns of concrete in the memorial. She caught flashes of them as they walked through. Why couldn’t anyone see that something terrible was happening under their noses?
“Do you have the package?” Baz asked.
Damon nodded.
She had to stop him. There would be far too many lives at risk if The Collective got their hands on that information again. “Damon, don’t give it to him. Get out of here.”
He could lose himself in that maze. It would be so easy. Even now she saw little splashes of color as someone ran by and then disappeared again.
“But if I leave he’ll kill you.” Damon was perfectly calm, as though they were discussing dinner plans and not the possible fate of the world.
She needed to remind him what was at stake. “And if you give him that information, thousands will die. You know what they’re planning. You have to sacrifice me. You have to. This is a choice between one woman and the world. There is no choice.”
“You’re right. There is no choice.” He held up a small thumb drive dangling from the end of a lanyard. “You are my world, love.”
Her heart cried out for him, but she shook her head. “No, Damon.”
She wanted him to survive, couldn’t stand the thought of living in a world without him, but she couldn’t trade her freedom when it meant the deaths of so many others.
Where was Ian Taggart? Where was the rest of the team?
Baz’s hand tightened on her shoulder to almost the point of pain. “Well, isn’t that touching? It actually makes me sick.”
“I don’t care what it does to you, Baz,” Damon replied. “If you want this, you’ll let her go.”
“How do I know that’s got anything at all on it? That could be a blank drive. I’m afraid I’m going to need more than your word. Where is Walter Bennett?”
Damon shook his head. “He’s long gone, and you won’t find him again.”
“That is a tragedy. I was so looking forward to spending time with him.”
“It’s not going to happen. You can take the package or you’ll have nothing to give your bosses.” Damon gripped the drive in his palm, shielding it from view. “I’ll go with you, Baz. Take me instead of her. I’m the one you want.”
She didn’t even try to stop the tears now. “No.”
“Shut up.” Baz let her feel the barrel of his gun against her back. “If you say another word, I’ll do you right here in front of him.”
Now Damon wasn’t looking at her. He was focused on the man behind her, and she could feel his will. “I know you have a way out of here. You likely have some way to drug me. I’ll submit to all of it if you let her go.”
“And what if what I really want is for you to submit to me completely?” The question came out in a menacing purr.
Penny felt her fists clench at the thought of her Damon bowing down to this man. He was proud. Sometimes his pride had been all he had to hold on to in the world. He couldn’t give himself over.
“Then I’ll call you Master,” Damon replied evenly. “If you want, Basil, I’ll be your dog. That is what you want, right?”
“You can’t imagine what I want from you.”
She saw him then. The man who had brought the tea. He’d ditched the waiter outfit and now he stalked closer. She had to strain, but she heard him call out.
“Ich habe ihn. Komm schnell. Der Brite ist in Schwierigkeiten.”
Translation. I have him. Come quickly. The Brit is in trouble.
She’d thought they brought the drugged tea, but what if they had just been scouting? Candice had drugged the tea. Baz was bluffing. He didn’t have anyone else. Her friends were safe and the German agents were about to cause some serious problems for them.
What they needed was a bit of chaos.
Penny gritted her teeth and prayed she could survive the next few moments.
Damon tried not to think about how frightened Penelope must be. In a few moments, she would be free and once she was out of the line of fire, he would do whatever he had to do.
Though he rather hoped Taggart would choose to show up sometime soon.
He’d meant every word he said. He would do anything to save Penelope, including giving up the package, but he hoped he didn’t have to.
Another bloody gift she’d given him. Hope. He never used to have it. It was so much better to see the world through Penelope’s eyes than his own.
Baz stood behind Penelope, one hand on her shoulder and the other behind her back. He could only imagine that Baz was holding a gun on her. The second time in a week someone had threatened to kill her. “You can’t imagine what I want from you.”