Page 22 of Lash

Solomon has rejoined us. "So, the real question is do we help out Stjepan? Or do we let his people deal with them?"

I think for a moment. "There is no love lost between Stjepan Juric and me. But, as they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"No!" Tatiana says. "We should leave."

"Those are your father's men in there being shot," I say.

"My father will not be there."

"They said he was on the way," I say.

"He will know. They will radio him and tell him they are under attack. There is a secret exit to the parking garage. One or two will stay to distract the attackers while the rest escape."

"You could have mentioned the secret way in," I say, annoyed. "I wouldn't have had to scale the wall like a spider."

"You cannot go in through that way—only out from the compound to the garage. Also, I forgot about it until just now. I've been a little distracted, you know."

I sigh, rubbing my face. “True. I'm sorry." I take her hand. "So, we go. Let your father's men handle their own situation. I feel bad, however—I disabled their security system, so they wouldn't have had a warning."

She just shakes her head. "If my father is in business with a man like this Mercado, then he deserves what he gets."

"Even if that's a bullet to the brain?" I ask.

She shrugs. "He is my father and I love him, but I know very well what kind of business he does. He does not hide it." She looks angry, now. "I have been kidnapped many times because of my father's business, because of his enemies. It is tiresome. Ana and Katya are dead, Georg is dead, and I am being hunted like an animal. I have been forced to kill a man with my hands. So yes, I am angry, and my love for the man who is my father is not stronger than my anger at what the actions and choices of my father the businessman have done to me."

"That is fair," I say. More overlapping gunfire, single shots and automatic bursts. “You must decide what you want to do next, where you will go, and who you will trust. I can deliver you to your father and you can trust him to keep you safe. Or you can come with me—with us."

She frowns, wincing and flinching at the gunfire. "I don't know."

“My goal was always to return you safely to your father. But if Mercado is making moves like this against your father'scompound, you may not be safer with him than you would be with me. Which is not very safe—clearly. I have my own enemies and Mercado is only one of them."

Solomon speaks up, then. "Inez mentioned an enemy high up in a government somewhere. I assumed that was Stjepan. He claimed to have trained you, to have made you what you are."

I laugh. "Hardly. I worked for him many years ago, and it is true I learned much while in his employ, but it would not be accurate to say he made me who I am." I shake my head. "And no, he is not the enemy Inez was referring to."

"So…there'sanotherpowerful figure who wants you dead?" Solomon asks. "Not Mercado, not Stjepan, but someoneelse?"

I shrug. "Yes."

"Who?"

I sigh. "A senior official in Interpol."

Solomon huffs. "Wonderful."

Tatiana leans against me. "Can we leave this alley, please?" She glances over her shoulder at the corpse. "I am not superstitious or religious, but Ifeelhim."

"Yes, of course," I say. "I've been in Zagreb for too long as it is. Roberto Pugli, my enemy at Interpol, is an experienced intelligence analyst with decades of experience. He is a top-level administrator now, last I checked, but his contacts cover most of the globe. I am sure he knows I am here.”

“Interpol is administrative," Sol points out. "So what if he knows you're here? He’d have to mobilize local law enforcement."

I shake my head. "It is not so simple. Yes, he can and will send local law enforcement after me, but he knows many people and not all of them operate on the right side of the law. Those kinds of operatives are far more dangerous than the Zagreb police."

Solomon nods, blowing out a breath. "Ah, he's one of those."

"Corrupt, malicious, and cruel?" I say. "Yes. All that and more." Solomon opens his mouth, but I cut him off. "I am certain you have questions, but this is not the time for interrogations. We must flee Zagreb, and swiftly."

"Train?" Solomon suggests.