Page 92 of Poison Evidence

“I was helping Ulai. He’s not breathing,” Dimitri said.

That explained the blood around his mouth.

“That’s because he’s dead. You killed him.” Rudy pushed Dimitri to the side, and while the gun in the DIA man’s hand remained on Dimitri, the barrel tipped her way in a subtle threat. To keep Dimitri in line? Or her?

“Who is this guy, Ivy?” Dimitri asked, his eyes bright with a fierce anger.

“He tried to recruit me and CAM for the DIA last fall.”

“Ivy!” The shout came from outside. Luke’s voice.

“Don’t even think about letting Sevick in, Ms. MacLeod. He’s here to help the spy escape.Again. But I caught him—literallyred-handed.” He smirked at his joke. “He’s not getting away this time. He’ll face charges in the US. Now help me tie him up.”

She glanced down to make sure her gun pointed at Rudy, not Dimitri. Not that she could aim worth a damn one-handed. She frowned at the DIA analyst. “I don’t understand. You aren’t a field agent.”

“Oh, but I was. Before I had a kid and settled down into office life.”

“Did you kill Ulai?” she asked.

Is Ulai really dead?

Grief and horror threatened to take her down. It took effort to remain focused on the man holding a gun to Dimitri’s side.

Rudy’s gaze dropped to the pilot. Her friend. “Judging from the calling card, it was your boyfriend here.”

“Calling card?”

“He didn’t tell you about his other profession? I’ve been hunting the Hammer for most of my DIA career. First in the field, later in the office.”

“Was it your idea to have NHHC send me to Palau?”

He shrugged. “It’s hard to know who suggested it. There were so many in the room. So many eager to take credit.” He smiled, and she knew without a doubt this man had set her up, and he’d done it in such a way that no one in the DIA could exactly point to him and put his fingerprints on the arrangement.

He’d set her up to go to Palau and find the AUUV. Did he set her up to meet Dimitri too? And Ulai, who was also on the approved contractor list?

Who was he really working for?

“You could have warned me what I was facing here.”

Rudy shrugged. “We thought ignorance would be a protection. We didn’t know you’d be in danger. Didn’t know your husband sold CAM to his terrorist buddies.”

Now wasn’t the time to correct him by adding ex to his statement. “You’re the DefenseIntelligenceAgency. Whatdoyou know?”

Rudy flashed a grin. “That this asshole is the Hammer, and he killed your pilot.”

Dimitri had denied knowing who the Hammer was when she’d asked what the Russian had meant that morning onLiberty. Later, Zack Barrow had made it clearDimitriwas the Hammer. But she’d assumed it was his spy code name. Now it was clear the Hammer was something far worse, and Dimitri’s initial denial made more sense.

“I didn’t hurt Ulai,” Dimitri said. “He was my friend.” She heard the stress on the word. A reminder anyone who Dimitri befriended was at risk. “I found him like that. He had a pulse but wasn’t breathing. I was breathing for him when this asshole jumped me.” He held Ivy’s gaze. “I would never hurt a friend.”

“He’s the Hammer, Ivy,” Rudy said. “Enforcer for the Kremlin. Over a dozen kills to his credit.”

The words were a blow, a statement of the thing she realized now she’d suspected but hadn’t consciously acknowledged for some time. She remembered his evasion when she’d asked if he’d killed.

Dimitri didn’t deny it now. He couldn’t, not with the haunted look in his eyes. The tightness of his jaw.

He hadn’t told her everything, and that left a hollow feeling in her stomach. Luke’s hostility toward a man who’d helped him on the most dangerous operation of his life now made sense.

“Ivy!” Ian said from outside the door. “Let us in! We know Dimitri’s in there.”