But he’d already anticipated the move and was whirling toward her, moving swiftly. Dammit, he was so fast…No time for the jugular. She spun again as her leg lifted in a kick to his abdomen. She heard him grunt with pain but then he grabbed her ankle and flipped her to face him. She had only a glimpse of a lean, taut face and glittering light blue eyes before his hand was pressing her carotid artery.

Darkness.

* * *

Tanner was kneeling beside Lara giving her a shot when Mallory came down the path from the creek. “Gregor’s down?”

Mallory nodded. “I didn’t have to do it.” He nodded at Lara. “She took care of it before I got the chance. Very clean. Very neat.” He looked down at his phone. “Jordan says the helicopter is on the way. We have seven minutes to get to the edge of the forest for pickup.”

“Then let’s move.” Tanner settled Lara in a fireman’s lift on his shoulder and started trotting down the path. “I want to be at the airport and on the jet by the time she comes out of the sedative. She wasn’t in the least grateful about getting a little help with a nasty job. And she wasn’t in a mood to listen. She tried to come after me.”

“Maybe she was scared.”

Tanner remembered her dark eyes glittering with fury as she’d leaped toward him. “Somehow I don’t think so…”

* * *

Something was wrong.

She was lying on a bed of some sort…a bed made of the softest leather she’d ever touched.

And she was on a plane!

She shouldn’t be on a plane.

She should be in the forest.

But there was something wrong about that, too.

Something about Razov…

“No!” Her lids flew open and she jerked upright.

“Easy. No one’s going to hurt you.” English again. A man in his middle or late thirties. Light blue eyes, high cheekbones in a lean face, dark hair. Black sweater and black jeans. He was sitting in a seat across the aisle and straightened warily. “There’s nothing wrong. You’re safe.”

It was all coming back to her. “The hell I am.” Her voice was shaking. “You said that before, and then you knocked me out.” She got to her knees, prepared to leap at him. “You killed Razov. I was supposed to do it. Why did Volkov send you? It wasn’t fair. I would have brought him down. He can’t go back on his word.”

“I imagine he does that quite a bit. Though I’ve never met him. He certainly didn’t send me.” He got to his feet. “And I knocked you out because I was short on time and you impressed me as not being willing to listen without taking up too much of it. But I’m ready to explain everything to you now, if you’ll stop threatening me and let me do it.” He added, “I’m going to go get you a cup of coffee. While I do it, I’d like you to sit there and look around and pull yourself together enough to be able to react reasonably when we have our discussion.”