Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

not understand. I am to interrogate Jean-Claude.
    The anonymous orders continued to scroll across the screen. The plan had been changed. If anything went wrong when La Roux escaped from prison, they wanted to make certain they could acquire him should he go to Sea Haven. Stefan needed to get there well ahead of him and establish his cover with Judith Henderson. If necessary, should the crime lord show up, he would interrogate both Jean-Claude and the woman once he had both of them in his custody.
    Stefan’s gut reacted, lurching sickeningly. He actually tasted bile in his mouth. Extracting information from La Roux was one thing, but the woman too? He opened his eyes to look at the text a second time, willing the orders to magically change. He must be damn tired to have such a physical reaction to the order.
    He closed his eyes briefly, shaking his head. This mission was definitely something other than what he was being told. It made no sense to think agents would break Jean-Claude from prison and then lose him. He was being sent to Sea Haven, not because they thought they’d lose the crime lord, but because he was bait to lure his brother, Lev, out into the open. They hadn’t accepted Petr Ivanov’s report on his brother’s death after all. The orders served a twofold purpose. Revealing Lev’s whereabouts, and if by some miracle La Roux slipped away from the other agents, he would be in place to extract the information they needed and then kill him.
    Swallowing his absolute repugnance of the orders, he typed in his agreement. Moments later, he received a downloaded file containing everything they had on Judith Henderson. He signed off and poured himself a cup of coffee, sank down into a chair, rubbing his temples. He’d been getting blinding headaches lately, another sign he was crashing. This assignment had gone south fast. He couldn’t afford to be crashing, not if they were sending him to Sea Haven.
    A part of him wanted to go, and that sent a frisson of concern through him. He didn’t want to lead Petr Ivanov to Lev, and if Lev was in Sea Haven, he would find Stefan, no matter how solid the cover was. He swore in three languages and took a sip of his coffee. Judith. Damn the woman. She’d gotten under his skin in that prison cell. He hadn’t known it was possible for anyone to do that, let alone a woman he’d never met.
    He opened the file, reading about her life. Japanese mother. American father. Both deceased in a car accident. She got her height from her father. Those long, beautiful legs. He forced his mind back to data, committing her life to memory. She had one brother, older, who had raised her after the death of her parents.
    Paul Henderson, now deceased, executed, with a single gunshot to the forehead, but not before he’d been tortured. He had gone to Paris and left with his sister. They both disappeared and Paul resurfaced in Greece. He was killed there. Judith turned up after Jean-Claude was imprisoned and took her brother’s body home to the States. What did that mean?
    Had Jean-Claude been looking for Judith? He turned the thought over and over in his mind. It fit. It was possible she’d run from the man with her brother’s help. She was intelligent, and men like La Roux couldn’t afford intelligent women. They figured things out. Once she realized La Roux was dirty, Judith may not have been able to live with it. On the other hand, she may have taken something valuable from him.
    The thought didn’t sit well with Stefan, but either scenario could explain both the death of her brother and Jean-Claude’s continued interest in her. As did the fact that she’d dropped out of sight until Jean-Claude had been imprisoned. Judith’s resurfacing suggested she truly didn’t know just how dangerous La Roux really was, or just how far and expertly he could wield his considerable power from his prison cell.
    Stefan continued to scroll through the downloaded dossier. The file included several images of Judith’s paintings, both the ones she’d painted before she left Paris, and the ones she’d painted after. The moment his gaze touched the first painting he felt a hard one-two punch to his gut. Her drive and passion literally robbed his lungs of air. He couldn’t take his eyes from the series, studying each painting carefully. They were intriguing and beautiful, deep, three-dimensional colors, amazing lines, all passion and fire. Her drive and passion.
    “There you are,” he whispered.