Chapter Fifty-Nine

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, after breakfast, Nicholas and Acacia sat in a brightly lit sunroom on the ground floor. Acacia curled up on the sofa with a cup of coffee, and Nicholas sat across from her in a chair.

His laptop rested on the table nearby, along with a large green box. He opened the box to reveal two matching gold watches.

He retrieved the women’s watch. “After you were kidnapped, I realized that locating you would have been easier if you’d worn a tracking device. You don’t have to accept this, but my team has suggested we both wear them. If, for someone reason, we’re separated, we will always be able to find one another.”

Acacia didn’t hesitate. She held out her arm, and Nicholas slipped the watch over her wrist. He fastened it carefully.

“I wasn’t sure you’d accept it,” he murmured, slipping the men’s watch on his own wrist.

“My perception of the world is somewhat altered.” She touched the Rolex in wonder. “No one would know by looking at it that it has a tracking device.”

“Exactly.” He clasped his hands together. “As I mentioned last night, there have been some developments. I was able to uncover the name of Yasmin’s ex-boyfriend. My people hacked his security system and accessed the video feed from inside his house. We’ve been monitoring him. But I’m sure he has his own hackers who are now hunting mine.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means time is running out. Either he knows we’ve hacked him and he’s trying to uncover the identities of the hackers, or he will soon. We have surveillance near the house. The Russian isn’t there. My team is waiting for him to return.”

“What will they do when he returns?”

“They’ll go in after dark, disarm him and his men, and secure the art. Then I’ll go in.”

“Do you know for sure he has your artwork?”

Nicholas shook his head. “Not without examining it in person. I’m relying on Yasmin’s testimony, along with what I’ve been able to uncover about the Russian’s taste for expensive art.

“Through the video feed, I’ve been able to see inside his vault. What appears to be our Degas is visible. Some of the items are covered or positioned behind other objects, so I can’t be sure what he has. We pulled stills from the video, and I’m having them analyzed.”

“Can I look at them?”

“Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“I can rest and look at photographs.”

“Then be my guest.” Nicholas retrieved his laptop and opened a few files. He handed it to Acacia.

She clicked through a series of black and white screenshots of what she presumed was the vault inside the Russian’s house. It matched what she could remember of Yasmin’s description—piles of art and artifacts crowded into a room. She saw elephant tusks, what looked like a gold Fabergé egg, and the Degas drawing.

Acacia gasped. She pointed to a painting that hung on the wall, to the left of the elephant tusks. “Is that…?”

Nicholas’s face was grim. “That’s the missing Matisse from the Musée d’Art Moderne. I’ve been searching for the original for years. Now I know who has it.”

“Have you told the BRB?”

“Not yet. If I’m able to secure it, I’ll hand it over to the Minister of the Interior. I won’t even involve the BRB.”

“Why not?”

“If they were to take over the recovery, they’d have to work with the Russians. Serge Kuznetsov, Yasmin’s ex-boyfriend, seems to have paid off every high-ranking law enforcement official in Moscow. He’s untouchable.”

“What about the Russian bureau of Interpol?”

Nicholas shifted in his seat. “I have a contact in that office. They are suspicious of Kuznetsov and his activities, but they haven’t had any evidence linking him to art theft.”

“What about these photos?” Acacia tapped the screen of the laptop.

“I haven’t shared them, since they’re the product of an illegal hack.” Nicholas pointed at his computer. “Look at the rest.”

Acacia clicked through images of a palatial estate and its interior. A few of the photographs showed armed guards and dogs patrolling the grounds.

She clicked on another photograph and gasped. “What are these?”

Nicholas looked at the screen. “Weapons. Grenades. Ammunition. Bombs.”

“Why does he have a stockpile of weapons?”

“He’s probably dealing them.”

“And the Russian police don’t care?”

Nicholas’s expression tightened. “They probably don’t know. But again, I uncovered evidence that Kuznetsov has been bribing officials. Perhaps they’re looking the other way.”

Acacia closed the laptop and placed it on the coffee table. “After you have the artwork, what will you do?”

“I’ll punish the collector and find out where his Bosnian team is. Then I’ll go after them.”

“Why haven’t you told your parents about this?”

Nicholas frowned. “I don’t want them involved.”

“You don’t want them involved because you know part of what you’re doing is wrong.”

“I want justice.”

“Justice means the man who ordered the robbery must be punished. It doesn’t mean he has to be killed. If the artwork is returned to your parents and they discover who killed your sister, it will give them closure.”

“It won’t be enough.”

Acacia stilled. “Did your parents ask you to kill him?”

“No.”

“Nicholas, not even killing the man who did this to your sister will be enough. You could kill him a thousand times and it still won’t bring your sister back.”

“I owe it to her to avenge her.”

Acacia cleared her throat. “I say this with love and respect. Nothing I have learned about your sister or your parents suggests to me that they want you to do this.”

“I have to see this through.” Nicholas stood and began to pace across the room.

“I thought I was going to die.” Acacia’s voice broke on the last word. She cleared her throat and tried to regain her composure. “My father threatened to kill me, and I believed he was going to carry out that threat.”

Nicholas stopped pacing. “Do you blame me for killing him? I was the one who turned over the information you gave me to Mossad, who in turn, told the Syrians.”

“No, I don’t blame you. The Syrians made their choice; his blood is on their heads. But Nicholas, you have a choice now. You can choose freedom.”

“I will never be free so long as the men who killed my sister are still alive.”

“And if you kill them, you will never be free.”

Nicholas let out a shaky breath. His body seemed to deflate. “How can I face my parents and tell them I let the man who killed my sister go?”

Acacia went to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You won’t be letting him go. We have to find a way to have law enforcement punish him, and that means involving them somehow. And you won’t be standing in front of your parents by yourself. I’ll be with you.”

“I don’t see how we can persuade the Russians to prosecute someone who has been bribing them for years.”

“There has to be a way. You don’t want to appear before the Minister of the Interior of France and hand him the Matisse after killing the man who stole it. You don’t want the celebration of the recovery to be clouded by that. And the same is true of recovering the paintings owned by your parents.

“We have this second chance. We are both alive. We can both be free, together. You told me once that you took pride in being able to look at yourself in the mirror. I’m asking you to continue being the same noble man I fell in love with.”

He placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Acacia. There’s no way out.”

She reached up and touched his face. “I couldn’t find a way out of the prison my father put me in. But there was a way out. You sent people to show me the way. Just because you can’t see the way out, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”

He regarded her for a moment. “You’ll stay?”

She lifted on the tips of her toes to bring their foreheads together. “I love you, and I’m not leaving. But I’m asking you to work with me to find another way.”

Nicholas closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he wore an expression of defeat. “I can try. But if it looks like he’s going to escape, I’m going to do everything in my power to prevent that from happening. Everything, Acacia.”

She searched his eyes. She recognized that he was conceding a great deal to her, even though it wasn’t exactly what she wanted.

“All right.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.