Assassin Games (Tarnished Heroes)
Page 25
“One problem at a time.”
Carol sipped her drink and tried to not think ten problems ahead. The personnel files would be difficult to get. They’d have to go on-site for that sort of thing. Without Irene or Mitch to help, it would have to be her and Andy. There was no way around it.
“It’s hard for me to imagine someone like my mother could be the key all along. I mean, agents’ families are sacred. I grew up around these people in some cases. Some of us are multigenerational.” She peered up at Andy.
“Don’t think too much about it. It’ll drive you crazy.” He squeezed her hand.
“I have you to drive me crazy. I don’t need to do it myself.” She huffed and he chuckled.
“Glad to be of service.” He tipped an imaginary hat.
Carol shook her head. Maybe Andy didn’t realize it, but Mark was him. She could see that same person in these easy moments. Mark might have been who attracted her, but it was Andy who swept her off her feet, saved her, and kept her going.
She leaned closer.
He froze.
Carol pressed her lips to his. His mouth softened and he turned toward her, holding onto her just as tight as she him.
Maybe it wasn’t all a lie.
…
Kristina sat in the front passenger seat of the same car that’d picked her up a few nights ago, nails digging into her palms.
The SWAT team advanced on the German plane, guns up.
She was really beginning to doubt the skill of the duo they’d sent after Andy and Carol. They’d hardly done anything except flush the targets out. Now her bosses were going to have to focus on twisting the news out of Berlin to suit their plans and present the story they needed the world to believe.
Tense voices spoke over the radio. Someone in charge of the SWAT team gave them the go-ahead.
Black-uniformed men scampered up the stairs to the plane.
Newspaper photographers, news vans, every media outlet in DC had their cameras pointed at the future German ambassador’s plane. It was a PR disaster, but if it got them Andy and Carol, Kristina would consider this a play well made.
One by one the plane’s passengers disembarked, escorted by a SWAT team member into the arms of the waiting police.
“No sign of the suspects,” a voice said through the radio.
“What?” Kristina sat forward. “But—we saw them get in the plane. Right?”
“Be quiet,” the Shadow Man snapped.
She flopped back in her seat, more than a little shocked. She’d seen the security footage. The German news had leaked it, showing two people dive onto the ship after everyone on the passenger manifest had boarded. So where were the two extra people?
“They’re already off the plane,” the Shadow Man said.
“What? How?” Kristina couldn’t believe it.
“We’re dealing with professionals, and we just got caught with our pants down. Take us back to the office.”
…
Andy tugged his Security hat down lower and tucked his chin. He and Noah waved wands over the luggage from the German plane, no one the wiser that only one security guard had shown up to process the cargo hold and two were leaving. Everyone was focused on Jan and his staff, who weren’t even glancing their way.
The covert moles must have fucked up big time if Jan’s whole staff knew of their existence—and were actively helping them. Who else would know? What other forces would work in their favor?
“That’s the last of it.” Andy patted the largest hard suitcase of the bunch.
Good thing Carol wasn’t claustrophobic.
“Come on, before the real security gets here,” Noah said.
They jumped behind the wheel of the luggage cart and motored away from the ongoing SWAT search.
Talk about cutting it close. If they hadn’t come up with this plan and been able to gain access to the cargo hold, it would all be over. As it was, Andy still wasn’t certain they were going to get out of here.
“Mitch was arrested. No one knows where he is or who really has him. Irene is under house arrest and all lines of communication are dead. Things are bad, man. You shouldn’t have come back.” Noah shook his head and pushed the cart faster.
“We’ve had some communication with Irene.”
“Shit—really? I must be the one in the dark then.” Noah tugged his hat lower. “Where am I taking you two?”
By now the CIA would be running facial recognition on Carol, at the very least. He needed to keep her out of view for as long as possible. He also couldn’t risk anyone—even Noah—learning the location of his safe house. For Carol’s sake, it needed to be the most secure site he’d ever had.
“I just need a car, and you can wash your hands of this.” Andy knew how much Noah hated this whole business. He was in it for the thrills, not the greater good.
“That I can do.”
Noah parked the luggage trolley in line with others.
They got out and between them gently lifted the suitcase containing Carol off the trailer and onto the ground.
Sorry, Carol. You aren’t going to like this…
Andy rolled the suitcase through a hangar bustling with activity. Both Noah and Andy shed their security gear behind crates and out of sight. By the time they reached the exit they were just two people heading home from work.
They ducked out into what appeared to be some sort of employee parking lot.
“Which one you want?” Noah asked.
“I’ll take it from here. Go on, get.” Andy jerked his head toward the road.
“I’m fucking with you. Here. It’s the silver sedan over there.” Noah tossed Andy a pair of keys. “Good luck, man.”
Noah didn’t give Andy a backward glance, just as he wouldn’t protest Noah’s call were this his op.
They couldn’t risk each other for the sake of one person’s mission. That would only lead to mutual destruction.
Andy didn’t have the luxury of acquiring his own vehicle. He had to take what was given to him and trust that Noah wasn’t playing them.
Andy rolled Carol to the silver car, unlocked it, and did his best to put her carefully in the back seat. Once they were far enough away she could get out, but for now this was the best they could do. The next few hours would decide her fate and his.
Chapter Seventeen
Carol stepped into darkness, Andy’s hand on her lower back guiding her. Something clicked, and lights flickered on in the subterranean space.
“Where are we?” She squinted around the room. They’d gone into a subway station, through back ways, down a ladder, across a wooden bridge over God only knew what, and through what felt like hell to get to this place.
“Best if you don’t know.” Andy stepped around her.
Two long tables with lights hanging overhead took up most of the entry space. The equipment littering their surfaces was foreign to her.
To the right, racks of what appeared to be gun cases were stacked on metal shelves. On the left wall were pinboards and pieces of paper.
Carol walked forward, trying to take in the first section of the long, rectangular space and failing. It was like a spy bunker out of a movie.
She swallowed.
In the spy movies she’d seen the women didn’t last long. She wanted to live.
“There’s food here, a bathroom back there. Make yourself comfortable.” Andy sat down at a bank of monitors and flipped a switch. LED light bathed him in a blue hue as the rig booted up.
She continued to meander her way toward where Andy sat at about the midpoint in the space.
Images pinned to the wall beside his rig caught her attention.
That flower…
She crossed to the corkboard and stared at the black-and-white surveillance photos of her. The shots were from outside her home. Walking down the street. Talking on her phone.
“How long were you watching me?” she asked.
The clicking of the keyboard tapered off into silence.
“Ten days before Switzerland,” he said.
Ten days of watching her go to work, come home, work some more, pace. “Did you learn a lot about me?” She didn’t understand how these candid photos told him anything.
“Yes.”
“Like what?” She turned, more curious than anything else.
“You are deliberate about everything. When you leave, what you wear. You present a controlled image to the world. I watch people. I study them. I learn who they are.” Andy spread his hands. “Server results are downloading. It’ll be an hour or two before we can dig into them.”
“I kind of wish someone would have told me I had a deadly angel watching over me. I might have slept better knowing you were out there, watching me.” There wasn’t any point in being upset about the past. The Andy she knew now made her feel safe. Besides, he’d seen all of her. What was there to hide?
“You couldn’t know—”
“I know, you already said that.” She flipped through more images. Some of them were zoomed in on her face, her hands or her feet, as though he were studying each part of her, learning her body, mind, and heart.
He very possibly knew her better than she knew herself.
No wonder she’d locked eyes with him and liked the man she saw.
He was already intimately acquainted with her.
“I’m glad you got to be Mark for a while. It’s never like that for you, is it? Flirting. Being normal.” There was an image of her biting her lip, staring at her phone. “You watched me set timers, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” He kept staring at her, hardly moving.
“You were watching me toss and turn, waiting for you to text me? And that night I fell asleep on the phone?”
“I was right here.” He gestured to the monitors and his chair.
Carol shook her head. Silly didn’t begin to describe what she felt. She’d made a fool of herself getting worked up over a man she barely knew, all while he watched her song and dance, never hinting that he knew more than he let on. She closed her eyes and chuckled.
“I was pretty stupid about you.” She sighed, some part of her relishing that thrill of initial attraction.
“You’re never stupid.”
“No, I mean… I liked you. I liked the distraction, the feeling of it all.”
Andy kept staring at her. They’d crossed a point some hours or days ago and Carol could never be afraid of him again. He didn’t much intimidate her, either. Andy was a man with clear-cut goals about what he did and firm ideas on who he was. She admired that about him, even though she knew there was no place for her in his life.
“You should have kept being Mark and sweet-talked me onto a plane. I would have gone.” Carol set the pictures down.
“I thought about that, but I didn’t want to keep lying to you.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” She aligned the stack perfectly so. “There’s no faking the chemistry, though. That’s real, isn’t it?”
“Chemistry is just a study.”
“We’re attracted to each other.” She leaned her arm on the tall counter and studied the man who’d embedded himself in her heart.
“Yes,” he said slowly. “Nothing can come of it, though, you understand that?”
“Of course. I’m on the run from the CIA, probably for the rest of my natural life, and you are beholden to them. That doesn’t make for a pretty ending.”
Andy pushed to his feet and closed the distance between them. He brushed her chin with his fingertips.
“You never have to worry the person after you is me,” he said.
She didn’t fit Andy’s parameters. She wasn’t guilty of a bad thing, yet. Who knew what she might have to do to make it out there on her own? He couldn’t make promises like that based on who she might become. They hadn’t survived this chapter, for starters.
“Is there anything else we need to be doing?” she asked.
“Rest. When the files have downloaded, we’ll have more than our share of work. There’s a bed back there.”
“Show me?”
The corners of Andy’s mouth turned down, but he took a step back, gesturing farther into his spy bunker. She followed him past the rig and what served as his kitchen. A full bed was pushed up against the wall on one side and a sofa on the other.
“It’s better than the lodge,” he said.
“It is.” She turned toward Andy, sliding her arm around his waist.
He stared down at her, his body too still.
Was she the predator in this scenario and he the prey? Or had he lured her into his trap?
Carol didn’t much care. They were here, together and alive for now. She could die before the week was out, but at least she’d pushed them forward. Right now, she wanted him.
“Andy?” She tipped her chin up, staring at him. “Will you tell me, even if it’s a lie, that it’s going to work out all right? Just for now?”
He tucked her hair behind her ear, his gaze searching her face. She might have fallen for Mark, but Andy had her heart.
…
Andy stared into Carol’s eyes, the deep current of emotion swirling in her gaze.
“I have a plan. An idea, mostly.” He licked his lips. This could be a lie, or it could be the truth. It was crazy, but if they were talking about the fantasy of it all, why couldn’t he have his, too?
“Yeah?” Carol wrapped her arms around his waist, her body supple and soft against his.
“You have valuable training in analysis, and enough familiarity with operational control that it’s not foreign to you.” Andy’s mind whirled. If he had all the resources and none of the limitations it was possible.
“I wouldn’t say I’m operational material, though.” She frowned.
“One of the weaknesses of the contract relationship with the Company is I get what they give me, nothing else. Logistics, research, coordinating resources, I have to do it all myself. It would be…helpful to have someone else. A teammate.”
“A girl Friday?” One side of Carol’s mouth hitched up.
“Yes.” Andy swallowed. She’d be perfect, but she’d also be trapped. He couldn’t make the Company not want her back or cover her tracks. She’d have to go into hiding, and stay there. Maybe even in a concrete box like this one.
“That sounds better than my ideas for the future.” Carol smiled and the room seemed to brighten.
She cast light in the darkness, chased the shadows away, and reminded him why he did this. What his purpose was. He wished, more than anything, that she’d never become involved in this mess, but here they were. They couldn’t change the past, but the future was still uncertain. If they believed in the impossible for even a moment, he wanted that. To be with her and have someone he could trust at his back. She’d never make him doubt her, and he’d die to protect her.
Carol pushed up on tiptoes and hooked her arm around his neck, pulling him down. Allowing further intimacy would make the reality of needing to part ways more difficult, but fuck it. He wanted the lie for as long as he could get it. Her lips sealed over his, rousing his carefully chained lust.
It was just a kiss, nothing more.
“Is there anything else we need to do while the files download?” Carol eased down, her arms still curled around his shoulders.
“No.” He stroked her sides, relishing the feel of her curves, the press of her body. He’d forgotten what it was like to be with a woman who wanted him and not his money. The spark of connection, the simple joy of being with her, they reminded him of what it was like to be human.
“Good.” She pulled on his neck and he bent, meeting her halfway.
Would she feel the same way about him in a week, a month, a year, a decade?
He didn’t know, and though he feared her regret, he craved her all the sa
me. From the moment he’d laid eyes on her, learned her name, watched her, she’d burrowed deep inside of him. He’d begun this life to do the hard work, behind the scenes, on his own terms, and along the way Andy had forgotten much of what it was to be human. Until Carol reminded him. Until she showed him how to feel and care about more than just his job.
“You’ve kept me totally distracted.” Her lips curved into a sensual smile.
“How so?” He kissed her neck, following the tendon down to her shoulder.
“What you said on the plane…”
He paused, flipping back through his mental reel of Carol moments.
The way her voice fluctuated, the husky notes, she wasn’t talking about plans or logistics.
“I told you I’d get your mind off things if you let me.” He pulled at her shirt, kissing skin hidden by the neckline of her top.
“You do.”
Andy bent and scooped her up. She sucked down a breath, but didn’t protest. He sat down on the sofa, her perched on one thigh, and undid her jeans.
The idea of doing this to her days ago would have been absurd. Now, he wanted moments like these to last forever. He held her gaze and slid his hand into her panties. Her stomach muscles tensed as he stroked her mound and lower.
Shit. He’d expected damp, but wet?
“Did you like the idea of me touching you like this on the plane?”
“It was impractical and needlessly reckless.” Even with his fingers stroking her she somehow managed to sound prim and proper.
“But the idea of it turned you on?” He parted her folds, touching her more intimately.
“Y-yes.”
“Like this?” He thrust a finger inside of her.
Carol lifted her hips, one hand braced on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her, keeping her firmly on his lap. He plunged her depths, stroking her without hurry.
They had time, and the security, to not simply go at it like animals. He could savor this moment, make it last, but could she?
Her breath shuddered out and her eyes went wide.
“Did you just come?” He couldn’t quite tell.
“N-no.” She groaned and tipped her chin up.
If she hadn’t come, then she was close. He smiled and kissed her neck, her jaw.