Operation: Midnight Escape

by Linda Castillo

  Leigh felt each word like a vicious punch. For an instant she couldn’t catch her breath, couldn’t think. She could feel the terror building inside her.

  Ian Rasmussen had to be behind the theft of the database records. Even if the television wasn’t reporting the connection.

  “Oh, God.” Standing abruptly, she put her hand to her stomach and choked back a sound of pure terror.

  Ian Rasmussen knew her new identity. He knew her name. Her address.

  For an instant she considered calling her old contact at the U.S. Marshals Service office in Boulder. Then she remembered what had happened the last time she’d put her trust in a government agency and nixed the idea.

  The image of Jake Vanderpol flashed in her mind. She saw dark, intelligent eyes. Military-short hair. A lean face and chiseled mouth. A body as hard and breathtaking as the Rocky Mountains themselves.

  She’d trusted him with her life. She’d given him her heart. Her body. A piece of her soul. He’d taken all of those things with a ravenousness that had left her half-crazy with the need for more. She’d fallen hard for the brooding agent. But the intimacies they’d shared hadn’t been enough to keep him from using her as a means to an end.

  Shoving the memory back into its deep, dark hole, Leigh sat down hard on the bed and put her face in her hands. “Calm down,” she whispered into the silence of the room.

  There was no way Rasmussen could have tracked her here. She’d been too cautious, watching out for cars traveling too close. She would have remembered seeing the same vehicle twice. No one had followed her.

  Still, she knew it was best if she didn’t stay too long. She needed to keep moving. Once she’d put enough distance between her and Denver, she would stop in a new city, create a new identity, start a new life. It was her only hope of staying alive.

  All she had to do was stay one step ahead of Rasmussen.

  Glancing at the alarm clock on the night table next to the bed, she sighed. It was almost 7:00 a.m. She’d been driving most of the night. She needed a shower. Food. A few hours of sleep. Then she would hit the road again. If all went as planned, by tomorrow she would be in Kansas City. A place where she had no ties. No one had any reason to look for her there. All she had to do was stay alert and be cautious.

  Feeling the hard tug of exhaustion, Leigh lay back on the bed, not bothering to take off her clothes or boots. The H&K was within easy reach, and she had a knife in her boot as backup in case she was caught unaware. But she didn’t think anything would happen. No one knew she was here.

  But as sleep overtook her, it occurred to her that she’d underestimated Ian Rasmussen once before, and it had cost her more than she ever could have imagined.

  LEIGH JOLTED AWAKE. Lying on her side, she remained perfectly still, listening, her heart pounding. The room around her was cold and silent and dimly lit. The clock on the night table told her she’d been asleep just over an hour. What the hell had wakened her?

  In the past six years Leigh had learned to trust her instincts. Right now those instincts were telling her something was wrong. She could feel gooseflesh racing along her arms.

  The doorknob squeaked. She sat up, her heart hammering like a piston in her chest.

  A second later the door flew open and banged against the wall. A man looking to be as large as a mountain in the semidarkness of the room rushed in. She scrambled across the bed, her hand groping for the H&K on the night table. A dozen scenarios rushed through her mind as her hand closed around the grip. No time to think. Aim and fire, just like at the shooting range where she’d practiced so many hours in preparation of this terrible moment.

  She brought up the gun, swung the weapon around. An instant later, a strong hand clamped around her wrist. “Drop it,” came a growled command.

  But Leigh knew if she let go of the gun she was as good as dead. She screamed when he squeezed her wrist. “No!”

  A gunshot exploded. Plaster rained down from the ceiling. She fought for control of the weapon with all her might, but even with all the self-defense classes she’d taken in the past six years she wasn’t prepared for the strength and speed of her attacker.

  A final, painful squeeze to her wrist and the gun clattered to the floor. The last of her hope fled as she heard the intruder kick it away.

  He’s going to kill me, she thought.

  Knowing she had to act quickly if she wanted to live, Leigh used her free hand to reach for the knife in her boot. She’d barely gotten her fingers around the rubber grip when he locked both her wrists in his hands and shoved her back onto the bed. She tried to knee him, but he twisted aside just in time then came down on top of her.

  She lashed out with her feet. But he was heavy and strong and overpowered her with ease.

  “Calm down, Kelsey. Damn it, it’s me. Jake.”

  Everything inside her froze at the sound of the all-too-familiar voice. Leigh stopped struggling, her body suddenly recognizing his on some primal, instinctive level. Every hard angle of his muscular body fit against hers with the perfection of a well-worn glove.

  Breathing hard, she stared at him, unable to move, a confusion of emotions descending in a rush.

  He glared down at her with dark eyes. His thin nose looked as if it had been broken and never properly set. His chiseled mouth was pulled into a grimace. But she knew from experience that his mouth could be gentle, too. That it could kiss a woman senseless if she wasn’t careful….

  “Get off me!” she cried.

  His nostrils flared with every labored breath. He was staring at her as if she were a ghost and he couldn’t quite believe he was seeing her. “Just be still,” he said. “Don’t fight me. You know I won’t hurt you.”

  But Leigh knew that was the one thing Jake Vanderpol did exceptionally well. Something she would not let him do again. “You have no right to be here. To break into my room—”

  “I’m here to save your life,” he cut in. “If you’re as smart as I think you are, you’ll let me do it.”

  Chapter Two

  Jake knew better than to think of how good she felt beneath him. She was a witness desperately needing protection. At least, until Rasmussen was captured or the U.S. Marshals Service could take over. But when it came to Kelsey James, the logic and the good sense he’d always prided himself on never so much as entered the picture: not six years ago when he’d crossed too many lines to count; not now because he had a pretty good idea that he was going to be crossing even more.

  Staring into her vivid blue eyes with her body warm and soft against his, he prayed he could keep a handle on things this time.

  Not bloody likely.

  Feeling his body harden the way it did every time he so much as thought of her, he shifted, then pushed away, rose and offered his hand. Ignoring him, she scrambled across the bed and jumped to her feet.

  “How did you find me?” she asked.

  “I make a living finding people,” he said. “Give me a break.”

  Her gaze flicked toward the door, and he realized for the first time how badly he must have frightened her. But he hadn’t had a choice. He’d known that if he’d taken the time to knock, she would have gone straight out the window.

  “Do you have any idea how close you came to getting shot?” she asked.

  “The day you can get the drop on me is the day I deserve a bullet.” He crossed to the door, looked both ways, then closed it and locked it. “Why didn’t you call your coordinator at the U.S. Marshals Office? Let them relocate you, protect you until that son of a bitch is caught?”

  “In case you missed the news, it was a deputy marshal who helped him escape. Someone inside the U.S. Marshals Office gave it up, Jake. How can you expect me to trust them with my life?”

  Wishing he could dispute that, he strode to the window, parted the curtains and surveyed the parking lot.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  He turned to her. “I’m going to take you to a safe house.”

  “I do
n’t want to go to a safe house. I sure as hell don’t want to go with you.”

  “You don’t stand a chance of surviving on your own. It’s only a matter of time before Rasmussen finds you. We both know what will happen when he does.”

  A tremor went through her. “He won’t find me.”

  “Don’t bet your life on it. If he can hack into the Witness Security Program database, finding you will be a walk in the park.”

  “I know how to disappear. A new name. A new city. I can do it and I don’t need your help.”

  Pulling the Glock from the shoulder holster beneath his coat, he checked the clip, then shoved it back into its leather sheath. “You were in the database. He’s got your new name. Your latest address. As far as we know he could have had you under surveillance for quite some time.”

  “I know how to take care of myself.”

  “Not when it comes to Rasmussen.”

  She walked around the bed and got in his face. “I don’t want you here. I don’t need you. I don’t need your help. I can sure as hell do without your brand of protection.”

  The words stung, but Jake didn’t let himself react. He figured he’d had that one coming after what happened six years ago. He’d never forgiven himself for not getting to her in time to keep her from going back into the lion’s den…

  He may not have seen her for six years, but he’d kept track. She might think she was prepared, with her brown belt in karate and handgun training, but there was no way she was equipped to handle this on her own. She might talk tough; she might even look tough. But he saw the fear in her eyes. He doubted she had a clue what six years in a cage could do to a man like Rasmussen.

  “I just want to help you,” he said. “Let me take you to the safe house.”

  She stuck out her chin. “Or maybe you think I’m your ticket to Rasmussen. Maybe you want a repeat performance of how things went down the last time. You got that promotion after you nabbed him, didn’t you? Isn’t that what this is all about? Your ego? Your job? Get your man at any cost, including your own soul? Or in that case, it was my soul, wasn’t it?”

  Jake just stared at her. He wondered if she really believed what she was saying. If she really hated him that much after everything they’d been through. If she remembered as keenly as he did that not everything that happened between them six years ago had been bad.

  “All I want is to keep you safe,” he said. “I figure I owe you that much.”

  “Forgive me for not believing you, but that’s the same thing you told me last time. Right before you used me.”

  That she could believe that about him made him feel like a son of a bitch. Six years ago his decision to use her as bait and set a trap for Rasmussen had occurred before he’d spent a week in that safe house with her. Before he’d touched her. Before he’d kissed her. Before he’d slept with her. Long before his heart had gotten involved….

  In the end she had been the one to carry out the plan—without his blessing. To this day he didn’t know what she’d had to do to get the goods on Rasmussen. That burning question had been tormenting him for six years.

  Jake scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “You went behind my back—”

  “Sending me to Rasmussen was your idea,” she said.

  That much was true. “I tried to abort the sting.”

  Her smile was cool. “You were too late, though, weren’t you?”

  “You were angry when you found out about the plan,” he said. “You get reckless when you’re angry.”

  “We both got reckless, wouldn’t you say?”

  He didn’t know what she’d had to do to get Rasmussen to fess up on tape. He didn’t know if she’d had to compromise herself…or worse. The only thing that was crystal clear about any of this was that she blamed him.

  Jake bore that blame like a lead weight.

  “Damn it, Kelsey—”

  “Don’t call me that. Kelsey James no longer exists. My name is Leigh.” She glanced over at her suitcase. “I have to go.”

  Jake clamped his jaws together and struggled for patience. “Let me take you to the safe house.” He stepped toward her. “I mean it. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  “I’ll take my chances with Rasmussen. At least with him I know where I stand. He might be brutal, but he’s a straight shooter.”

  The words slashed like a knife. Leigh Michaels was no longer the twenty-one-year-old farm girl she’d been six years ago. She’d blossomed into a stunning beauty with the street smarts of an undercover cop. The hard knocks she’d taken showed in her shadowed eyes. In the mouth that no longer smiled so readily. But she was still so beautiful it hurt just to look at her, and Jake felt the pain of it all the way to his bones.

  Rounding the bed, she picked up the H&K he’d taken away from her earlier. With the ease of a woman who knew how to handle a firearm, Leigh checked the clip, then sheathed the weapon in her waistband. She walked over to her single suitcase, picked it up and started toward the door.

  Before opening it, she turned and looked at him. Her eyes slid down his body. She hadn’t meant the slow perusal in a sexual way, but he felt her gaze like the soft caress of fingertips over sensitive skin and his body jumped in response.

  “Don’t try to come after me, Jake. I know what I’m doing.”

  “You’re making a mistake.”

  “It’s not the first one, is it?”

  “Could be your last.” He watched her, wondering if any shred of what she’d felt for him six years ago was left inside her. “Don’t do this, Leigh. You’re going to get hurt.”

  “I’ve already been hurt.” She smiled, and for a moment looked very much like the lovely young woman he’d fallen for six years ago. “See you around, Jake.”

  She slipped through the door.

  For several eternal seconds Jake stood next to the bed, his heart heavy with dread. There was no way he could let her walk away. No matter how careful she was, Rasmussen would find her, and Jake knew what would happen when he did. The thought sickened him.

  Leigh might not want to be protected, but there was no way he could stand by and let her do this. Even if he had to use physical force. It was a route he hadn’t wanted to take, but the alternative was infinitely worse.

  “Go get her, you damn fool,” he muttered, and started for the door.

  CLUTCHING HER SUITCASE, Leigh started down the hall at a fast clip. Her heart was still wildly pounding from the shock of seeing Jake again. She couldn’t believe he’d found her. Couldn’t believe the old feelings were still there, when she’d spent so many years trying to exorcise them from her system.

  The doors on either side of her blurred as she broke into a run. She wasn’t sure why she was running. Away from Jake and all the memories and feelings she’d struggled for so long to leave behind. But she knew that no matter how fast she ran she would never be able to outrun them.

  She was midway to the stairs when a man rushed out of the alcove where the ice machine was. Leigh darted left, but he plowed into her with the force of a Mack truck. The impact sent her reeling. Her suitcase flew from her grip. Then his strong arms locked around her and spun her around.

  She caught a glimpse of long hair pulled into a ponytail. Eyes full of violence. She reached for the H&K in her waistband but wasn’t fast enough. His hand shot out like a snake. Viselike fingers closed around her wrist and Leigh dropped the pistol.

  “Try something stupid again and I’ll kill you.”

  Leigh tried to twist away, but he slammed her against the wall. Pain radiated up her spine. Her scream was cut short when he slapped his hand over her mouth.

  “Don’t make a sound or I’ll put a hole in you so big it’ll take the cops a week to find all the pieces.” He backed up the threat by jamming a pistol against her ribs. “You got that, pretty lady?”

  Leigh jerked her head once. She just knew he had to be one of Rasmussen’s thugs.

  Setting his forearm against her throat, the man glanced both ways. “Yo
u alone?”

  She nodded, wondering where Jake was. “What do you want?”

  “There’s a hefty pricetag on that pretty head of yours. Nothing personal, but I’m going to cash in.”

  She cringed as he ran his hands swiftly and impersonally over her body. She prayed he wouldn’t find the knife in her boot.

  Relief surged through her when he stepped back without patting down her calves. “We’re going to take the elevator down. Nice and easy and quiet. You got it?”

  He stepped into the dim light of a wall sconce, and she got her first good look at him. He was the size of a woolly mammoth with eyes so pale they looked white. His face was pocked and angular. He wore an expensive trench coat. And he held a deadly looking semiautomatic pistol aimed at her heart.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough.” He jabbed her ribs with the gun. “Start walking.”

  Leigh glanced down the hall, but the door to her room remained shut. Jake was nowhere in sight. It suddenly occurred to her he might not have heard the commotion. That he could have been on the phone with his superiors. Or maybe he was going to let this man take her and lead him to Rasmussen….

  She knew it was stupid considering this man could kill her at any moment, but the thought hurt the same way it had hurt her six years ago. Damn Jake to hell. She didn’t need him or his protection. She still had the knife, after all. All she had to do was wait….

  The man motioned toward the elevator at the other end of the hall. “He wants you healthy, so don’t try anything stupid.”

  Leigh’s legs were shaking so violently she could barely put one foot in front of the other. Dizzy with fear, she started toward the elevator.

  Rot in hell, Vanderpol, she thought as she passed by the door to her room.

  But as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she’d been secretly hoping Jake would burst from the room and save her. That hope dwindled as they neared the elevator. Leigh could take care of herself, but she was smart enough to know when she was out of her depth. The men who worked for Ian Rasmussen were in an entirely different league altogether. One that was vicious and deadly.