She was ten feet from the elevator when the sound of steel against steel stopped her. Jake, she thought, and spun. Her legs went weak when she saw him standing just twenty feet away, his weapon trained on the thug.
Snarling a profanity, the thug jerked her close and jammed the muzzle against her temple. “Make a move and I’ll splatter her brains all over you.”
“Drop the weapon and let her go,” Jake said with icy calm.
The thug backed toward the elevator, dragging Leigh with him. “I don’t think you’re in any position to make demands.”
Jake stepped toward him. “You hurt your precious cargo and Rasmussen will make you wish you’d never been born. I’ve seen what he does to people who cross him and it’s not pretty.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Your worst nightmare.”
The thug laughed. Leigh’s heart leapt into a wild staccato. The man had his left arm locked around her waist. His right held the gun against her temple. She could hear the rush of his ragged breath in her ear. She could smell the fear coming off him to mingle with her own.
“Let her go and I’ll let you walk away,” Jake said. “I have no quarrel with you.”
“Walk away from a big payoff?” The thug traced the gun down the side of her face. “I don’t think you want to mess up this pretty face any more than I do.”
“Or maybe this is a losing proposition for both of us,” Jake said, edging closer.
They reached the elevator. The thug loosened his grip on her to press the down button. The gun wavered. Knowing this could be her only chance, that she had only an instant to act, Leigh grasped his gun wrist with both hands. Simultaneously, she brought her boot down on his instep.
The weapon exploded inches from her ear. The thug jerked the gun in Jake’s direction. In her peripheral vision she saw Jake charge, his weapon leveled on the thug.
“No!” she screamed.
Jake took down the thug in a flying tackle. They hit the floor and rolled in a tangle of arms and legs. Hands grappled for guns.
A second gunshot blew a hole in the wall. Jake’s hand circled the thug’s wrist, but the other man’s finger was on the trigger.
Run.
The word echoed inside her head, a primal instinct born of six years of living on the edge. But Leigh didn’t run. Even though she knew Jake was more than capable of taking care of himself, there was no way she could leave him struggling with an armed killer twice his size.
Not giving herself time to debate, she bent and slid the knife from her boot. Gripping the dull side of the blade in a five-finger grip, she waited for a clean shot. She drew back and let the weapon fly in a short range, half spin throw, exactly the way they’d taught her at the knife-throwing classes she’d taken two years ago.
The knife spun as if in slow motion, the blade glinting in a perfect downward arc. An instant later the razor sharp point found its mark at the back of the man’s left calf and went in deep.
The thug’s body went rigid. An animalistic bel low tore from this throat. He turned murderous eyes on her. “You bitch!”
Jake grabbed the man’s wrist, and the gun flew from his grip and skittered away. “That’s no way to speak to a lady.”
But the thug was more focused on the knife sticking out of his calf than he was on fighting. His features were contorted in pain. “I’m bleeding! She stabbed me!”
“You had it coming.” Jake pulled a set of cuffs from his belt and secured the man’s hands behind his back.
Leigh saw blood coming through his trousers, and for the first time it struck her what she’d done. She’d never hurt another human being in her life. Even though she hadn’t had a choice, the realization made her feel a little sick. The room dipped and began to spin.
“Leigh.”
She looked up to see Jake striding toward her, his expression taut. “Easy,” he said. “Don’t look at it.”
She barely heard him over the rapid-fire beat of her heart. She could hear her breaths coming short and fast, her arms and legs trembling violently. Shock, she thought dully and was surprised, because she’d always thought she was tougher than that.
“I’m okay,” she heard herself say.
“You’re going to be real sorry you cut me,” the thug snarled, his face twisted in rage and pain.
When Jake reached her, Leigh couldn’t find her voice. All she could think was that they’d had a very close brush with death.
She jolted when Jake’s hands closed around her arms and squeezed them. “It’s okay,” he said.
“I stabbed him.”
“You saved my life. He didn’t give you a choice.”
Intellectually Leigh knew he was right. But on a more emotional level, nothing had felt right about sinking a knife into a man’s flesh. Even if the man had had it coming.
“Where did you learn to throw a knife like that?”
“I…took a class. A couple of years ago.”
“Must have been one hell of a class.” He was running his hands up and down her arms. Talking to her. Trying to bring her back from the brink of shock.
Both of them jumped when the elevator chimed. Jake spun. As if in slow motion she saw him slide the gun from its sheath. With his other hand, he took hers.
“Run!” he shouted.
The next thing she knew she was being dragged down the hall toward the stairwell. But it was the sight of the two men stepping off the elevator that snapped her back to reality. At first glance she thought they were deputy marshals from the Witness Security Program. Then she noticed their guns and knew the situation was about to take a hard turn for the worse.
The first shot snapped through the air with the violence of a lightning strike. Sheetrock exploded off the wall two feet to her right. A hot whiz ignited the air just inches from her ear.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
The stairwell at the end of the hall seemed a mile away. There was no cover. No place to run. All Leigh could think was that they were sitting ducks.
“I said run, damn it!”
She looked over at Jake and saw fear in his eyes, felt that same fear rampaging through her. She didn’t think they were going to get out of this alive.
Then she caught a glimpse of red coming through his coat. Blood, she thought, and the fear ratcheted into terror. “Jake! Oh my God! You’ve been hit!”
The only response she got was the frenzied pound of her heart.
Chapter Three
“If I go down, you keep running!” Jake shouted. “You got that?”
“Don’t go down,” she panted.
He gave her a look and cursed. Leigh figured he already knew she wasn’t the kind of person who left someone behind. Even if she didn’t necessarily like that someone.
Shifting the gun, Jake took aim and shot out two wall sconces, throwing them into darkness. Cover, Leigh thought, and a sliver of relief went through her. At least they were no longer sitting ducks.
Shouts and heavy footsteps sounded behind them. White flashes exploded as gunfire erupted. Leigh ran at a reckless speed. But Jake urged her to go faster. At some point he’d forced her ahead of him. Belatedly, she realized he was keeping himself squarely between her and the gunmen.
They reached the end of the hall. Jake hit the stairwell door with both hands. The door flew open and banged against the wall. They burst into the stairwell. There was just enough light for Leigh to see the pipe rail and concrete steps. She was halfway down the first flight when she realized Jake wasn’t beside her. She stopped and looked up to see him put his fist through the firefighter emergency box mounted on the wall. Glass exploded. She saw blood on his knuckles.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Taking out a little insurance.” He yanked the coiled hose from its nest. “Go! I’ll catch up.”
She managed a few more steps before stopping. She looked back to see Jake ram the steel nozzle of the firefighter hose through the door handle and secure the other end to the stai
r rail, effectively locking out the men. He quickly tied off the hose. Banging sounded on the other side of the door, followed by gunshots. “That ought to buy us a couple of seconds,” he muttered dryly and took the steps to her two at a time.
“Let’s hope there’s not a welcoming committee waiting for us outside.”
He met her on the landing. “I told you to keep moving.”
“I don’t take orders from you.”
The next thing she knew her hand was in his and she was barreling down the stairs, taking two and three steps at a time, certain she was going to fall at any second.
When they reached the ground level, Jake darted to the stairwell door and shoved it open. Winter rain greeted them with a cold, wet slap.
“My car’s on the other side of the parking lot,” Leigh said.
Heavy footsteps sounded from the stairwell above. Rasmussen’s thugs had broken through.
“We’ll take mine,” Jake said. “Let’s go.”
They sprinted across the parking lot to an SUV the size of a tank. Jake punched the remote. “Climb in and hit the deck.”
Leigh ran to the passenger side door, yanked it open. Jake was already behind the wheel, turning the key, shifting into gear. “Get down.”
She glanced toward the motel in time to see two men burst from the door she and Jake had just exited. She heard shouts. Several muffled pops sounded.
“They’re shooting at us!” she said.
Jake shoved her head down. “Stay the hell down!”
Then the SUV shot forward like a racecar out of pit row. A volley of shots splintered the air. Jake yanked the wheel hard to the left. A bullet blew a hole through the windshield. Glass rained down on Leigh. She peeked up to see tiny white cracks spreading like a network of capillaries across the windshield.
“Hang on!” Jake hit the gas. “This is going to be rough.”
The SUV jumped the curb, bouncing wildly over a hedgerow and flowerbed. He twisted the steering wheel, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid the Dumpster, which screeched across concrete. Cursing, Jake swung the vehicle around and headed toward the street.
An abrupt and uneasy silence ensued, the only sounds coming from the hum of the engine and the hiss of tires against wet pavement. Nausea churned in her stomach and for an uncomfortable moment she feared she would be sick.
“Are you all right?”
Trembling, Leigh sat up. “I feel like I have to throw up.”
Jake glanced at her, his eyes dark with concern. “I can’t pull over.”
Feeling sweat break out on her forehead, she rolled down the window a few inches and let the cold air rush over her heated skin.
“Take some deep breaths,” he said.
She did, and slowly the nausea receded. In its wake, she was hit by the wrenching knowledge that they’d come very close to being killed. That a monster was out of its cage. That he was a predator and she was his prey, and he wouldn’t stop until he killed her. Then she remembered the blood on Jake’s coat and her focus shifted.
“How bad are you hit?”
“Just a nick.”
A shudder of relief went through her. “How can Rasmussen be so organized and have so much power after six years in prison?”
“He’s had a lot of contact with the outside. Lawyers. Accountants. He’s got money stashed in overseas banks. He’s connected. He’s brutal. There aren’t many people willing to cross him.” Jake grimaced. “You crossed him.”
“So did you.”
His jaw flexed. “Yeah, well, he’s not obsessed with me.”
She looked down and saw that her hands were shaking. She hated being afraid, hated having to look over her shoulder. She’d spent the past six years rebuilding her life. A new name. A new job. A new apartment. Now, just when she’d finally found some semblance of normalcy and a life she was content with, the nightmare was starting all over again.
“Where are we going?”
“For now we’re just putting some distance between us and those sons of bitches with guns.”
Feeling sick again, she put her face in her hands. Hot tears burned behind her lids, but Leigh had grown adept at keeping a handle on her emotions. What she couldn’t control was the fear. She was so tired of feeling like a victim.
After a moment she drew a deep breath and looked at Jake. Her gaze went to the hole in his coat. Right side, just above his hip. It was the size of a quarter. The surrounding material was blood soaked.
“Oh, Jake, you’re bleeding.”
“I can drive.”
“That’s more than just a nick. It looks bad. You need to—”
“We can’t stop, Leigh.”
“Can you call someone at the agency for help? Have them meet us somewhere? Get you some medical attention?”
Jake didn’t answer, but she saw his hands tighten on the wheel, and something else began to niggle at her. It surprised her that even after so many years, she still knew him so well. They’d spent one short week together a lifetime ago. But it had been a week of life-and-death danger, of breathless intensity and a roller-coaster ride of emotions. They’d had a common goal, had been fighting a common monster. And for a precious moment in time, they’d shared the same reckless passions….
Leigh pushed those memories away. “Don’t you have to call in to the agency and let them know what happened?”
Jake glanced at her, the rearview mirror and then back to the road ahead. “No.”
“What do you mean no?”
“I mean I walked away from the agency this morning.”
Leigh didn’t know what to say. For Jake it had al ways been about the job. About getting his man, no holds barred. He defined himself by his work. Six years ago he’d been willing to sacrifice her to get at Rasmussen. Something she’d never been able to forgive him for.
She knew all too well how much his job with the MIDNIGHT Agency meant to him. She couldn’t help but wonder why he would walk away. She told herself it didn’t matter. Nothing he did now was going to change what had happened six years ago. But then, she’d always been good at lying to herself when it came to Jake.
“I hope your leaving the agency didn’t have anything to do with me,” she said.
“If I hadn’t walked away this morning, you’d be lying stone-cold dead back at that motel.” He shot her a dark look. “Or else on your way to Rasmussen.”
“You don’t know that.”
His laugh told her he did. “You might think you can handle this on your own, Leigh, but I’m telling you, you can’t. I’m asking you not to try.”
“I’m not the same dumb kid I was when I met you, Jake.”
“I never thought you were a dumb kid.”
“You just treated me like one. Until it came time for you to get what you needed, anyway.” Leigh shivered as the memory of that day pressed into her. The MIDNIGHT Agency had wired her for sound. She’d met with Rasmussen at his Michigan Avenue loft. It had been the worst day of her life. But she’d gotten Rasmussen to incriminate himself on tape. Only, she’d had to sell her soul to do it….
Shaking off the memory, she sighed. “Look, I know how to disappear. All I need is a new name. A new city—”
“He’s not going to stop looking for you,” Jake interrupted. “How long do you think you can hide? A week? A month? A year? Sooner or later your number is going to come up.”
“He’s a fugitive. He can’t elude the police indefinitely.”
“If he flees the country, it could be years before we get him. He’s got the resources to stay hidden as long as it takes.”
“As long as it takes for what?” As soon as the words were out she regretted them, because she knew what he was going to say.
“To find you,” he said tightly. “I don’t even want to think about what he’ll do to you. Damn it, you know him, Leigh. He’s obsessed with you. He’s bent on revenge. Motivated by jealousy and hate and ego. You saw the way he looked at you in court the day you testified against him. He’s fixat
ed on you. He knows what happened—” He bit off the words and looked away. “Between us.”
Even with her heart pounding with fear, she felt an unwelcome surge of heat at the mention of what had happened between her and Jake six years ago. Leigh knew it was crazy, but that was the way it had been between them. Even with their lives on the line, they hadn’t been able to resist each other. A single, earth-shattering night in his arms and she’d been lost….
“How could I have been so naive to get involved with a man like Ian Rasmussen?” she whispered.
Jake rolled his shoulder. “You couldn’t have known what kind of man he was. He kept his secrets well hidden. He was Chicago’s favorite bad-boy bachelor. He had a successful North Michigan Avenue restaurant. The local media loved him.”
“I was with him for almost a year.”
“Don’t start the blame game, Leigh. You were young. Inexperienced. He knew that and used those things to manipulate you.”
Even after all this time, it made her feel like a fool. Yes, she’d been young—just twenty-one when she met Ian Rasmussen. But why had it taken so long for her to see him for what he really was?
As if realizing where her thoughts had gone, Jake turned to her. “If it hadn’t been for you, he never would have gone to trial.”
The mention of the trial made her feel queasy. The court proceedings had been a nightmare. Leigh had taken the stand to testify against Rasmussen. Only, Rasmussen’s high-powered lawyer had done his best to put her and the MIDNIGHT Agency on trial in stead. That was when it had come out that she and Jake had been intimate. That the MIDNIGHT Agency had formally disciplined Jake for inappropriate conduct with a witness. Rasmussen’s lawyer had tried to use the information to get the case thrown out. The judge however had seen through the ruse. But Rasmussen had gone off the deep end. Not only had Leigh betrayed him by wearing a wire and getting him on tape for the feds, but she’d betrayed him on an even deeper level by sleeping with the very man who’d brought him down.
For a second, when she looked across the seat at Jake, she saw him as the man he’d been six years ago. He’d been her protector, heat and strength and steel control. But Leigh had seen that control fracture. She would never forget the way he’d looked at her the first time he’d kissed her. The way his eyes had gone dark when he’d touched her. She would never forget the way he’d trembled when he’d been inside her. Or the moment when her own control had shattered with a power that had moved her to tears….
Operation: Midnight Escape Page 3
