Chase

by Sidney Bristol

  “You do know that I was trained as a field agent before I ever met you?” Nikki kept her gaze on the damn tablet, but her tone was all ice.

  “Being trained and having experience are two different things.” He’d worked with plenty of guys who couldn’t hack it. With her, he’d never doubted her ability. The truth was he needed her safe so he could continue doing his job.

  Nikki didn’t respond.

  Gabriel applied maybe a bit too much pressure to the accelerator as they merged with traffic. The tires squealed as he took off, but only a little. She grasped the door as he swerved around slower-moving traffic.

  “What the hell?” she snapped.

  “It’s a muscle car.”

  “So you have to drive like an idiot?”

  “Dang. That might be the most emotion I’ve seen from you yet.”

  Except for last night. He’d felt her frustration and anger then, but he wasn’t going to bring that up.

  Nikki didn’t respond.

  He wanted her to pay attention to him. To talk to him. It was juvenile and silly, but if the only way he could make her see him was to bug her, well fine. He’d done worse before.

  Gabriel reached over and grabbed the tablet out of her hands.

  “Hey!” She made a wild grab for the device.

  He tossed it into the backseat. It landed with a thud and bounced onto the floorboard. If it broke, well, either Emery could fix it or the FBI could buy her a new one.

  “What the hell was that about?” Her voice was raised, her brows drawn down. There was emotion behind her words.

  “I’m trying to work with you and all you do is jack with that tablet.” He swerved around slower-moving traffic, going nowhere fast. His destination didn’t matter yet, so long as he was going somewhere.

  “And I’m trying to research.”

  “You’ve read that file a dozen times over. It’s not going to tell us anything new.”

  “What is your problem?” Nikki pressed her fingers to her temples. “I can’t figure you out. You’re angry with me for—what? Working? Trying to do my job?”

  “I’m not angry, you just aren’t seeing the case because your nose is buried in that tablet.”

  “Gabriel, in case you aren’t aware of this, people work in different ways.” She spoke slowly, as if he were a damn toddler being scolded.

  He yanked the car into the lot of a fast food joint and shifted into park.

  “You don’t have enough experience to know that.” Even as he said the words, he knew they weren’t true. Nikki was an experienced, seasoned agent. She might not be used to undercover work, but she was incredibly competent. So why was he goading her? To get a reaction? He should stop, but he couldn’t help himself. Not when he saw emotion simmering there just under the surface.

  Nikki blinked a couple of times, her jaw working soundlessly.

  “Excuse me?” she finally said.

  He should apologize, acknowledge he was being an ass and smooth things over. Yet his mouth opened and he shoved his proverbial foot farther down his throat.

  “You’ve had what? Three or four years?” He shrugged. “That’s not enough, Nik.”

  “You always downplay my ability.” She tossed her hands up, her cool façade broken.

  “I am not downplaying it, I’m just saying, there are better ways to work a case.”

  “You don’t think I can do it. You never did. Is it because I’m a woman? Is that it? Does my lack of a penis offend you?”

  “No, this isn’t about gender.” It was about her. About them. God, he was a wreck inside.

  “Really? Because you’re starting to undermine my authority all over again, and I’m not going to let you do it this time.” Her voice rose as she spoke. She must be getting really riled up this time. He had to stop this.

  “I never undermined your authority.” He frowned, scouring his memory for a time when he’d gone against her orders.

  “Yes, you always did. You’re doing it now. God, why is working with you so difficult? Can’t you just let me do my job and stop trying to control everything?”

  “I’m not controlling anything.”

  “Yes, you are. You used to do it all the time.”

  “I didn’t control you. I protected you.”

  “Really? Is that what you want to call it?”

  “Yeah. Give me an example.” He was blindsided. When had this happened? He’d only ever thought of her.

  “Detroit. The warehouse?” She leaned toward him, her eyes a little bloodshot and her lips tightly compressed.

  “That was—it was dangerous. You needed to be farther away from the site in case shit got bad. Which it did.”

  “I was supposed to be there as your backup, to pull your ass out, and I couldn’t get there.”

  “And I got out just fine. It was safer for you.”

  “If I had a dick would you have cared?”

  Silence.

  He’d cared about his previous handlers, but not like her.

  “If I’d been a man, would you have second-guessed my call to be outside that warehouse?” Nikki asked, jabbing her finger at her chest.

  Shit.

  “It wasn’t safe—”

  “If I was a man would it have been the same?”

  They stared at each other for a moment. His phone vibrated, the only other noise in the car. It might be Emery or Aiden or anyone else he should answer, but not in this moment.

  “Gabriel.” She drew his name out as a warning.

  “No. Are you happy? If you were a man or even another woman, it wouldn’t have mattered. But because it was you, the woman I was sleeping with, it mattered.”

  “You promised me it wouldn’t.”

  “Yeah, well, I lied. Happy?”

  “Were you lying when you said we could work together now?”

  “No. Yes. Maybe.” He sat back in his seat, unable to look at her.

  He was guilty of loving her too much back then. Of wanting to protect her at all costs, even if it meant his life and cutting him off from the one person who might have helped him through the fallout. Another woman might swoon at the idea she rated above everything else, but not Nikki. To her, what mattered first was the work they did; everything else came after that. It was another thing he respected about her. He’d made an emotional choice back then, and even now. Both times they were wrong, and selfish, but he didn’t know how to stop himself. How to make it be any other way. He couldn’t stop caring about Nikki, no matter what had happened and how far they’d come.

  “I’ll call Aiden,” Nikki said.

  “Don’t.” He reached out and grabbed her hand before he could think better of it.

  They both stared at his large, dark hand wrapped around her small, pale one. Her skin was softer than his. Of course, sandpaper was softer than him, but that wasn’t the point. She was everything he wasn’t, and she was better. Not because of race or class, but because of who she chose to be.

  He had to be honest with not only himself, but her, too. She deserved that.

  Gabriel let go of her hand and sat back in his seat. He’d need a little distance to get it all out.

  “I always thought I was looking out for you. I didn’t realize you took it to mean I was undermining your authority.” Without knowing, he’d become another hurdle for her to clear instead of building her up.

  “You did. Do you have any idea how bad it looked when I would lay out an operation, only for you to change it later?” She hung her head forward and looked up at him. With her shoulders hunched that way, he could imagine the weight of everything she’d overcome pressing her down.

  He should have been helping to make that burden easier.

  “I never looked at it that way. I thought I was protecting you.”

  “I didn’t—I don’t need your protection. If I were a civilian, then yes, protect me. But I’m not. I am an FBI agent. The training and shit I’ve been through has prepared me to be out here with you. Not holding you back
or letting you pull my weight. If you would just let me do my job, maybe you’d realize that.”

  He blew out a breath.

  Of course she didn’t need him. She was every bit as capable as he was. Probably more so. She could look at situations analytically, while part of him would always get wrapped up in it. He felt it in his bones. It made him great undercover, but lousy as an agent.

  “I’m sorry. What can I say?” He rubbed his hand over his face. “Telling you that being together wouldn’t change how we operated was my mistake. I didn’t mean to lie to you, but it shifted everything. From how I called you and when, to my focus in the field. I wasn’t thinking about the objective, I was worried about you, keeping you in the clear and out of it.”

  “Can we work together?” Her voice was quiet.

  “I want to. I was out of line earlier. You just . . . It’s like you shut down, and it drives me crazy.”

  “How am I supposed to be, Gabriel? Things have changed. We’ve changed. I’m behaving the only way I know how to get the job done.”

  “I get that. Can we find a middle ground where it’s not like working with a robot? We used to have fun together.”

  Nikki stared at the gearshift, opening and closing her mouth.

  Once, they’d laughed together. On the job, they had an uncanny synchronization because they were in tune with the other. But not anymore.

  “I can try,” she finally said.

  “That’s all I’m asking.”

  “Will you stop being an asshole?”

  “I can’t promise to go against my nature. I am a man.” He smiled sheepishly.

  Nikki’s smile was sudden and unexpected. She rolled her eyes and relaxed into her seat.

  “Did Emery get back to you?” she asked.

  The heavy weight sitting between them lifted. The day was a little brighter.

  Her tendency to shift focus so fast had once left him in the dust. Now he recognized it as her acceptance of the barrier they’d just blown through and a desire to get back to their objective. Which meant she was still going to work with him. A stupid, crazy part of him was happy about it.

  Gabriel grabbed his phone, grateful for yet another second chance.

  “I’ve got an address.” He slid the phone into the cradle and grabbed the gearshift, the world running a little more in tune.

  Chapter Seven

  Nikki leaned forward, craning her neck to get a better look. The seat belt tugged at her shoulder and the air conditioner blasted her in the face.

  “Cameras,” she said.

  Gabriel slowed the GTO to a crawl. She lowered the window and snapped a couple of pictures with the high-powered camera she’d borrowed for this trip. She’d had a vague hope this would be an evidence-gathering trip only, but the more they uncovered about Wilson’s recruits, the more concerned she was getting.

  The presence of white poles with the brand-new security equipment stuck out in the middle of nowhere was a prime example of what was making her worried. By all accounts this property was supposed to be undeveloped land won in a poker game. From the map, all they’d been able to tell was that it was remote, backed up onto a waterway that led to the ocean, and had no neighbors nearby. The closest occupied structure was a bait and tackle/gas station several miles closer to the highway.

  “What do you want to bet there isn’t just a fishing shack out here?” Gabriel asked under his breath.

  The latest aerial photographs Emery had dug up showed a ramshackle twelve-by-twelve cabin and tiny dock on the property at the end of a dirt road. It wasn’t much, but for someone who wanted privacy, it was an ideal getaway—for Jed and a couple dozen of his closest friends.

  “They aren’t pointed at the county road.” Nikki frowned and followed the angle of the nearest camera.

  “Look. They’re aimed there.” Gabriel pointed ahead of them to a brand-new gravel drive leading away from the two-lane county road.

  “That’s not on the aerials.” She snapped a few pictures.

  “What do you think the chances are this is Wilson’s new hangout?” Gabriel asked.

  Nikki peered down the drive and at the cameras as they passed at a low speed.

  “Why point cameras at a driveway and not the road?” she mused out loud.

  “I highly doubt we’re seeing all the cameras. We’re probably on one now. Let’s find a place to hide the car and hoof it back to their location.” He accelerated a bit, putting some distance between them and the drive.

  “If they have cameras on the road, then they’ll get your license plate. Why didn’t we take a less conspicuous car?” It was the issue she couldn’t wrap her mind around. Gabriel’s electric purple car stood out, even in a place as colorful as Miami.

  “I changed the plates, so if they’re run, they’ll go back to a sedan from Tallahassee. Plus, Emery will know and we’ll have something for him to sink his claws into.”

  “Why couldn’t we just take another car? One that wouldn’t draw attention.”

  “We need the action.”

  “I’m sorry, but I think I missed something.” She stared at Gabriel, trying to figure it out for herself.

  He turned the car off the road onto a sandy path. She wasn’t so sure about this decision, but kept that to herself.

  “Remember, we’ve got to keep up appearances. If these guys are muscling in on our territory, for whatever reason, we can spin this to help us. You can’t tell me where Wilson is getting their funds from, so I bet it’s something nice and illegal. Hitting them bolsters our street cred. Besides, not everyone can match cars to owners, and if they can, Emery has all of our rides masked or disguised or something.”

  “I don’t get it, but if you say it works for you guys, I won’t push it.” The flashy car went against everything she’d been trained to do in covert work, but Gabriel was playing a different game here in Miami. If he was willing to let her lead in what she knew, she would defer to his judgment where the car was concerned.

  “Ready to walk?” Gabriel reached under the driver’s seat and pulled out a twin set of silver Desert Eagle pistols.

  “That’s an upgrade.” Nikki eyed the high-powered semiautomatic handguns.

  “Would you believe me if I said they’re for looks?”

  “No.”

  Gabriel grinned.

  “You lead. I’ll follow.” Nikki was more at home in an urban environment. Out here, she would have to rely on Gabriel’s tracking ability and knowledge of the terrain. Despite his current inner-city gig, he’d grown up tracking animals and people across the desert in West Texas and the border of Mexico. He’d proven a number of times that he was more than capable at finding his way even without streets. His sense of direction was truly uncanny.

  Nikki re ached into the messenger bag Roni had outfitted her with and retrieved one of her own SIG Sauer pistols.

  “You’re carrying?”

  She glanced at him, amused by his neutral tone.

  “Why else do you think I’m carrying a purse in the field? Does it look like there’s anywhere on these shorts to stash a weapon? I swear, this is the most ridiculous outfit I could think of.” She checked the chamber and flipped the safety off, then on again before tucking it in her waistband.

  “Yeah, but you look like you belong, so the clothes do their job.”

  She didn’t miss the way his gaze traveled slowly over her body, or the half-smile. An invisible hand squeezed her heart painfully for a second. This was about the job, not them.

  “Ready?” Gabriel stood, stowing both weapons in the belt around his hips. He flipped his shirt up and over the firearms, gifting her the smallest peek at his abs. Damn, but the man had a great body.

  “Ready.”

  Nikki pushed out of the car and looped the camera strap around her neck. It was a fairly sophisticated model that she’d been able to program to send the images directly to Emery’s server so he would get the pictures almost as fast as she could take them.

  “Stay te
n feet behind me.” Gabriel started walking into the brush. “We don’t know if they’re actively patrolling. I want to come at them about halfway between the water and road, where they’re likely to be more lax about security.”

  “Okay.”

  She tried to tell herself this was just another intel recon. In her career, she’d done dozens of these. But never with Gabriel. Back then her role had been different and all about him. She was glad to follow him at some distance because she was pretty sure the excitement of it was going to show through. How many times had she wanted this to happen? Then there was the aesthetic joy of getting to watch him.

  Sweat made the gray T-shirt cling to his shoulders. The dappled light on his skin accentuated the strong definition of his biceps and arms. He crouched slightly as he walked, presenting her with a great opportunity to admire his firm ass. Yeah, the man was a walking, talking buffet she wanted to eat up. Too bad her time with him was over. Still, there was no harm in looking.

  The ground was covered in grass and weeds that came up to her knees. Thigh-high bushes and shrubs thrived between the sparse trees that were a mix of tropical, evergreen, and what appeared to be some kind of oak. Nikki wasn’t up to date on the flora enough to know more than if it came down to a shoot-out, none of the ground cover was enough to hide behind.

  Without the rumble of the car, she could hear the sound of the distant ocean. She could even smell the scent of brine in the air. Insects buzzed, and pretty soon a halo of little flying things circled her head. The coarse grass cut her calves, and in a few places they had to cross open ground due to the soil being eroded down to the limestone bedrock.

  There was a peaceful kind of quiet at first, but it wore thin. It was as if even the nearby wildlife knew something bad was afoot. Every so often she could hear a noise, maybe a shout or an engine that was decidedly man-made.

  Ahead of her, Gabriel paused.

  She hesitated, waiting for a signal from him.

  He gestured for her to come closer and sank to a knee.

  Nikki crouched lower and scurried up next to him. A sprawling hedge and a sagging branch provided some cover, but not enough to put her at ease.