I had to trust her. I had no one else.
I called Elizabeth to check in. I would have called Edgar, but he wouldn’t talk over the phone. It’d been a bit of a problem getting him to agree to a meeting when we arrived in San Diego. He was former CIA. He knew how powerful some of these government spies could be.
I hoped his paranoia would keep him protected.
Amy came out of the diner, looking a little refreshed. She’d washed her face, her hair damp around the edges. I brushed it back, slipping my fingers into its depths.
“Did you see the way everyone was staring at you in there?”
“Just because I was a stranger. These small town places are like that.”
“I don’t think that’s the only reason.”
I drew her close and kissed her softly. She immediately melted against me, a soft sigh escaping from between her lips before I stole them. I found myself thinking about all the things I wanted to do with her once all this was over. A trip to somewhere tropical, bikinis and water and a nice, big, soft bed. I’d had this plan once upon a time, the moments we would spend together once I got out of the service. It was what got me through some of the darker times overseas, the nights when I found myself rethinking all my choices. The thought of her waiting for me was the only thing I needed to get through it all.
I’d missed that these last few years.
“We should go,” I whispered against her lips.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not sure about anything right now, darlin’.”
She licked her lip, making my heart do a funny little flip. If we’d been alone…
But one second she’s looking deep into my eyes, desire burning there. The next, she pulling back, a hiss slipping from between her lips as she grabbed her arm. Blood oozed between her fingers.
I reacted immediately, pulling her back behind the tiny car, wishing I’d taken the huge SUV that had been in the parking lot of the motel instead. Another shot ricocheted off the front bumper of the car, narrowly missing my thigh. My gun was inside the car, under the driver’s seat. I cursed myself for not grabbing it before leaving the car.
Whoever was shooting at us was using a silencer. I peeked over the edge of the car, trying to see where he was, but there were too many cars parked along the front edge of the dusty lot. Amy whimpered. I squatted back down beside her and pulled up the sleeve of her thin t-shirt. There was a long, red strip of raw flesh. No holes. It was clearly a flesh wound, not serious.
I pulled my cellphone out of my back pocket and pushed it into her hand along with the keys to the car.
“I’m going to get my gun. You get into the driver’s seat, stay low, and get the hell out of here. If I don’t call you within fifteen minutes, you call Megan. Her number is on the call log, the second one listed for today. Do you understand?”
“Dom—”
I grabbed her jaw, forcing her to look at me. “Do you understand?”
She nodded.
I silently opened the passenger side door and pulled my duffle onto the ground. I took the 9mm Glock and a box of ammunition and then tossed it back into the back of the car. Amy watched, her eyes wide with fear.
“Don’t panic on me.”
She just nodded.
“Do what I told you. Drive as fast as you can and get a few miles away. If you see someone following you, drive to Houston. Don’t stop for anything, okay?”
She nodded again.
I kissed her, then pushed her into the car. She climbed over the passenger seat, slipping into the driver’s seat from a weird angle, trying to keep her head down below the line of the windshield. The car started a second later. I shut the door as quietly as I could and moved away, slipping around behind the pickup that was parked next to us.
Several shots hit the tailgate of the truck as Amy peeled out of the parking lot, going a lot faster on the gravel surface than was probably safe. But the direction of the shots helped me figure out where the shooter was hiding.
Why didn’t I see it before? There was another SUV parked four down from us. The windows were tinted, but one was rolled down just far enough to allow the barrel of a gun with a silencer to poke out.
I fired, my gun exceedingly loud compared to the silenced pistol. The side window and mirror imploded on the SUV, showering the ground with glass. The shooter dipped down in his seat, trying to get out of range. I ran over, still squatting down. By now, we’d gained the attention of the people in the diner. They were coming to the windows and out the door, someone yelling at me.
“What the hell are you doing?”
The SUV peeled out just as Amy had done. But I managed to grab onto the side door, holding onto the frame that the broken window had left exposed. The shooter tried to use the butt of his gun to knock me loose, but I reached in and pressed my gun to his forehead.
“Who the fuck are you?!”
He lifted his gun, but I managed to slam his wrist back against the seat multiple times, forcing him to drop it. Then I hit him square on the temple, knocking him out with the single blow. The driver was watching, driving erratically in an attempt to knock me off. A car came within inches of hitting me, but managed to swerve at the last instant. I fired wildly, aiming vaguely toward the driver. I missed. Fired again, my arm twisting at an odd angle as my body swung around against the side of the vehicle. This one hit.
It registered that I was in trouble when I saw the guy’s blood spray from the wound in his side. He lost control, driving the SUV off the side of the road. I barely had time to throw myself away from the vehicle before it slammed into a tree.
That was going to hurt in the morning. But, right now, there was too much adrenaline for it to register.
I ran to the driver’s side of the SUV, disgusted by the odd twist of the man’s head. He must have broken his neck on impact. I ignored the blood as I dug through his pockets, looking for some sort of ID. There was nothing. I went around to the other side, aware of sirens in the distance. I only had a few more minutes. This guy…no ID. But the glove box had fallen open and there was a picture of me attached to a sheaf of papers. I grabbed them and turned, trying to decide if I’d be better off staying on the road, or hitting the trees. Just as I was about to take my chances in the woods, the Prius reappeared.
“Get in!” Amy yelled.
I was never so happy to see her. Or to have her disobey my instructions.
Chapter 12
Amy
I was afraid the police would follow us. Plenty of people inside the diner had seen us. They could have given a description of the car to the police. But we hit the interstate and no one was behind us.
“Did they follow us from Arlington?”
“Probably.”
Dominic sat up and dragged his fingers through his hair, knocking loose the grass and debris that was clinging to him from his roll on the ground. His shirt was torn and there was blood on his arm, but he looked otherwise unharmed. At least, from what I could tell.
“Should we stop?”
“Let’s get closer to Houston first.”
I started to speed up, but Dominic reached over and touched my leg. “Slow and easy, babe. We don’t want to attract any unwanted attention.”
I nodded, my head beginning to spin with the reality of what had just happened now that the adrenaline was wearing off. My arm stung, but I was more concerned about him. I saw him grab on to the side of the SUV. I watched from a block away as they tore down the road with him barely hanging on. I was so afraid that he would fall, that I would see him crushed by the tires.
“What were you thinking?” I demanded.
He glanced at me, surprise written on his face.
I reached over and punched his arm. “You could have gotten killed!”
“I was trying not to get killed.”
“Who the hell grabs a ride onto the side of a moving vehicle? They could have shot you or caused you to fall! What would I do if you’d gotten killed?”
“You were supposed to be on your way to Houston.”
I shook my head, biting so hard on my bottom lip that it hurt. “I couldn’t just leave you there.”
“You should have. They could have shot you if they’d seen you.”
“They didn’t.”
“They could have.”
My hands were shaking. I wasn’t sure how much further I could go without losing it completely.
“Is this what they taught you in the Army? Is this what you were doing out there in Afghanistan?”
“Amy—”
“Is this what you were doing with Emily?”
“It’s complicated.”
I slammed on the brake and skidded the car to a stop on the side of the road, nearly throwing us both through the windshield. I was out of the car as quickly as I could put the transmission into park, storming down the ditch that divided the interstate from the access road, needing distance.
“Amy!”
Dominic grabbed my arm, twisting me around so that I was facing him. I slapped my hand against his chest, as much to catch myself from the momentum of the movement as it was to punish him for everything he was putting me through. He tried to grab my wrist, but I jerked back, moving out of his way and causing him to stumble forward. I wanted to scream; I wanted to hurt someone. But I wanted to touch him, to make sure the visible scrapes and bruises were all that he carried.
“Why would you do that? Why put yourself in that position? Why didn’t you just leave with me?”
“Because I didn’t want them to chase us. You could have gotten hurt.”
“So could you!”
“But I didn’t. I’m the one with combat training, remember?”
I tried to pull away, but he jerked me up against his chest, his free hand slipping over my face with the gentlest of touches.
“I love that you care this much.”
“I don’t care. I just didn’t want to have to deal with all this on my own. I want whoever killed Emily to pay, and you’re my best chance of that happening.”
“So you don’t care what happens to me?”
“I hate you. Remember?”
He smiled, his eyes lighting up with amusement. “I remember.”
“When this is over, I never want to see you again. You’re fucking insane!”
I meant it, too. Sort of. Seeing him jump onto the side of that SUV…I didn’t want to care what happened to him. I didn’t want him to die. I didn’t want to have grieve someone else I cared about.
“I love you, too,” he said softly, kissing me with that same passion that he always came at me with, like every kiss was the first.
What was I supposed to do?
I melted into him, returning his kiss with the same heat. He lifted me up and carried me back to the car, his hands sliding under the back of my shirt. If it’d been dark, if there hadn’t been dozens of cars rushing past us, honking their approval, he might have ripped my shirt away right there, stripping me down and taking what he wanted. And I would have let him.
Damn! I wished I did hate him.
He broke the kiss, his breath coming in little gasps. He slowly, regretfully, removed his hands from under my shirt, his attention turning to the flesh wound on my arm. It had already stopped bleeding, the blood beginning to dry thickly over the broken flesh.
“We should clean this up.”
“What about these?”
I lifted his own sleeve, exposing scrapes all along his bicep, obscuring a part of his tattoo of the Army emblem. He glanced at it, dismissing it without really looking at it.
“Scratches.”
“Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“Do I look hurt?”
Again that amusement was back in his eyes. I smacked him again, but it was a weak slap that ended with my hand resting against his heartbeat, feeling the life pounding inside of him.
“Are we going to survive this?”
He grew serious, his hands lifting my chin so that I was forced to look him in the eye.
“I will not allow anything to happen to you.”
“I don’t care about my safety.” I ran my hand along the length of his arm. “We finally found each other again. I don’t want to spend another minute without you.”
He groaned softly, leaning close to kiss me again.
“We will survive this. I promise.”
It wasn’t a promise I was confident he could keep. But I believed him anyway.
He kissed me a moment longer, then carefully lifted me and set me down in passenger seat of the tiny car.
“We need to find another car,” he said.
I just nodded. Stealing cars? Not nearly as scary as being shot at.
Chapter 13
Megan
“He’ll be here,” Sam said, touching my shoulders to make me stop pacing.
“Things are getting out of hand. Dominic has done some really stupid things before, but this? They’re going to arrest him if they find him before we do.”
“I know. But he’s smart. He’ll be here.”
Almost as the words fell from her lips, there was a loud knocking at the back door. I got there first, more relieved than I could say to see Dominic standing there, his shirt ripped, but clearly still in one piece. There was an attractive young woman standing behind him, a petite thing with deep mahogany-colored hair and bright blue eyes. There was blood dried on her arm, but she, too, seemed to be mostly unharmed.
I yanked the sliding door open and gestured for them to come inside. Dominic dropped a duffle bag to the floor and removed a 9mm Glock from his back waistband, setting it on the table before offering me a hug. I almost felt like I was back in Afghanistan.
“What the hell?” I asked, pushing him back after enjoying the hug for a long minute. “Why do the police think you kidnapped someone?”
“Because I did. Sort of.”
He turned to Sam and offered her a hug, too.
Dominic was one of the first employees of Dragon Security. We’d hired him even before he left Camp Pendleton in California, anticipating his release from the Army. Hayden was first, Dominic a quick second. For two years we’d worked closely together, and that led to something of a friendship. I didn’t want to see anything hurt him.
“This is Amy Greene,” he said, drawing the girl forward once Sam released him.
“It’s nice to meet you, Amy.” I offered her a hand and she took it, looking me over as if she was wondering if I was competition or something.
It made me wonder if this was the girl who was supposed to belong to the engagement ring Dominic carried on his key ring. I’d never asked, and he never offered. It felt like an intrusion to ask, particularly since he’d always respected my privacy when it came to the man who left me at the altar on our wedding day.
“I’ve got a first aid kit upstairs,” Sam offered, gesturing for Amy to go with her. “We should clean that up.”
Amy glanced at her arm like she’d forgotten about it. “Thanks,” she said, following Sam out of the room.
Dominic watched her go, then his eyes moved slowly to my face. He looked like a child who’d gotten caught trying to sneak in the house after curfew.
“I guess you have a lot of questions.”
“Tons. But you should probably get washed up, too.”
He looked down at himself, just as Amy had done, as if he’d forgotten what he looked like. He grabbed the duffle and disappeared into the powder room just under the stairs. I heated some water, looking for tea bags in Sam’s cupboard. Dominic hated coffee, though he’d drink it during a late night stakeout if it was the only option. The things you pick up about people you work with day in and day out.
The tea was just about ready when Dominic came back into the room, the dirt washed from his face and a clean shirt stretched over his barrel chest. I handed him the cup, gesturing toward the table.
He set a picture paper clipped to a couple of sheets of paper on the table. I picked it up, recognizing his Army ID photo f
rom my own files. The papers were not marked with any agency names. They could have been printed from any printer in America. But they offered a full dossier on Dominic and named him as a person of interest in one Emily Greene’s death.
“Who is she?”
“Amy’s twin. We worked together in Afghanistan.”
I looked up, his tone deep and secretive.
“CIA?”
He nodded. “She was murdered three days ago in Arlington.”
“Do you know who?”
“We were working on a case that involved a terrorist cell in Paris. She was reassigned before she’d finished it, so she continued to work on it on her own. I think she might have discovered the hierarchy of the cell. Maybe even the name of a CIA agent who was working both sides.”
A touch of dread washed over me.
“Paris?”
His eyes fell to the table. “I’m sorry, Megan.”
“For what?”
He looked up, regret filling his eyes. “Months ago, when you first started investigating Peter’s death, I knew it might be connected to what Emily and I were doing. But I didn’t want to compromise Emily by sharing what we knew with you.”
“But she was compromised somehow anyway.”
“Yeah. I’m not sure how that happened.”
“What was she investigating, exactly?”
He outlined it for me, the terrorist cell that consisted of college-aged students in Paris. He told me how he worked with Emily to find out who they were and what they were up to, an investigation that ended before they’d done more than uncover the lower section of a much larger pyramid. He told me how Emily was reassigned and then quit so that she could follow the leads the CIA chose to ignore in order to find the true leaders of the cell. How she felt partially responsible for what happened in Paris in November of this past year. She thought if she’d been allowed to finish the investigation, or if she had worked faster on her own, she might have helped bring down the cell before they had a chance to act.
Amy and Sam came back into the room as he finished, his fingers playing with the edge of his own photograph.
“This? Where did this come from?”
DOMINIC (Dragon Security Book 3) Page 9
