by Suzanne Rock
“Hold on, we’ve got a couple of guys in the area. I’ll have them swing by and pick you up.”
“There’s no need. I have a car.”
“Frank’s orders. We’re ordered to stay in groups until this all gets sorted out.”
“Okay, I’ll head back to the precinct and—”
“No need. Backup should be at your location now.”
Vash and I stared at each other in alarm. “I didn’t request backup,” Vash said. “How did they know where I was?”
The watch fell silent, and an uneasy feeling settled in my chest. Vash glanced up at me and I could tell that he was having the same thoughts as I.
Vash pressed a couple of buttons on his watch. “Hello, anyone there? Scott?” The line was dead.
“Are you sure you weren’t followed?” I asked.
Vash made a face of disgust. “Of course. You know me better than that.”
I glanced down at his watch. “Shit. I remembered to take mine off at the site, but forgot about yours.”
“GPS tracker,” Vash said. “Damn it. I’m sorry, man. I had no idea that they’d use these things against us.”
Vash started to take his off, but I stopped him. “No, leave it on. It’ll be too suspicious if they can’t track you.”
The elevator door down the hall rang, drawing my attention. “For now, I think we just need to get out of here.” I pulled out my room card, wanting to get inside before whoever was in that elevator saw us.
“Right,” Vash said. “We can go down the service stairs. They lead to the parking lot out back. No one will see us.”
I shook my head. “No, you stay with the group. You’re the only one I trust and I need to know what everyone else is up to.”
Vash hesitated, and in that moment, the elevator doors opened. I glanced down the hall to see several armed cops pile out into the hallway.
“Do you recognize those guys?” I asked.
Vash shook his head. “No, but I recognize those FBI vests. I think you’re right. You need to get out of here.”
One of the men pointed at us. “There he is, and he’s got a gun.”
I glanced down at the gun in my hand and swore. I had forgotten I was still carrying it.
There was no time to lose. I keyed into the room and left Vash in the hall, knowing it was the only chance he had of staying clean. Unfortunately, doing so was going to put a target on my back.
“Max? What’s going on?” Tess asked.
Correction—both our backs. “Pack up only what you can carry. We’re getting out of here.”
Chapter Seven
Tess
I stared at him in shock. “What do you mean ‘getting out of here’? What’s going on?” In the time he had been in the hall, I had managed to shower, dress, and unpack the snack food and electronics Vash had brought into the room. I had just connected to the internet, and was going to check my blog when he rushed in like a bat out of hell.
Something slammed against the door behind him. I screamed and jumped back until I felt the wall press against my shoulder blades. “What was that?”
“No time.” He grabbed my hand. “Follow me.” I grabbed my purse as he pulled out a keycard. Instead of going back out into the hall, he went to the door that lead to the room next to us. As he opened it, someone started banging on the hall door.
“We know you’re in there, Ferreira.” The voice was unfamiliar.
“I didn’t do it, Roy,” he called back.
“What happened to your friend?” I asked.
“Later.” He dragged me into the next room and slammed the door shut. Then, for good measure, he closed a small chain over the seam of the door. Even if someone had a key, they wouldn’t be able to get through, I realized.
“Now what?” I asked as he scanned the small space like some caged animal.
“Shh.” He went to the door that led to the hall and pressed his ear up against it. “They’ll hear you.”
I crept up behind him and imitated his movements. The wood felt rough against my ear. I could hear people arguing, and someone was still banging on our hotel-room door.
“What are we listening for?” I whispered.
“Opportunity.”
“What?”
There was a loud bang, then the sound of wood cracking.
“They’re going to break it,” I whispered.
“I know. Get ready.” He pressed his lips together as the next two crashes echoed around us.
After another loud crack, Max took my hand. “Get ready to run.”
“Run?” Was he nuts? “I can’t run in these.” While the boots were comfortable, they had a small heel, and were hardly the kind of shoe one used when running away from danger.
He glanced down at my feet. “Then take them off . . .”
“But—”
“Don’t argue with me. Just do it.”
I started to form a retort, but something in his face caused me to change my mind. His features were hard, his muscles tight. This was more serious than I realized.
I slipped off the boots and took his hand. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” In the next second, the door to the room beside us burst open. Shouts rang out as people moved into the room.
“Now.” He pulled me out into the hall and started dragging me in the opposite direction.
“Hey—there they go!”
Max picked up the pace, and for once, I didn’t argue. We sprinted down past the elevators, toward the opposite end of the hall.
“How are we going to get down?” I asked. “The elevator is back there.”
“We’re not taking the elevator,” he said. “They’ll be expecting that.”
He yanked open the door underneath the exit sign just as a popping noise rose up from behind. Pop, pop.
Max yanked me into the stairwell, causing me to lose my footing. I fell into his broad chest, and he caught me with one hand as he slammed the door closed with the other.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Guns.” He eased me away from him and took my hand once more.”
“They’re shooting at us?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Why? It doesn’t make any sense. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
He didn’t answer, but instead started down the stairs. I quickly followed, not wanting to be left behind in that mess. We ran down one floor, then a second. By the time we were on our third flight, I realized that we were thirteen floors up from the ground.
“Please don’t tell me that we’re going to climb down sixteen flights of stairs.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Please don’t tell me that you are still holding onto those damn boots.”
“Of course I am.” I waved them in the air. “They’re Manolos.”
Max stared at me as if I had lost my mind.
“One does not simply toss aside Manolos. They’re expensive.”
At the next landing we heard a door open upstairs. Max pulled me against the wall and aimed his gun up to the top of the stairwell. A large, bald man peered over the edge.
“Give us the girl, Ferreira, and perhaps the only thing you’ll lose is your badge.”
“Not on your life.” Max fired. I screamed and put my hands over my ears as the bald man returned fire.
“Stay close to the wall!” Max yelled as we started down the stairs. Several pairs of footsteps echoed behind us.
“You can’t get away from us, Ferreira,” Max’s friend said. “We have evidence now that you’ve been planning this kidnapping for months, ever since you got assigned to protect her.”
“What?” I tugged on Max’s hand, but his grip was firm. I had no choice but to follow him down the stairs.
“Let go of me! Max, what’s going on? Explain yourself.”
Max swore under his breath. I glanced up the stairs to see Vash hurrying down. Three men followed. One of them glanced over in my direction, stopped, and swung his gun so it pointed at us.
We passed by a walk-in storage closet, left open by one of the staff. Max stopped and doubled back, yanking me into the small room and closing the door behind us. I immediately tried to go back out into the hall, but Max wrestled me away from the door and pinned me against the shelving units.
“You planned this?”
“Of course not.”
“But your friend said—”
“Vash was trying to give me more information. Whoever is behind this has men on the inside. They doctored my records to make it look like I’m crazy and I had planned this for quite some time.”
“So you didn’t do it?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Everyone knows I hate politics of any kind, even within the department. What would be my motive in kidnapping a U.N. ambassador’s daughter?” He glanced down at my lips. “Even if that daughter is strikingly beautiful, I’d never do something so crazy, and I’d certainly never plot to kill anyone.”
Suddenly I became hyper aware of how close we stood together in the small space. He had a point, but things still didn’t add up. Why would someone try to kill me and frame Max for the murder? There were so many questions, and no way of getting answers.
“Your friend shot at us.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Max let go of my wrists and eased away from my body. I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of loss as his body heat was replaced by the cool air being pumped in by the ventilation shaft overhead.
“It’s part of his cover,” he said. “Didn’t you listen to him? He was feeding me information in the hall. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t know that the FBI has been called in to join the search.”
“The FBI is in on this?”
Max nodded. “Thanks to your father.”
“My father.” I pressed my lips together in frustration. “He’s always making my life more difficult.”
“Well, he hit the jackpot this time, didn’t he?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if it wasn’t for him, you never would have been assigned protection. We never would have met.”
I widened my eyes. “You don’t think he did this, do you?” My father was a stubborn old man, but he would never do something like this.
“I don’t know anything anymore.”
I shook my head and pressed my fingers against my forehead. “This is all too much.”
Suddenly Max stepped toward me and put his hand over my mouth. I started to protest, but then heard the footsteps and voices in the hallway outside. The door was too thick to make out the words, but the urgent tones suggested that the people chasing us were anxious.
Max let go of my mouth, then leaned closer to the door and furrowed his brow. Long seconds passed before we heard footsteps walking away.
“Did you hear anything?” I whispered.
He shook his head. “I don’t think they saw which floor we got off on. They sounded confused.”
“So what do we do now?”
He turned back to face me. “Now, we wait. Pretty soon they will be finished searching the building, and then we’ll sneak away.”
“What are we going to do then? Where will we go?”
“I’m not sure. I need to think about it.” He moved over to sit on one of the boxes. Leaning over, he put his forearms on his knees and rubbed his hand over his face. “I have to admit, they didn’t have a training for this.”
I bet. For the first time since we had met at the airport, I saw the bags under his eyes and the fine lines across his forehead. He was stressed, hell, we both were, but it must be difficult when your entire organization was out to get you. He must feel all alone, something that I had a little experience with. Being a blogger, I spent most of the time by myself. Talking about controversial topics put others against me and often made me feel as if I was alone against the world.
I moved over and took a seat on the box next to him. When he didn’t move, I slid my arm around his shoulder in what I hoped was a reassuring gesture. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. None of this is your fault.”
“If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be at odds with the rest of your team, or the FBI.” I touched his shoulder. “If it wasn’t for my insisting to go in a taxi instead your car, this never would have happened.”
“No, it was my own fault.” He shrugged out of my touch and stood. “I should have been more alert and insistent. Protecting you was my job, and I did a pretty poor job of it.”
I could feel him pulling away. Max was being too hard on himself. I was the one who had blown off the threat and insisted on doing my own thing. If it wasn’t for my stubbornness, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
I stood and took a small step toward him. “I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Yeah, and I promise to keep you that way.” He leaned his forearms against the wall and let out a long breath. “I just wish we had some lead on this guy. Whoever he is, he’s connected. He managed to place a contact on my team. When that didn’t work, he doctored my records and started using the FBI.” Max shook his head.
“Connected and good with computers,” I said.
“Yeah.” He let out a long breath. “It doesn’t give me much to work with.”
“We’ll figure it out.” I touched his arm, offering him comfort.
He moved away from my fingers. “Don’t do that, Tess.”
“Do what?”
“Touch me.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t think when you stand so close, let alone touch me, and if I’m to get us both out of this hotel, then I need to think.” He rubbed his forehead and frowned.
It was hard for me to think, too. Every time he moved I remembered how good he felt between my legs. Every time he talked, I thought about that wicked tongue and how he had used it to make me fall apart in his arms.
“Maybe I can help,” I offered.
“I don’t think so.” He let out a long breath. “Tomorrow your father should be here. Hopefully he’ll shed some light on what’s been happening.”
“My father’s coming here?” I widened my eyes and stepped back. “That’s impossible. The U.N. isn’t in session right now, and he’s supposed to be visiting friends in London.”
“Of course. When Vash told him what had happened—”
I shook my head. “He can’t be a part of this.”
“Hate to break it to you, but he’s already a part of this.” He straightened away from the wall. “He’s worried about you.”
“No he isn’t. He’s worried about his reputation.” I nibbled my lower lip. My father had a tendency to bulldoze his way through life. Whatever he couldn’t get, he’d bargain for. When that didn’t work, he’d intimidate.
“Of course he is. Don’t be ridiculous.” He rubbed his hand over his face. “It doesn’t matter, I suppose. Tomorrow is a long way off. I need to get you out of here first.” He turned his back to me and started searching through the supplies.
I watched him work as anger bubbled in my veins. I understood where he was coming from. He thought he was only doing his job. I understood, but that didn’t mean I liked it. He was shutting me out, which made me feel even lonelier than I already was. By taking me away from the scene, Max had effectively shut us off from the rest of the world. Now he was pushing me away.
Hugging my middle. I tried to think. Within the span of a few hours, my life had become a complete and total mess. Both the local police and FBI were after us. We couldn’t just turn ourselves in, not without Max getting in trouble. Then there was the possibility of someone on the force being connected to the people wishing to harm me. Turning ourselves in could be the same as handing me over to the wolves.
There was nowhere to go, no one to trust. To make matters worse, my father was going to arrive tomorrow. I could almost hear his loud, brash voice demanding what had happened to his daughter, a daughter he hadn’t cared about or bothered to try to contact for almost a year.
There were so many questions, and the more I tried to think of rational answers, the more my head hurt. I needed to talk to someone who knew me, someone I trusted.
I needed to see Kami.
“Come on, let’s go—and stay quiet.” Before I could respond, Max led me out into the hall. We crept along to the elevator, then past it to the stair on the opposite side of the building. After a brief check to confirm we were alone, Max ushered me inside the stair and we climbed the rest of the way down without incident.
Max paused at the foot of the stair and turned to face me. “Put your arm around me.”
“What?”
“Keep your head down and your hair in front of your face. Don’t let anyone see what you look like.”
When I hesitated, he sighed and slid his hand around my waist. “This door leads to the front lobby. I have no idea who’s out there, but my guess is that not everyone is going to be friendly.”
I nodded in understanding.
“Good, now lean on me and turn toward me as if we are talking.”
“But if I’m looking at you, how can I see where we’re going?”
“I’ll take care of that. Ready?”
I nodded. I was ready as I’d ever be.
“Good, let’s go.”
Chapter Eight
Max
It would be a miracle if we made it out of here undetected. While Tess was fairly covered, I was exposed, and despite not working directly with those FBI agents, I was sure that they all knew what I looked like.
We kept to the side of the reception area, staying behind the large, marble columns as much as we could. They must have cleared the area, because the normally bustling entryway was quiet. A few groups of people stood around talking, mostly hotel employees and agents. It seemed as if these men knew what they were doing. If that was the case, we were going to have a problem leaving through the front door.
My suspicions were confirmed seconds later when I spotted several cops in uniform standing on the sidewalk outside. I tightened my grip around Tess’s waist and turned us around, sliding into one of the many hotel corridors.
