She touched each finger in turn and paced her office. “Drug trafficking. Illegal arms sales. Counterfeit bills. Human—” She looked at him, and Conner nodded. “Of course he’s doing every awful thing a person can do that involves breaking the law. Except that no one can catch him in the act or find any evidence.”
“Because he spreads it around. Richmond. Washington. Norfolk. Everywhere is part of his ‘territory’ and he has a network of men all over the place.”
Kayla stared at him. “How do you know the intricacies of his operation?”
“I can’t tell you.”
He saw in her eyes that her brain puzzled out the problem. “Money. Secret Service.” Her mouth dropped open. “There was a rumor someone in town was printing counterfeit bills, but the sheriff couldn’t figure out where it originated. It was only hearsay.”
Conner waited.
“You’re investigating it. The newspaper article said you’d been fired.” Kayla lifted a finger to point at him, totally contrary to her upper-class upbringing. “You’re undercover.”
“I said I couldn’t tell you, but since my cover is now blown wide open, I guess it doesn’t hurt. I trust you to keep my secret, Kayla.”
“You’re working for Andis Bamir, trying to gather the evidence to put him away.”
Conner wanted to hug her. “I can neither confirm nor deny that.”
“Of course you can’t.” She started to pace back and forth. “It’s an incredibly delicate and dangerous situation to be in.” She wheeled around and stared at him. “Have you been undercover all this time, since the article?”
He nodded.
“That was years ago!”
“Assignments. More than one.”
“How close are you to finishing this?”
“I’m only missing the last piece of the puzzle. Then I can put this whole thing to bed.”
Andis Bamir’s counterfeit bills had stopped flowing. The operation had halted for some reason, which meant any chance at catching him in the act had disappeared. He’d been ready to call it quits when he heard Kayla’s name come up.
Kayla blew out a breath. “Conner, this is huge.”
“And I don’t want you getting caught in the middle of it. I don’t know what Andis wants with you. All I know is that it can’t be good. Tell the sheriff, and call your father. Get the Secret Service here to protect you. I don’t want you to take any risks.”
He could tell she didn’t like that, but he wasn’t going to give her the choice. Her safety was his top priority.
Conner took two steps toward her. “I don’t want you anywhere near Andis.”
Being here with her, knowing that Kayla knew the truth about the man he’d been pretending to be for months, Conner felt right for the first time since…he didn’t know when. Maybe since that night years ago when Kayla had been in trouble and he’d saved her from what that man had planned.
But Conner couldn’t be the person she’d known. Not here. No one could know that Conner. It was the nature of the job. Just the fact that Kayla knew the whole story made him feel like he was seeing the sun after a week of gray clouds.
“Wow.” The word was a low mutter as she processed everything she’d learned and the implications.
Conner looked up. There was so much in her eyes he didn’t know where to start. She cared about him; that was clear. He’d never met a more complicated woman, and he was about as straightforward as a man could be. It was probably good they’d never had the chance to be together. They’d likely have driven each other crazy.
He sighed. “I should le—”
The window smashed. A flaming bottle flew to the ground and burst open, spilling its contents across the floor.
Before the liquid could erupt into flames, Conner’s Secret Service training kicked in and he dove toward Kayla.
TWO
Kayla hit the ground. Conner landed beside her as breath burst from her lungs. Flames erupted across the room and Kayla screamed. Conner pushed up off the floor and then grabbed her. She wobbled on her feet for a second and had time to grab her phone but not her laptop bag before he pulled her toward the door.
They made it to the hall, but he headed for the back of the building. No one else was there except them, not anyone from the dentist’s office next to hers or the stores below. Thank You, Lord. There was no one else to get hurt, but there was also no one else who could call for help.
The men had come back, and now they were trying to kill them? What was going on?
Kayla raced after Conner. Halfway down the hall, another bottle came through the broken window at the far end. Conner shoved her to the wall and shielded her with his body. It was heroic, but it didn’t mean he actually cared about her. Secret Service agents weren’t paid for their feelings. They were paid to keep their charges from bodily harm. Still, she warmed at the care he was taking to make sure she wasn’t exposed—to be certain danger reached him first.
“He’s boxing us in. I’ve seen them do it before,” Conner yelled over the crack and hiss of flames. “Is there another way out?”
“The dentist’s office has a fire exit with stairs down to the ground floor.”
Conner pointed down the hall. “On the side?” She nodded. “Too exposed. Anything else?”
Kayla glanced around, as though the answer would reveal itself through the walls. “We should call the sheriff again and find out where he is. Give me your phone—mine is almost dead.”
He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “My cover is blown.” He paused, his thoughts somewhere distant she wasn’t invited. “I guess the rules no longer apply.”
Kayla let her gaze roam his face, trying to figure out what on earth would possess a man to live the kind of life where he was constantly under threat of being killed.
She’d understood on some level before tonight that undercover work was dangerous for a law enforcement officer. But now that she’d seen what he lived with, Kayla didn’t know if she could stand that life. There were men and women who could, though, and she had so much respect for what they did.
“So what do we do?”
Conner glanced around. “We need a place to hide where the smoke won’t get us. We can call the sheriff from there. I just have to keep you safe until he shows up.”
“But not yourself?” He didn’t need to be safe?
“You know what I mean, Kayla. When I know you’re okay, I’ll make a break for it.”
Instead of dishing it back to him—and dying of smoke inhalation from standing in this hallway—Kayla grabbed his arm and dragged him to the kitchen. Conner shut the door and she got two bottles of water from the fridge. Then he soaked some towels and tucked them under the door.
She handed him a water.
“Thanks.” Conner drank half the bottle in one go and then pulled out his phone, thumbed buttons. After gulping down the rest of the water, he threw the empty bottle in the recycling bin.
Kayla looked around. “I think we should try to get out of here.”
“They started the fire to flush you out, and now they’re waiting outside. When you run outside, they’ll probably shoot you. That’s how this works. The fire gets you outside, and then they finish you off. If there’s time, they’ll dump the body back inside to destroy the evidence.”
“Wonderful. Unless…”
“What?”
“They’re trying to kill you. You said your cover is blown. Maybe they’re not after me anymore.” She saw the look he gave her and said, “Well, it’s possible. And either way we need to get out of here before we suffocate.” She grabbed his phone.
Conner’s eyes darkened. “That isn’t going to happen to you.”
“Because I’m in danger, and you’re going to save me?”
“Yes.”
“You know, normal people just call the police when they’re in danger.” She even dialed the numbers to prove it.
Conner didn’t react, though she knew for a fact she was funny. �
�You’re not normal people and neither am I.”
Kayla showed him the phone and pressed Dial. Just so he could see how normal she was. “I’ve been working very hard for the last few years to be normal, thank you, and you’re ruining—Yes, I need the sheriff and a fire truck. I’m trapped in my office.”
The same lady who’d answered the first time took her location and Kayla answered a half-dozen questions. No, they weren’t in danger of being immediately injured—though it would be minutes before their situation changed. No, they couldn’t get out.
When the woman tried to get her to take deep breaths to calm down, she hung up. “Why did you come tonight?”
“Like I told you, I overheard a conversation from the next room. Your name was mentioned, so I decided to come over and see if you knew why they were talking about you. It’s no secret that you or I once lived in the White House. That’s probably why they didn’t let me in on it.”
“So you heard the conversation?”
“Not much of it, like I said. No more than your name, but I got the impression they don’t like you too much.”
“I don’t know why not. I’m a likable person.” Kayla wasn’t like a trial lawyer who spent all day in a courtroom and made tons of enemies. She wrote wills. Business contracts. Nothing to hide. No one wanted her dead. That was crazy. Unless…
Conner frowned. “Something just happened with your face.”
“I—” Kayla blew out a breath.
“Tell me.”
“It can’t be connected to me, so there’s no way they could know. But I own a piece of property on the outskirts of town. Sometimes the sheriff refers women in…dangerous situations to me. If they want to press charges against their husbands or boyfriends or whoever is hurting them, I can help them, but sometimes they’re still in danger even then. So I give them a place to stay. Whether it’s permanent or just until they get on their feet is up to them.”
“You run a battered-women’s shelter.”
“Why did you say that like it’s a bad thing?” Smoke had started to creep under the kitchen door. Kayla coughed. “I help women, and sometimes kids, too. But I don’t run it—I have a manager for that. I just…facilitate the place. Locke helped me set it up.”
“Of course Special Agent Locke helped you.”
Okay, now he looked mad. What was it he’d said…? Something just happened with your face. Yeah, ditto. Didn’t he like his former supervisor?
“Look,” Kayla said. “I just thought if someone wanted to find something or hurt me, that would be the only reason I can think of as to why. Maybe they were looking for the address. The sheriff keeps a tight lid on the whole thing, but it could be that my identity was leaked and someone wants to get revenge on me for helping one of the women.”
It wasn’t like she could sit by and do nothing, though. Her job wasn’t exactly on the front lines of making the world a better place, not like Mr. Undercover Agent over there. They couldn’t all be like that. Kayla just used her passion to help women who needed it, and she gave them the chance to find safety. To feel real peace for the first time.
“So what’s the connection between the shelter and Andis?”
Kayla shook her head. “You tell me.”
“There has to be one.” He glanced aside for a minute.
“Either way, we’re both in a burning building.” Kayla started toward the window to see if she could see a fire truck or at least emergency lights.
Conner grabbed her arm. “Don’t go near the window. They might be watching for us.”
Kayla was supposed to be done with the part of her life where people were trying to kill her. She should be safe now, or as safe as your average person who wasn’t the former president’s daughter was. Living her life. Doing her part to help other people. That was the life God had given her. And now someone was trying to take that away from her.
Kayla wasn’t going to let them.
*
Conner knew why his handler had recommended he sever all personal ties before he went undercover. He’d been the perfect candidate—deceased parents, a sister he wasn’t close with. No girlfriend or significant other to either break up with or ask to wait for him. But standing here with Kayla, Conner had to wonder why that was.
Sure, he’d been married to his work for a long time. Joining the Secret Service had been everything Conner ever wanted since he’d found out who those suited men standing around the president were.
Romance hadn’t been part of his life. Especially when the woman he wanted had been young, impetuous in a way that had been both infuriating and adorable, and completely out of reach. The idea of a new Secret Service agent dating the president’s college-age daughter was so unthinkable he’d been laughed at by his colleagues for even asking the question.
Fast-forward nearly a decade and Conner had seen Kayla a few times around town. He was pretty sure she never even knew he was there, as he’d made a point to avoid her. It wasn’t a secret, even from Andis and his men, that he’d been Secret Service. He’d given them some privileged information about printing money to “buy” his way in, and Andis had accepted Conner as one of them. But distrust ran deep with criminals. They didn’t fully trust him and probably never would.
Bringing down their organization from the inside would mean one less bad guy in the world.
But now the assignment was over. Pete had seen him. Conner would have to scrape together what he could and see if there was enough for a solid case—if they didn’t kill him first.
After it was done, if Conner didn’t wind up in witness protection, he’d have to give Kayla a call. The woman she had become was vibrant, despite the situation they were in.
Conner’s gaze caught hers and he surveyed her face. Even with the smoke that now filled the air, she seemed to be doing okay. The fire department and the sheriff would show up soon, and then he’d leave her to her life while he took care of Andis.
He took a breath and it caught in his throat. Conner coughed it out. “We won’t last much longer in here.”
He scanned the room. Table and chairs. A fire extinguisher hung on the wall. That might come in handy.
Flames glowed orange between the door and frame, the wet towels now smoking.
“What do we do?”
Conner didn’t answer. He waved Kayla to him. If this didn’t go according to plan, he would regret spending this time with her and never saying the things that were in his heart. “Kayla—”
“No, no. Don’t do that.” She took a step back. “You’re going to give me the ‘I’ll lay down my life to protect you’ speech, aren’t you? I know you, Conner. You’ll always be a Secret Service agent, and I doubt there will ever be a day when you’re in the same room as me that you won’t feel like you’re on protective detail.” She sighed. “Because it’s your job.”
She was so far off the mark it wasn’t even funny, but if he told her the truth—that he had seriously missed her—she would get embarrassed. So Conner walked to the window, put his back to the wall and peered out. They were on the second floor, but the awning above the store window downstairs was below them. If he smashed the window, they could use the awning—which would likely rip under their weight—to at least break their fall.
“Do you see them?”
Conner scanned the street. “No. And I don’t see a fire truck or the sheriff either.”
“What’s taking them so long?” Kayla stepped over but, thankfully, kept well back of the window. “They should be here by now, shouldn’t they?”
Conner didn’t like this one bit. “I would have thought so.”
The only reason for the delay he could think of was that someone at the sheriff’s office had been paid off by Andis. Conner didn’t like entertaining the idea that an officer of the law could be corrupt, but it did happen. It would hit Kayla hard, knowing her contacts in helping those women might not be completely aboveboard.
Boots in the hall, coming toward them.
“Firefigh
ters.” Kayla started for the door.
Conner grabbed her arm. “Wait a second.”
“In there!” A man yelled.
Conner grasped the fire extinguisher. “Move to the side.” If this wasn’t firefighters, if it was Manny and his guys, Conner wasn’t going to let them get a shot off before he could get Kayla out of there. He had his gun, but taking down the group would mean too many questions about who he was and why he’d been here. Not to mention the investigation would be over when Andis found out it had been Conner who’d killed his men.
He slammed the butt of the extinguisher against the window. The glass shattered, and he cracked out as much as he could, making sure he got everything on the bottom frame. “Let’s go.”
“You want to jump?”
The man in the hall yelled again. “Get it open!”
Conner grabbed Kayla’s arm.
The door handle shifted, and someone banged against the door as though trying to open it with the force of his body.
He got Kayla to the window.
A gunshot blew a hole in the door beside the handle. Two. Three shots. Four.
“Go!”
He pushed her out.
Kayla landed on the awning, slid to the edge and rolled at the last second. She grabbed the edge and fell as the fringe ripped from the frame and she disappeared out of sight.
The door flew open.
Conner jumped. He tried to land on the awning as softly as possible, but his boots hit the material and went straight through. Conner prayed, for the first time in years, that he wasn’t going to land on top of Kayla. When he hit the concrete, he rolled to disperse the force and bumped into Kayla’s feet.
He looked up at her.
“That looked painful.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Kayla held out her hand, and he took it but didn’t give her his weight as he got up. Then he let go and put his hand on her back to lead her away. He didn’t need Manny and his men seeing them on the street. Just like he didn’t need to know what her hand in his would feel like. Conner could have lived his life without that.
It would have been infinitely easier than knowing for sure now that her skin was soft and smooth and her smaller hand fit in his perfectly. That her warm fingers could lace through his when his were cold. No, he didn’t need to know that. It wasn’t going to be a comfort when he was on the run from Andis.
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