Catch Me If You Can (Love's Command)

by Billi Jean

  “Hell if I know, but you taste addictive. I want more.”

  That surprised her, he could tell.

  Hell, it surprised him. Since when did you start telling women the truth?

  He stared at her beautiful face, mesmerized by the slant of her eyes when she narrowed them, as if trying to figure him out.

  When did he start telling women the truth? Since he’d met her. She was it. He now knew why the hell Wolf had been so screwed up for years without Mandy. He now got it. And he was on a mission to bring her in.

  Kylie stiffened in his arms and pushed at his chest. “You’re making a scene.”

  “Causing, it’s causing a scene.”

  She froze, then shook her head with a soft laugh. “Either way, let me go.”

  “Only if you promise to spill the beans. I need to know what’s going on, who you are and why Uncle Sam wants to know.”

  “Uncle Sam?”

  He loosened his arms and let her step away, but kept her hand. “My government, baby.” He glanced around the street, and no one was obviously watching, but he’d bet his last dollar there were plenty of eyes on them. “Inside, then we can talk.”

  She held his eyes firmly, but after he didn’t relent, she finally nodded.

  Chapter Three

  Kylie bit her lip, knowing that the American facing her wasn’t someone she would ever forget. For one, he’d kissed her. Really, really kissed her. She felt changed, as if he’d shifted her universe. Her clothes made her too hot, frustrated and antsy all at once. Had she ever been kissed like that before in her life?

  No.

  And now, she had by an American who obviously wanted to stop what she was doing for her dad.

  Was that why he had?

  She led him through to the back of the apartment, then on to the lab, all the while not sure what she would do with him.

  Discover why he kissed you like that, Ky.

  See if he will do so again.

  Both thoughts collided and almost made her stumble over her own feet. She couldn’t do such a thing with a man like this. Not only was he handsome, but he was handsome and he knew it, the arrogant man. Sexy, too, need she forget.

  The dismal thought made her madder for some reason.

  Why did he kiss me?

  “This is a sweet place. So your dad is a scientist?”

  She really needed to get rid of him. But how? He was bigger, stronger and didn’t seem even slightly fazed by her knocking him down once and throwing another guy at him another time. He just kept coming.

  Would he be like that in bed?

  Oh, God, I need to stop.

  He moved around the lab, examining things but keeping his hands off. He had a gun, but he’d not held it to her. Instead, he saved you, Ky. But for what? So he can take you in.

  It’s what he’d said. And if he did, she’d lose her dad. Even now, the men Eric was dealing with could be watching her.

  Then there were the Arabs. Who were they? How did they know she was here, or even who her father was?

  “All that thinking can’t be good for you.”

  Startled from her thoughts, she turned and focused on the biggest problem she had right now.

  He smirked at her.

  He’d donned a blue baseball cap, and instead of making him less conspicuous, the angle and fit of the thing made him look more appealing. If that were humanly possible. He watched her quietly— she could almost feel his eyes on her. It was the oddest thing. She hadn’t caught him looking at her butt, or her breasts, but she knew he’d not only checked her body out, but liked what he’d seen and took every opportunity to see more. And she knew because she could literally feel his interest every time he was near.

  She licked her bottom lip then worried it with her teeth.

  She’d have to knock him out.

  But the only thing she had close by was something similar to propofol, but with less side effects. It was also much quicker to knock a person out if given straight into the bloodstream. Within seconds, her biggest problem—for the moment—could be resolved.

  Would he leave it at that, and let me go?

  “Thinking is very good for a person,” she said, trying hard to appear as if nothing at all was the matter, when she knew her hands were trembling. No doubt he could sense how nervous she was. It didn’t make it any easier to calm down, when the man she planned to drug and tie up stood nearby, scrutinizing her every move like a hawk.

  “So, we are here. Let’s discuss this.” He motioned to the lab and turned his eyes back on her with a serious expression.

  “I don’t have time. I have to gather a few things, but when I’m finished, we can talk as long as you’d like.” She turned her back on him and quickly shifted some vials in the small counter top refrigerator. Taking a deep breath, she let it out and grabbed the drug she needed before she lost her nerve. It was already attached to a needle with enough in the small vial to knock out a horse. She hoped it would take down one hunky American. She pocketed another two vials for good measure.

  A memory of another black man—one she’d aided—floated up from the past. He did remind her of him. Even though her savior had been so damaged by the attack she hadn’t been able to make out his face. The eyebrows, perhaps, she thought, then shook herself mentally. The lack of sleep was impacting her in odd ways. She forced herself to shove the painful memory off as another sign of how desperate she was. Do you expect him to come charging in, like he did before, and save you, Ky?

  The pain in her chest grew. Yes, she did, part of her wanted to cry. Why she thought of that long ago solider, when things had gone so wrong that she was faced with another, much more dangerous man, she didn’t know. Maybe jetlag.

  The thought made her want to smile, but she focused on the man in front of her instead.

  He’d kissed her.

  The smiling, cocky agent was as different from that man as night and day.

  Her long ago soldier hadn’t kissed her, but he’d said things in his feverish state that still made her heart feel too heavy for her chest.

  “Well?”

  She concentrated on him again. She had to get his man out of her life. At least until her four o’clock train to Busan.

  She turned when he stepped closer, close enough that she could feel his body heat. He was dressed casually, with a light blue and white button down shirt and blue T-shirt underneath and a pair of dark jeans. No doubt he hid weapons—his sidearm—under the fabric of his shirt. He’d not taken it out but he would though. If he had to. He was an agent, or part of a team set to bring her in, she guessed.

  “I simply need to hear the facts, baby. Just the facts. It can’t be as bad as all that.”

  Baby. He used endearments so easily. Her entire life she’d not been called anything but her name, unless it was something worse than her name. And here this man stood, after kissing her breathless, using words that stung because she’d dreamed of someone calling her such things, and here he had, but didn’t mean them the way she’d always hoped someone would.

  Anger settled in her chest like a million buzzing hornets. Anger was an unhealthy emotion, but it might see her through this trouble. Several times during the past three days, she’d feared she’d break apart at the seams. The anger at least steadied her.

  “Why did you kiss me?”

  The question spilled from her lips before she had even knew she’d spoken. Heat flooded her face at the look of surprise on his.

  He grinned casually, and she knew a second before he opened his mouth, she’d not like what he had to say. It was the grin, she realized. The tilt of his head and the smirk.

  “It seemed the only way to get inside with you,” he said.

  Her rage blossomed to something a lot hotter. Even though she’d anticipated him denying it was anything more than a move to use her and she shouldn’t have gotten madder just because he admitted it, she did. The ugly emotion simmered in her chest, making her feel uncomfortable in her own skin.

/>   She narrowed her eyes and watched his grin grow. With more calm than she’d known she possessed, she reached out, injected him with the knock out drug right in the crook of his arm.

  He stumbled back into the metal counter, shook his head hard, once, twice, then with a stunned look, fell down with a loud crash into the table then the floor.

  “Oh, my God.” She covered her mouth with both hands, so shocked all she could do was stare at him.

  I did it.

  And he deserved it too! The jerk.

  It seemed the only way to get inside with you?

  The kiss of a lifetime. The first real, passionate, heated kiss in her life, and he’d used it to get into her father’s home? Her outrage died down, replaced with the constant sorrow and loneliness she’d lived with for so long.

  What did you expect, Ky? A man like this would be so head over heels for you, he’d kiss you and forget his mission, his country?

  Stupid. So stupid.

  Turning, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply past the tears. She hated crying. It solved nothing. And now she had more problems. The Americans were after her, Arabs were suddenly popping up in Korea, intent on catching her and crazy people were holding her father until she got them everything they needed to build their own army of super soldiers. There was no time or space for her to have a meltdown over a man hurting her feelings, yet that’s all she wanted to do.

  Hurt feelings mend, Ky, father might not.

  She brushed her cheeks off and straightened her spine. She’d gather the sample drugs and a change of clothes then head for the train. She’d never see the American again.

  “It seemed the only way to get inside with you.”

  Why did he need to get inside with her anyway? She spared him one last glance, regret filling her when she did. She went out into the apartment, gathered a pillow and returned to settle his head more comfortably. He’d landed sprawled on the cold tile floor, but in the stillness of the apartment, she doubted he’d need a blanket.

  His baseball cap had fallen off and she picked it up. A Navy cap. Did that mean he’d served in the Navy, or that he still was part of them, maybe a SEAL?

  She examined him quickly to insure he was fine. His face was just as handsome relaxed in sleep as it was full of his arrogant grin. Maybe even more so, she thought.

  Didn’t matter. She was a mission to him. One he wanted to bring in so that his country could question her while her father lay dying, or worse, was tortured.

  She stood, putting distance between them. After one last look at him, she turned and left.

  What would it be like to have a man want her for her, rather than to get to something else they wanted? Wealth. Secrets. Her dad.

  * * * *

  “Repeat that?” Tazz demanded.

  “You heard me, she drugged me and left. It’s been three hours since then. She could be anywhere.”

  Silence met his grumbled response, followed by Tazz chuckling. The damn Texan thought this was funny? She’d gotten the drop on him. Twice. No doubt because when he was near her, all he could do was get as close as possible so he could inhale the smell of her. Her scent was driving him nuts. Or it would be if she were nearby. If she wore perfume, she should buy stock in it because he couldn’t get enough of it. Or, it would seem, of her.

  “Okay, I’m on my way,” Tazz said. Dare heard the sound of wheels squealing and Tazz swore before he continued on like he’d never stopped. “We’ll see what she left behind, or better what she took. Can you tell?”

  “You know her dad’s address?”

  “Sure, it’s in the file.”

  Daren had gone through that file until the pages were worn thin, and he’d not spotted this address. There’d been an address listed for her in the US and one in Seoul, but as far as he could tell, this one didn’t match up. And there’d been no indication of a lab located in Korea.

  “Huh,” he commented, scanning the room. There was a half empty tray of bottles left on a counter, a slip of paper under one of the long metal counters with numbers on it and the light blue pillow where she’d rested his head off the floor. Otherwise the place looked exactly as it had before she’d knocked him on his ass. The pillow drew his attention again and he stooped down to pick it up.

  Why rest his head on a pillow after drugging him?

  He could only guess, but the answer to why she drugged him was loud and clear.

  The comment on the kiss.

  Otherwise, the lab was clean. If she’d taken something, there wasn’t a sign of it that he could see.

  “The place looks clean.” Even as he said it, he focused on the two cabinets across from him. “Wait, let me check something out. I’ll call you back,” he added, ending the call and pocketed his phone without giving Tazz the option to argue. He dug out a pair of gloves from a box on the counter, and picked up the piece of paper with the numbers on the floor. The locked cabinet stood across from the paper, right where someone might look up the combo on a computer then drop it carelessly after getting the cabinet open. A spy wouldn’t make such a mistake, but a desperate scientist’s daughter just might.

  “Did you forget daddy’s combo, baby?” He walked over to the cabinet and punched the numbers into the keypad. A soft click greeted him. Bingo.

  Daren pivoted to examine the room once more. If she’d looked up the numbers on the computer and rushed to the cabinet, she might have dropped the combo, but again, would a spy be so unprofessional?

  Hell, would a spy put a pillow under your head?

  Maybe. But for now, Kylie wasn’t here to ask. The cabinet though, was open. Inside, he found shelves full of small boxes, more vials in a small refrigerated section in the back and a small laptop. Everything seemed in its place except one of the file boxes had been moved and left open and two of the six vials on one tray were missing.

  Unease settled in his shoulders. This wasn’t nuclear science. Hell, this wasn’t even computer codes. He lifted the lid completely off the box nearest to the front and read a few of the labels on the files. All were numbers with dashes and he guessed initials. He pulled the first file and found cat scans, bios, blood work results and more lab work he couldn’t understand or fit together. He thought he caught some photos of gel electrophoresis tests, notations of electron microscope work and even a few references to cutting edge sequencing tests he’d tuned out in his training courses. All of it spoke of something a whole lot more than a nuclear warhead—or a whole lot less.

  What are you and your dad into, baby?

  The desert had been a simple mission. Save a few scientists that had been forced to land their plane on the wrong side of a line. The mission had taken all of six days, including getting him to a base hospital. He’d been down for a full twenty days. Kylie had saved his life. She’d been one of those scientists. Or so he thought. How could she have been a full member of the team at twenty, twenty-one?

  He still couldn’t believe she’d been that young and saved his life. He wasn’t even clear on how such a small person had moved his heavy ass out of danger. All the digging he’d done had only uncovered that a young woman had hidden him and saved him. On her own. She’d also been in danger. The child he’d talked to had even suggested she’d been followed to where she’d hidden him, and yet here he was. Alive and kicking. And so was she. She was a fighter, and obviously brave enough to drug a man who could toss her over his shoulder without breaking stride. He grinned at that and grabbed the remaining vials for testing later on, closed the cabinet, pocketed the paper with the codes on it and twisted the lock to insure no one else could gain access.

  One more look around the place and he pulled out his phone to dial Tazz. He doubted anyone had used this place in months, possibly longer. There was a light coating of dust everywhere, but not enough to indicate years of being empty. Other than the cabinet, it didn’t offer much into the life of one very pretty Ms Kylie Chung.

  Well, he thought philosophically, I’ve learned one thing about Kylie, she
doesn’t like bullshit. He’d remember that the next time he had her close by and within kissing distance. Right now though, he needed to get her within kissing distance and keep her there.

  “Yeah, on my way,” Tazz said as soon as he answered.

  “Great, I’m ready and—”

  “Wait, wait, hold on. I had the ports keep an eye out for her. Someone fitting her description but under a different name is waiting to board the ferry in Busan to Japan. Shit, she is a busy little thing isn’t she?”

  “She’s going to Japan?”

  “It’s one way to get to the US, but it’s also where her father had another apartment. Ten years ago, he worked with a team located in Hiroshima.”

  “And we have eyes on the place?” Dare guessed.

  “Yes,” Tazz said, then added, “but not looking for her in particular.”

  “And we’re going to make that ferry.”

  “You got it. Some technical difficulties with the ferry’s onboard computers are holding it up, I heard.”

  “Good.” Dare grabbed his cap off the floor, raced out of the lab and hit the doors within seconds. She’d just gotten to Korea, and now she was going to Japan. What was she really up to? He’d finally found her, but all he had were more questions than answers.

  Within minutes, Tazz pulled up beside him.

  “Come on. We can just reach the base and get transport to Hiroshima if we scramble.”

  Tazz didn’t ask him what else he’d found and he didn’t demand to go inside the apartment. Maybe he trusted Dare’s assessment, but maybe his buddy had already been inside and knew more about what was going on than he was saying. He was just about to demand some answers, when Tazz did a U-turn into oncoming traffic and immediately shot over to a side street.

  “All good?” Tazz asked, giving him a quick once over. “Still want to find your girl?”

  His girl. Damn, that sounded right, but so damn wrong, too.

  He’d have laughed his ass off if someone had said that a day ago. With Kylie Chung, it sounded right—like breathing.