“I think he was knocked unconscious at some point.” Jonathan pointed to the agent’s forehead. Dried blood plastered some of his fair hair against his scalp.
Kate bent over and ripped the tape off his mouth. Jonathan undid his hands and started on the arms when a voice paused both of their hands.
“Step away from him.”
Kate turned to find Greg standing in the doorway, a gun angled at the space between them.
“Greg,” Jonathan started, moving slowly out of the tub and in front of Kate, “let’s talk about this.”
Greg, who had been the picture of calculated calm earlier, had noticeably changed. His demeanor was slightly rumpled, carrying through his clothes and right down to the crease between his brows. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, hindered a bit by the bandage, but didn’t drop the aim of his gun, instead moving it to Kate herself.
“Let’s go have a talk,” he said, voice nearly a whisper. “Now, or I’ll shoot all three of you.”
Jonathan gave Kate a look that quite clearly seemed to say he would take out the man if he could, but she had already judged the distance between Greg’s gun and them. He’d be able to get at least one shot off before Jonathan could make a move.
“Okay, we’ll come,” Kate said, for everyone’s benefit.
Greg nodded and began to back out into the bedroom. As if he was pulling on an invisible thread, Jonathan walked with matching speed. Kate followed, but before she cleared the bathroom door, she paused and looked back at her best friend. When he woke up the world would be much different. She only hoped he’d figure out what happened.
As if her intense worry could be heard, Jake’s eyes flashed open. It took everything she had not to give away her relief. The other two men were out of his sight line. Kate hoped he wouldn’t call out to her, to let Greg know he was conscious, so then Greg would be forced to silence him, too. However, he kept quiet and even lifted one finger to his lips to silence her.
Kate gave a quick nod and turned back to Greg. She stuck her hand in Jonathan’s and they were led back to the living area.
“Backs to the window,” Greg ordered, rotating around them so Jonathan was never in range to do anything about the gun pointed at them. Kate squeezed his hand, hoping he’d somehow understand that Jake wasn’t down and out for the count. “I knew you wouldn’t be easy,” Greg said when they were in position. While Jonathan had once again positioned himself as a human shield, Kate moved so their shoulders were touching. She was going to face the man. “Within the span of, what, less than an hour, you two have managed to turn everything on its head.”
“Or maybe it was just a bad plan,” Jonathan said, anger clear. His shoulders were as straight as an arrow, his body tense.
“You have to know the authorities are on their way,” Kate pointed out. “Someone must have heard the shot downstairs.”
Greg snorted.
“I know they are,” he said, an easy smile lifting the corner of his lips. “You two may have been a pain, but you’ve actually helped me more than you know.” Kate raised her eyebrow, questioning. “My two scapegoats look even more guilty than they did before. One obviously used force against you,” he said, motioning to Jonathan’s cuts, “and the other fled, further proving that’s she’s just as guilty.” Jonathan squeezed her hand several times. Kate’s confusion at the pressure diminished when she saw Jake walking along the hallway behind Greg. He was limping, but not enough that it made noise. Still, Kate wanted to keep talking just in case.
“So you’re going to just kill us and then what?” Kate asked, anger mounting. “Call the cops and pretend you found us and Jake? Do you think they’re really going to believe it all? And, while we’re at it, do you think the FBI will really let you take over my work? Surely you’ve thought about this objectively and seen that if I could figure out it was you behind this based on a handwritten letter, the Bureau could also piece it together.”
Kate was trying to keep her eyes off Jake as he got closer, but she had a feeling Jonathan knew exactly what was going on. He applied pressure to her hand again before letting go completely. Whatever was going to happen was about to take place.
“You may be one smart cookie, Kate,” Greg said, “but that doesn’t mean I’m not, also.” He raised the gun and then the world went chaotic.
Jake tackled Greg to the side just as the gun discharged. Kate braced for the hit but was instead thrown to the side, as well. Jonathan’s weight sandwiched her to the ground and covered her as the window behind them shattered. Kate closed her eyes tight and waited for the world to quiet.
“Are you okay?”
Kate looked up at the bodyguard and blinked several times.
“Kate?” he prodded, his hand cupping her cheek. They were still on the ground, the sound of the wind roaring past the newly opened window almost carrying his words away.
“Yeah, I think so,” she said, quickly cataloging any new pain. Aside from the fall, there wasn’t any. “What about you?”
Jonathan got up and nodded as an answer, but moved away quickly, running over to Jake and Greg. Kate scrambled to her feet and followed.
“Oh, my God,” Kate breathed.
Jake had managed to push the man to the ground and take possession of his gun, but it was how he’d disabled him that floored her. Greg was sitting up, back leaning against the couch, grabbing his neck. In Jake’s other hand was an automated injector.
Empty.
“You injected him with the prototype,” she said, not a question.
Jonathan helped the agent to his feet. He nodded.
“I found it in the bedroom. Had to improvise.”
Greg looked between them with wide eyes behind his glasses. He looked so helpless without a weapon, without his banter, that a younger Kate would have felt sorry for him. However, now all she felt was a sense of loss.
Kneeling down, she looked him square in the eye.
“Congratulations, Greg,” she said. “You just became the first human trial.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“How did you figure it out?” Kate asked. She and Jake sat at what was no doubt a very expensive table in the penthouse as cops swarmed the space. Soon they’d be called off. Jake’s boss was on the way.
“I didn’t,” he answered honestly. “At least not until I came to in the bathroom.”
“But he told me you were getting too close,” Kate said, confused. “That’s why he got Donnie to grab you.”
Jake’s jaw tensed.
“He was wrong. I was still looking into Donnie’s identity as well as that Candice woman’s when he jumped me near my apartment.” Jake fisted his hand on top of the table. When he met Kate’s eyes, there was an immense weight there. One she knew all too well. “The thing is, I never suspected him, Kate. I never once thought Greg could be behind it all. And you and Jonathan were almost killed because of it.”
Kate put her hand on his. It was the same show of affection she’d given to the bodyguard, but it was completely different at the same time. Her feelings for Jake had, and would always be, that of an almost sibling type of love. Jonathan, on the other hand...
“Being blinded by love isn’t something to apologize for,” she said. “Greg knows us as well as our parents. He knew how to work us, how to move the pieces around so we wouldn’t suspect him. He used our love for him to his cruel advantage, and that wasn’t something either one of us saw coming.” She patted his hand and Jake gave a little nod. Although he knew the truth in her words, she knew it would be a long time before he forgave himself.
“I guess your dad really saved the day,” he said after a moment. He motioned to Jonathan off to the side, talking to Jett, which had been a surprise in itself, and the paramedic who was bandaging his cuts. Luckily, none were serious. The bodyguard looked over to
Kate and she gave him a quick smile. “If Jonathan hadn’t been around...”
He didn’t need to finish the thought. Kate didn’t, either. She knew she owed the dark-haired man her life, many times over.
Jake’s boss, a woman named Melanie who looked as if she’d just stepped out of a catalog titled something like Those Who Don’t Put Up With Any Nonsense, showed up a few minutes later. She was happy that Jake and Kate were all right, but the anger that she too had been hoodwinked by Greg covered her relief quickly. Jonathan joined Kate as they recounted everything that had happened while Jake was sent to the hospital to get his head wound checked out.
“What will happen to Greg?” Kate asked when they were done. He’d been conscious but unresponsive by the time the cops had come and taken him out of the penthouse, despite Kate’s protests. When the FBI had come in, they had collected him and taken him to the hospital. “That stage of the drug hasn’t been tested. If its results are like the earlier one, then there’s only a limited amount of time in which we can help him. Though, to be honest, unless he has an antidote already created, I probably won’t have the time.”
Melanie uncrossed her legs. She looked to Jonathan and asked if he’d excuse the two of them. He nodded and returned to Jett, who’d been sidelined by another agent. His involvement had touched Kate, being a stranger but still willing to help. Despite everything that had happened, his hotel would be getting a perfect review from her.
“Kathryn, I understand if you’re not that happy with us and the decisions we’ve made in the past few years in regards to your work,” Melanie said, voice all business. “But the goal of this convention was always to offer you a position. One that would consist of your own lab, a team of bright minds to help you and close to unlimited funding and resources. I know getting to this spot took a very different route than either of us anticipated, but this offer is now officially on the table.” She pressed her fingertip to the table between them, physically underlining her point. Kate watched the show with little conflict. While she hadn’t liked the way they’d gone about it, in the end she trusted Jake’s love of where he worked. Just as her mother had.
Betrayal, danger and loss couldn’t always be accounted for, but Kate knew that in her line of work the chances of falling into any of them were great. That wouldn’t stop her, though.
Instead of giving the answer she knew she always would have given—yes—Kate looked over at Jonathan. What she believed would have been an easy answer suddenly didn’t feel that way.
* * *
“LOOKS LIKE YOU got me to the convention after all, Mr. Bodyguard,” Kate said, finally able to have a moment alone with him. They’d been asked to leave the penthouse and were now in the corner of the lobby while all sorts of uniforms bustled about. “One heck of a last field assignment, too.”
Jonathan smiled.
“What can I say?” he teased. “I’m just that good.”
Kate’s smile lit up her entire body, highlighting a nothing short of amazing woman. When that smile began to fade, Jonathan already knew what would happen next.
“They offered you the job,” he said, making sure to keep a smile on his face and in his voice.
Kate nodded.
“Apparently Greg is sitting in the hospital right now answering every question he’s asked,” she said. “I don’t know how anyone else will react to the untested drug, but for now we know it works in part.”
“That’s great,” he said honestly.
“They want to go ahead and fly me home to collect my research and come straight back to sift through Greg’s.” A small blush reddened her cheeks. “It’s all happening so fast.”
Jonathan didn’t have to fake the smile anymore. He was truly happy for her.
“So what happens now?” she asked after a moment of silence passed between them. Her dark eyes searched his face, looking for something he wasn’t sure he had. Kate’s potential—her dream—was finally being fully realized. Her life was about to change in the best way possible. Even though he wanted more than anything to see that happen, Jonathan knew he wouldn’t be a part of it. She was way above his level, and he realized with a drop of his stomach that he’d known that since the moment he’d met her.
“Well, the contract is fulfilled,” he said. “I’ll return to Dallas and finally get the desk job I always wanted, and you—” He paused, a swell of longing almost making him reach forward and pull her into an embrace she wouldn’t forget. “And you, Miss Scientist, will continue trying to save the world.”
* * *
“I’M GLAD YOU didn’t get sick.”
Jonathan turned and smiled up at his boss. Nikki was dressed in a long gown, a deep gray a shade darker than the maid of honor’s dress. The soft thumping of an ’80s throwback had guests and the man and woman of the hour dancing a few feet from his table.
“To be honest, there was a moment I was worried I would,” he said. “But then I thought about all of the flack I’d catch from Mark, Oliver and you and knew I needed to keep it together.” Nikki laughed and leaned against the empty chair next to him.
“Well, I’ll tell you, it was a hilarious, heartfelt best man speech,” she said. “I think you almost made Mark cry.”
Jonathan couldn’t help but laugh at that thought.
It had been two months since he’d returned from New York. Two months since he’d seen or heard from Kate. Since then, Nikki had stayed true to her word and offered him a job that kept him in one place—though, instead of sitting at a desk, he was now the new trainer and recruiter for Orion. Interacting with and vetting current and potential agents was a job he was starting to find he really enjoyed—even though he was surprised Nikki hadn’t fired him on the spot when she learned the extent of the events that had happened in New York, and that he’d kept them a secret from her until they’d been resolved.
Then again, he wasn’t really that surprised, either.
At the end of the day, Nikki was one of his best friends.
“Well, look at what we have here.” Jonathan turned this time to see Oliver Quinn and his wife, Darling, walk up. Oliver was wearing a copy of the tuxes Mark and Jonathan had on while his wife wore a slightly different version of Nikki’s dress—one that had had to be modified for her large pregnant belly. “Jonathan and Nikki, the only people not dancing.” Oliver turned to his wife and smirked. “Why don’t we show them how it’s done?”
Darling laughed as Oliver held out his hand to Nikki. Jonathan, already knowing his fate, jumped up and extended his hand to Darling, smiling.
“Don’t worry,” she said as they shuffled onto the dance floor. “All I can really do is sway back and forth.”
Jonathan laughed and together they began to move to the beat. He enjoyed the dance and their talk about a case she had just finished working, names redacted, of course, but something inside still didn’t feel quite right. Sure, he was surrounded by his closest friends—his family, really—and all of their loved ones and the happiness that seemed to be contagious, but there was something missing. Well, someone.
“Excuse me,” a voice said from behind him, “but can I have this dance?”
Darling looked at the woman who cut into their swaying with an all-knowing smile. She gave Jonathan, who had frozen altogether, a wink.
“I’d love that,” she said, before backing up to where her husband and Nikki looked on with smiles.
Jonathan turned to the woman and couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Kate?”
Kate Spears was wearing a long light blue dress, had her hair curled to her shoulders and had a small, shy smile across her perfect lips. She took one of his hands and placed the other on her hip.
“I’m also a fan of just swaying, if that’s okay with you,” she said.
Jonathan felt himself nod, absolutely confused. He cast another qu
ick look at his friends to see Mark and his new bride, Kelli, giving him the thumbs-up.
“How are you here?”
Kate gave a tiny laugh that made Jonathan smile instantly. They began to sway to the beat as she answered.
“Well, a man named Mark tracked me down and said this wedding was the place to be. That everyone who was anyone would be here.” She shrugged. “I decided my handler and I needed a break after all the work we’ve done the last two months.” She glanced off to the side and Jonathan caught sight of Jake, also dressed up, talking to one of the guests, an attractive young woman from Mark’s family.
“That makes sense,” he said, attention falling back squarely on her. The music could have stopped right then and he wouldn’t have noticed. “How is all that going?”
“Interestingly. I consolidated my old lab as well as Greg’s and was even able to pick my colleagues. They don’t seem to be against my age, which is nice. Did you hear about Candice?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Nikki told me she was caught trying to flee to Mexico.”
“Accurate. Now, like Greg, she’s answering for her crimes.”
Jonathan didn’t pry beyond what he was given when it came to Greg. Even now when she mentioned him he could tell it hurt. He let them sway a moment longer before pressing on.
“So, you’re living in New York now?”
Kate’s cheeks reddened slightly.
“Actually, that’s one thing I wanted to talk to you about,” she said. “I was hoping you could help us find some good apartments. We’re currently staying at a hotel not too far from here, but I don’t need to tell you how much I’ve come to dislike hotels.”
Jonathan was afraid he’d heard incorrectly. He almost didn’t want to ask and be corrected, but his curiosity got the better of him.
“Wait, you want to get an apartment here in Dallas?”
Kate’s cheeks turned a darker shade, but she kept smiling all the same.
“Considering I got my lab moved here, I thought that might be a good idea.”
Be on the Lookout Page 18
