Page 78 of Hot Intent

He hit the send button and leaned back, frowning at the blank screen. He ought to destroy the flash drive and its evidence of chemical weapons in Cuba, right now. If it fell into American hands, a global crisis on the scale of the Cuban Missile Crisis could explode.

Personally, he had little faith in today’s politicians to get a solution right like Kennedy and Kruschev had.

He stood up to go tear apart the flash drive and flush its pieces, but the door knob rattled just then. He whirled and pulled his pistol instead, pointing it at the door. He waited tautly, his finger starting to squeeze through the trigger.

“Alex? It’s me. Let me in.”

Katie.

Swearing under his breath, he moved to the door and threw the lock. He stepped off to one side, pistol at the ready in case she was not alone and being coerced.

Katie stepped inside and started to close the panel behind her. He spun out of hiding and she jumped violently. “Holy crap. You scared the heck out of me, Alex!”

He straightened and lowered the gun. “Where were you?”

“I went to see my uncle.”

Stunned, he burst out, “Why on God’s green earth would you go to Langley and lead the CIA right back here to me?”

“I was really careful to make sure I wasn’t tailed. I rode buses all over northern Virginia to be sure I was clean.”

“They don’t need to tail you on foot. The CIA has satellites and security cameras to do the job. We’ve got to get out of here immediately.”

She threw up her hands in disgust. “I have nothing but the clothes on my back. I’m packed and ready to go.”

He grabbed his backpack and tossed his computer into it. “C’mon. They’ll be here any second.”

She sucked in sharp breaths of pain between her teeth that he could hear as they raced down the stairwell. Tough. It was her fault they had to flee this place.

He ducked into the alley behind the building and used the skeleton key he’d made for the delivery door to a restaurant a few yards down the alley. Katie ducked under his arm to slip inside just as a whistling sound split the air. Sonofabitch. He shoved her the rest of the way inside and threw himself on top of her frantically.

A big explosion shook the building and stuff rattled on the shelves around them, raining down dust, but this building hadn’t been in the direct line of fire.

“Oww, oww, oww” she yelped beneath him.

He pressed up onto his elbows quickly, taking his weight off her shoulder. He might not mind making her jostle the shoulder a little, but his body weight landing on two fresh bullet wounds had to hurt like hell.

“What was that?” she gasped.

He stared down at her. He registered her body’s welcoming softness and the way she fit him perfectly. Even now, she unconsciously relaxed into him, her body’s’ contours molding to fit him as if she’d been made specially for him.

Focus!

He answered tightly, “That was a rocket propelled grenade. My safe house is probably a smoking hole right about now.”

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry?—“

“Later.” He pushed up and away from her. Damn she’d felt good beneath him again. He’d missed her so freaking much?—

He cut off the thought sharply. “Let’s go.”

He pulled her to her feet by her good arm and peeked out of the storeroom into the restaurant kitchen. Empty. Thank God. It didn’t open till lunch time, and the cook probably wouldn’t come in for a couple more hours.

They wound through the kitchen and darkened dining room. After checking carefully out the front windows, he unlocked the front door from inside and strolled out onto the street. Katie fell in beside him.

He did have to admit she made for a good cover. Anyone who looked at her saw a perfectly normal young woman who didn’t look the slightest bit suspicious or scary. If she ever decided to become a field operative, she would make a good one. By being with her like this, she made him fit in with the normal world around them.

“Now what?” she asked on cue as they turned the corner and headed away from the mess of his life behind them. Sirens screamed in the distance.

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