Page 28 of Hot Pursuit
A moment later she felt a presence at her back.
A warm breath on her neck.
“Jo Jo,” the softest whisper.
She breathed a sigh of relief and turned her palm. Thad’s fingers brushed against hers, taking the thumb drive and pressing a small paper into its place.
Then he was gone.
Jo slid the paper into her pocket and continued on her merry way, barely having stopped for a minute. Nate caught back up with her while she was waiting in line to retrieve her bag from the coat check, but he didn’t come up to her this time. He waited from the peripheral, watching, always watching. If he hadn’t been so adamant about keeping his distance, he might have noticed that when she handed her ticket over to the attendant, it wasn’t the same number as the one still sitting in her purse. And that when her bag slid across the counter, it looked the same from the outside, but the contents were completely different. As it was, Jo just smirked as she left the museum behind and walked back out to the street, feeling invigorated.
Where to next?she thought, surveying the scene. Her computer could wait a few hours. The sun was out. The day was young. And suddenly there was a spring in her step that she didn’t want to waste. Jo thought of Agent Parker’s smug face.I know just where to go.
A wicked smile curved her lips, one she didn’t even try to smother as she pulled her phone from her pocket and hunted for a store close by. The two of them were playing a very careful game of chess, and it was Jo’s move.
Game on, Nathaniel Parker.
Game freaking on.
- 12 -
Nate
Nate watched Jo scurry down the front steps of the museum and merge into the crowd, as much as any beautiful woman could blend in, which was to say, not much. Her red hair shone brightly in the sun. Her step was vivacious. Without even realizing, she turned heads. And not for the first time, she’d turned his. But in a way he never would have expected.
That hopeful expression.
That frightened one.
The uncertainty.
The panic.
Her tone when she talked about her food, despite the ire, had come through fueled with passion and yearning. Her voice when she’d given the hypothetical truth of her past had been caged and straining. And at the mention of her father, he swore he saw a flash of shame, of doubt, in her eyes.
“Well, you tried, Parker,” Leo consoled as Nate dropped heavily back into the car, half falling into his seat as this new theory began to percolate. The very idea of what he was considering had left him dumbfounded and speechless, tasered by the unexpected, because deep down he had the undeniable feeling that it just might work.
“Leo,” Nate murmured.
“You look like you’ve been hit by a bus,” his partner responded, not quite able to erase the humor from his voice. “You okay?”
They eased from the curb and merged into the oncoming traffic, following Jo as she continued walking parallel to Central Park, looking down at her phone.
“Leo,” he said again, a little louder this time.
“Hey, man, what is she looking at on her phone? Can you check the feed?”
“Leo,” Nate stated, loud and firm.
His partner’s head swiveled. “What?”
“I think…” He blinked a few times and shook his head before he looked up and over, meeting his partner’s somewhat concerned gaze. “I think I have an idea.”
“And…?” Leo raised a brow as the corners of his lips twitched. “What? The shock of it has sent your body into hyperdrive?”
Nate frowned. “No, I’m serious. I think—”
“Parker, Alvarez.” Their boss’s voice came through the comm, interrupting him. “Did you pick up the address the target typed into her phone?”
