by Elle James
When he turned his profile toward her, she sucked in a sharp breath.
Cole.
She couldn’t forget the close-cropped, dark brown hair, square jaw and his nose that wasn’t quite straight but had a bump in it like it had been broken at some point in his life.
Another man walked through the door and sat on one of the stools in between CJ and Cole. He ordered a draft beer. When the tall mug came, he lifted it, turned in his seat and looked around the bar.
Was this a man who’d come to talk to a traitor?
CJ stared at the mirror behind the bar, watching the man’s every move. He turned to her, got off his stool and moved to the one next to her.
He hitched his leg up on the stool and set his mug on the bar. Then he leaned toward her. “Hey, beautiful, you come here often?”
She shook her head, not wanting to start a conversation with him.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
Again, she shook her head and lifted the half-empty glass of the drink she’d been nursing for the past hour and a half. The ice had melted and the liquid had grown lukewarm. CJ didn’t care. She didn’t want another drink as much as she wanted to find the leader of Trinity and put an end to the terror.
“Not much of a talker, are you?” the man said and leaned closer. “That’s okay, talk is overrated. What say you and I go get some supper, then find a place with some music?”
The idiot couldn’t take ignoring him as an answer. Apparently, he had to have things spelled out for him.
CJ drew in a deep breath and spoke softly but with a steely edge. “I’m not interested.”
“If you want to wait until you finish your drink, I’m flexible,” the man said.
She didn’t look at the man, just set her drink on the bar and started talking.
“Sir, I’m not interested in drinking, eating or sleeping with you, now or in the future. You might as well move on.”
The man’s lips pressed into a thin line. “I’m being really nice. Asking all polite, and everything.”
CJ slipped to the edge of her bar stool, ready to take the man down if he so much as touched her. Meanwhile, a brunette, wearing a slim-line black skirt with a white button-down blouse, entered the bar, pushed a long strand of her chocolate-brown hair out of her face and looked around, as if trying to get her eyes to adjust to dim lighting. After a few minutes, she scanned the interior. She must have found who she was looking for because she didn’t stand around long. Hiking her cross-body purse up onto her shoulder, she walked past Cole, CJ and the man bugging the fire out of her and slipped into the booth beside Chris Carpenter’s. She sat with her back to Chris.
“You sure look hungry,” the guy beside CJ was saying. “What would it hurt for you to come share a meal with me?” Obnoxious Man couldn’t get the hint that his attention was unwanted.
“Darla, honey.” The familiar male voice cut into Obnoxious Man’s continued pressuring. “I’m sorry I was late.” Cole slipped an arm over her shoulder and bent to brush a kiss across her lips.
CJ was so surprised, she forgot to breathe. When Cole set her at arm’s length, he turned to the man beside her. “Do I have you to thank for keeping my fiancée company while she waited for me to get off work?”
The man’s brow furrowed. “Don’t know what you’re talking about. Didn’t know the lady was spoken for.” And obviously hadn’t seen Cole sitting at the bar a few stools away.
“No worries,” Cole said. “My baby knows how to take care of herself.” He winked and looked down at CJ. “Ready to go? We have a few stops on the way home.”
She smiled, though she wanted to frown. What was his game? Then she shot a glance at the booth where Chris Carpenter had been sitting. He was gone. And so was the female who’d sat in the booth beside his.
CJ hopped up from her stool, slipped her arm through Cole’s and started for the door, muttering beneath her breath, “How did you know it was me?”
“Wasn’t positive at first, but once the light shone on your green eyes, I knew.” He grinned as he held the door for her to leave the bar and step out onto the sidewalk.
“We’ve met only once before. How did you remember I had green eyes?”
He shook his head. “They reminded me of the color of the live oak leaves on the trees back home in Texas, but that would be a lie. They are actually the color of the paint job on my Hummer, a kind of gray-olive color.”
CJ glanced left then right, not seeing their quarry immediately. “I’m not quite sure if that’s an insult or a compliment, and I really don’t care. Do you see him?”
Cole had been looking. “There. Looks like he’s headed for the metro.”
“Let’s catch him before he gets away.”
Cole had replaced his ball cap on his head. Taking her hand, he walked at a quick pace.
Though several inches shorter than Cole, CJ kept up with him and they made it to the station at the same time Chris Carpenter climbed aboard the train with the same woman who’d been sitting in the booth beside his.
* * *
COLE SPOTTED CHRIS and a woman stepping onto the train. He hurried CJ along and entered a different car before the doors shut and the train slid out of the station.
“Any idea who the woman is?” CJ asked beside him. Like him, she was staring through the windows separating their car from the next one.
Carpenter and the woman sat side by side, facing them. Cole didn’t recognize her, but based on her business suit, she probably worked somewhere on Capitol Hill or in one of the business offices nearby.
What her relationship with Carpenter was, Cole could only guess. They didn’t hold hands, touch or even talk to each other. But they sat together.
Cole glanced at the train map on the inside of the car. They were headed toward Arlington, Virginia. He noted that the train had several stops to make as it moved through the city toward the countryside.
Carpenter and his lady friend weren’t on for long. At the second stop, they got off.
Cole and CJ stood at the exit to their car until Carpenter passed. Once they were well past them, Cole and CJ left the train and followed Carpenter and the woman to a hotel.
“I guess that explains why he’s seeing a marriage counselor,” CJ said.
“I’d bet my last dollar that woman he was with wasn’t his wife,” Cole said.
“Is it worth hanging out to find out for sure?”
“You can if you want,” Cole said. “But I’m thinking it might be a good idea to plot our next move. With Carpenter being a creature of habit and going to the bar every day after work and getting a little frisky afterward, we might use that time to get into his home computer.”
“You think, like I do, that he’d keep any information of value on his computer at home?”
Cole shrugged. “It would be safer at home than in the West Wing. We just need to ascertain Mrs. Carpenter’s schedule and work around it.”
“Tomorrow night, maybe?” CJ confirmed. “That would give us time to figure out the best plan.”
“Tomorrow, as long as Mrs. C is also out of the house.”
CJ held out her hand to Cole. “We’re on for tomorrow night.”
“Partners?” Cole took her hand in his, an electric awareness zipping up his arm and spreading throughout his body.
Her eyes narrowed. “I like to work alone. But I guess it would be better to have someone looking out for me.”
“Then it’s a date.” Cole grinned.
“If breaking and entering someone’s home is what you consider a date,” CJ said, “then I guess it is.”
Cole grinned all the way back to the metro. When they got on the same train heading farther into Arlington, he leaned close to her and asked. “So that was you yesterday with the black hair, walking the white dog, wasn’t it?”
CJ’s chin lifted.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Cole’s grin broadened. “Right.” He’d bet his favorite semiautomatic rifle that he was right.
Working with CJ would be a challenge. The first part of which would be getting her to trust him enough to stick around.
For a late-evening ride, the train was still crowded with people trying to get home from the city.
Aware of the fact Trinity wanted CJ dead, Cole kept a vigilant watch on the passengers, considering each and every one of them a potential Trinity agent.
A couple passengers, in particular, captured his attention. Every time he looked over at them, they were staring at CJ. Granted, in the little black dress and the blond wig, she was a knockout. But there was something else. A furtiveness about them. When they thought someone was watching them, they looked away quickly.
One was a young man wearing jeans and a brown leather jacket, his hands in the pockets.
Cole moved to place his body between the young man and CJ in case one of those pockets contained a handgun.
The other potential Trinity operative was a woman with long black hair and dark eyes. Tall, slim and athletic, she looked like she could take down a linebacker with a few well-placed side kicks to the knees.
“Is it getting warm in here to you?” CJ murmured in a low tone.
He understood what she was talking about. “Could be.”
The train rolled into a station three stops from the one closest to his town house. A few people got off, but not the two Cole had his eye on.
A second before the train doors were due to close, CJ slipped out.
Cole didn’t have time to react before the doors closed and the train jerked into motion.
The two people he’d been watching turned toward the platform as the train left the station.
Already, CJ had disappeared from sight.
Cole worried for her safety. Trinity agents didn’t give up easily. But then CJ had survived for a year on her own. She knew how to escape and evade.
Having been a part of a combat team, Cole knew a little about stealth and camouflage. CJ brought it to an entirely different level. He hoped that by teaming with her, he didn’t put her at more of a risk than she already was. If Trinity thought he could be an asset they could hold over her to force her out into the open, they wouldn’t hesitate to use him. With that in mind, he pulled the same stunt as CJ at the next stop. He waited until the last moment.
As the doors started to slide closed, he stepped out onto the platform. The doors closed with the two people he’d been watching staring at him through narrowed eyes.
Cole didn’t wait around for anyone else to catch up with him. He took off on foot and jogged the rest of the way to his town house, taking a twisting, turning route, checking behind him as he went to make certain no one was following. Not that it would make a big difference. If someone wanted to find him, they could. His whereabouts weren’t a secret like CJ’s.
When he arrived at his place, he entered, locked the door and checked all the other locks to ensure they were secure.
Once he was certain he was alone and fairly safe, he texted CJ. Make it back?
No response.
Cole waited for the next hour, giving her time to return. When she still didn’t respond, he called Declan and reported on the night. Declan promised to swing into action if needed but urged him to hang tight a while longer in case CJ came home.
He stayed awake for a long time, wondering if she was still alive and what he could have done differently to keep her from getting away without him.
He knew he couldn’t have acted any faster. She had the advantage. CJ knew what she was going to do next. No one else did. Hopefully, that paid off for her and kept her alive until they could bring Trinity down.
Chapter Four
When CJ got off the train three stops short of the one leading to her sublet, she knew she had a tail. She’d hoped that by getting off at the last minute, she’d shaken any follower. Unfortunately, he’d been watching closely and hadn’t been in the same car with her, so she’d not seen him until it was too late.
As soon as she stepped off the train, he dived out of the other car.
CJ quickly left the station, moving among other passengers in a hurry to the parking lot where commuters left their vehicles to catch the train into DC. When she made it to a line of cars, she ducked low, rolled under an SUV and rummaged in the satchel she’d carried in place of her usual backpack. Quickly taking off the wig, she stuffed it into the bag, pulled out a baseball cap and wound her hair up into it.
The dress was a little more difficult. Lying beneath a vehicle, she couldn’t get out of it. Instead, she removed her heels, pulled out a pair of sweats, slipped them up her legs and over the short dress. CJ struggled into a hooded sweat jacket and zipped it. She slipped on her running shoes, shoved her heels into the bag and tucked the bag under her jacket.
When she was ready, she remained where she was, timing her move for when the next train was due to arrive. She looked beneath the chassis of the vehicles, searching for the feet of her pursuer. When the time came, and she didn’t see any movement, she rolled out from under the SUV and straightened slowly.
Figuring her tail would be looking for her to move away from the train station, she hunkered over like a fat man in a tracksuit and lumbered toward the metro stop, arriving at the same time as a train pulled in.
Men and women in business clothing got off the train, their faces tired, their clothing creased from hours of sitting behind desks. As soon as the car emptied of the passengers for that stop, CJ boarded and found a seat near the door, dropped into it and pulled her ball cap low over her face. The man she’d seen get off the train when she had was nowhere in sight. She’d checked as she’d gotten on, looking in the other cars on either side of the one she’d stepped into.
Only a few people remained on the train headed out of DC into the neighboring municipalities, all looking like they’d had a long day and were ready to be home.
CJ stayed on a stop past the one closest to her rented town house. She didn’t trust that she was still alone, though she’d lost her last follower. Always vigilant, she would walk the extra blocks to save herself from being caught.
By the time she arrived at her sublet, she was exhausted and took only a few minutes to unpack her satchel and repack her backpack with clothing she might need for quick changes the next day.
She dug out the burner phone from the satchel and glanced down at a text from Cole: Make it back?
Her heart warmed. He wanted to make sure she’d returned to her place safely. Whether it was because she was his assignment didn’t matter. Someone cared enough to ask. Her fingers hovered over the letters that could spell out a response, but she held back. The more she relied on him, the more vulnerable she became, the more at risk he became. Shoving the phone into a pocket on the side of the backpack, she finished packing it for the next day.
CJ took the pack with her into the bathroom, brushed out the three wigs she kept on hand and packed them into one of the large pockets. When she was done, she stripped out of the jacket, sweats and dress, and climbed into the shower.
For the next twenty minutes, she let the water wash over her, the spray pounding into her shoulders, easing the tension. When her skin started to shrivel, she shut off the water, grabbed a towel and dried her body. As she stepped out of the shower, she heard something that sounded a lot like breaking glass.
Immediately alert, she slipped into a T-shirt and the sweatpants she’d removed minutes before and jammed her feet into the running shoes. Quietly opening the door to the bathroom, she eased out with her backpack, hurried to the bedroom door, closed and locked it quietly.
Downstairs, she could hear the crunch of someone walking over the broken glass in heavy shoes or boots. CJ opened the French doors off the master bedroom and stepped
out onto the balcony overlooking the minuscule backyard, carefully closing the door behind her.
Knowing she had only moments to spare, she slipped the backpack over her shoulders, grabbed the balcony railing and eased her legs over the edge. She lowered her body, holding on to the railing until she was as close to the ground as she could get, and let go.
When her feet hit the ground, she bent her knees and rolled onto her side to absorb the impact. A crash above indicated her intruder had smashed through the master bedroom door.
Her heart thudding against her ribs, CJ sprang to her feet and ran as fast as she could, diving into the shadows of the town house next door. She kept moving, clinging to the shadows until she came to the town house Cole lived in.
For a moment, she considered running past and disappearing into the night. Leaving Cole out of her life was the right thing to do. He could easily become collateral damage in Trinity’s quest to bring her down.
But CJ was tired.
Tired of running. Tired of fighting this battle. Tired of being alone. Knowing she would regret it later, she stopped and peered through a gap in the blinds. Cole sat in a chair, a beer in one hand, his burner phone in the other. Was he waiting for her response to his earlier question?
Before she could change her mind, she tapped on the window softly. If he didn’t hear it, she would move on. She couldn’t make a lot of noise and she didn’t have time to stand around. Her intruder would soon figure out that she’d jumped off the balcony and would be hot on her trail.
CJ glanced around, her pulse thundering, her muscles tense, ready to move out swiftly if she needed to run.
When she looked back through the gap in the blinds, she didn’t see Cole sitting in the same spot. In fact, she didn’t see him at all.
Then the back door to the town house opened and the barrel of a gun poked out, followed by Cole’s head.
“Don’t shoot,” CJ whispered. “It’s me, CJ.”
“What the hell?” he said in a hushed tone.