by Alison Kent
Allie managed, “I can’t breathe. Let go.” All her self-defense training flew out of her head as the air dwindled. He let up, but effectively cut off her escape route.
“Who are you? Where is she?”
Allie had no time to think, she just blurted out. “I’m her sister. Her twin, Tina.”
The man’s eyes narrowed, taking in her features. “Are you joking? Where is Gina?”
“She’s been hurt and I had to take over the sale. We don’t want anyone to know she’s incapacitated.” Allie held on to her composure. “I understand this isn’t a normal transaction with my sister in the hospital, but if you still want to deal…”
“I do,” he growled. “I need the weapons and I don’t particularly care where they come from. But you should have been up front with me from the beginning. I don’t like surprises.”
Allie nodded. “Then we have a deal.”
“On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“Who put your sister in the hospital?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Give me the information or we’re done,” he hissed.
“Fudo Miyagi,” Allie replied, looking up into the cold steel of his eyes.
“So, it is true. It was Miyagi.”
“We traced the car back to one of his people. He wants her dead because—”
“I know why he wants her dead. Where is she?”
“In the hospital.”
His smile was brief and without any amusement. “Don’t play games with me, lady.”
“How can I trust you? She’s my sister.”
“I won’t hurt her. She’s…one of kind. Give me the information. Now.”
“Trust goes both ways, Jammer.”
“I don’t trust anyone. If something doesn’t seem right to me, I’ll kill you. That’s a promise, so don’t screw with me. What hospital?”
“Pitie-Salpetriere.”
“If you’re lying to me—”
“I’m not. Where and when do we meet to exchange the guns?”
“Tomorrow night at nine at the Port of Los Angeles, Berth 271.”
Allie’s head dropped, so her chin touched her chest. She took a breath and nodded. When she looked up, he was gone.
Slipping off the desk, she straightened her dress and pulled open the door. As she stepped into the hall, she smelled smoke. Someone in the main ballroom yelled, “Fire!”
Allie turned to look for smoke and screamed when she saw an Asian man pointing a gun at her.
Before she could draw breath to scream again, Thad came out of nowhere and ran at the man, who got off a shot. She saw Thad jerk and grunt, but the Asian man went down under Thad’s weight.
As if in a dream, time became strangely elastic, stretching, slowing, but Allie’s perceptions became almost painfully sharp. The white walls of the hall hurt her eyes, the smell of a gun’s discharge was acid in her nostrils, the sound of the bullet leaving the chamber shrieked in her ears.
11
SHE TURNED to run and hit solid muscle. A man grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back so he could look into her face. He had a knife and he pressed it to her throat. “Mr. Miyagi wants to talk to you.”
Allie didn’t want to talk to Mr. Miyagi, ever. Somewhere between her normal life and the intense self-defense classes she’d found her instinct for survival. She brought up the palm of her hand and hit the man as hard as she could on the bridge of the nose. He staggered back, yelling.
Surreal, she thought dimly. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t be yelling or lashing out at this strange man. This couldn’t be the real world, because everything in her field of vision had instantly become magnified, as if she were shrinking and shrinking.
“Gina!”
It was Drew’s voice and she turned toward him, just as something sliced her thigh. Allie went down as Drew came barreling along the hall at a full-out run. Jason right behind him. Four more men were coming in the opposite direction, all Asian, all looking at her with purpose in their eyes.
She got up and started to run. Drew and Jason passed her, yelling, “Get out, Gina!”
Drew and Jason were outnumbered, but soon Frost and Leila dashed past her and engaged. It was an all-out fist-fight, but Allie couldn’t watch. Snatching up the thick linen napkin Thad had had draped over his arm while he’d been serving, she ran to his side and knelt down.
She turned him over and cried out. “Oh God, Thad.”
Pressing the napkin to his wounded shoulder, she held it tight.
“No worries, sheila,” he said, his voice weak.
“Don’t die. Please don’t die.”
“Take more than a bullet to kill me.” He patted her hand.
“Don’t you dare say it’s just a flesh wound,” she warned.
He laughed then winced in pain. Allie could hear sirens in the distance. She looked back. Of the four Asian men, one was down and the others were fleeing. Drew and his team let them go. He ran back to Allie as the consulate security came racing down the hall.
Allie kept up on the pressure on Thad’s shoulder, even with the blood oozing through the cloth and staining her hands.
At last the ambulance arrived and the E.M.T.s took over. Allie insisted on going with Thad, and at the last minute, Frost pushed himself inside the ambulance door. The E.M.T.s tried to protest, but Frost gave them one of those chilling looks and they shut up.
The last she saw of Drew he was dealing with consulate security.
At the hospital, she stood in the waiting room while Frost just sat in a plastic chair. He offered her no comfort, so she wrapped her arms around herself and paced.
She felt that terrible shrinking sensation again and a chill crawled along her skin. Suddenly the warmth of a suit jacket covered her shoulders. Allie turned to see Frost watching her closely.
“Time to sit down. You’re going into shock. I want you to keep breathing normally.”
But Allie couldn’t seem to, she felt her world narrow to a pinprick as she looked at Frost, who swore softly.
He put his arms around her shoulders and led her to a chair, pushing her head between her knees.
“What’s wrong with her?”
She heard Drew’s voice but couldn’t raise her head because Frost had his hand on the back of her neck.
“Aftershock,” Frost said.
“Allie, breathe normally or you’re going to pass out.”
“That’s no fun,” she murmured.
“That’s right, honey. No fun. You’re okay now.”
Frost let her go and she launched herself into Drew’s arms.
Drew didn’t give himself time to think about his own pain, his own needs. He couldn’t stand by and watch Allie fall apart. He didn’t have it in him to walk away. The love he never should have allowed to take root bound him there, drew him to her.
He gathered her close, cradling her against him as if she were made of crystal. He stroked her hair and kissed her temple and rocked her, crooning to her softly.
“Oh God, my cover’s blown. I forgot to tell you. That man—Jammer. The Ghost’s second-in-command. He knew I wasn’t Callie…I mean, Gina. He kissed me and he knew.”
“It’s okay. You’re out of it now.”
“No, I’m not. I told him I was Tina, her twin sister. And I lied about where he could find Callie.”
“Why?”
“He wanted to know. He insisted and I was so scared. Ohmigod, I couldn’t take the chance he would hurt her.”
“I don’t think that’s his motive, Allie. What would be the purpose? If he’s willing to deal with you, he must want those guns pretty badly.”
“When he let me go and when I came out of the room, that man pointed a gun at me. I think they were trying to kidnap me, not kill me, but Thad was there and he got shot.”
“Any word on Thad?”
Frost shook his head and sat back in the chair. “He’s in surgery is all I know. What’s going on at the consulate?”
Frost asked, “Where are Leila and Jason?”
“They’re making sure we weren’t tailed.”
Drew rubbed at the back of his neck and pulled Allie closer with his other arm.
When Leila and Jason walked through the hospital doors, Drew asked, “Any problems?” He was relieved that the rest of his team was safe. He pushed away the worry and focused on damage control.
“Couple of guys tried to follow. We took care of them.”
Allie sat next to Drew, clutching Frost’s tuxedo jacket around her with blood-stained hands.
He took her arm and steered her toward the unisex bathroom. Once inside he turned on the faucet and when the water was warm enough, he thrust her hands underneath. With the antibacterial soap, he started to clean away the blood.
Then he saw the blood on her thigh, dried in streaks down her leg. He lifted up the flimsy cloth of her dress.
“Allie, you’re bleeding.”
“I forgot. That man I hit. I think he cut me with a knife.”
Drew led her out of the bathroom and found a nurse who directed him to a treatment room. Allie sat on the examining table while a doctor looked at the cut and told her she wouldn’t need stitches. Just then, a nurse poked her head in and announced that there was a patient coming in who was critical, so the doctor pulled off his gloves and left the room.
Drew came over and bent down to examine the cut. The bastard had cut very close to her femoral artery, but the knife hadn’t actually touched it. His heart lurched in his chest and a cold tingling sensation radiated out to his arms. She’d be okay, and he’d had men shot before—hell, he’d taken a bullet himself, but he’d never felt this kind of panic. Men, he reminded, men who’d made it part of their career choice, not some gorgeous interior designer who was an innocent target.
“It’s not that bad,” she said in a listless voice, not the bubbly voice he was used to. “I guess it’ll be a battle wound. Do you think I’ll get a purple heart?”
“This isn’t funny, dammit. You shouldn’t be in this situation or here with me.” He opened a packet and dabbed at her cut.
“Ow, that stings.” She looked him straight in the eye. “Let’s not start that you’re-not-a-bad-ass-secret-agent stuff right now. I’m carrying through on my part of the bargain and there isn’t anything you can do about it, so live with it, Drew.”
He couldn’t help the smile twisting his lips, and he relaxed. She sounded a lot more like herself.
“I should have watched you more closely and then your shapely ass wouldn’t have been in hot water tonight.”
“It happened way too fast and I pulled my shapely ass out of the fire, thanks very much. I think Sydney Bristow would be so proud of me.”
“This isn’t a television show, Allie.”
“Geez, you think?” Allie rolled her eyes. “You’re in a bad mood.”
He slathered ointment, then put a gauze pad over the cut and used tape to secure the bandage to her skin.
Yeah, he was in a bad mood, and he knew why. Seeing Thad go down had brought back too many memories of his last team and what had happened to them. Drew clenched his teeth. Didn’t his father say never get involved? It only hurt when things changed. Yet, he knew that Thad, Leila and Frost were three of the best operatives. He was proud to work with them.
And the other reason he was on edge was Allie. He always worked alone when he was undercover, relying on himself, his intel and his skills. He could react to quick change in the plan. But Allie? He closed his eyes, facing a truth he’d tried to avoid. He was afraid for her and, dammit, afraid for himself. Walking away from Allie was going to be difficult, but at least he would know that she was getting on with her life. If it came to her death, it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He went over to the sink and wet a pad and returned to the table. He squatted to wash the dried blood off her leg.
“Drew?” Allie said softly.
He looked up at her.
“Before I took this on, I didn’t understand the danger. It was easy to say yes, but now I know what we’re up against, it terrifies me. I won’t lie. But I’ve got to see this through.”
“You don’t have anything to prove to anyone, Allie.”
He gently slipped off her high-heeled sandal and continued to swab at the dried blood.
“Yes, I do. Maybe mostly to myself. My family doesn’t really think much of me. They indulge my whims. That’s what they call them. Whims. Callie was always the dutiful one. The one who made a difference. I just made people laugh.”
“Laughter is a gift, Allie.”
“They were laughing at me, Drew. Big difference there.”
“Then they can’t appreciate what they have. I think you’re selling yourself short. My family didn’t laugh much at all. We just moved from base to base.”
“I’m sorry, that must have been hard.” Her hand went into his hair, her fingers ruffling the strands. His scalp tingled where her fingers touched.
“No, it wasn’t. If you don’t get attached to anything, it’s easy to pick up and leave.”
He rose and threw the pad in the trash and turned back to her. Grasping her around the waist, he lifted her off the table.
“Surely you had friends.” Her arms went around his neck and she pressed against him. The suit jacket slipped off her creamy shoulders and Drew caught it before it hit the floor.
He’d had friends in his early years, but as his family continued to move, he’d given up getting close to anyone. “Friendships need to be nurtured. I didn’t get the time to do that. Soon, I stopped trying.”
He settled the jacket more firmly around her shoulders and wrapped his arms around her.
“So this life you lead now isn’t much different, is it?” She stared up at him, her eyes as bright as sapphires, as uncertain as a child’s.
In spite of all she’d been through, an aura of innocence still clung about her like a fading perfume.
He shrugged, tenderly brushing her hair from her eyes. He grazed his fingertips along the delicate line of her cheekbone. “It suits me.”
“Does it? Does it really suit you now or would you like something permanent?” she asked cautiously, studying him from beneath her lashes.
“Are you fishing?”
“No. I’m asking you a simple question.”
Her expression was completely guileless. It’s no wonder she couldn’t have pulled off posing as Gina.
He pinned her with a look. “There is nothing simple about that question, Allie.”
He drifted away from her and stood at the window, looking out into the dark. The wind had come up and bent the branches of the trees. Lightning flashed in the distance.
Drew spoke. “I told you from the beginning that I wasn’t going to stick around for long.”
She sighed. “That’s right. You did. I didn’t complain.” Allie limped over to him, clutching at the jacket, and leaned her shoulder against the window.
“No. You didn’t,” he replied, “but I can hear it in your voice and unlike most men, I can read the subtext. You want me to hang around.”
“So what if I do?” she said. “What would be so bad about that?”
He watched her blink quickly, as if she were afraid to take her eyes off him for even a fraction of a second. But she held her ground, brave and foolhardy to the last. And his heart squeezed painfully at the thought. She was waiting for a qualification, something that would dilute the truth into a more palatable mix.
“It’s not the way I’m wired.”
“Wires can cross.”
He laughed softly. “You are funny, Allie. Your family’s missing out.”
She smiled at him. “It’s possible to cha
nge things, Drew. Just because you’ve lived a certain way in the past doesn’t mean you have to live that way always.”
“No. I guess I don’t, but I’d rather deal with the demons I know than the ones I don’t.”
“Coward.”
He was amazed at the sting of that one word. “Maybe.”
“I see the possibilities and you see the barriers. Maybe we are too hardwired to change.”
“I wouldn’t want you to change, Allie.”
She stepped closer to him, her gaze never letting go of his. Her eyes were as wide and blue as heaven, reaching into him, touching places in his heart that hadn’t been touched, ever. Calm and fearless, she whispered, “Okay, I’ll leave that up to you.”
He pulled her into his arms, unable to stand even the small space dividing them. He skimmed her jaw with his mouth, kissed the top of her head. “Don’t expect me to change.”
“I’ll have all the expectations I want, Agent Miller. You can take that to the bank and get interest on it.”
Frost walked in. “The surgeon’s here. He says that Thad is going to be fine. He’s still under now, but the doc says we can see him tomorrow.”
“You all head home,” Drew said.
When Drew came out of the treatment room, Jason was waiting for them.
“What are you still doing here?”
“I want to make sure Allie gets home. Do you have a problem with that?”
Drew could see the concern on Jason’s face and shook his head.
Once back in the loft, Jason insisted on talking to Drew. While Allie went into the bathroom, Drew poured himself some whiskey from the small bar in the living room. He offered some to Jason, who shook his head.
“I can find Miyagi and take him out right now, Drew,” Jason said. He paced in front of the large windows, backlit by the lightning far in the distant dark sky.
“Don’t be stupid. That will only make matters worse. If Miyagi is killed by one of us, the yakuza will continue to hunt Gina to avenge him. It’s a no-win situation.”
“I don’t give a damn about your mission! I care about Allie, and her life is in danger. We should do something about it, now!”
“We will. But not right now.” He sat down in a chair and downed the contents of the glass in one swallow. It burned all the way to his gut.