“But then you wouldn’t be here. This team obviously needs you.”
“They’d get by.”
“I’m glad we have this time together.”
She smiled, and though he heard the period in her tone, he didn’t think there was an end for them. Not unless she meant to cut him out of her life. He’d let her go once, and that was his mistake. He wouldn’t do it again. He’d lived four years without a piece of himself, and now he was whole again. He had a lot of time to make up for. There were hurts deep down that couldn’t be healed in a few days, but if she gave it a chance, he knew they could get there.
His phone rang, breaking the moment.
Gabriel pulled it out and glanced at the screen.
Julian.
He answered and turned to look back the way they’d come.
“Yeah?”
“Where you at?” Julian asked.
“Miami Beach.”
“John and I will be there in ten.”
Julian hung up, leaving Gabriel stuck. He wanted more time alone with Nikki before the shit started hitting the fan, but the job called.
“What’s up?” Nikki asked.
“Julian and John must be in the area. Emery probably told them where to find us. Come on. We’ll meet them back at the car.”
“What do they want?”
“Probably to talk about what we should do.”
It wasn’t a secret Gabriel haunted this beach when he wanted some air. He’d spent many mornings here, on his own, before the garage opened, thinking over his mistakes. What he’d do differently. Today, though, he had opportunity by his side.
They turned and headed back to the car, hand in hand. He savored this moment. If he could convince her, this wouldn’t be a one-time thing. They could be together again. But that would have to wait until after the case, when he could devote his full attention to winning her back.
Julian would be out for blood, but that was nothing new. He’d chilled a bit after losing one of their own, but probably because he’d realized he was a liability. Gabriel didn’t count on that change of mind to last. Anything could happen today, but he doubted it would be of the good variety. Losing the Shop was a hit to their morale. How many cars and equipment had they lost? Tori’s Bel Air sprang to mind. The engine wouldn’t even turn over, but she’d had plans and parts to start work on the car that fall. One of the structural charges was all of ten feet away from the Bel Air. The car would have become shrapnel.
“Have we heard anything about David?” Nikki asked.
“No. You’re the one that’s talked to the others, remember?”
“I didn’t know if you called them while I was in the shower or something.”
“Babe, the last people I want to talk to after coming like that would be these guys. The only reason I wasn’t in that shower with you is because we actually have stuff to do today. If I had my way, we wouldn’t have left the house at all.” He wouldn’t mention that he wanted to keep her at the house so she would be safe. He liked breathing after all.
“There’s always later.” Her prim-and-proper attitude so did not mix with what she was telling him. Damn, but he liked when she talked dirty.
He kept his reply to himself. Two figures strode through the sand toward them and he didn’t want Julian or John privy to their private life. At least not yet, and never in that much detail.
“Figured you’d be out here,” Julian said as they neared.
“You look like shit.” Gabriel inclined his head toward John, who merely nodded.
“Did you get something to eat? Those tacos sure burn your throat.” Nikki stuck her hands in her back pockets. Gabriel kept his eyes away from the interesting way the pose thrust her breasts forward.
“You let Gabriel pick for you, didn’t you?” John shook his head. “He only likes stuff that burns when they go down. No taste buds.”
Nikki chuckled.
Their little group descended on a picnic table near a parking lot. By the looks of it, Julian had a pretty bad leg injury with the way he was limping.
“Well, where are we?” Gabriel asked after they’d settled two on each side.
“When are the Feds getting here to take over? There has to be plenty of evidence by now.” Julian leaned on the table, somehow managing to make menacing an art form.
To Nikki’s credit, she returned his stare with an equally calm one.
“The local field office has begun an investigation. Merlo said that since your operation is out of their control, they need to do their own legwork. And because they’re a bunch of assholes, they won’t accept our research either. I’m going through channels at the bureau and pulling in Director Scott, but it’ll take some time. Maybe a day or two to get it sorted out.”
“Fuck, Wilson’s bunch of crazies are going to pull something off before then. They’ve got to know that,” Julian said.
“It’s process.” Gabriel detested the red tape, the proper procedure of it all. People were dying. They might be the bad guys right now, but they weren’t all that bad. At least not before Wilson poisoned them.
“Chill out, man,” John drawled. “Don’t act like you expected anything less. What do you want to bet that was the suits’ intention all along? I bet this is exactly what they wanted. So what? We keep working the case. Show them the list and let’s get on with it.”
Gabriel wanted to high-five John, but didn’t think Julian would appreciate the gesture. The list of people who could give Julian straight talk was down to two: Aiden and John. Gabriel was pretty sure the moment he and Nikki got on good terms was the last time Julian would take him seriously. Add to it Julian and Aiden were butting heads more often than not these days and it was shaky ground.
“List?” Nikki perked up. They were speaking her language.
“Got a list. Six events going on today that might be of interest to Wilson.” Julian spread a receipt out, facedown. Several lines were scrawled on the back.
“We could divide and conquer. What’re Aiden and the twins doing?” Gabriel asked.
“Aiden has Madison somewhere he won’t even tell us.” Julian glanced away. Aiden was his best friend. Or had been. “Last I heard from him, he was going by the garage to shut it down, then swing by and pick up Roni, maybe Tori depending on if Emery needs help or not.”
“Then we each check out two of these, see what’s going on?” Nikki picked up the list and studied it for a moment.
“Sounds like a plan.” Julian tapped his knuckles on the metal surface.
“We’ll take these two. This one and this one are sort of close together, and so are these. Should cut down on our time spent driving.” Gabriel tapped the corresponding events, seeing them as points on his mental map.
“Got it. Let Aiden know. We’re out.” Julian pushed to his feet, followed by John, who cast Gabriel a knowing look. The two men ambled to Julian’s new ride and were gone in a plume of exhaust and burnt rubber.
“Do I want to know?” Nikki asked.
“Probably not.” He sighed.
Gabriel understood Aiden’s choice. The job was just that—a job. Julian couldn’t see past it. It was all that mattered to him. Once, Aiden had been like Julian, but Madison had rescued him. Maybe more than he’d rescued her from her scumbag of an ex-husband. There was more to life than work. Family. Love. Happiness. Those were the reasons why Gabriel had signed up for the FBI in the first place, to protect those things. At the end of a day, he couldn’t hold a job at night. It wouldn’t care for him when he was gone.
He hoped the others would understand. Someday, probably sooner than he intended, he’d leave the crew. He wouldn’t look back. Because as much as they’d become his family, this was still a job. And he wouldn’t put a possible new life on hold just to check off a couple tasks.
* * *
It was beyond difficult to focus. Nikki’s gaze kept blurring as they walked the lines of booths along the street fair. She needed to be on the lookout for Wilson’s people in case t
hey were canvassing the location, setting up for a hit, but her mind kept going back to that morning.
Gabriel had said he’d loved her.
It didn’t matter that it was in Spanish, he’d still said it. And she wasn’t all that convinced that it was a momentary slip of the tongue during a passionate moment. He’d never said it to her before, and they’d been damn near moving in with each other.
“This doesn’t look like Wilson’s scene.” Gabriel paused at the intersection of booths and turned a slow circle.
“No. It really doesn’t.”
The arts fair was billed as a ten thousand plus event with booths featuring all sorts of new age art, alternative medicines, and meditation events. It appeared to be the kind of thing that would offend Wilson’s hard-core stance. A bomb here would make the news, but not create the kind of splash he wanted. Plus, there was no way ten thousand people would fit on the grounds set aside for the fair.
“Let’s bail.” Gabriel placed his hand on her back and gently propelled her toward the parking lot. “Any word from Julian or Aiden?”
She pulled out her phone and scrolled through the new messages while they waited at the crosswalk. Gabriel started walking and she fell into step beside him.
“Julian says—”
Tires squealed and an engine revved in the distance. Gabriel shoved her forward roughly. Nikki stumbled, righted herself, and sprinted. He wouldn’t shove her for no good reason.
“Go! Go! Go!” Gabriel yelled at her back.
She glanced up the street at a pink car that had seen better days barreling down at them, far closer than she’d realized. The car jumped the curb, heading straight for them.
Gabriel picked her up and tossed her over the four-foot fence that separated the parking lot from the street. She hit the hood of a car, back first, her head tucked, arms lifted to protect her already abused skull. Metal crunched and glass sprayed her.
“Gabe!” She pushed herself up and leaned over the fence, searching the street for some sign of him as the pink car made a hard right turn.
“Here.” He grunted.
She turned and gaped as he pulled his leg out from the busted windshield of a late-model sedan.
The glass and metal crunching wasn’t Hillary hitting him, it was Gabriel getting away from her. Mostly unhurt.
He shook glass from his jeans and leapt to the pavement. More tires squealed not too far away.
“Come on, she’s doubling back.” He helped her down and they ran for the Skyline, parked a little away from the others.
The sound of Hillary’s car grew closer. A metal crash wasn’t that far away.
“Shit, hide.” Gabriel pushed her between cars. “Are you carrying?”
“Where am I supposed to hide a gun in these shorts?” Nikki crouched behind a pickup truck, peering under the vehicle. She’d debated carrying the messenger bag, but opted not to since it didn’t seem likely they would run into any of Wilson’s ilk here. How wrong she’d been, the one time she decided to not carry.
“Here,” he whispered.
Tires hugged by a pink body rolled into view.
Gabriel slid his spare Desert Eagle across the asphalt to her.
“No, no, no.” She cringed.
The car stopped perpendicular to the truck she was hiding behind. Nikki glanced at the gun, just sitting there. Hillary, or whoever was driving the car, had to see it.
“Go,” Gabriel mouthed, waving her away.
Nikki shook her head. He was pinned down in the corner of the lot if she bailed on him. Unless she drew Hillary away.
It wasn’t a bad plan.
“Nikki. Nikki,” he continued to whisper.
“Get the car,” she mouthed back.
She crept to the left side of the truck. Sirens wailed in the distance. The cops wouldn’t get there fast enough to save them, so they were on their own.
Nikki crawled past the break between the truck and nearest car. She glimpsed at the pink stalkermobile but couldn’t make out anyone in the interior. Now, a little behind the car, she rose into a crouch and crept the length of the vehicle. She wanted Hillary’s attention, but she didn’t want to die in the process.
Before Gabriel could do something even more stupid than what she was planning, Nikki straightened. She pushed off the car and sprinted with all her might, arms pumping, away from Hillary.
Tires screamed and the car’s engine whined.
She didn’t dare look behind her.
Nikki dodged across the aisle and between two cars. She glanced behind her as the pink car whipped to a stop, the windows down. The driver leaned out, gun in hand.
“Shit!” Nikki cried.
She ducked, hitting the ground behind another car. Glass shattered, spraying down on her. The car revved again and she crawled in all haste away from her shield. A moment later the vehicle she’d hidden behind lurched into another car.
“Nikki,” Gabriel bellowed. He leaned out of the Skyline and squeezed off a couple rounds, hitting the pink drifting car.
She scrambled toward him as Hillary reversed. Gabriel accelerated, overshooting her position, but also blocking her from Hillary as she ran behind the Skyline and dove into the passenger seat.
The pink car rounded the line of parking spaces, and the two sat facing each other with almost forty yards between them.
Nikki twisted in her seat. Where was the exit?
Behind Hillary.
Nikki grabbed her bag and pulled out her two SIG Sauer pistols. Gabriel threw the car into reverse. Someone leaned out of the passenger seat of Hillary’s car and started firing.
“God damn it,” Gabriel yelled.
Nikki held on as he whipped the car around a ninety degree angle, then another one. She punched the automatic window button, lowering it, and pushed her upper body through the widening space.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” She aimed and squeezed. They couldn’t risk stray bullets here. She hit the side of the car, ahead of where she’d aimed.
She fired again, then ducked as the passenger returned fire. Gabriel pushed the Skyline faster. Hillary was closing the distance, even as they neared the end of the row. Gabriel slowed and jerked the car at a clean, right angle, then shot backward, sailing out of the parking lot and onto the street, just ahead of the cops.
Hillary didn’t make the turn so neat. She clipped the cars at the end of the row before straightening out.
“They aren’t going to make it.” Gabriel shifted into drive and they shot forward, making a clean getaway. The car hadn’t even been hit once.
“Are you sure?” Nikki twisted to watch the back window.
The first cop car swung wide and barely missed being hit by the pink car.
“Shit. Go!” Nikki shouted.
“She’ll never catch us.”
Gabriel shifted lanes, passing other cars as if they were standing still. He blew through lights, cut across intersections, and all the while the pink speck behind them grew smaller and smaller. Nikki’s head spun and she clutched at the door, not sure if she should be more in shock about what had just happened or their speed.
“Oh my God.” She tucked the pistols under her things and pushed her hair back. That was close. Way closer than she liked.
“What were you thinking?” Gabriel snapped.
“What?” She knew perfectly well why he was pissed off.
“You should have stayed hidden.”
“And let you do what? Get trapped in that corner? She’d have shot you.”
Gabriel opened his mouth, but she held up her hand.
“Would you have this same argument with Aiden or Julian?”
His teeth made an audible clicking sound. She could feel the heat of his wrath.
“Look, I know I’m not as strong as you. My reflexes aren’t as sharp. I’m not accustomed to this kind of deep cover. But I’m well aware of my abilities. If I say I can do something, I can. I gave yo
u the opening to get the car and get us out of there, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“I appreciate that you want to protect me, but that’s not possible in our line of work.”
“I’m never going to like this.” She could almost hear his teeth grinding over the sound of the engine.
“That’s fine. You don’t have to like it, but this is how it is.”
They drove in silence, headed God only knew where.
“It’s hard to be okay with you putting yourself in danger. I’m never going to be comfortable with that. If that’s wrong or it pisses you off, well, too bad. I can try to react better.”
“I would appreciate that. Yelling at me for saving your ass isn’t very gracious.”
Gabriel barked a laugh. “Did you just say ass?”
“I did. You are a horrible influence on me.” She peered up at the roof of the car and smiled, unable to contain her joy at that little victory. She’d never fault him for wanting to protect her. It was nice, actually, because unlike many of her coworkers, Gabriel wasn’t condescending about it. His motives for wanting to keep her from harm were completely different.
Because he loved her.
A thrill shot through her. She still wasn’t sure how to handle that information, but she needed to make a plan. Figure things out. What she needed was to talk to her daddy. Not the deputy director, but her father. Boy, that was going to be a fun conversation.
Chapter Sixteen
“Where now?” Gabriel asked Nikki. They were just cruising, keeping an eye on their tail while Emery pulled cameras, Matt worked the cop angle, and they collected what intel they could.
“How do you think they found us?” She glanced through the rear window. Again. Hillary’s attack must have shaken her more than she was letting on.
Gabriel tightened his grip on the gearshift. Fucking Hillary.
“Who knows? Maybe Hillary was scouting the site? We could have put the brakes on one of their hits.” He was spitballing. Truth was, they had nothing.
Chase Page 17