by Kelly Moore
I decide that if I’m going to be going up against everyone in an attempt to keep her safe, I need to stop and load up on guns and ammo. One quick stop and we can have everything we need to get out of the city. I need to get to my brother and figure this thing out.
I lead her to my apartment and pull into the parking garage. I park my bike and stand, waiting for her to park hers.
“What are we doing here? This will be the next place they look for us.”
I take my gloves off and shove them into my jacket pocket. “I know, but if we’re going to get out of this city alive, we need cash and guns.”
She follows me up to my apartment, and I take her into my bedroom. This is the second time we’ve been in here together, but this time is so much different from the last time when I was making her moan beneath me.
I shake off the images that thought brings on and head for the closet. I pull out two black bags and toss her one. She catches it and looks at me.
“Fill it up with cash,” I say as I remove a framed picture off my wall and put in the combination to the wall safe.
While she fills the bag with money, I pull up the rug in the walk-in closet and start putting in the combination to the floor safe where I keep my guns and ammo.
I load my bag down with rifles, handguns, ammo, knives, and the only smoke bombs and hand grenades I have.
I close the safe and throw the rug back on top of it before meeting her in the bedroom. I place my bag on my bed and hand her a gun and a knife. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
She smiles and lifts her eyebrow. “Are you serious?”
“Keep these and some cash on you at all times in case we get separated.”
I watch as she takes the weapons and hides them on her body. She places the knife in her boot while the gun gets tucked away in her waistband. She takes some cash from the bag and tucks it into her bra.
“See something you like?” she asks when she notices I’m still staring at the place she tucked the money.
I run my tongue across my bottom lip. I want to pull her against me and feel her body pressed against mine, but we don’t have time for that. We need to get out of the city. “I see a lot of things I like, none of which we have time for.”
I hide the knife into my boot and take some cash from the bag and tuck it into my pocket. We need to ditch our cell phones, but I can’t do that until I get Jake’s confirmation text. I need to know he’s safe.
“Get rid of your phone and don’t use any credit cards. Leave everything here that they can track,” I tell her as I pick up the bag and head toward the front door.
She grabs the bag of cash and follows behind me. I turn to see her emptying her jacket pockets. She takes out her cell phone and lays it on the granite counter along with her credit card. She turns toward me and shrugs. “That’s it and before you continue to order me around, how about you at least tell me your name.”
“John. Now let’s go.”
Chapter Four
John
We take the elevator back down to the first floor. As the doors open, I reach back and place my hand on Brooklyn’s waist to keep her from darting out. With my other hand, I reach for my gun that is tucked away in the waistband of my jeans. I slowly step out into the parking garage, searching for anyone that looks suspicious. I feel her bump into the back of me.
“Don’t you know how to stay put?” I grit between my teeth.
“I am more than capable of defending myself,” she snaps.
“If you’re so damn smart, then why was your front door to your apartment unlocked?” I ask.
“Because I knew someone was watching me. I could feel it. I wanted to make it easy for whoever it was to come inside. Never in a million years did I think it would be you.”
The coast is clear. “We can discuss how you learned to protect yourself later, but right now we need to get out of here.” I take her hand, and she pulls it away.
She boldly steps in front of me, quickly walking over to her bike and straddling it. She squints her eyes at me before she puts her helmet on. “I don’t think I like you much,” she says as she kicks her bike to life. I walk over to say something to her, and she revs her engine louder.
I hike my leg over my bike and hear the ting of the elevator. An agent I recognize steps out with a gun already in his hand. I start my bike up and take off in his direction, swerving to miss the gunfire. I skid into him, and he goes flying against the wall. I take off and motion for Brooklyn to follow me.
We dart out into the busy street, nearly missing a car. Her bike wobbles but she gains control quickly. She’s obviously a very experienced rider. Anyone else would have lost control and rolled, dying on impact.
We merge onto I-90, racing between cars at a hundred miles per hour. I’m sure Miles has a target on my head as well. I won’t be able to use the agency’s private jet to travel. My only choice is to head to a private airport where an old buddy of mine works. The traffic in front of us is at a dead stop. I move over into the far right-hand lane and hug the shoulder. Brooklyn follows close behind me. The passenger side door of a Honda swings open, and I deflect it by moving into the grass. I glance behind me to make sure she followed. Her tires spin in place and dirt flies up, but she maintains control and picks up speed again. God I could love this woman.
I can see our exit sign up ahead of us and what has caused the traffic to stop. There is a tractor-trailer turned over on its side and engulfed in flames directly at our exit. I slow down and place my feet on the ground. When I stop, she rides up beside me. She takes her helmet off and sweeps her hair out of her face.
“What’s the plan now?” she asks.
“The only thing we can do is drive through it.”
“You want to drive through the fire?” She laughs.
“No, I don’t want to, but there is no other way around it, and we need to catch a flight out of here as soon as we can.”
“You are truly insane,” she says as she puts her helmet back on.
“Stay close,” I tell her and take off on the bike. The smoke is thick, and the flames are twenty feet in the air. We have to maneuver around all the bystanders watching the fire. Once we make it around all the people, I speed up heading directly into the flames. I’m momentarily blinded by the smoke and hope like hell it’s clear on the other side. I feel the heat of the fire as I fly through it, not letting up on my speed until I make it to the other side. I skid to a stop, watching as Brooklyn flies through it unscathed. She slides her bike up next to mine, bumping her leg into mine, forcing me to catch my balance. I’m thinking that she is such a skilled driver that she did it on purpose. I can’t see her face behind the helmet, but I’m sure she’s giving me a look that says she wants me dead. I’d prefer the looks she was giving me the night when I was fucking her.
She revs her engine again and takes off in front of me. I pass her, stopping when we are in front of my buddy’s hangar. Without a word, we both grab our bags and head through the hangar opening. Before we make it inside, I place my hand out to stop her. I squat down and unzip my bag. I dig inside and pull out a hat. “Put this on.” She gives me a dirty look. “He might recognize you. Put these on too.” I give her my sunglasses. She takes a band from around her wrist and pulls her long locks up and weaves it into the back opening of the hat. I tug it low on her head, and she puts on the sunglasses. Then she pulls at the end of her tank top and pushes her cleavage up so that more skin is showing. “What the hell are you doing?”
“He’ll never look at my face.” She shrugs. I place both my hands at the shoulders of her tank top and raise it back up.
“I think the hat and sunglasses will be good enough.”
“Let me do the talking,” I tell her when I see Todd. She rolls her eyes at me. Any other time, I would enjoy spanking her ass for that, but for now, I grin just thinking about it.
“What are you grinning about?” she asks.
“I’m sure if you continue to roll your eyes at me
you will have the pleasure of finding out soon enough.” I take her hand and head over to Todd, who has had his head stuck in the plane’s engine and didn’t see us come in. I whistle to get his attention.
“Hey, John,” he says as he turns, moving down the ladder. He greets me with grease on his hand. “Sorry,” he says and runs it down his shirt.
“It’s been a while. How’s the family?”
“They’re good, man.”
“This is a friend of mine, Brook.” She scowls at me and shakes his hand. I’m not sure how much he knows about politics, but she looks totally different from her polished, classy look on TV, so I’m hoping he doesn’t recognize her.
“I need you to fly us to Key West and not put our names on your passenger manifest. I’ll pay you cash up front.”
“I’ve been working on the engine. She won’t be ready to fly for two weeks. I’m waiting on parts.”
I run my hand down my face. “Two weeks? We can’t wait that long. Do you know anyone else who could fly us?”
“They could fly you, but they will document you as passengers unless you use one of your aliases.”
“I’m afraid the people that are hunting me know all my aliases.” I look around the hangar. “Don’t you have a loft upstairs here?”
“Yeah. Do you need a place to hide out?” He points to a set of metal stairs.
“Yes, we do, and you can’t tell anyone we are here.”
He laughs. “Mum’s the word, as usual with you.” He leans in close. “If you don’t want to draw attention, you probably shouldn’t be hanging around with Brooklyn Warren.”
Brooklyn tears off her sunglasses when she overhears him. “I told you I should have shown some cleavage,” she barks.
Todd steps back, looking at her chest. “That totally would have worked for me.” He smiles flirtatiously.
“Thanks, man. We’ll be out of here first thing in the morning.” I scowl, taking Brooklyn’s hand, I take my sunglasses back from her and put them on, leading her to the loft.
“Why are we staying here? Shouldn’t we keep moving?”
“We need a plan B because plan A just crashed landed.” I open the door to the small loft. Todd only stays here when he’s hired for an early flight. The furnishings look like they came from Goodwill. The old brown plaid couch pulls out into a bed, and there is a Murphy bed across from it. There is a refrigerator and a microwave. Knowing Todd, the fridge is stocked with beer. I open it and pull out two, handing one to Brooklyn as she throws her bag on the floor.
“Thanks,” she says, twisting the cap.
I sit, and the couch creaks in protest. “Plan A was to go to Key West where I sent my brother, but now we need another plan.”
“I could call my father and have him send a plane for us.” She sits beside me and takes a sip of her beer.
Her lips look inviting wrapped around the head of the bottle. I shift in my seat. “We could do that if you want to get us all killed. These men aren’t playing games, they are lethal and very good at their jobs. We have to be one step ahead of them and smarter.”
“Care to explain who is after me and why you? I don’t even know you other than from the night we slept together.”
I want to correct her and tell her there was no sleeping involved in what we did together. “I was hired by a large pharmaceutical company to kill you.” For the first time, panic covers her face, and she tries to get up. “Hold on,” I say placing my hand on her leg. “I couldn’t do it, and I knew they would send someone else to do the job.”
“Why would someone want to kill me?” she whispers.
“Because of your cure for cancer. If it’s released, they stand to lose millions if not billions of dollars. They tried to strong-arm your father into putting a stop to its release. When he turned them down, they put a hit out on you.”
“Is my father okay?” She looks panicked again.
“He’s fine.”
“I need to call him and warn him.”
“We’ll call him when you’re safe.”
She lets out a long, hard breath. “I’ve worked my entire life for this cure, but it came a little too late to help my mother. She died a little over a year ago.”
“I know. It was right before your father took office. It was all over the news.”
“She had been diagnosed with breast cancer many years ago. That’s when I started my research. She was in remission for years, and when it came back, it came back with a vengeance.”
Her hand is resting on her thigh, and I place my hand on hers. “I’m sorry about your mother.”
Her dark eyes search my face. She reaches up and takes my sunglasses off me. “This cure has to be released. It will save hundreds of thousands of people, people like my mother.”
“And, like my brother.”
I watch as she lifts her hand and places it on my thigh. “How long?”
“He was diagnosed five years ago with leukemia. He takes daily injects to keep it at bay.”
“This drug will cure your brother.”
“Well, if I don’t find a way to keep you alive, we are all going to die. Does this drug of yours cure all kinds of cancer?”
“Yes, but you can’t be in the last stages. The drug mutates and kills the cancer cells, but if the body is overrun with cancer, it can’t mutate fast enough. If the drug is given to someone who doesn’t have cancer, it slowly lyses all healthy cells and kills them. I haven’t yet discovered how it does it, so the vaccine has to be given under strict medical controls.”
“I read in your file that your company is right outside of DC. That needs to be our plan. If I know these men, they will be after the vaccine.”
Her beer stops midway to her mouth. “You have a file on me?”
“I have a file on everyone I’m assigned to.”
She jumps up from the couch. “I need to get out of here!”
“Sweetheart, if I wanted you dead, we wouldn’t be sitting here having a conversation.” I lean into the back of the couch and cross an ankle over my knee.
She has her hand on the doorknob. “I’ll take my chances on my own.”
Before she can make it out the door, I fly off the couch and wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her back inside. “You’re not going anywhere.” She wrestles to get loose, and I pin her with my body on the couch.
“Let me go!” she screams.
“I’m not letting you go until you calm down. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m trying to save your life and mine.”
“Why should I believe you? Why would you risk your life for mine? Because you fucked me?” She’s still screaming and fighting me.
I finally let her go and sit up. “I don’t kill innocent women. I save my skills for those that deserve it.”
She sits up beside me with her elbows on her knees and her hands folded under her chin, rocking back and forth. “I really don’t have a choice but to trust you, but I need to get to my apartment in Washington, DC.”
“We need to get to your company and get the vaccines before they do.”
“The vaccines have already been distributed to some of the major oncology players in the United States. There is no way your agency is going to stop it now.”
“Maybe not the first batch, but they can kill you and shut the company down. I know how these men operate. They will break into your company and destroy everything related to the vaccine.”
She stands and starts pacing the room. “That’s why we need to get to my apartment. I have backups of everything, including vaccines.”
“You have them in your apartment?”
“Yes, I’m not stupid. I knew the cure might ruffle some feathers, so I’ve got everything locked away in a hidden safe.”
“You did more than ruffle feathers, sweetheart. You have major players after you.” I pat the couch cushion next to me. “Come sit down.”
“Why aren’t we leaving now?” she asks.
“We will leave first thing in the morning. It’
s been a long day, and we both need our rest to have clear heads and not get caught. Besides, I have some more questions for you.”
She finally sits beside me. “What do you need to know?”
“Why do you have a place in the bad section of Chicago and do you always go around picking up strange men?”
She leans back into the couch. “You have no idea what it’s like always being in the spotlight. I hate my father’s job, but I’m so proud of him for his accomplishments. That person you see on TV is not me. I don’t like fancy dresses. I much prefer my leather and boots. I bought a place here so that I could escape that world. I disguise myself and I walk around in the streets, and nobody knows me. I only come here one week out of the month.”
“You didn’t answer my question about picking up strange men.”
“Look, I’ve been burned by a man in a high-ranking position. Being used to climb a ladder is not my thing.” She takes another gulp of beer. “Do you know how hard it is to be the president’s daughter? Everybody wants something from you. I come here and get what I want. I get to be me. I get to wear my leather pants and ride my bike. I refuse to have bodyguards when I’m here, which drives my father crazy, but I want a sense of freedom that I can’t have there. Besides, you were the exception to the rule.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t pick up men in a bar. You intrigued me. The looks you were giving me were too hard to ignore. I wanted you for one night. Just one damn night, I wanted to be in a man’s arms. Who knew it would be the man that was hired to kill me?”
“I’m glad it was me.” I place my hand on her thigh.
“It was a one-time thing.” She brushes my hand away.
She’s right. Now, I have to figure a way out of this mess before it’s too late. “We’ll leave in the morning for DC. They will be watching your apartment. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us. We’ll have plenty of time to get a plan together. For now, we both need some rest.” I get up and pull the Murphy bed down. “Look in the closet to see if you can find some sheets.” As she does, I pull out the bed in the couch.