Page 33 of Shadow Operative

To do something.

Instead, she felt frozen and confused.

What if the next bullet hit its target . . . ?

What if it hit her?

chapter

fifteen

“We need to move!”Gage grabbed Nia’s arm and pulled her away.

Nia stifled another scream but didn’t fight him.

Those bullets were meant forthem.

He was certain of it.

Based on the trajectory, the gunman was somewhere on the street not far away.

Most likely, this guy would continue to pursue them. His moves were brazen.

They needed to get somewhere safe—and fast.

He kept a hand on Nia’s arm as he pulled her down the sidewalk.

Did this have something to do with Rob’s death?

Or had an enemy from Gage’s past found him?

He had many. More than he could count, for that matter. So many people wanted him dead that it wasn’t even funny, despite the jokes he and his colleagues made about it.

Or . . . this person could be someone Darius had sent after them. Maybe they were getting too close to answers. Maybe they’d spooked him.

But Gage didn’t have time to figure that out now.

Right now, he needed to get Nia to safety.

And . . . he needed answers from Nia before someone killed her.

The thought seemed callous, and he didn’t exactly mean it that way. Part of him wanted to believe she was innocent. But he couldn’t allow himself to do that. He couldn’t allow himself to be vulnerable.

Training 101 for his job:always keep walls up. Self-preservation is everything.

It was the only way he’d survived some of his missions.

Off-book missions the military had sent him on.

Missions where, if Gage was caught, the government would claim to have no knowledge of who he was or what he was doing.

They’d been risky, to say the least.

But he’d been trained for them as a super soldier of sorts.

As another bullet flew through the air, he pulled Nia faster. This guy was following them and making no secret of it.

“This way!” Gage tugged her into a nearby office building.

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