Page 35 of Shadow Operative

How many of these people would become collateral damage?

Hopefully, none of them.

Right now, they were buying time.

More time meant more possibilities to figure something out.

Just ahead, Nia spotted a door leading outside.

She released her breath.

She hadn’t realized this office had a separate entrance to the building. But it made sense.

And it could be a lifesaver.

“Hey!” someone in the office yelled. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Gage ignored them and guided Nia to the door.

They burst outside and onto another city street.

She sucked in air, trying to catch her breath.

People around them stared.

They were probably a sight to see.

But Nia knew this wasn’t over yet.

That guy . . . he’d find them at any minute.

She glanced up at Gage, still chugging in deep gulps of air. “What are we going to do now? We can’t just stand here.”

Gage’s gaze stopped on something in the distance. “There!”

He pulled her toward a delivery truck that had just started to drive away.

A delivery truck? Certainly, he wasn’t thinking . . .

People only did things like this in the movies.

Yet just as the truck was about to take off, he grabbed the cargo door and jerked it open. The next moment, he jumped onto the back of it, dragging Nia with him.

As the truck headed down the street, the gunman burst from the office and onto the sidewalk.

A man with broad shoulders and blond hair stared at them, a grimace on his face.

More than a grimace.

It was a promise to finish what he’d started.

chapter

sixteen

Gage wascareful to keep a hand on Nia as they headed down the city street in the back of the delivery truck. Plastic pallets filled with loaves of bread set on portable shelves surrounded them, along with the scent of yeast.

There was still a possibility this guy could catch them.

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