Page 55 of Shadow Operative

“What are you doing?” Nia muttered.

Before he could answer, he found a car with the doors unlocked. Perfect.

“Go around,” he told Nia quietly. “Get inside.”

Her eyes widened. “Is this your car?”

“No. But you need to get in. We don’t have time to talk right now.” He climbed inside.

He began fiddling with the wires beneath the dash. Finally, Nia scrambled to the other door.

She rushed inside, a jumble of nerves with her jerky motions and shallow breathing. “You’re seriously stealing this car? You don’t think we have enough problems right now?”

He continued hotwiring the vehicle. “Unfortunately, neither of our vehicles are safe to drive.”

“You mean—” Nia didn’t finish her question, but the answer settled in her gaze.

With a pensive expression, she jerked her seatbelt across her chest. “I feel bad taking someone else’s car.”

“We’ll return it. I know it’s not ideal. But . . . there are no other options.”

Finally, the sedan roared to life.

“Stay down low.” Gage pulled on his own seatbelt and hit the accelerator.

He zipped down three levels of the parking garage, looking for any signs of those guys as he did.

So far, so good.

“I know what you did,” Nia blurted beside him.

He craned his neck toward her, her words making no sense. “What?”

He turned toward the exit and waited for her to continue.

Her hand rested on her throat as if it had tightened. “You killed Rob.”

Surprise jarred him. “I didn’t kill Rob.Youdid.”

Her eyes widened. “Why wouldIkill Rob?”

“That’s an excellent question. I’d love to know that answer.”

The two of them glanced at each other, questions floating between them.

What exactly was going on here?

Nia’s heart pounded out of control as she stared at Gage.

He thoughtshe’dkilled Rob.

Whywould he think that?

A chill swept over her.

Part of her knew she should run. Knew that jumping out of a moving vehicle was safer than going somewhere with Gage.

But another part felt frozen.

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