Page 38 of Hiding out with a Royal Billionaire

She nodded. It was brief, but he saw a glint of pride in herself.

And he was right to trust her. They snuck out of the room and down the hallway, Isabella taking point, and were able to make it to the garage without incident. But here would be the problem. Men were everywhere. And there was nowhere to hide. Once they entered that room, they would be running against time, against all the men in the room who would beat them to any of the cars. “This doesn’t look good.”

“Maybe we should walk? Slip out a side door?” Skye stepped up beside him.

Brooks didn’t know what to say. He was at a loss, but one thing he knew, they had to get out of that hallway. As he was scooting backwards, the comm unit on his thigh vibrated.At last.They backed out and took off running down another hallway, toward the West side fo the building. He reached down and pulled out his comm unit. It was a digital pager of sorts, a manner in which to send him text messages. “We have you. Hold tight.”

“Hold tight. What does he mean hold tight? And how can he have us? Do they have any idea what it looks like in here?” Skye was obviously used to working with her own people and being in charge of them, but in operations like he did, you trusted your people. If they said, “We have you.” Then they had a visual of their location and a plan. Brooks didn’t answer but they rushed into the next closest opened door, shutting it behind them.

“What is all this stuff?” Chase stepped closer to the screens. The room was filled with computers and one end wall looked as thought it was a giant screen, much like their communication center at the safe house.

Chase turned it on and the words, “Relic,” floated across the screen. “Green Dragons.”

A huge illustration of the cross that Brooks guessed was strapped to Skye’s leg right that moment filled the screen. Then a satellite image of Brook’s stream of islands came into view, with a red dot on the volcano. Skye sucked in her breath.

“We’ve got to get out of here.” Brooks looked at each of the three with him. “And I’m going after Green Dragons.”

“Agreed.” Isabella and Skye both said at once and fist bumped each other.

An alarm sounded throughout the building and Chase raised a fist in the air. “Friends.”

Skye grinned. “I hope so.”

A group of men ran by, shouts echoed down the hallway and then it was quiet. Chase peered out the door and then motioned for them to follow.

When they got back to the garage, far fewer men had stayed back. The four of them hurried in, hiding from view, to a truck, climbed in, and then fumbled for the keys.

“Here!” Skye produced a set form the glove box.

Brooks started up the car and sped out with squealing tires across the center of the garage. Bullets sounded and Brooks gunned their truck out into the night air. As soon as they cleared the space, an explosion sounded behind them and they felt the heat of it as they sped away.

As if in answer to his concern, Skye craned her neck to see. “It’s not levelled or anything. A warning shot more than anything, and a huge distraction so that we can get away.”

Brookes nodded. “Thanks.” He drove and she sat in the passenger seat, but she wouldn’t look him in the eyes.

Their tires dug into the gravel as he hurried out to the checkpoint gate, but it was a weak barrier with only two guys. “Duck!” He drove through to the sound of bullets and continued out into the night. “Anyone know if we’re still in Turkey?”

“Nope.” Three of them responded.

But he could only smile. He’d made it out, and Skye was safe. They could figure anything else out as they went.

13

Skye had to swallow back imaginary barf every time she thought about Isabella and Brooks kissing. How could she have kissed those same lips? And only a short time ago. She thought she knew Brooks. But he was a secret agent on the side and kissed more than one girl at a time, herself being one of the others. Two very important details that might actually define a man she had not known even a few days ago. She sighed.

“What?” Chase sat beside her in an old broken down warehouse by the edge of the water. They still hadn’t left the country. Turns out they were in Turkey afterall. Skye’s contacts told her to lay low. This battle was beyond official negotiations. Basically the government of Turkey promised no help against their own mercenaries.

But Brooks had a contact, and a boat. They just had to get to it.

“I just really thought I knew the guy, you know?”

“That’s awfully personal information I don’t want to know.”

“Oh shut up. You asked.”

“True. Since you brought it up, I’ll just say, he obviously cares for you. You probably do know him better than you think, the real Brooks, and you and I both know that kiss meant nothing.”

“Do we?”

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