Page 141 of Happily Never After

Fear gripped her. She pulled her phone out and pushed the button for the virtual assistant. “Call Jack Hartley,” she commanded, then stuffed the phone down into her plastic wrap bodice. The phone rang.

A man who looked like he wanted to sell her a used car took a step back. His eyes widened, and he darted out the door.

She dug her second Taser out and clutched it. A solid right hook from Luke sent another man spiraling, and he flashed a grin at Claire.

“Claire?” a quiet voice in her cleavage called.

At the same moment, a third man drew his arm up behind Luke. A hunting knife glinted in the light.

“Luke—” The warning had barely sounded before her second Taser fired, finding purchase on the nipples of the greasy-haired knife wielder. He jerked and crumpled, dropping his weapon. Claire snatched it and whirled around. Her pants were wet to her knees. She was sweating profusely, and on her last Taser.

She spun, searching the bathroom, but the used car salesman had not reappeared.

“Claire?” the voice repeated, louder this time.

“Shit. Jack, I’m at the convention.”

There was a hefty sigh on the other end.

“What did you do?”

“I need backup. We’re in the women’s restroom on the first floor. Several members of ESA are incapacitated. Luke was?—”

Suddenly, the fire alarm in the corner of the room began to flash. A piercing siren wailed in the hallway.

She met Luke’s eyes. “The professor,” they said in unison.

They ran from the bathroom, stepping over limbs of incapacitated bad guys.

“This one.” Claire forced her way through the throng of bodies pouring out of Conference Room C. By the time they fought their way inside, the room was empty.

“Shit!” She buried her hands in her hair. “Which way did he go?”

There was an emergency exit at the back of the room.

They looked at each other. Luke pulled her into him and drew her into a desperate kiss. Heat washed through her, and then they broke apart. There was ice in his eyes as he gripped her arms like it might be the last time.

“You take that way,” he said. “I’ll hit the lobby. I love you. Go.”

Without pausing to answer, she turned and sprinted for the emergency exit. Splitting up was their only choice. She hurtled through the door, looked left and right, and chose a path. Soon she was following the hallway she had originally come in. She was close. She could feel it. Just a right at the employee elevator, then a left after the laundry room and?—

She ran smack into a man in a black suit. They bounced off each other, him staggering against the wall and Claire tumbling to the floor.

“Claire?” Jack Hartley’s impeccably sculpted hair caught the fluorescent lights overhead. A clear earpiece snaked up his neck.

“I gotta go.” She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the piercing pain in her side. “The professor?—”

“This way?” Jack followed after her. They sprinted together, her clomping along in oversized shoes and Jack leaping over janitor’s buckets and ordering hotel employees out of the way. Their heads on a swivel, they ran for another fifty yards before bursting through the emergency exit into sunlight.

“Fuck.” Jack buried his hands in his hair. “God damn it.”

Claire stopped in her tracks. She had never heard him swear before. Tanya would have scolded him.

There was a veritable sea of sweat from her boobs to her belly button thanks to the Saran Wrap bindings. Her thighs ached from her marathon bike ride the day before. And the professor was nowhere to be found. Now what?

Jack pulled a walkie off his belt and barked into it. “I need two agents to sweep the hotel top to bottom. The rest of you need to head for the streets and stop cars. We can’t let him get away.”

“Isn’t there a perimeter set up?” Claire’s question was nearly a whisper.

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