Page 5 of Covert Temptation

I just saw the news. I’m so sorry to hear about Shaw. He was a good man, maybe one of the last good ones in the world.

Please look after yourself, Alyssa. Be careful. I’ve got a feeling about Shaw’s death. I’m confident it’s Cipher.

I don’t know if you’ll believe anything I have to say, but I have to say it.

I love you. I miss you.

Bye.

Before she could rethink her decision, she hit send. Then she rushed to her suitcase and tossed it on the dining table. The legs wobbled as she yanked the zipper and shoved the bag open.

She located the tote bag folded in the bottom of the luggage and began tossing things into it. She packed light, adding only the bare basics. It meant leaving behind the designer babies she loved—shoes and bags and a few prized pieces of jewelry, the only friends she had left in the world—but there was no way she could take them.

She even left her favorite purse, a Gucci that had survived ten countries and a broken heart.

Her mind didn’t catch up to what she was doing until she had on her long coat, boots, and the tote bag slung over her shoulder.

As she reached the door, she paused. Where was she going? She didn’t have a car. If she tried to leave the country, she was certain the SEAL team keeping watch over her would have her detained.

From outside the apartment windows came the low hum of city life. Kennedy turned her head, eyeing the window, her mind churning through plans.

Leaving meant she was in danger.

Staying meant she was in danger.

How long would it be before someone found out her location? She was a sitting duck here. Outside, there was safety in numbers. She’d go to Grand Central Station.

Kennedy moved fast, keeping her head down and letting her long hair swing forward to obscure her face. She didn’t have any credit cards, but the team hadn’t confiscated the small stash of cash she kept hidden in the lining of her suitcase. That was now stuffed in her bra as she rushed out of the apartment building and hit the street at a fast clip.

She took the subway downtown, thankful she had such a good memory for details like train schedules. The entire ride, her hands shook in her lap, and her shoulders ached with stress.

Shaw was dead. And there wasn’t just one attempt on Alyssa’s life, but two.

Kennedy would be next—she was sure of it. She had ties to both people. Up until a few weeks ago, no one else was closer to the ambassador.

When she exited the subway, she was swallowed in a sea of commuters and tourists, exactly what she hoped for. She got her bearings and headed to the counter with the shortest line.

She pulled out her money and slapped it on the counter. “I’d like to go as far as this will take me.”

The employee didn’t even look up at her, which she was grateful for. She just handed over a ticket for a destination that Kennedy never glanced at and told her what train to board.

Nothing mattered. Even though she could say she’d lost everything important to her, she was a survivor.

The train was boarding within minutes. She slipped into a window seat and clutched her tote bag close, watching the train fill. She felt about as safe here as she did back in the apartment, but at least she wasn’t frozen anymore.

Now she was moving forward. Wherever the train took her, Cipher would have to work a hell of a lot harder to find her.

And the only thing more dangerous than a hunted woman…

Was a woman with nothing left to lose.

TWO

Dante hunched over his desk, his eyes burning. On the monitor, security footage looped, showing him the same thing over and over again.

First thing he did was scan the immediate area where the shooting took place. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that the shooter could have been stationed within a mile of Shaw.

The skyscrapers all started to look the same—same steel, same glass. After the third hour of watching, Dante finally pinpointed the position of the sniper, then slowed down the footage to follow the bullet trail to its target…right between Shaw’s eyes.

---