Page 62 of Love Undercover
That alone meant this was bad.
But someone on that list had upset Chase enough that he was spinning, and that made her stomach torque. If he was thrown off, surely she should be.
“Chase.” His name shot out of her mouth, fear tripping over itself in her mind.
He finally looked at her, chewing the inside of his cheek, and a hardness settled in his gaze. “Casper is on that list.”
She blinked. She’d missed it, but she hadn’t known what she was looking at initially. Plus the name meant very little to her. “The guy Kyle is meeting with?”
Chase tipped his head in acknowledgment, pulling out his cell phone to scroll and click through it until he brought it to his ear. After a few seconds, a curse rattled through his teeth as he hung up, and he looked like he wanted to throw the phone across the room.
The implication alone was terrifying, but maybe it was something else. God, she hoped it was something else.
“Are you sure this isn’t just a hit list or something?”
His lips flattened, becoming a colorless line. “Some of these others are known Zimmerman associates.”
She fell back against the couch like she been shoved.
He stared down at the floor, breathing hard for three full seconds. “I have to go find Kyle. If Casper is on this list, he’s been compromised. And it’s my damn fault for coming here and dragging Kyle into this.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know anything.” Doubt wrapped itself around her voice.
Chase jerked to look at her. “Casper is who connected me with Zimmerman, got me into that ring. And he knows we’re FBI.”
Panic lit like a flame in her core. “Crackers,” she breathed.
“I need you to stay here. Lock all the doors and wait for me to come back.”
He started toward the back of the house, but then he spun abruptly and came back toward her, pulling her from the couch and into his arms in one swift motion. His kiss came hard and fast against her lips before he set her back on her feet.
“Be careful,” she whispered.
And then he was gone.
24
Attacked
Tension rippled down Chase’s spine as soon as he left Kyle’s house, his eyes repeatedly going to his rearview mirror. How long had it been since Kyle left? Did he have time to sweep the street for anything unusual?
He drove slowly around and decided the extra two minutes wouldn’t be wasted if he checked the cars lined up at the curb in front of the houses. No one was just idly sitting in any of the few vehicles on the street, and he noted that the front window of Kyle’s house was still obscured by a black curtain.
When Sadie had left the dining room earlier, Chase finagled information from Kyle about his meet with Casper, some premonition of things to come urging him to cover all his bases just in case his dumb-ass decisions got Kyle into trouble. He sent little prayers up that Casper didn’t know a thing about Santiago’s little side mission and that Zim had yet to be informed of Chase’s recent extracurriculars. It was just to be on the safe side, to makesure nothing had happened to Kyle because of his choice to seek asylum at his house.
The drive wasn’t long to the seedy motel where Kyle said he was going. It was only a few miles, and soon enough, Chase was pulling into the parking lot. There was no fancy entrance, no building with a big lobby where anyone could see you coming and going. It was just a string of dilapidated rooms attached by flimsy walls. Each had its own door to the outside world, offering a discreet entrance and exit to those who wanted to lie low.
Chase swung the car around to the back corner where the afternoon sunlight didn’t reach, solidifying the impression that this was a place where dark deeds were done. He spotted Kyle’s car, and the disquiet crept through him.
He threw the car in park and did a sweep of the parking lot before he set his eyes on that door in the corner and got out. The tension kept twisting, and he was ready to crawl right out of his skin. The feeling coalesced and sharpened as he pulled out his gun, and he stopped dead in his tracks for a split second before he reached for the knob.
Then he took a breath and turned it, swinging the door open to a dark room that immediately felt wrong. Even before he spotted Kyle on the bed, he knew he shouldn’t go inside, experiencing that ripple of instinct right before the fist swung at his head. He ducked back just in time. But he wasn’t expecting the second guy who yanked his gun hand, knocking it from his grasp as he went staggering inside.
He caught himself on the edge of the single queen bed where Kyle was lying casually as if he were sleeping. Except his eyes were wide and unblinking, and coagulated blood trailed down the side of his face from a bullet hole in his temple.
Chase made some quick calculations. Two guys, neither of them Casper. Probably Santiago’s. And if Kyle was dead, and these thugs were here, that meant Santiago was either on hisway or already at Kyle’s house. And wherever Santiago went, his greasy shadow followed.
“Welcome to the party,” a gravelly voice said, menace infiltrating the layers.
