Page 99 of Love Undercover
If only it gave him some relief. He couldn’t release the worry until everything was over. Right now, all he could do was wind tighter as they sat, his eyes going from the clock to the view out of their windows and back again.
“Stay here,” he said, reaching for the door handle.
She lurched forward, slapping her hands onto the dashboard as he stood from the car. “Chase—“
“Stay here!”
She sat back as if by the force of his voice.
He wanted to apologize, but he couldn’t, didn’t have time, didn’t have the capacity. Not when he’d gotten out of the car and was exposed to whoever might be there watching.
He shut the door against her shocked expression and felt his waistband for his gun, just to be sure. Only after he heard her lock the car door did he walk between the abandoned buildings, cutting through the alleyway to the open space behind the cluster of brick edifices.
47
Snatched. Again.
The man snuck up on her.
Chase had disappeared, and the air had grown so tight against her skin as time slipped by. Her eyes tracked the minutes, her heartbeat marking each one as they marched onward. Three. Then five. Seven.
Without warning, the window beside Sadie’s head shattered, and she screamed, jerking her face away as the glass rained over her. Then the muzzle of a gun pressed into the back of her skull, and she froze.
He yanked her head up by her braid, pulling so hard she thought he’d rip her hair out, then stuffed the barrel of the gun under her chin, effectively keeping her from screaming again. It came out more like a whimper.
“Keep your mouth shut,” her captor growled in her ear as he pressed the unlock button and opened the door.
She almost fell onto the concrete, but he caught her and jerked her back to her feet. As he dragged her down the alley, he pressed the gun so hard under her chin that she had to keep her head angled up. It made her stagger and lose her balance a few times as he tugged her along.
And all she could think was she’d already gotten her tenth life. She was now on borrowed time.
48
Meet-Cute
The skin along the back of Chase’s neck prickled with awareness, his fingers itching to go for his weapon. But good faith and all that bullshit. He couldn’t look like he was up to something.
There was no denying that his body longed to turn around and get back to Sadie. His fear told him they should take their chances out on the road. But he wouldn’t relegate her to a life on the run. He didn’t want to live that way either.
It wasn’t long until the first of the men showed up, slinking along through the shadows, his loping walk familiar. They’d met in covert places before—when Chase had to check in and couldn’t let anyone know he was FBI. A strange coil of regret unfurled within him, like he was deceiving—not a friend, exactly—but someone he’d relied on, trusted with his life. The wrath rose just as suddenly, and Chase had to shove it down, ignore thesting of betrayal as it festered so he could bring this whole thing down.
Gibson was the strong-jawed, hard-staring type, the stack of lines in the corners of his eyes not from smiling. His gray hair was thinning, but he kept it close-cropped to hide it.
“Shit place to meet,” he said. The way his gaze danced around the space belied his nerves.
The comment made the anger spike inside of Chase as he glared at the other man. His own nerves died away, some part of him acknowledging how messed up it was that he felt so sure now, so used to this kind of pressure.
“Gotta pick somewhere no one else would think to come,” he replied.
Gibson’s top lip curled back in disgust. Were his kickbacks from Zimmerman so good that he’d turned into some pretentious prick? “You have what I need?”
“You going to give me what I want?” Chase shot back.
“Isn’t this a nice little meet-cute?”
Gibson spun, giving away his anxiety as he pulled his weapon and pointed it at Zimmerman.
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