Page 60 of Critical Witness

She was ready for the running and waiting and chasing to be over.

But she wasn’t ready for the mission to end.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE

The bellchimed and Will slid his finger to the trigger of his gun, holding his breath as they waited for the doors to open to their right. Hannah started to move in front of the arriving elevator car, but he held her firmly in place.

But the elevator was empty when it opened and they stepped inside.

Hannah held the lobby button and the door close button and didn’t let them go.

“Does that actually do anything?” he asked skeptically.

She shrugged. “Debatable. I think it works on some models. But it doesn’t hurt, right?” She smiled up at him, and the heavy weight in his chest lifted just a little.

He was going to get her back to the SUV and to the safe house. Maybe to BTS Headquarters. That was probably the safest place for her.

This entire mission had just taken an unexpected turn. Yuri knew the intel they had on him. He knew they were tracking him, and he was two steps ahead.

“I had a thought,” Hannah said.

“I’m all ears.”

She smiled at his response. “Yuri is still after me because he thinks he can protect his identity, right?”

Will nodded slowly. “That’s the working theory, yes.”

“So… what would he do if his cover was blown?”

Will raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we know who he is. We have his photo, his fake identities, all of it. If you were the FBI, his name and face would be plastered on every news outlet in the world right now, right?”

Will thought about it. She wasn’t wrong. They’d been operating exactly where this guy wanted to operate. He preferred clandestine operations where he was anonymous and could slip away.

The elevator doors slid open, revealing a mass of convention goers eagerly waiting for their ride up.

Will tightened his grip on Hannah and led them both through the crowd. “Let’s get to the car and we can talk more.”

“We’re at the van,” Ryder reported. “No sign of Yuri.”

“Maybe he slithered back under whatever rock he came out of.”

“Roll out,” he ordered, after deciding they were a sitting duck if they stayed in one place. “Circle the block until we’re out too.”

“10-4.”

He led Hannah through the crowded lobby, his eyes peeled for any sign of Kuznetsov. He studied every male he saw, not willing to underestimate the assassin again.

A dozen police officers charged through the front door of the lobby. Will quickly veered away from them, tucking Hannah into a small alcove at the edge of the open space. He framed her body with his, hoping the police didn’t have her description.

She shifted against him, and he tried to ignore the flare of desire within him at the contact. In this little tucked away corner, it would be easy to pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist. His arm rested against the wall over her shoulder, hiding her from view. To anyone else, it was just a private conversation.

His gaze dropped to her lips as she spoke. “Do you think he left?”

Will shook his head, both to clear his head of the untimely thoughts and to indicate that he truthfully had no idea if Yuri was still around.

The hard fact was that Will had been terrible at predicting what the infamous assassin would do next. Will felt like he’d underestimated him more than once and landed the entire group in danger.

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