Catch Me If You Can (Love's Command) (17 page)

“You’re doing fine, just a bit longer and we’re out of this.” He bent and brushed a kiss along her forehead. They reached Tazz at the exit door, and he settled her more firmly against his body.

“Dare, are you here?”

Tazz’s pissed-off whisper brought a brief smile to his face. He met Tazz’s angry gaze and raised his goggles off his eyes. “Standing in front of you, man.”

Tazz zeroed in on him, but shook his head and laughed softly. “You two hit the fence where we came in. I’ll circle around and see what we’re up against,” he said.

Dare frowned. That wasn’t the plan. They stick together. At all costs, the team always sticks together. The safe house was for emergencies and so far this had been a cakewalk.

“What about the hit? They—”

“It’s going to be an isolated blast to stun them, that’s all. Knock out the power and leave them wondering what the hell’s going on. Then we’ll discover why they’re in Japan and what they’re up to.”

“The man you took down, Mohammad, said his brother is hurt. He wanted my father to cure him, bring him back from nearly dying. I tried to tell him that—”

Tazz stopped her with a quick hand up. “Got it. You two go and bunk down. I’ll contact you when I can,” he said, the smartass smirk back in full force. “See if you can get some rest,” Tazz added with a look at Kylie that made her stiffen in Dare’s arms. She shot him a searching look and he realized he’d pulled her closer, while he’d begun caressing her waist instead of her wrist.

“Oh, oh, I don’t—”

“Later. I’m sure you two will be fine. Now’s the time, Dare. Now.” Tazz jerked the door open, and headed off, gun up and ready. Dare pushed Kylie forward and followed to where the first clump of overgrown shrubs lined what used to be a formal garden. Tazz took off with one more hand sign indicating a go ahead.

Dare pulled Kylie into his arms. Whatever Tazz had been hinting at, no doubt him bedding Kylie, seemed to have alarmed her. He tipped her head up to reassure her, when yells split the silence.

Kylie gasped and he turned to see three men running toward them. Thanking whatever bit of luck he had that they’d not fired at his exposed back, he pushed Kylie behind him at the same time as he fired off three quick shots. They went down one after another and he hauled Kylie into motion.

“Damn, we have to get out of here,” he muttered.

They raced across the deserted grounds, made it to the trash and he pushed her from behind to get her around to the back right as more shots sounded. Another yell in Arabic followed them. Seconds later, two men burst from the exit door firing without even seeing what they fired at. He ducked. Sheer dumb luck might have them actually hitting him. He knelt and aimed, squeezing off three rounds but only hitting one in the leg. The other dove behind the fountain, then lifted his rifle and fired at the night sky.

Dare waited. As soon as the man’s head came back into view, he aimed and hit the guy’s right arm. The rifle went flying and the man went down with a scream of pain.

“Holy shit, what kind of organization is this?”

Through the link, he heard Tazz say something, but the static was too loud. “Repeat that, bro.”

“Get out of here, they’re amateurs. No need to stay. I’ll clean this up.”

No more shots were fired, and when he scanned the area, he saw no one, but he heard running. And it was getting closer. “Copy, just don’t get hit by a crazy stray bullet.”

Tazz laughed dryly. “Copy that, man.”

Dare pulled the com link from his ear. Kylie hadn’t moved from where he’d parked her. She opened her mouth, but he shushed her with a shake of his head.

“Not yet, we go, now.” He pushed up the chain-link fence where they’d come in, and watched the area as Kylie ducked under and out.

“Daren?”

He turned and followed her. Halfway out, he heard more gunfire. The rapid
tat-a-tat
was followed by more, then yells.

“What of your friend? Is he really staying?”

“Tazz has it in hand,” he told her and urged her into motion.

They made it to the first building, but as soon as they did, shouts broke out behind them. He pressed against Ky’s lower back to get her around the corner and took up a position next to her. Two men ran after them, one with an assault rifle, the other had nothing Dare could see, but he wasn’t counting on him being unarmed. They spotted him, and the one with the gun raised it, but the other stopped him with a yell in Arabic.

So they want her alive.

Life had just given him a chance.

“We run. Just stay with me.”

“I will,” she whispered.

He centered his focus on the next few blocks of twisting streets and mapped out the area in his mind within seconds. A path became clear, one that would hopefully lose the men behind. But first he’d better scare them into thinking he’d shoot their asses if they drew too close.

Bracing his shoulder on the building, he leveled his rifle and took aim at their feet and shot. They skidded to a halt. The man without a gun dove behind a car, and the second guy landed on the other side. Dare continued to fire, then stopped. He counted to a hundred then fired again, drilling the area for a count of ten. He repeated the same but counted much longer the next time.

“What are you doing?”

“Buying us some time.”

“Are you trying to kill them?” she asked.

He glanced at her and shook his head. “No, the more of them alive, the better chance of finding out exactly what’s going on. I will kill anyone that tries to kill you, or me.”

She bit her bottom lip, but didn’t show any sign of disagreeing with him. He gave the men one more round of fire, then stood away from the wall, shouldered his rifle, took Kylie’s hand and pulled her into motion. They made the first street without hearing anyone in pursuit. He took them down that short block then crossed the street and went right down the next. Kylie stumbled once, but he caught her arm and pulled her along, not willing to slow their pace just yet.

After a few pursuit-free minutes, he guided Kylie across a street and up the steps of a hotel.

“We’ll take ten in here, let you get your breath, then we have to keep moving,” he said, scanning the area quickly. The marble foyer was empty, thankfully, and he spotted no one behind a small, check-in desk. The place was expensive, though. From behind the counter, Dare made out voices speaking in Japanese. They must have been in the office off to the side. No one appeared to be lounging at the bar, or at the tables set up near a massive stone lined aquarium.

He led them past the check in, through a carpeted area and on to where he spotted an elevator sign. Next to him, Kylie tried to catch her breath, but she kept up with him until they reached the four elevators. As soon as they did, and he stopped, she collapsed against the marble wall, breathing hard and fanning her face with her hands.

Damn, she was cute. “We stop here for a bit,” he told her, letting her rest. He moved back to the carpeted area and watched the entrance. No one was in sight and from where they stood he had a clear view.

“I can’t go that fast. Not in these”—she gestured to her high heels with an exasperated huff and slipped one of the amazing four-inch heels off. They were those high heels with an inch under the front and four in the back. The creamy tan suede had a strip of black like a buckle along the top of her toes, but he’d bet his last dime they hurt like hell to run in. She’d not said a word until now though.

“Shit, sorry, baby. I think we lost them,” he said, but modified it when she gave him a quick relieved glance, “at least for now. Catch your breath. I’ll keep an eye out.”

She nodded, still breathing hard.

He pulled out the pouch Tazz had handed him and ignored the passports, money and keys he found inside, and concentrated on the address for the safe house instead. He knew the location. They were about twenty minutes on foot from there. If he let them walk. Kylie massaged her tiny foot, before she slipped the high heel back on, and did the same to her other foot. Hell, he didn’t want to cripple her. She’d raced along in those things, though, without a word, so he guessed she would manage if they had to.

Returning his focus to the pouch, he found a slip to a garage and guessed that one of the keys was to a car parked there. Another code listed the car license and space where it was parked. The address was also in code, but he quickly deciphered it and realized the location was familiar. With a quick scan of the entrance, then check in desk, he found the name and address for the hotel on a sign by the fish tank advertising some doctors’ conference at the hotel.

The garage was only two buildings away from where they were.

Relief settled over him. The car would be safer than going on foot to the safe house, he thought, especially if this hotel had an underground garage.

“Did you know…I mean—” Kylie exhaled wearily and stood up. “Did you know me from the start?”

Dare nodded. “I’d been looking for you.” He paused and brushed her hair off her face, debating how much to say. Everything, he guessed. It was now, or let Kylie keep on thinking he was nothing more than some agent out to stop her—not a man who’d discovered that with her, he’d finally found something worth living for.

He stood straighter and met her worried gaze. “Since you saved my life, I’ve been looking for you, Ky. I didn’t sign on to this mission knowing it was you though.” He smiled, remembering how unlike the woman standing in front of him her pictures had been. “You don’t look the same in the photos in your file.”

She frowned at that, but stayed silent.

“It wasn’t until I faced you, that I knew.”

“Knew what?”

“Knew the chase had been worth it.”

It took her a second, but she rolled her eyes and smiled. “Mmm, but…” She reached out and playfully brushed her fingers along his busted up face, but quickly her smile faded and she grew serious, much more serious than he’d ever seen her. She tilted her head and her dark eyes shimmered. “I didn’t recognize you,” she whispered huskily. “When I got you out of that mess, you were covered in blood, your face swollen to obscurity from where you must have landed head first into a low wall. You were delirious. I thought you might die. I thought they’d find you and finish what they started. I thought you’d never make it.”

He grinned, even though he could hear the pain in her rapid-fire confession. Maybe
because
he could hear it, he thought, watching the way her eyes simmered with worry mixed with heat. “I’m not that easy to kill, baby.” He shrugged and covered her hand with his when she would have taken it away. “You saved my life. I couldn’t die after that, not after all the trouble you went to.”

Some kind of emotion crossed her face quickly then was gone before he could decide if it was fear or pain. She shook her head slightly with an amused look. “You’re too full of yourself to die. Even now.” She caressed his jaw and inspected his face. “You’re healing.”

“More your dad’s work there than mine, I think.”

She nodded and that odd look came back in her eyes, but she dropped her hand and pushed her hair behind her ears. Their conversation wasn’t over, but he could sense she needed some time to come to terms with everything.

“All right. Here’s the plan. We go down and see if they have a parking garage here and if we can, we head to where they’ve set up a car for us nearby.”

“Okay, but we need to talk,” she said, giving him a worried look he couldn’t decipher.

“True. Let’s go in here, wait it out and see if any more of them follow.”

He pushed the button for the elevator and turned to see Kylie watching him oddly. She looked uneasy. Was she more hurt than he’d realized? She’d been gone for hours. The tape still bothered him, but he wasn’t sure how much to ask.

“Did they harm you?”

She shook her head. The elevator doors opened and he motioned for her to go inside. She did, but moved to the back, and settled against the wall with her arms crossed around her waist in a defensive posture.

“Kylie, you can tell me anything, you know that, right? I mean, hell, look at me,” he said trying to get her to smile.

She did and reached up to touch his stitches again when he moved closer. His face was hot from the run, but her fingers were cool, soothing.

“You were hurt badly, weren’t you?” she whispered.

“I’ll heal. I always do,” he said and captured her hand to brush a kiss to her fragile wrist. Her skin was red there, and if he had to guess much longer, he might go insane. “Tell me what they did, Ky.”

“Why do you call me that?”

He blinked at her and again he was struck by how beautiful she was. Even sweaty, tired and a bit dirty, she was beautiful. She had a sprinkling of freckles along her nose and cheekbones. She must have worn makeup to cover them before, but they were so alluring, he never wanted to have her cover them up with makeup again. He rubbed a bit of dust off her cheek and gave her his best smile, well, with a busted face best smile. “It fits, is that okay?”

“It’s okay,” she whispered again, this time he saw tears shimmering closer to the surface.

“Ky, just talk. I need to know if they hurt you, if they—”

She pushed a finger to his lips, silencing him that easily.

“No, they scared me. Threatened to drill into my hand, can you believe that?” she demanded, sounding more grossed out than scared.

His heart hit his toes at the image of them doing just that to her beautiful hand. He’d seen it before. The torture technique was wildly popular down in South America. She continued on, unaware he suffered a minor heartache at her casual words.

“But no, they didn’t hurt me. You look hurt though.”

He moved in closer and brushed her midnight hair out of her eyes. She had the most amazing eyes. Combined with the light dusting of freckles and pink lips, she easily captured his heart and body. Especially his body. His hard-on still throbbed. He’d been hard for so long he was surprised he could focus on anything besides the dull ache in his pants. He wanted to do things to Ky, things like make love to her standing up, so he could watch the rosy glow flush her face as she neared her orgasm. See the look of total passion in her eyes as he brought her to that place where anything and everything was allowed. She’d burn his cock when he finally slid inside her, no doubt setting him off with the first thrust, but that would just be icing on a cake he intended to sample repeatedly.