Cinderella Undercover (6 page)

“What about the men?”

Jaron turned to the guards. “We’re not going to be around long enough to worry about the fallout. Thanks to you, I have no concerns about the programming. ES should be able to access the system now.” He met her stare. “Thank you.”

“I’ll thank you if you tell me the hall is clear and we won’t have to play Tarzan and leap from balcony to balcony.”

He chuckled. “Sorry, Jane. It’s too risky to walk out the front door.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” She walked to the bank of monitors. “Jaron, look!” A flurry of activity on each screen left no doubt they’d been detected. “We’re out of time, and we need to cut our losses. We can’t go back to Rick’s room. They’re waiting for us.” She glanced over her shoulder. “What do we do? Where’s our out?” Assignment details involved addressing all possible scenarios. Best points of entry, evacuation contingencies, internal security, and external surveillance all had to be studied. Timing was critical when faced with armed guards and watchdogs.

“My room is on the second floor. Doesn’t look like that’s an option.” Security teams crawled all over the property. “Shit!”

Returning to Rick’s suite was no longer an option. Light flooded the room, and security roused Rick from sleep. Jaron snapped his gaze across the monitors. Security was in the corridors. The grounds buzzed with activity. One small consolation—because of the guests, the Dobermans were still kenneled.

“Jaron!” She pointed to a screen. “They’re coming down the hall.”

“Fuck! Go!” He scrambled across the room, threw open the balcony door and peered over the edge. Three stories. They couldn’t jump. They only had moments to make a decision.

“Over,” she screamed.

Decision made. Tory straddled the balcony and inched her way to the edge.

“Careful.”

“No shit!” She maneuvered her body until she hung by her fingertips from the wrought iron. “Get your ass over the railing, Tarzan.”

“I’ve always admired your cool demeanor when under pressure.”

“This is no time to be a smartass.”

Jaron jumped the railing at the same time the office door crashed open. Tory was right. The jig was up.

“You’re going to have to drop.” She dangled about a foot above the lower railing.

“I can’t. It’ll break my legs.” One hand over the other, she worked her way closer to the building. Her toes barely touched the upper rung of a barred window. Letting go of the balcony with one hand, she reached behind and grasped the brick edge.

Jaron marveled at her ability to think clearly when faced with an unacceptable situation. “Some contractor’s head is going to roll.” She used the bars securing the windows as a ladder. Hanging from the bottom of the window, she was able to step on the lower balcony. Jaron followed close behind. From the bottom window, she dropped eight feet to the soft ground below.

Jaron followed, and then crouched beside her.

“Where do we go?”

He glanced right, then left. “We need to get off the property.” But that meant going into the miles of dense thicket surrounding the property without basic survival supplies and without communication.

He’d done his homework and studied the layout of the property. This was the worst possible situation, but if they could skirt the swamps and stay in the shelter of the trees, he could get them out. “Stay low. Security is weakest on the southeast corner of the property.”

She took his hand. “Jaron, if we get out of here...”

“We will.”

“When we do, we need to talk. You owe me an explanation.”

He squeezed her fingers. “We’ll talk about everything as soon as we’re safe. But in case we aren’t—” He yanked her close, wrapped his arms around her narrow shoulders and kissed her.

She didn’t hesitate. She demanded. Her mouth opened, inviting his tongue to tangle with hers. Gentle suction sealed their mouths, and he savored the familiar and erotic taste of her hot, moist treasure.

Soft lips met firm pressure. He groaned, cupping her breast in his palm and rasping his thumb against her beaded nipple beneath the thin dress. He gentled the kiss, flicking softly against her mouth with his tongue. He sucked her upper lip while she nibbled his lower. God, she was a good kisser. Aggressive, yet so sweet. Her tongue played in his mouth, curling around his and coaxing him into her mouth. A sensuous slide of taste and retreat that made him momentarily forget they were running for their lives.

“Ready?”

She nodded.

“Okay, stay close, stay low, and regardless of what happens, you run like hell.”

“Like hell. We stay together. You’re special forces. Unless there’s a guy on the corner giving directions on how to get to civilization, you better make sure your ass is on mine and we both make it out.”

That’s when he heard the dogs. “Fuck, run!”

Like a horse at the gate, she bolted at his strong command. He followed, grateful for the grass beneath their bare feet. A better contingency plan would’ve been shoes, but they’d been blown before Tory arrived.

Tory was fast. He stayed at her heels, jumping over flowerbeds, and ducking under branches. “Go. Go. Go.” A bullet whizzed past his head. More shots were fired. Wood splintered as they missed. The foliage grew denser, and they had to slow their escape.

“Is there a fence?”

“Yes, about fifty yards ahead.” They’d make it if the dogs didn’t get to them first. “Wrought iron and the top is electrified.”

“What? How in the hell are we supposed to get over an electric fence?”

Yeah, for the ninety seconds they’d sprinted across the property, he’d wondered the same thing. This hadn’t been his plan for extraction.

They broke through the trees and stopped. Tory bent forward, gasping for breath. “Now what?”

Jaron surveyed the fence, trying to find a way to cut power. A three-foot wall of concrete supported the twelve-foot metal and wire fence. Sections were roughly twelve feet across. Bolted to the concrete was a High Voltage sign.

The barking dogs were getting close. Jaron reached forward and gripped the edge of the sign. “This is metal. We can short out one section. Help me pry it loose.”

“They’ll know which way we’ve gone.”

“They already know.” Muscles strained in his arms. He pulled with all his strength, but the sign wouldn’t budge.

“Jaron, we’re out of time.”

He pulled Rick’s gun from his back pocket.

“Why don’t you just shoot them?”

“I’ve got five shots. I can take out the dogs.”

“Hand me my shoes.”

“What? Do you need to be in heels to fight with your Aikido skills?”

He gripped the heels, tugged, and then tossed them in her direction.

“I can defend myself against the dogs. Do what you can with the guards.” Their eyes locked and fear punched Jaron in the gut.

Six months ago, he’d had a conversation with Amine. At the time, he hadn’t understood the significance of what the director had been trying to tell him. Now he did. Amine had sent her into a difficult dangerous situation and Jaron had put her very life at risk.

Tory grabbed the rubber end-point of the heel, twisted, and pulled out a three-inch metal spike. She extracted the spike from the other shoe. Obviously comfortable with the weapon she clutched in each fist, she took a defensive posture—legs shoulder width apart, her body at a slight angle.

“Victoria, I could kiss you. Trade me.” He handed her the gun and took the spike from her fist.

“You
have
kissed me.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Not where I wanted to.” Holding the spike by the rubber-tipped end, he shoved the metal point into the circuitry joint of the electrical fence.

Sparks exploded into the night. Wires hissed, sizzled, and snapped. Electrical current arced over the fence. Fire ignited like sulfur tracing the live wires, and then burned out.

Acrid smoke filled the air. Parts close to the circuit posts glowed.

“Very MacGyver-esque,” she said.

“Climb. In the middle.” He grasped her waist and lifted her onto the concrete.

Tory handed back the gun, then she grabbed the blackened wires. Her bare toes gripped the fencing, and her fingers curled through the rungs. “The wires are hot.”

“Tough. Climb!”

Quick yet carefully, she scrambled to the top of the fence.

Jaron tucked the gun in his waistband and followed. The wires were hot, but they were dead…just like he and Tory would’ve been without her shoes. That would be the last time he’d ever give her an argument over how many shoes she owned. This particular pair saved their asses.

The dogs were at the fence before they reached the ground on the other side. Vicious, barking, salivating beasts charged the deadened section of fence. Tory didn’t flinch. The moment her feet touched the ground, she sprinted into the thicket.

“Move your ass!” he hollered from behind her. “Don’t stop.”

Both were trained and in top physical health, but they couldn’t run fast barefoot. Not only was it dark, but debris littered the ground. Sticks and rocks cut into the soles of his feet. Jaron knew he pushed her, but they needed to get into the denser section of the woods. They didn’t have a chance of evading Evenson’s henchmen unless they could cover their tracks by moving into the marsh.

A quarter of a mile into their run, the ground became softer. Dirt clods crumbled beneath his feet. Another step and moist mud of the peat bog squished between his toes.

“Are you okay?” he asked when he couldn’t hear the dogs barking anymore.

She stopped running and turned toward him. “Yes, but where are we going?”

“Southeast.” They needed to continue moving away from the Evenson compound. “We’re about twenty miles from the coast. I think we should stay in the shelter of the trees until first light, and then make our way out. Once in the open, we’re going to need to stay low. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out where we’re going.”

“Then why not hurry, get the hell out of here, and hide in the nearest beach community until Frank can send someone for us?”

“Because I think our best option is to seek shelter out here.”

Tory put her hands on her hips and cocked her head. “Well, this isn’t a dictatorship. I’m heading for the coast. I think using the canopy of night as cover makes more sense.”

“Look, I know you’re scared.”

She snorted and clawed her hair from her face. “I was scared in the house, and when we were being chased by dogs and bad guys across the yard. I don’t hear dogs baking now. Whoever was shooting at us, for now, is not on our tail. I’m not scared. I’m planning. We should use the few tools we have at our disposal. The gun and my shoe spikes aren’t going to protect us from the creepy, crawling things out here. This is Louisiana, Quinn. They have alligators in Louisiana.” She narrowed her eyes. “And don’t call me princess. It’s hot and humid. I’m dirty, tired, and pissed. Yesterday I was at my beach house, and today, I’m in a marsh.”

“Cinderella undercover.”

She choked and spit a bug from her mouth. “Keep up if you can, but I’m getting the hell out of here.”

* * * *

She didn’t know if he would follow her. God, she hoped he followed her as she stumbled along. The quarter moon peeked between the trees, but certainly didn’t light her way. She simply took direction from the night sky.