The Above & Beyond Series, Book 5

 

NOBLE HEART

 

TEASER

 

Off-limits. Hostile territory. A bug to plant and only one route in and out. I shuddered. If Renee and I got caught, our cover would be blown; Frei’s cover would be blown and I didn’t like the idea of trying to slip out of a house full of guards with automatic rifles, bad attitudes, and heat sensors.

Calm. Renee’s thoughts fired reassurance at me. We plant the first device. She smiled up at me, pulled me toward her again until I was half-cwtching her, half-cwtching the wall. I weren’t real sure how she could breathe. Tracks whoever comes up and down the corridor.

She pulled something out of her blouse. Snapped it to the wall. Grinned up at me.

She placed her finger to my lips, pulled me over to the opposite wall. Odd place to try and judo throw me but I’d follow. Once again, she reached in her blouse.

Did she have an entire tool kit in there?

Her gray eyes twinkled with laughter as she looked up at me. Perks of being a woman, Lorelei.

I raised my eyebrows. Nobody gave me that kind of bra.

She smiled. Camera.

She placed it to the wall.

A light slid from the ceiling above us.

Flashed red.

Uh oh.

Renee’s face drained. She glanced down the corridor.

No chance, they’re already heading our way, I thought. One way in and guards were sprinting along it toward us.

Renee grabbed my hand. Dragged me along the corridor. She tried each door handle.

Locked.

I let go of her and tried some. All locked.

Renee hurried to the windows. No fire escape.

“Call the chief,” a guard shouted out. The ratcheting of rifles. “Check the rooms in case they came back this way.”

“Sir.”

I met Renee’s eyes. They’re getting closer.

“They can’t get out. They’ll have to go through us.” Said like the guard was ready to pull the trigger.

Cold sweat trickled down the back of my neck.

Renee gave me a calm look like we weren’t in a pickle. It’ll take too long to pick the lock.

I glared at the door I’d just tried. Stared down at the handle. It wobbled. Why not?

I barged into it. The handle buckled. Door cracked at the side. I fell into the room. A slave’s room: bed, chair, desk, lamp. Bland.

Renee hurried in and over to the window. I shut the door and leaned against it. Pretty sure that if they figured I was behind it, holding it back, they’d just open fire.

“Any ideas?” I whispered.

“Too far up,” she whispered in her fake accent. “We can’t risk the venom in the spikes.”

The guards grew closer. I got a flash of them investigating where we’d planted the devices.

I met her eyes. She was trying for calm, for controlled, for agent, but fear was prickling all over her.

Yeah, we were in a big pickle.