Dana jumped and spun. There was no time to process her mother’s revelations.
Rich was already between her and the door. “What kind of trouble?”
Javi looked at him, then addressed Dana. Guess Rich still hadn’t earned his trust. “Two guys pulled up in a late-model silver sedan. They’re not regulars. Thomas thought he saw someone out back right before they came inside, but he didn’t get a good look. They’re sitting in the lobby. Said they’re waiting for someone, but we close in half an hour, so...” He glanced over his shoulder. “They’re watching the restaurant. Normally, I’d say it could be nothing, but given the circumstances, none of you can be too careful.”
Rich watched the door. “Are they armed?”
“One guy has a knife in a sheath on his right hip. Didn’t get a good look at the other.”
Dana blew out an exasperated breath. What was the deal with these men and their knives? She nodded at Rich and then at the desk. When he unrolled the knife and laid it down, she pointed at it. “Does it look like one of those?” Her plan had been to ask her mother if she recognized the weapon, but time had run out.
“Near as I can tell.” Javi strode to Dana’s mother, who had glanced at the knife but had shown no reaction. “We need to push up the timeline and get you out of here. I’ve called. They can meet us sooner, but they won’t wait around for you if you aren’t there when we get there.”
Dana flinched. Her mother had hired a human smuggler once to get them out of Argentina. She’d done it again tonight to get herself to safety. There were so many legal ramifications. So many things could go wrong. This wasn’t WitSec. It was outlaws out to make a buck, and they’d sell out her mother to the highest bidder in a heartbeat. “Can we trust whoever you’re handing her off to?”
Javi stiffened and stood taller. “This isn’t a smuggler. This is a friend of Mama’s. He used to work for the CIA. He’ll get her to safety and hide her until this passes over.”
“He’ll hide Dana, too.” Rich’s gray eyes went steely. For him, there would be no more discussion.
There was no more discussion for her, either. She wasn’t hiding, and there was nothing he could do about it. She was the one holding the car keys. “Unless you plan to sedate me, you already know how this is going to go down.”
He opened his mouth and stepped forward, an argument on his lips, but Dana sliced the air with her hand. “We’re done talking.” She turned to Javi. “Get my mother out of here. Now.”
It was the hardest order she had ever given. Her heart wanted to go with her mom, to protect her. Her mind said she was putting Javi and his family in the line of fire, but they were out of choices. She couldn’t hide, not if she was ever going to put an end to this.
“Aaron is going to take her. I’m staying to watch the restaurant and to call in backup from the station if these guys so much as twitch their index finger in a way I don’t like.” Javi tossed her a set of keys. “Those are to the old pickup in the back garage. Nobody looking for you would have been able to see it. Mama said to take it in case they saw your rental.” He reached for her mother’s hand. “We have to go now. Thomas is keeping an eye on the men, and we had Aaron check outside. They’re the only two in sight, so if we can get you out the back, we can get you to safety.”
Dana’s mother turned to her. There was strength in her gaze. “I know better than to argue when you are like this.”
Dana rounded the desk and embraced the woman who had raised her, who had been Mama where her birth mother had failed. “When this is over, I’ll come for you, but I have to stay on the outside if we ever want to be safe again.”
“We’re ending this.” Rich’s voice cut in, the emphatic, deep tone sending a warm shiver through Dana’s stomach.
She didn’t respond. She simply released her mother with a quick nod, a silent promise. It will all be okay.
Karen turned to follow Javi out the door, then stopped and reached into her pocket. She dropped a key into Dana’s hand. “I have a locker at my gym. It’s open all night. A-42. Your history is in there.” With one last look tinged with a hint of longing, she turned and rushed out the door behind Javi.
Dana turned to Rich as the door closed behind her. There was no time for tears or sentiment. They had to get moving.
Rich was staring at the door. He pivoted slowly to face her. “Why do I feel like I somehow stepped into a well-oiled family of spies?” He waved his hand toward the door. “Contingency plans, safe houses, some shadowy network of...something?”
“Stephanie, who owns this place, is a widow. She was married to Chad, a former CIA operations officer. I have no idea how long Stephanie’s known, but I’m guessing Chad had contingencies for his family that are being set into place tonight for mine.” She shoved away from the desk and grabbed the knife. “I didn’t wind up working in WitSec by accident. I grew up so close to this family they were like my own. It was practically in my DNA.” No, not her family, and not her DNA. Her DNA was tainted by murder and corruption. Her DNA belonged to the very criminals she protected others from.
“I’m guessing you have your own contingency plans?”
“My job isn’t as covert and dangerous as Bill’s probably was. I never thought I had a need.” No. She’d never imagine she’d have to run for her life because her whole existence was a lie. The weight of revelation, the stress of running and the fear for her mother settled on her with palpable weight.
Rich reached for her but didn’t touch her. “We need to get you to some place where you can take a minute to process.”
“No. The way I see it, right now, we have two choices.” She grabbed the plastic-wrapped knife from the desk and held it up by the handle. “We can slip out and let these guys vanish into the wind, or...” Let’s see how well Rich really knew her.
His eyebrow arched, and he seemed to shake whatever weird vibe he’d been carrying since they walked into the office. “Or we confront them now when they aren’t aware we know they’re here.”
“We get answers by hitting them head on.”
Rich reached for the doorknob. “What do you say we have a chat with Javi about holding off on backup until we need it and then go wait by their car?”
“I say, ‘After you.’”
Rich leaned against the hood of the silver sedan, arms folded over his chest and ankles crossed in front of him. It was a stupid pose, really. His best attempt to look casual while waiting for the men chasing Dana to emerge from the crowded restaurant. Normally, he had no trouble blending into his surroundings. It was a skill he’d cultivated in Special Forces first and then had honed on the Mountain Springs Police Department.
But Dana had spun him off his game. He was better than this goofball he’d become, a man who couldn’t even figure out what do to with his own hands. All because, two cars away, Dana stood watch. He could practically feel her eyes on him, and it turned him into an awkward preteen all over again.
He’d only agreed to her plan if she stayed out of the way and didn’t reveal herself unless things went sideways and he needed backup. No need to put herself in danger by showing her face prematurely.
She’d wanted to be the bait, but he had to draw the line somewhere. His job was to protect her. He would not put her in harm’s way. All they needed was for the men to admit who they worked for. If they did, Rich could pass the intel to Isaiah and get to work from the top down instead of them continuing to run for their lives.
Then he could walk away from Dana and this ridiculous feeling putting down uncomfortable roots in his chest.
That part of the plan grew less appealing with every passing second. Proof he needed to get away from Dana and back to the real world as fast as he possibly could.
The door swung open, leaking light and laughingly sung karaoke into the parking lot. Rich straightened, but it wasn’t his target. A man and a woman walked hand in hand across the gravel lot, their arms and sides close, heads bent toward one another.
The man spoke. The woman laughed. They shared a quick kiss, then left together in a red sedan.
They made it look so easy.
Back in the day, it had been easy. He’d had that relationship. Those quick kisses and easy moments, so effortlessly taken for granted.
Yeah, he’d had everything. Before he’d let a murderer reach Amber. Before he’d felt his dreams die in his arms.
Dreams were short-lived creatures. Never again could he let himself—
The door opened again. Two men exited. They walked in his direction but watched the parking lot as though searching. The tall one had a knife at his hip. The other wore an empty sheath and walked with a slight limp.
Gotcha. Adrenaline poured into Rich’s system, his fight-or-flight response choosing to fight.
The moment they spotted him, their steps slowed. The tall one muttered something to his partner, then reached for his knife, although he didn’t extract it.
Yet.
Dana had better be in position with a clean line of sight. And Stephanie had better be good at keeping all of the patrons inside the restaurant until this confrontation was over. His biggest fear at the moment, next to Dana dying due to some slipup on his part, was an innocent getting caught in the cross fire.
“Fellas.” He stood and held his arms out to the sides, the plastic-wrapped knife in one hand. “I think I have something you might want back.”
Tall Guy’s expression hardened with the kind of hatred Rich hadn’t seen since his last firefight overseas. A quick flash of death and blood and screams made him waver on his feet, but only for an instant. These men couldn’t see him off his game. They’d take advantage before he could recover his footing.
“You are a brave one.” Short Guy was clearly the leader. He tipped a quick nod to his partner, and they eased slowly apart, one to Rich’s right and one to his left, though they maintained their distance. “There are two of us and one of you.” He let his gaze drift before bringing it back to Rich. “Unless she is hidden somewhere and waiting for a chance to strike?”
“She’s long gone. Left with her mother.”
To his left, Tall Guy cursed under his breath then muttered something that ended with muerta.
Dead.
“Yet here you are. Why would you confront us if your girlfriend is safely hidden?” Short Guy’s hand rested on his knife, but he still didn’t withdraw it. Likely, he saw value in keeping Rich alive. Probably for information.
Would they torture him if they took him? The way the terrorists had tortured Fitz?
Again, Rich had to force himself back into the present, away from the stench of the past. He wrestled his voice into submission, level and hard. “She’s not my girlfriend. I was assigned to keep her safe. But now I know who you are. Where you come from. Who issued the order for you to come for her.” It was a huge guess, one he hoped was close enough to the mark to spook them.
“I doubt that very seriously.”
“Never doubt.” Rich lifted the knife higher and leveled a knowing gaze on the younger man to his left. “You left your business card behind. I’m sure a lot of people in some pretty high places would be really unhappy with you for being so careless with incriminating evidence.”
Tall Guy whipped toward his partner and closed the gap between them. He grabbed the younger man by the arm and spoke in rapid Spanish, the angry words a verbal beating accompanied by sharp gestures toward Rich.
Spanish wasn’t his strong suit. He hadn’t had a single lesson since high school, but he sure could interpret the tone and the actions. This was a smackdown of epic proportions.
Divide and conquer. Point for Team Dana.
“If you’re interested in a deal—” he raised his voice above the tirade “—I might be persuaded to return it.”
The man broke off in midsentence and turned to Rich, resuming his position slightly to the right. “For what price?”
“For the right money, this could go back to you and I could forget I ever saw it. For the even more right price, I could be persuaded to tell you where your target is hiding. Save you both from a worse fate than... Well, you know.”
“Or I could kill you and take it.” This time, Short Guy drew his knife and held it low.
Rich pulled out his pistol and aimed at the man’s chest. With his left hand, he held the knife toward its owner. “You’re not faster than a bullet, buddy.” His voice shifted from friendly to deathly deep. “Either of you so much as flinches, I put a bullet in you and I reacquaint your friend with his knife in a very personal way. You understand?” He prayed the men obeyed.
With a snarl, the man sheathed his knife and lifted his hands slightly. “I keep my knife. If I return without it...”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. The implication of death was the very reason his buddy’s face was still pale.
“I am guessing it is not truly money you are after. You have dogged Danna Marquez’s steps, protecting her from us and from our men. Money will not easily buy you off. What is it you really want?”
“Information.”
Stony silence from both men.
Fine. He could play their way, but not for long. It was only a matter of time before someone exited the restaurant. “What’s the endgame?”
There was a shuffle behind him. Short Guy’s gaze shifted over Rich’s shoulder. “I do not need to answer your questions, because you are not in charge here.”
“I would put the weapon down if I were you.” A new voice—a deeper male voice—came from over Rich’s right shoulder.
Rich’s insides collapsed, taking his breath with them even as he tried to keep his voice passive. He’d definitely been flanked.
The voice again. “I would take a look, friend. Because we have what we came for. Now you are expendable.”
“Rich, don’t listen to him.”
Dana. He glanced to the side.
A broad-shouldered man stood out of reach, one arm around Dana’s waist...
Holding a knife to her throat.