Around-the-Clock Protector (13 page)

One of the men opened the driver’s door and climbed into the car. The man behind the wheel rolled the window down and poked his head out, looking up and down the road.

The back-up lights came on as the car rolled in his direction, stopping less than ten feet short of his position.

“Jensen, what the hell are you doing?”

“Looking for a spot closer to the riverbank.”

“Try farther up the road. It’s more level where they went in.”

“The hell it is.” The driver let off the brake. The car rolled closer.

Carson held his breath, ready for evasive maneuvers if the vehicle came close enough to run over him, but the driver applied the brakes again less than three feet away.

“Jensen!” someone bellowed from farther up the road.

The smell of car exhaust polluted Carson’s lungs, but he didn’t move. It would be suicide to choke.

He heard the car’s transmission jolt into Drive, and pulled in a deep breath as the vehicle moved forward, stopping sixty feet up the road.

He reached down and pulled his gun out of its ankle holster in slow motion, tucking it under his chest.

Time was short. Within the hour the agents would know the car was empty, and their window of escape would close.

The hair at his nape bristled at the same time he felt a boot slam into his back from behind.

“Son of a bitch. Look who we got here. The infamous Agent Carson Nash.”

Carson’s reaction to the threat was swift and deadly.

In half a second he twisted around, aimed his 9 mm and double tapped the man standing over him.

Rolling deep into the ditch, he watched the stunned agent drop.

He rose out of the grass, searching for the other two in the pale darkness. He caught signs of movement in his peripheral vision on the right.

Turning toward it, he stared over his gun sight at a couple of figures in the middle of the road.

Worry sliced into him, cutting loose his rage. He moved forward, out onto the pavement.

“Let her go,” he demanded, just able to make out the expression of terror on Ava’s face as the agent walked her forward, his arm around her waist from behind as he used her as a human shield.

“Put the gun down or she gets it.” The man
pushed the barrel of his gun against Ava’s jaw, just under her chin.

Fear shot through Carson.

The rogue agent had nothing to lose.

“Okay…okay.” He lowered his weapon, laying it on the ground next to his right foot.

“Jensen! Get over here.”

Behind him, Carson heard a car door open and slam shut, then footsteps on the asphalt.

Slowly he turned, determined to keep both men in sight and protect his back.

“Well, what do you know. She’s not at the bottom of the Charles. I won’t have to get wet after all.”

The agent holding Ava grunted. “Let’s get what we came for, drown them together and get the hell out of here. Daylight’s coming.”

Carson tensed, watching the agent reach into his pocket and pulled out a knife.

The blade snapped open and he moved in.

Fear twisted around Ava’s heart as she stared at Carson in the predawn light. The feel of the gun barrel against her chin had rendered her thought processes null and void, but she had to think. Had to focus on the coming assault and her reaction to it, if she wanted to live.

Keeping her eyes on Carson, she tried to figure out what his next move might be. Glancing down, she watched him position his foot right next to his discarded
gun. A marker of sorts, she decided as she watched the agent coming toward her with an open knife in his hand.

It would be up to her to create a clear shot for Carson. They’d have one chance before the knife blade found its way into her flesh.

She swallowed.

The agent with the knife moved in next to them. “Too bad Poltergeist chose such a nice piece of eye candy for a mule.”

“Stop slobbering and get it done!” yelled the agent holding her.

A shudder twisted along her spine as he repositioned the gun and turned her toward him, exposing her back to the man with the blade.

Now
.

With all the strength she could muster, she bent over and lunged forward, head-butting the agent in the gut.

She heard him grunt as he rocked back from the force.

Dodging right, she dived for the pavement, anticipating the impact.

In that split second Carson saw his opportunity.

He snagged his gun from the ground and charged forward.

Ava was clear.

Rage erupted in his bloodstream.

Agent Jensen whirled to face him.

Pop! Pop
! He double tapped him in the forehead.

He dropped.

Carson set his sights on the other thug, who struggled to regain his balance, his gun still in his hand.

A shot went off, unmuffled and loud in the dawn air.

A bullet zinged past Carson’s ear.

Pop!
He took the shot before the agent could take aim again.

He dropped.

Relief spilled over him as he raced toward Ava, who’d pulled up into a sitting position in the middle of the road.

Carson kicked the agent’s gun away before kneeling next to her. He pulled her into his arms, smoothing her hair away from her face. “Are you sure you don’t want to join my team?”

“I’m a confirmed paper pusher—you know that.” She gazed up at him.

“No pressure, but we need to get out of here before our luck takes a turn.” He looked around at the carnage. “When these rogues don’t report in, all hell’s going to break loose.”

“Looks like we found a ride.” She motioned to the car as he helped her to her feet.

“Not exactly what I had in mind, but the appropriation of available assets applies in this case.”

She looked up at him and smiled. “See, that’s why I could never join your little band of merry men. You
don’t speak plain English. Translated—the car’s here, we’re taking it.”

He liked her simple assessment of the situation and everything else about her, he decided as they loaded the dead agents into the trunk of the car and closed the lid.

Unfortunately, there was nothing simple about the trouble they were in. “You gave me the shot.” He stared down at her, fighting the images of her body next to his.

“It was fight back or let that maniac carve into my skin.” She shuddered.

He pulled her into his arms for an instant, sobered by how close he’d just come to losing her.

It was time to chop the head off the snake before they got bitten. He had to find Poltergeist, the man behind the microchip in Ava, and take him down any way he could.

C
ARSON HIT THE SEND BUTTON
on the Cambridge Public Library’s computer and sat back in his chair, eyeing Ava over the top of the monitor.

Jerome Hinshaw’s files would be in his team’s hands for analysis. With any luck, they’d know in a couple of hours what information the microchip contained.

He pulled the flash drive out of the USB port and shut down the computer.

“I see hunger in your eyes, Agent Ross,” he said as he stood up.

“Yeah. I’m thinking red meat.”

“I’m not.” He stared at her, watching a seductive smile turn her mouth. “You could drive a vegetarian to backslide with an appetite like that.”

“Really?” Ava tried to bring her raging pulse under control, but the blistering heat in Carson’s stare was so intense she felt her skin warm.

She was hungry. Hungry to feel him again. Hungry for the soul-seducing pleasure he’d heaped on her last night, but she wondered if she could ever understand a man like Carson Nash.

A man who was comfortable surrounded by danger. He took lives for a living, but he’d saved hers more than once. Where was the balance? Could they find it together?

“I’m not into sex in public places. I prefer to satisfy my hunger in private, or at a great restaurant. You need to eat before we get on the road.”

A measure of disappointment flooded her veins as she followed him out of the library and to the car they’d purchased through a private-party ad in the local newspaper, after ditching the agents’ car.

She didn’t even plan to ask where he’d gotten the licence plates he’d put on the vehicle, as long as they got back to the safety of the apartment ASAP.

Full of foreboding, she climbed into the car.

There were more agents just like the three they’d escaped and she couldn’t help but feel they were heading blindfolded into a shooting gallery.

Resting her hand on her baby bump, she prayed Carson could find the answers in time to save them all.

C
ARSON WILLED
the nagging questions in his head to be still, but it did no good. There was no doubt that their location in Cambridge had been compromised by someone he thought he could trust. The man lived three thousand miles away, but Dr. Resnick was the only one who knew they’d planned to go to Jerome Hinshaw’s place in search of answers.

He straightened, alert, as the picture began to clear. If Resnick was behind Ava’s memory loss, then he knew how to restore the loss, as well.

He glanced over at her as she slept, leaning against the side window in the car. They were almost home. Almost safe.

He gritted his teeth. Anger festered inside him. What kind of animal was Resnick anyway? He knew about the baby she was carrying, yet he’d given pertinent information to the three agents Carson had had to kill.

Everyone had a limit. Where was Resnick’s?

Carson maneuvered through the city streets, finally turning into the parking garage of his building.

The tentacles of Resnick’s operation could potentially wrap around a lot of other operatives. He’d spent a considerable amount of time in the CIA dealing with mind control research and experiments that defied human logic.

He pulled into a parking space and turned off the car.

Was Ava a ticking time bomb? Destined to go off at some point? He was familiar with the good doctor’s work with assassins programmed to be turned on and off like switches. Devoid of thought outside their mission and virtually uncrackable during interrogations.

Reaching over, he stroked her hair, rousing her out of sleep. She startled awake, sitting bolt upright in the seat. “Where are we?”

“We’re back at the apartment.”

She visibly relaxed. “What time is it?”

“Almost seven.”

The ring tone of his cell phone went off. Carson pulled the phone from his belt, checking the screen before answering. “What’ve you got?”

“You’re not going to like this.” The sound of Agent Nick Shelby’s concerned voice come over the airwaves.

“Hinshaw’s research?”

“The guy was working on some dangerous stuff, depending on whose side you’re on.”

Carson’s gut tightened.

“The research files on the travel drive are incomplete. He religiously detailed his findings and diagrammed his prototypes, up until five months ago. Then it stops abruptly. We’ve all had a look at this and the consensus is he developed and produced a bootleg microchip.”

“You’re sure it went to production?”

“From what’s here. Yeah.”

Worry flooded his mind. “What’s its function and capacity?”

“Spy satellite aiming and trajectory. The worst part is he was able to create a frequency that precisely matches the host nation’s command center. The host country would have no idea another nation had commandeered their spy satellites until it was too late. They could launch an invisible strike.”

“I’ll be damned.” Carson’s mind was on fire with the realization. Ava had been used as a mule to transport the microchip to its buyer. Russia. Only she hadn’t made the plane and now both parties in the deal were willing to kill her to get it back. One because they’d paid for it. The other because they couldn’t risk discovery of the transaction. That explained the NSA’s role, but were they the problem or the solution?

“Thanks, buddy.”

“You know you don’t have to tackle this monster by yourself. Just say the words.”

The air between them was charged with anticipation as Carson considered his options.

“It could get dicey,” he said, wanting the understanding in place before they even debated deployment.

“We’re addicted to adrenaline. We eat dicey for lunch.”

“The clock is ticking—it’s a quarter to midnight.” Carson said the go-code phrase into his cell phone and hung up.

He tried to tamp down the alarm that pulsed through his body. In an instant they’d become pawns in a matter of national security, but that wasn’t the driving conflict in his head, or his worst concern.

It was the woman in the seat next to him and the child inside her. He had to find a way to save them both, even if it cost him his life.

A
VA RAN HER FINGERTIPS
over the contours of Carson’s chest and watched a smile spread on his lips. There were nonphysical areas of him she’d yet to touch, but not from lack of trying. He was a man with secrets. Some she could live with—others she guessed had scared holes in him that needed filling.

And then there was the child she carried. Although he rarely asked questions, she’d felt the intensity of his emotions when he’d covered her abdomen with his hand to feel the growing baby inside her.

What was he afraid of? What inner battles did he fight?

Leaning over, she kissed him on the mouth. A surge of desire rocked her emotions into an avalanche of need she couldn’t escape. It rolled her senses in a protective cocoon, enhanced by the feel of his arms as he moved her on top of him and pulled her closer.

Carson tried to tone down the raging lust that possessed his body every time he touched her, but it was useless, and he realized his mind had given up resistance long before his body had.

Reaching up, he stroked her hair back as he stared at her in the dim light filtering through the bedroom window. “How can I ever say no to you?”

A smile parted her lips as she leaned toward him. “Do you want to?”

Heat burned through him as she pushed back, brushing his shaft. “Dammit, woman.”

In one swift movement he rolled her underneath him, hearing her shallow gasp as he thrust into her, barely able to restrain himself.

Heat sizzled through his body, lighting up every nerve ending.

Her soft moans of pleasure coaxed him deeper and deeper inside her. He felt her climax as she tightened around him, whispering his name.

White light exploded behind his eyelids. He tensed and relaxed as pleasure rocked his body.

Satiated, he nuzzled her neck, nibbling slowly across the ridge of her shoulder. Every time with her was better than the time before, a fact that did little to alleviate his troubles. Where was his control? His grit? The same restraint that had pushed him to the top of his command and beyond.

He’d relinquish it, all of it, just to know Ava and the baby would be safe.

“If I weren’t already pregnant, that would have done it,” she whispered, gazing up at him with a sweet smile on her mouth.

He stared down at her, swallowing against the knot of emotion in his chest. She knew nothing about his past. Nothing of the vow he’d made after watching his father nearly kill his mother for the last time.

Could he ever be good enough for her? Could he alter his DNA so history didn’t repeat itself?

“I’ll do what’s right for you and the baby. You know that, don’t you?”

Her smile faded and he saw a sparkle of moisture in her eyes. “I can’t force you to be a part of our child’s life if you don’t want to be. I’ve made my peace with the idea of single parenthood.”