Catch Me If You Can (Love's Command) (7 page)

“You were forcing me to do that! I have things I need to do and I am not answerable to you or…” She paused, not sure even who they worked for or why they were so interested in her.

Dare held up a hand and drew her attention back to him. “Just listen to us—”

“Why should I listen to you? Why are you even chasing me?” she demanded. Her frustration made her fear dwindle.

“I’m chasing you because you are trying to sell secrets to the North,” Dare informed her.

The absurd but serious statement got a hard look from his partner, but Kylie stared at Dare, confused then angry.

“I’m not trying to sell anything!”

How could they have gotten this so wrong? Why would I sell secrets?

“No? Then explain what you are doing,” Daren said, sounding relaxed and oh so like he wasn’t questioning a criminal, which is what they thought she was. The knowledge scared her badly enough that she felt her legs grow weak.

Daren gestured for her to take a seat on the couch opposite his friend. She debated telling him no, but she didn’t want to upset them when they appeared calm and non-threatening. Well, she modified with a glance at the still unnamed, silent man, one of them made her worry, but Daren certainly wouldn’t harm her.
Would he?
She rolled that idea around in her head, even as she followed his direction and sat on the edge of a couch. Daren followed and sat between her and the other American.

“I think it would be a good idea to answer our questions, don’t you?” Daren asked softly. When she didn’t immediately agree with him, his frown grew. The way his dark eyes seemed to fill with concern appeared so sincere she wanted to tell him everything. He certainly wasn’t angry with her for drugging him. Still, she bit her lip to keep her mouth tightly shut.

“Ms Chung, staying silent is not the best choice right now. The quicker you tell us what’s going on, the better for you, I assure you.” The way he spoke, direct and to the point without the casual teasing Dare had shown her, made her uneasy. The way he coolly watched her made the heat from moments before disappear, replaced by a bone deep chill. It was as if he knew things about her she didn’t—things he could then use to kill her.

She could
feel
Daren’s disapproval, but refused to look to him for aid. Were they divided on what to do with her? Or was this the ‘bad cop, good cop’ routine? The thought made her tighten her fingers together to stop from fidgeting. She couldn’t let these men get the upper hand with her, she could sense that, but what did she have?
Nothing
.

“Why? Who are you? You both seem to know a great deal about me, while I don’t know either of you?” she asked, trying her best to keep her voice steady and calm.

“I’m called Tazz. That’s all you need to know. Now, right now, you should be convincing me that you’re not carrying information to the North to help them with their nuclear weapons.”

Kylie was so startled she laughed then sat up straighter, looking from one to the other in confusion. They both truly believed she was doing something like that? How could they think such a thing?

Tazz watched her with an eerie, unblinking stare. She shook her head and broke eye contact. Dare was also watching her, but he didn’t look ready to do something seriously frightening to her. Maybe kiss her, which was just as frightening in its own way, but he didn’t appear to want to take her to a side room and…

Keep it together, Ky
.
They just have their facts wrong.

Her nervousness eased a notch. This she could discuss with them. “First of all, the North already has nuclear weapons. Secondly, I’m fairly certain they can handle using them all on their own. Third, if I were going to North Korea, wouldn’t I be, well, going north?”

Daren nodded slightly, but his partner frowned and pulled out a knife bigger than her forearm, hunched over his knees and used it to clean his nails.

Impressive, but she was already scared, so the show didn’t have the same amount of impact as it would have if he’d done that first off.

Daren snorted and said, “Not sure that’s the best tool for the job, bro. She has a point.”

Relieved that he wasn’t pulling a weapon, she nodded. “I’m not doing anything. I’m not even sure what you want from me.”

“And the man with a gun at your head? He knew you?” Daren asked, casually picking up Tazz’s drink and sipping it.

She refused to answer that one. She had no idea who that had been.

“No answer again. Let’s see, how about I tell you a little about him?” Tazz asked lazily. He didn’t wait for her to answer, but began ticking off points. “The guy was a known Palestinian terrorist. He works for some real nasty folks in Tel Aviv responsible for bombing the Herzliya restaurant back in two thousand and two. You remember that, don’t you? Little girl died. He’s also responsible for the missile attacks last year and possibly on the run, perhaps even in Korea.”

The blood drained from her face at Tazz’s words. He said it all in such a monotone, as if relaying the weather, that she was sickened. She didn’t know the man, didn’t know much at all about the violence along the Gaza Strip. But she did sympathize with such horrible events. She couldn’t imagine what a man like that would want from her father, let alone that he knew of her.

“I have no idea what he wanted. I don’t know him,” she began then swallowed and shook her head. “I’ve never met him, this man or the man he works for.”

“But you were in Israel not long ago.”

“I wasn’t in Israel to meet with Palestinian bombers!” she cried, standing to pace away from them.

“Tazz,” Dare muttered. “We’re not saying you were. But you can see where we’d like to know why this man is after you. What he wants, where your father is, all of this is important. To you and to us.”

She stared at Dare’s concerned face, feeling gratitude swell up to nearly overflowing. He did believe her. He didn’t think her some monster who knew men capable of destroying anyone that gets in their way.

“I don’t—”

“Don’t lie to us. Do you think that we won’t know?” Tazz demanded, his voice not rising, but the warning clear. “I know your father, and he knows me. Where is he, Kylie? No one can reach him. That’s odd isn’t it? That he’s gone off the reservation?” Tazz asked, pocketing his knife out of sight.

Kylie froze in the process of walking to the row of little round portholes. At Tazz’s words, ice settled against her spine.

Tazz
knew
her father.

Not only knew her dad, but he’d been one of the men on the program. Suddenly the distance between her and Tazz narrowed as she took stock of him with her new information. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His cheekbones were brushed darker in a flush. His neck too was darker and from where she sat, she could see the rapid beat of his pulse along his throat. He’d leaned forward so he could anchor his elbows on his knees, looking casual to someone who didn’t see the way he’d tightened his hands to fists. Or the way his eyes looked feverish, so intent on her face she knew he was focused solely on her.

Worse, he looked ready to break.

That quickly, her life hung on a very fragile thread. What she said now, what he asked, would decide if she lived or died. It was there, in the glint of steel in his eyes. He was doped, what her dad and the other researchers called the guinea pigs. Worse, she wasn’t sure if he was in control or if he’d reached the point of losing himself to the drug.

The only other time she’d been confronted with this, she’d had four guards holding down one man and drugs that could knock out a horse at her fingertips. She’d never wanted to experience that terror again, and now she was faced with another man very close to blowing. Her reasons for quitting the project were long, but this, the way the drug impacted men and women’s lives, was first and foremost. Her father, although she loved him and believed he only sought to use his work for good, had harmed the very people he had been trying to help.

Now she sought out a way to outsmart a man who could out-strategize the best of the best. She almost laughed. She didn’t have a chance. The vials of drugs she’d brought along weren’t as fast acting as the one she’d used on Dare, and even those were packed away in the bag she’d dropped next to the couch.

Life was full of tragedy. The most terrible part of hers ending today would be missing the chance to discover if Daren Scott truly meant her kisses were vital.

Chapter Five

If Dare hadn’t been watching Kylie to the exclusion of all else, he wouldn’t have spotted the fear that slid across her face at Tazz’s words. She blinked rapidly and frowned at him, then fixed her attention on Tazz with that look he’d seen before—the look like no matter what happened, he wouldn’t care if she lived or died. For some reason, what Tazz had said terrified her.

He glanced at his buddy. Tazz could hide a lot of things from people—hell, the man was a master at disguise when he wanted to be—but a pissed off Texan wasn’t easy to hide. Like the state, Tazz’s temper was big, and right now, that anger was fixed on Kylie.

Why? She’d said no more, but no less, than other people they’d interrogated. Why did her lack of answers piss Tazz off? Whatever had caused it, it was time for him to diffuse the situation before it blew.

“You didn’t know Tazz knew your dad, huh? I haven’t met him, but I’ve heard he’s one of the top scientists and works closely with several US departments.” Dare shifted in his seat, uncomfortably aware that he didn’t know nearly enough of what was going on. He should have been debriefed on more of this stuff. Tazz hadn’t mentioned he knew Ky’s father. Hell, Dare barely knew what her father did, let alone why she would be able to market his stuff or what that stuff was. He was beginning to think it was some kind of meds, or perhaps some kind of testing on soldiers. He’d heard rumors of such things, but he’d yet to hear any facts on it.

“Your father went missing two days ago. Since then, you’ve been very busy, haven’t you, Ms. Chung?” Tazz asked quietly.

“You can trust us, Kylie. We’re the good guys,” Dare added with a look at Tazz.

Tazz ignored him.

His attempt at stabilizing the situation was met with such a cold, hard stare from Kylie, he didn’t offer more. What did he know about trust? He barely knew what Tazz had gone through six years ago, and now he’d learned his buddy knew her father. And from the sound of it, Tazz knew much more. He’d known her father’s address. Dare would bet his left nut, Tazz had even been to that apartment before. Had he been to Hiroshima too?

“You were one of his subjects,” Kylie murmured after more silence.

Dare’s mouth would have fallen open if he’d not been clenching his jaw in frustration at so many unknowns. Suddenly, entire gaps of information came to light.

Subjects
. Shit, that did not sound good. She didn’t seem to think so either. Her beautiful forehead furrowed between her eyebrows, and her dark eyes shined with more fear than he liked seeing. Why fear though? Was she afraid of Tazz, what he was saying or something else entirely?

Tazz’s face was flushed darker now, but he nodded once, meeting her eyes quickly before going back to staring at the floor between his spread knees. He appeared relaxed, but the way he hid his face sent a knot of worry through Dare. What kinds of things had been done to Tazz? Why had he allowed it? Shit, who would allow scientists to work on them like a guinea pig?

A man who was dead to everyone he’d ever cared about. The thought settled in Daren’s head and increased his worry. Until two years ago, Tazz had been dead to even him—all the team—and to this day, he refused to acknowledge that he was the same man, still Robert McNeil and not this agent, William Klarke. Now his distance, the way he refused to go see his sister, made more sense. Kylie’s fear, the way she watched Tazz like he might at any moment lose it, all pointed to a man who might not have as much control as he appeared.

Had Tazz kept himself away to protect everyone?

It made a sick kind of sense, Dare thought, watching Tazz’s shoulders tense. He remained slumped over his knees, though while he asked, “Where is your old man, Kylie?”

“I haven’t seen my father in months.”

“But you know of his project with genetics.” Another statement from Tazz, not a question, but Kylie nodded mutely even though Tazz hadn’t looked up. “You know what those drugs have done, and the super soldiers they’re capable of creating.”

Shit. The breath left Dare on a heavy exhale. Super soldiers. And Tazz’s body was pumped full of something that had changed his genes?

Kylie didn’t nod this time, but she clenched her hands together, her large eyes fixed on Tazz like he was a rabid dog.

“And you were one of the science teams working on the project.”

Kylie tightened her hands in front of her until her knuckles shined white and his unease skyrocketed.

Was Tazz a danger to her? To them?
If so, could he even stop the man?

Tazz glanced up and the intensity of his look sent Dare into the fight or flight state. He’d fought too close to his friend not to know when Tazz was close to violence. But hell, violence directed at Ky? Tazz would break her in half with one arm.

He made to stand, but at a glance from Tazz, stopped.

“I’m not going to hurt her,” he said calmly. His light blue eyes spoke a different story.

“I suggest you don’t, man. You will not like the shit you bring down on yourself if you do,” Dare said. “Genetically modified or not, I will take you down.”

“Yeah, I imagine you would.” Tazz sat back, crossed his ankles and folded his arms over his chest. If he was attempting to calm the situation down, he might have managed better if he’d not scowled over at Kylie. “And that’s what you are providing to his kidnappers.”

Dare’s breath left him. She was being
blackmailed
. Hell, he was being tossed information so quickly he could barely keep up. If that were the case, if her dad had been taken for ransom, it might also explain the Palestinian. When information on something this big got out, it went viral. If her father was messing with genetically modified super soldiers, and word spread, there wouldn’t be many places he could hide that money couldn’t uncover.