Courting Passion (8 page)

“No other lights are around. I think that makes six. There’s no condensation on the windshield or windows. It wasn’t left there overnight.”

“Still manageable,” she reflected as they came to the front door.

Katherine reached out and pulled it open for Garth. She stepped to the side to let him enter first since he wanted to be on point. As he strode forward, confidence radiated from his body language. Nothing hinted he should not be where he stood. Katherine followed, with a quick check of their rear, making sure they were clear and not being followed.

Garth’s head turned, surveying the large, open-plan reception area, greeting foyer and generalised waiting room. No posters or advertisements reflected the work performed here. Roughly painted bare walls were stark relief to the dark plastic tables. A few computer desktops were scattered around to create mini-terminals.

As they passed the receptionist’s desk, Garth leaned over and dropped his empty coffee cup in the waste basket under her bench. Katherine noticed he used the change in his posture to continue his recon of the room. She mimicked his motion, also tossing her cup into the bin but using the act of leaning over the desk to make sure no one followed behind them.

More ambushes happened in the first few silent moments of an attack than at almost any other time, she had learned. She needed to make sure they weren’t cut off from escape or blindsided by their enemies sneaking up them.

As they walked farther into the front room they could see two workers chatting in hushed tones, steaming mugs cradled in both their hands. The two women looked up as they heard Garth and Katherine enter. They relaxed. The blonde remained silent but the other, a brunette, stood.

“Can I help you? I’m afraid no one is really here just now. People won’t start arriving until half past seven. Our office hours don’t begin until eight.”

Katherine smiled, in what she hoped was a reassuring manner, but remained silent, letting Garth take the lead. He dug a hand into his pocket and removed his laminated ID.

“I’m Garth Spenser, this is my partner. We’re following a routine lead and discovered someone on the premises who is working at a terminal about now. Would you be able to show us to that person please?”

The women exchanged puzzled glances. Katherine’s intuition hummed. They were on to something here. She could feel it in her gut.

“James and Robert are out back. They always arrive early to check the servers before the rest of the staff come in each morning. But our systems are quite strictly audited. I don’t understand what possible trouble they could—”

“The company is not in trouble,” Garth said quickly. “If you could take us to them please? We should be able to sort this out easily.”

Neither woman looked convinced, but they left their mugs and indicated for Garth and Katherine to follow them down a small hallway towards a back room. The blonde pushed open a door along the corridor and entered, the brunette standing back to allow Garth and Katherine to enter first.

“James? Bobby?” the blonde called out through the large room. Many desktop terminals were lined up neatly in a row, the large flat screen monitors offering some privacy between cubicles, hiding people from view. The blonde halted mid-stride, seemingly taken by surprise.

Katherine’s instincts screamed at her. Reacting unconsciously, she pulled her gun from its holster but kept it aimed at the floor so as to not appear too threatening.

“Oh! Hi, Connor,” the blonde stammered. “I didn’t know you were in so early.”

A man peered out around the computer terminal. He had a shaggy blond mop of hair that looked unwashed and ratty. Young enough to pass for a college student, he didn’t have the polished, professional edge most adults gained in the first few years of work. Connor took one glance at Garth, a second at Katherine and dived back behind the safety of his screen.

“Stop!” Garth commanded as he reached for his gun. Katherine pushed the blonde safely behind her and moved a few paces to the side to get a better view around the desk.

“Freeze! We don’t want any trouble here,” Katherine insisted in a loud voice.

“What the hell?” came a surprised shout from a different corner of the room. Two men stood up from terminals towards the rear of the room. They gaped at Garth and Katherine, then pulled weapons. Katherine glanced back at the door. The brunette had already left and the blonde—crouching and covering her head—was scurrying out of the room, shrieking.

“You can’t stop us! It’s our right to have these websites up for public access. We’re doing the world a favour revealing the mysteries of the conspiracy within the House of Lords! No longer will they be able to pull the strings of our government!” One of the men shouted as he waved his gun about.

Katherine frowned and Garth scowled at them.

“I couldn’t give a bloody rat’s arse about your websites,” he insisted.

Katherine moved around the desks, wanting to make it to Connor’s cubicle. The blond shoved a pad of paper and memory stick into his satchel and all but ripped the USB connection of a small, black box from his terminal. She recognised the box as the portable hard drive. About the size of a video cassette it was unremarkable, except for the invaluable data stored within it.

“Garth, he has the hard drive,” she called out and lunged towards Connor. He waved a gun he pulled from the satchel, his hand shaking so badly Katherine could barely believe he held on to the weapon. She reached out her free hand palm up to stop him.

“Just give us the hard drive, this isn’t a joke. I promise it’s far more serious than Jennings informed you of,” she tried to calm him.

“Go, Connor!” his friends shouted as they fired their weapons randomly around the room. “We’ve got you covered man. Go, go, go!”

Connor ducked down and sprinted towards his friends. Katherine and Garth both cursed. Garth hunched down low and ran after Connor.

“We protect our own!” the hooligans shouted, firing wildly. They didn’t seem to have any real understanding of how to use their weapons or the seriousness of what they were doing.

“Cover me,” Garth snapped as he crouched, his gun raised and steady in his hand.

Katherine opened her mouth but didn’t get a chance to caution her partner before he’d set off after Connor at a low run.

Honestly. Men!

She reached out a hand to shift a flat screen computer monitor to give her more cover. Sighting the men, she took careful aim, ignoring the banging of bullets around her. The only way those two would hit something would be by fluke.

Calming her breath, she judged her shot and winged the shoulder of one. He screamed. A spurt of blood blossomed through his shirt.

“I’m shot! I’ve been shot!” he screamed. His friend emptied his clip randomly around the room as Connor pushed past the men. Garth had closed in on the skinny blond, but he suddenly jerked back and lurched to his knees.

Scared, her instincts roaring, Katherine used the distraction of the wailing, shot man to circle the room, sneak behind the other stranger and cold-cock him with the butt of her gun. He sank to the ground unconscious. Oblivious, his friend continued crying and ranting, waving his arms about as he shouted for the secretaries to come in and assist him.

Connor had ducked out of the back door. Katherine saw him sprinting down the narrow hallway, his satchel bumping against his thigh and slowing him down as he tried to squeeze off a few shots, run and keep his balance all at the same time. Katherine threw a quick glance over her shoulder to Garth.

With one man unconscious and the other shrieking like a girl and trying to fire his now-empty gun, Katherine wondered what was keeping her partner. If they didn’t move they would lose Connor and the hard drive.

“Garth, we need to—what?”

Her partner pulled himself upright with an obvious effort. Sweat beaded over his forehead and his usually olive tone looked grey. Wild-eyed she raced back to lodge her shoulder under his arm and help him get to his feet.

“What happened? Garth… Holy shit he got you. Here, sit down.”

“Don’t be stupid, it’s barely a twinge. Go after Connor, Hitchens. Like you said, he has the hard drive.

When she hesitated, he added, “Don’t worry about me, woman.”

Katherine felt divided for a second.

“You fool,” she replied with no heat. “I’ve lost one partner already, not twenty-four hours ago. Just think of the reputation I’d get if I ran off and left you here. Let me look at this.”

“Don’t be an idiot, we need—”

She cut him off with a dismissive wave of her hand. Her features were grimly set. He didn’t think he’d be able to change whatever she’d decided.

“We found him once, Garth, we’ll find him again. Now stop bitching like a little girl and let me see your side.”

Garth strained his head around her, but, as she could have told him, Connor was long gone. She lifted the damp cotton of his shirt and sucked in a breath as she caught sight of his ‘little twinge’.

The bullet had penetrated the flesh of his side, just under his ribcage. His back remained smooth and perfect but viscous blood was clotting at the edge of the wound, turning black in the air. If they didn’t get it seen to straight away the risk of infection was serious.

“Go after Connor, I’ll be fine,” she muttered. “You’re either demented or deluded. You need a doctor, Spenser. That bullet will need extracting, it’s lodged somewhere deeply inside you. I bet you ten pounds you’ll need stitches to close that wound. You’re lucky that was a blind shot. Much lower and he might have penetrated your stomach, liver or kidneys.”

While she felt certain an artery hadn’t been nicked, there could be any number of internal organs clipped or damaged. She pressed down on the wound with care, trying to gauge how badly injured his muscles might be, and also whether anything internal had been hurt. She felt unwell at the thought. Katherine knew she’d have to move him, take him to a professional regardless of the pain it could cause. No way did she want to overlook anything by administering only the basic first aid she could give here and now. If she missed something the consequences could genuinely be lethal for her lover—and that was a risk she couldn’t live with.

Garth sucked in a painful breath, his face strained and losing colour as she continued to put pressure on the wound. He didn’t squirm or cry out, however. Katherine knew enough about field dressing wounds and basic gunshot care that if something had been seriously punctured he’d have screamed from the pain, not merely given her a death-stare.

That didn’t change her opinion. He still needed to see a doctor.

Garth grunted in pain as she helped him stand up. The young man she’d clipped had rushed to the main office and was insisting the two secretaries call the police and an ambulance for him.

“You’re citizens,” he shouted at either or both of them. “Arrest that bitch!”

“Us? You’re the one who wants her thrown into a cell. You’re a citizen, too. If you’re so worked up over this you do it. We didn’t see her do a thing.”

“I told you that stupid conspiracy website you tinker with out of hours would get you in trouble,” the other woman chided him. “If you had half a brain you’d have listened to us months ago when we suggested you tone it back a bit…”

“I think we’d be wise to go out the back way,” Katherine suggested. “Maybe Connor left a clue. We’d best see if we can spot anything on the way back to the car.”

“Chicken,” Garth chuckled. “I’d love to see them try to arrest you.”

“’Try’ being the operative word,” she agreed as they moved down the corridor. “The day a scrawny kid like that can drag me into the local precinct is the day I start crocheting and give myself up for dead.”

With remarkable speed, considering the severity of Garth’s wound, they exited the building and made their way out of the business park by weaving around and between other buildings. As they came on to the street the sound of approaching sirens grew louder.

“You really shouldn’t have let him go,” Garth scolded as she unlocked the passenger side of her car and held the door open for him. He sucked in a harsh breath, then scowled darkly as he sat. His hand pressed his shirt over the wound. Blood seeped from it, despite the pressure he applied.

Katherine swore softly as she mentally ran through her list of contacts. From this side of the city it would still be a ten-minute drive to the nearest private doctor she could think of. She slammed her door shut, started the car and pulled out on to the street before she’d even clicked her seatbelt on.

“You’re important to me, you great lug, so shut up about what I should have done. If you think this partnership is going to be something where you tell me to jump and I hear and obey then you can just kiss my arse.”

“I don’t just plan to kiss it,” Garth replied with a hiss of pain as she turned a corner. He continued speaking, as if pain wasn’t etched into his face. “I have plans for you and that delightful arse of yours. Plans a little projectile of metal won’t dissuade me from.”

“I’m sure Dr Hillon will just love that attitude,” Katherine said with a laugh. Garth turned grey when she made another quick turn and appeared too busy trying to keep his sausage and egg roll in his stomach to reply.

“Damn it, I just knew you were trouble the moment I laid eyes on you,” she swore, more to herself than Garth. “You haven’t disappointed, Spenser. You’re trouble all right. Sexy, wicked, bloody addictive trouble, but a heartache just waiting to occur nevertheless. I’m such a sucker to have got involved with you. You radiate sensual danger. I can’t believe I’m in so deep with you.”

“How deep, Hitchens?” Garth said through gritted teeth.

Katherine sent him a swift glance, trying to gauge how much she should—and shouldn’t—say. He met her gaze, his eyes dark as night. Despite the intensity of how he watched her, small lines of strain were etched around the corners of his eyes. She could almost feel his pain herself.

She knew it would cost her, but she could no longer remain silent.

“I meant what I said back there, I can’t cope with the thought I might lose you, Garth. We’re equals, you’re my partner. Not just in work, in everything. I want to see where this thing between us leads. I want to be with you.”