Out Of The Night (4 page)

CHAPTER SIX

Tony peered out the front window
and tried to figure out what to do. With no memory and very few resources, he had to be cautious. “Those officers were here earlier. Let’s wait them out.” They had little choice at this point.

“How?”
Abby asked.

He turned and looked at her. “They’ll eventually get off duty. The minute the car leaves, we do the same.”

“This guy wearing a fedora stopped me and asked a bunch of questions.”

“Questions?”

“Yes. They’re looking for us. And a witness said he’d seen a man and a woman on this block.”

Tony rubbed his chin. “That changes everything.”

The ringing cell phone made him jump.

“Yes?”
Abby answered in Russian. Then she collapsed on the couch. “Tony thinks the two policemen prowling the neighborhood might have made us, especially with the patrol vehicle parked outside the house. There were some SVR guys around the block as well.” She glanced at Tony then handed him the phone.

“Yes?”

“This is Frank, how are you?”

“Except for the fact I don’t know who the hell you are, I guess I’m fine.”

“When you remember, you might wish you’d watched your tone.”

Tony didn’t think that was likely. He was pretty confident he could take down whoever the guy was on the phone.
“I don’t believe my tone is the worst of our problems. Do you?”

“No, it’s not.”

“We’re leaving for St. Petersburg tonight. The last express train leaves Leningradsky station at six-thirty. We’ll be on it.” Tony blinked and shook his head. How did he know that?

“Tony, do you want to release the girl?”

He looked across the barren room to Abby. Her blue eyes pulled at his mind and messed with his body. She looked frightened, but she also gave him the impression she wasn’t a quitter. For some unknown reason, he didn’t want to let her go. “I like having her around.”

“She’s agreed to help
, but she’s a reporter, not an agent. Anything happens to her, you deal with the fall out. I don’t believe in involving civilians, but I understand this case is different.”

“You know my assignment?”

A long pause had Tony ready to toss the phone across the room.

“I do.”

“What is it?”

“I won’t say. For you to pull this off you have to be completely in control of your thoughts, your actions, and your past. Only lessons learned during years of training will make this mission a success.”

“You could just tell me, damn it.”

“I won’t risk you going off and doing something stupid. You’re too valuable and good at what you do for me to let that happen.”

“You’re not a hell of a lot of help.”

“I’ll be here when you need something. Just keep me posted.”

The phone disconnected and he didn’t know what to think. He walked over to Abby and shoved her against the wall. “Is my name really Tony Archuletta?”

Her eyes grew big and her forehead wrinkled. “Yes.”

“And you’re Abby?”

“Yes, I swear.”

“Where am I from?”

“You were born in Arlington, Virginia. Your father was in charge of the Secret Service until he retired.”

“My mother?”

“A school teacher. But she died when you were young from breast cancer.”

“Siblings?”

She shook her head.

“Why should I believe you?”

She
tried to push him away. “I don’t care if you believe me or not. I just want to get this over with, so I can get back to my job.”

Hands against the wall, Tony didn’t budge. Instead
, he held her captive in his loose embrace. He lowered his mouth and gently kissed her lips. He’d been hypnotized by her beautiful mouth from the moment he saw her in that hellhole. Her upper lip curved into a perfect bow while the lower was full and moist. Her smile raised his libido and made him hotter than a bull in a pasture full of heifers.

The air
grew thick, and the world fell away except for them. Only touching her mouth, he leaned a little closer, but he didn’t want to crowd her, letting it be known she could break the kiss at anytime.

He brushed her
lips with his in a lingering exploration. Then he kissed her and when her mouth opened in surprise, he slipped inside. His heart rate galloped and his body snapped to attention. Without any warning, he grew hot, hard, and ready.

She never touched him with her hands, but the kiss she returned had the power of a mighty blow. He tried to force his body to relax. This wasn’t his first time with a beautiful woman, not by any means. Somehow this whole scenario rubbed his memory
, and wild, untamed sex consumed him body and mind.

Tony broke the kiss and dropped his hands. He looked at her face, her eyelashes spread against her pale skin. Then her lashes fluttered up,
and those sexy blue eyes sent a shock wave through his chest that physically hurt.

“Abby,” he whispered
, his finger tracing her lips. “If only we had the time to…”

Two men crashed through the door. Both were armed, but Tony swiftly reached down into the chair cushion, grabbed his gun and fired off two rounds. Both men were hit
dead center in their foreheads. They were the policemen who’d watched them from across the street.

Tony looked at the weapon then at Abby.

She smirked. “Told you.”

Sirens sounded in the distance. Tony took her by the arm and ran for the door. Outside
, three cars pulled up with armed men inside.

“We’re trapped.”

He shoved her toward the back of the house. “Crawl out the window.” When she hesitated, he took her by the shoulders and turned her around. “Go.”

Grabbing her purse, she headed for the bathroom.

Heart pounding, Tony quickly undressed one of the policemen and donned his uniform. After stuffing the body behind the couch, he held up his hands and walked outside.

“It’s a false alarm. These two are not the ones we’re after.”

A balding officer stepped closer. Tony pulled the rim of his cap down.

“Where did they go?”

“I had Yegor take them to Lubyanka as ordered, but neither of us believes they are the Americans.”

“How could Yegor take them anywhere when your car is parked at the curb?”

“Another patrol came and he took that vehicle. I stayed here to continue the search.”

“Who called and asked for more officers because they had found the people we are looking for?”

Tony looked down at the gravel sidewalk. “I did, sir.”

“And why have you changed your mind?”

“When we came to this house, only the husband was home. Then we waited and watched because Yegor said the man was freshly shaved.”

“Yes.”

“Before the wife came home, I made the call. When she arrived, I recognized her. It was Bepa Chirkoff. She used to live in my old neighborhood.”

The officer’s mouth drooped. Probably not too happy to go back to his commander and report they hadn’t apprehended the Americans. “You
’ve wasted my time. Report back to your station.”

Tony clicked his heels together and nodded briskly. “Yes, sir.”

As the emergency vehicles drove away, Tony waited before going around to the back of the house to find Abby huddled there waiting.

“They gone?”

“Yeah, but we need to move out of the area.” They both crawled into the house where he put his civilian clothes on. Taking her by the arm, he steered her away from the dead policemen’s bodies.

“Is it safe to take the car?”

“We might not make it to Leningradsky train station, but we have to try.” He checked the watch that had been in the suitcase. “Thirty minutes. We have to hurry. There’s nothing else until morning. We can’t hang around Moscow that long.”

She pulled her hair back and secured it with a band
from her purse. “I’m ready when you are.”

He opened the door, checked their surroundings quickly then moved briskly to the car. Without pause, they jumped in and headed for the train station. Tony planned to leave their transportation there. They’d have no further use for it.

“I think they’re going to extremes to find you. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe I have some information they want.”

“If you were that important, why did they have you locked up with the general public?”

He shrugged. “It’s possible that’s the only place they had to hide me.”

“From what? Who?”

“I don’t know. It’s all a blank page.” He sounded gruffer than he meant
to, but the whole situation had him questioning every thought that traveled through his mind. To not be able to recall a single thing about his past left him hollow and unsure.

He looked across at her. “Why
do I only recognize you?”

She turned and looked at him. “Maybe because we spent time together.”

“I don’t know the names of the men in the cell with me.”

Her gaze sharpened. “But you did Boris?”

“Only since yesterday.” He swerved to avoid hitting a pedestrian illegally crossing the street. “If you say I’ve been there two weeks, then a lot happened I can’t remember.”

“You’re covered in bruises. Do you know when they were beating or torturing you?”

He tightened his mouth and tried to force his mind to come up with an answer, but couldn’t. Frustration churned in his gut. “No, I don’t. I hurt like hell, but I don’t know who did it or why.”

“Do you think Mac might be able to shed some light on
the situation?”

“I’m not sure I trust Mac.”

“But you trust me?”

He looked at her
and grinned. “Not really, but you’re so damn pretty I don’t care.”

She crossed her arms and blew out a pent up breath. “Thank you.”

“Something had to go wrong for me to be captured if what you say about me being an American is true. My guess is someone turned on me.”

She huffed out her chest. “I saved you.”

“Well, you got me out of there. But, again, that could be part of the plan.”

“It was. Frank asked me to go in and get you before they killed you or you talked.”
She cocked her head and looked into his eyes. “Remember, I’ve been on tough assignments before.”

“If it hadn’t been so easy, would you have killed me?”

“No.” She looked out the passenger side of the window. “I told you, I’m a reporter, not an assassin.”

“That’s another big blank.” He pointed at her. “Who would take that kind of chance with a reporter?”

“I think it’s called a last ditch effort.”

“Really?”

“Yes, damn it.” She closed her eyes. “For all I care, you could rot in that jail.”

He chuckled. “I don’t know how you pulled off the escape because you’re the worst liar I’ve ever met.”

“Oh, yeah,” she hissed. “I managed to break you out, didn’t I?”

“I’m still trying to come up with how you figure in the scheme of all this.”
He hit the brakes when he saw flashing lights up ahead. “A roadblock.”

Abby put her hands on the dashboard. “Oh crap, what do we do now? Do you think they’re looking for us?”

“That’s my guess.” Tony put the car in reverse and turned in the opposite direction. Maintaining the legal speed limit, he tried another way, but police vehicles blocked that avenue as well. Stopping the car on the side of the road, he worked to come up with another plan.

“How do you know how to get to the train station?” she asked.

“What?”

“How do you know how to get to the train station by using two different directions? How do you know the schedule of the train?”

He shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

“We’re on our way out of the city
, and somehow you’re so familiar with this area you can maneuver the car without even asking where we are. Also, you said back at the safe house we had to get the last scheduled train out tonight.”

He looked around. “We’re in the middle of a very bad situation and you’re asking questions?”

“Yes, I am. I’ve been meaning to ask you since you mentioned St. Petersburg.” She turned toward him. “You don’t even know your name, but you know where you are, how to get to where you want to go, and you’ve memorized a train schedule?”

He shuddered “I don’t know. It just came to me.”

“So, this is all familiar to you?”

He shook his head.

“You’re lost?”

“No, I mean this isn’t familiar enough that I could tell you what’s around the corner, but I’ve been here before, and I’ve caught that train.”

“So, it’s buried in your memory?”