Rescue Me (32 page)

“Don't pull the jealousy card.”

He glared at her and hoped it conveyed the
rage bubbling just below the surface. “Trust me. I'm nowhere close
to being jealous, sweetheart. I'm pissed off. Now answer my
question.”

She rolled her eyes. “He called me the day of
the Green search and helped me complete my IQS. It's how I knew
where to send your agents.”

“He helped you,” Spencer chuckled and doubled
up his fists. Lifting his gaze to the ceiling, searching for a way
to contain his temper that he knew he wouldn't find, he shook his
head and finally pinned her with another glare. “No, Kathryn. He
played
you.”

Shock and disbelief slackened the expression
on her face. “No. He
helped
me.”

Even as she said it, doubt swirled in her
eyes. Salazar wouldn't even help his own mother cross the street
and they both knew it.

“Think about it.” Spencer did another sweep
of the room just in case he missed anything the first time. “He
gave you his number, knowing you'd give it to me to trace. He
called you—not from the same number, by the way—knowing you'd again
give it to me to trace.”

“You sure think a lot of yourself.”

He looked at her. “Tell me I'm wrong.”

She refused to say anything and instead
thrust out her chin as her answer. Same stubborn woman. He clenched
his teeth and went back to sweeping the room.

“Fine,” she finally admitted. “If he played
me, then why did he help me find his friend?”

“You heard Green's confession over the radio.
They turned on each other. It happens all the time. Since Salazar
couldn't find him, he called on the one person he knew would help
him.” He looked at her again, waiting for her to put it
together.

She dropped her gaze. “Oh, God. I played
right into it. Here I thought I had him fooled into thinking I
actually liked him. I feel like a complete idiot.”

“Believe it or not, Sam Green wasn't the guy
we originally thought. He told TREX Salazar's plan. Because Martin
Miller wouldn't give in to Salazar's threats, the bastard took
Tommy to force Miller into joining his side.”

“But Green said Salazar planned to kill
Tommy. Why, if he needed him to get Martin Miller to do what he
wanted?”

“My guess was to make sure Miller never
stepped out of line. Tommy isn't his only grandson. Killing one
ensured Miller would do what he wanted or he'd lose another.”

Kathryn put a hand to her mouth yet again.
“Sweet Jesus.”

“That's not all.” Spencer grabbed the remote
then cranked the volume on the TV.

The anchorwoman stared into the camera. “What
concerns police is the note literally pinned to the front of the
victim promising another death.”

The camera jumped to the spokesmen for the
Seattle Police Department. “Early this morning we discovered a body
on Alki Beach.” Flashes of light caused the officer to squint as
the press took still shots for their newspaper. “We found a note
pinned to the body. We don't usually make this sort of information
public, but we don't know what it means and according to the note,
we don't have much time.”

The man put his glasses on and held up a
piece of paper. “
This is meant for the one who found me:
The
Order
knows who you are and will find you.
” The man removed
his glasses and looked back out to the crowd. “All of the witnesses
who discovered him this morning have been placed in protective
custody.”

“They're wasting their time. They didn't find
him.” He turned to Kathryn as his gut clenched. “You did.”

Kathryn fell onto her couch. “This can't be
happening.” He closed the distance between them, stopping in front
of her and grasping her hands. She tried to jerk away but he
tightened his grip. She relaxed and even curled her finger around
his. “Oh, Spencer. What did we get ourselves into?”

He squeezed her hands, holding them tight as
she trembled in his grasp. He'd give anything to comfort her, to
show her that he'd never let anything happen to her. But, he knew
if he tried, she'd only push him away. “I don't know, baby. But
we'll get through it. Okay?”

A lovely shade of crimson glowed in her
cheeks like a fever. She swallowed her stubbornness and nodded.
“What the hell did this guy confess that would put a death threat
literally pinned to his body?” Kathryn met his eyes.

He wished he had a clue. Spencer buried his
uncertainty deep. She didn't need to see that in him. No she only
needed his strength right now and nothing else. “He mentioned a
double agent in
the Order
. Someone playing both sides.”

She nodded. “That actually makes sense. I had
some notes on the Miller search as well as the Green search and was
trying to connect the dots when the papers disappeared.”

“Disappeared?” His spine grew stiff, the
ominous feeling of imminent danger taking hold of his very fiber.
He knew better than to ignore it.

She nodded and closed her eyes, resting her
head on the back of the couch. “That was the only thing taken, I
think.”

Ah, Jesus.
He sat down next to her.
She tried to get up, but he pushed her back down. “That's why you
were in front of my house. Something happened here. Tell me.”

“My neighbor came to my door and told me
about some guy in my apartment when I wasn't here. When I turned
around, papers that should have been sitting right on my coffee
table were gone. That's all.”

That sure as hell wasn't all. Spencer pulled
Kathryn to her feet. “I'm getting you out of here. Now.”

She jerked her arm away as fury flashed in
those icy blue eyes. “I'm not going anywhere. I'm fine. Right.
Here.” Her finger on his chest emphasized each word.

He pointed toward her room. “Grab only what
you need. We leave in two minutes.”

“Quit ordering me around. I'm not going
anywhere with you.”

He did his best attempt at softening his
voice. It came out dangerously low all the same. “Leave under your
own power or I throw you over my shoulder and we leave that way.
Your choice.”

“Fine,” she said after thrusting out her
chin. “But I drive myself.”

“Fine.” He didn't want her to drive, but if
he at least got her out of the apartment, he could discuss the
logistics once they were outside. “Just hurry up.”

Kat didn't even notice what she shoved inside
her bag. Spencer ordered her around like a child. She wanted to
defy him in the worst way, but there were sometimes a person just
didn't go against him. This was the ultimate of one of those times.
He looked ready to punch a hole through concrete.

“Hurry up,” Spencer ordered. He paced back
and forth outside her door like some a guard keeping watch. She
threw something else in her bag and jerked the zipper closed. He
glanced over his shoulder at the sound, grabbed the bag when she
left it on the bed, and muttered something under his breath and
followed her out.

“Where are we going?”

He shook his head and pointed at the
door.

Kat frowned. “What?”

He touched his lips and then pointed around
the room.

Oh, shit.
Was her place bugged? The
thought of someone listening in on anything she said bothered the
hell out of her. She passed him through her apartment door. He shot
his arm out and stopped her. His hand brushed across her breast and
he didn't bother moving it.

“Jerk,” she muttered and shifted aside.

He glared at her. “If I wanted to touch you,”
he retorted, not an ounce of kindness in his voice. “I'd do it in
an entirely different manner.” He pulled her down the stairs that
led to the parking lot. “So give the bitch act a rest.”

She chewed on the inside of her lip, but
didn't say another word. Halfway down the stairs, Kat pushed her
remote to unlock her doors as emphasis that she planned to drive
herself.

There was a slight beep, then another beep.
Looking at her remote, she held it out and pushed it again as
Spencer yelled, “No!”

He hooked an arm around her waist just as a
powerful explosion blew them back against the stairs. She landed
and the breath whooshed from her lungs. Spencer tucked her head
against him and wrapped his arms around her, but she still slammed
the back of her head against the cement stairs behind her.

Car alarms shrieked into the silence of the
night as parts of her Xterra and the cover she parked under rained
down on them. What remained on the ground was now a ball of angry
flames so intense the heat seared her cheeks.

She screamed and curled into Spencer as
another explosion sent whatever was left of her beloved SUV up in
the air.

Spencer covered her with his body, sheltering
her completely. “Are you okay?”

No, she wasn't okay. Someone had just tried
to kill her by blowing up her vehicle. Screw her anger, her pain.
Right now her fear won out. She trembled and held onto him for dear
life. “Spence?”

“I'm here, baby.” He held her tight and, for
the first time since she found out the truth a week ago, she'd
never wanted his arms around her more than she did at that very
moment.

“Someone blew up my Xterra,” she cried
against him. The fear racing through her had cleared her mind
enough for her to see what had Spencer so intent on staying by her
side. “S-someone is trying to k-kill me.”

“Now do you believe me?” He grabbed her hand,
jerking them both to their feet. “Come on.”

“But my baby,” she protested and turned back
to see it completely engulfed in flames. Tears filled her eyes, but
her mourning quickly turned to concern when she saw the flames had
set what was left of the cover over the assigned parking on fire.
“Oh no.”

He lead her over to his car. “Get in.” She
did and sank down when Spencer pushed on her head. As he spun the
car around and sped out of the parking lot, she brought a hand up
to her mouth and bit down on her finger to stop herself from
hyperventilating.

Oh God.
OhGodOhGodOhGod.
Someone had
meant for her to be in her Xterra when that bomb detonated. She
gulped hard, the realization she could have died had Spencer not
insisted they leave together, too much for her to comprehend. Fear
choked her. Hot, consuming tears of panic rolled down her cheeks,
burning her skin.

Burying her face against the car seat, she
curled into a ball on the floor and did her best at attempting to
regulate her breathing before she fainted. Maybe she should just
let her panic attack take over. Passing out sounded pretty good
about now. Then she would have to think about this or anything
else.

Several minutes went by before he drove at a
less erratic pace. “I think it's safe for you to come up now.” He
watched all of his mirrors while he spoke.

Slowly, Kat climbed into the seat, then put
on her seat belt. Her lower lip quivered. This was all too much.
Why would anyone want her dead? What did she do wrong?

He rubbed her neck. God, it felt good. Too
good. She wanted to lose herself in his touch, if only for a
minute. “I'm scared.”

“Don't be. I'm right here.”

She closed her eyes and wasn't too proud to
demand, “Don't you dare leave me.”

“Never.” He kept his hand resting on her
neck. “I'm going to drive around for a while. Once I'm sure we
weren't followed, I'll take you home.”

Kat shuddered and sank back down in her seat.
“I don't want to go back there.”

“I meant my house.”

She wanted to erase this past week. The
discovery of the truth behind the Haynes search. Knowing Spencer
had a hand in the death of Emery Haynes. Having Damon Salazar
playing her and her not even seeing it. It exhausted her beyond
belief. And now she was on the run from God-only-knew. What else
could go wrong?

“There's something you should know.” Spencer
spoke in a cautious tone. She squeezed her eyes tighter. “TREX
intercepted an email threat to you a few weeks back.”

Kat slumped in her seat. She was beyond
caring at this point. “Let me guess. Someone wants me dead.”

“Yes.”

Rolling her head, she opened her eyes to
slits and looked at him. “And you knew?”

He nodded.

Knowing Spencer knew and didn't tell her just
added salt to her already gaping wound. She couldn't trust the man.
He must think she was really some sort of pathetically fragile
flower for him to try and hide so much from her, all in the name of
protection. What a fool she'd been to think he wanted to be by her
side because he cared. No, he was simply acting as a TREX agent by
treating her like a job.

“I don't think whoever did this will follow
us home.”

Enough. Kat gritted her teeth and turned her
eyes to the window, away from him. “Don't call it that.”

“What?”

“It isn't my home, Spencer. It's yours.”

“I don't give a shit what you want to call
it. I'm taking you home.”

She'd irritated him yet again, and if she
didn't stop pushing him, he'd pass over the threshold into
downright pissed off. Tough shit. “I'd feel better if you dropped
me somewhere else.”

“Jesus Christ. You have to trust me here.
Someone just tried to kill you. Will you please act rational for
one fucking second and let me help you?”

She turned to him. He looked on the verge of
crossing that threshold. His eyes were lethal and his jaw so taut
she could bounce a quarter off it. “Do you want me to make a list
of all the reasons why I shouldn't trust you?”

“I'm not going to drop you anywhere. This
isn't about us. This is about keeping you safe. We can discuss our
relationship later.”

“Now isn't that so you?” she countered
viciously, her hurt surfacing once more. “Always finding a way to
not talk about it. You promised me we'd talk about it, but then you
were called away on a find.”