The Risqué Target (27 page)

Son
? Tantum hadn't been anyone's son since his mother died.

Garret's stern face softened, falsely representing a warmer man, a caring father, certainly not the man who raised him. Tantum was uncomfortable. The child in him longed for a father, but the man had chosen to move on. He searched his memory box and dug up the past, reminding himself of the kind of father he really was. Unreliable. A cheat and a liar who encumbered his family with let-downs.

Tantum glanced around the room, the thought of Nala springing back into his mind. The laptop had been opened on the end table, not the way he'd left it, and his own fear and weakness tapped up his spine. He glanced at his father, “Where is she?”

“Nala?” He smiled.

Tantum walked over to the table and hit a key. The screensaver turned from the dancing logo to his email. He paged down through the messages, his body numbing as he realized what she'd read. “Yeah. Nala.” He flicked a look over his shoulder, unable to contain his concern. Unwilling to hide his rage, he raised his voice. “Where is she?”

“Son, she told me she’s a NESA agent,” his father said.

Tantum shook his head. “Oh God, tell me she's still here, Garret.”

“She just went home for a few things. I let her take the limo.” He must have seen the fury bursting from every nerve in Tantum's body, because he rushed over. “Do you want me to call the driver and get her back here? Son, what is it? Who is she?” He paused and then shoved another nervous hand through his hair. “Don't tell me I let another criminal go.”

“She's not a criminal,” Tantum said tersely, defending Nala. “But she's in danger. Call your driver and find out where she is.” The strength it took to keep his cool was rapidly depleting.
If anything happens to her….

Observing his father's expression during the phone call, he determined by his pale face and grim responses that he wasn’t going to tell him what he wanted to hear. Nala was no longer in the limo.

Garret flipped the phone shut. At a snail's pace, slow and sluggish, he finally met his son’s keen and worried glare. His shoulders wilted, the powerful man now gone, and Tantum almost felt sorry for his father, for what he had become. But the worst of it, even in his feeble condition, was that his father had again let him down. Not purposely, but he'd done it just the same. He had put the only person Tantum cared about in danger. “He dropped her off ten minutes ago,” he reported, regret thick in his low tone.

“Where?” It was the only thing Tantum needed to know. Screw his father and his regret. He couldn’t deal with it right now. He had to get to Nala, and that was all he cared about.

“F Street, Washington.”

Home. She went home. Does she really think she can hide there, from me or from whoever has been after her for the past week?
He had to find her before they did. He had to know she was safe, and the only way he could be sure, the only way he could keep her safe, would be to have her back in his arms.

Nala had spent only five days with Tantum Maddox, but the three weeks that passed in his absence didn’t taint her feelings for him. She'd fallen for the man in a matter of days and realized no amount of time was going to numb the truth. Liar or not, he'd be forever in her heart.

When she left Tantum's home, the first place she wanted to go was her own home, but her gut told her to not to. When the limousine dropped her off, she'd jumped right into her car. She needed to go into hiding, so that’s what she was doing. She stopped at a few gas stations and purchased a bunch of disposable, untraceable phones. She called Gidget.

Gidget informed her about Marcus Richards and his past assignments, most of which Nala already knew from what he'd told her. But Gidget also told her about the visits. Every year on the same day, Marcus Richards requested clearance from NESA to go to the correctional facility to visit Valerie Barton. Finding out about that crushed Nala like the emails she’d read on his computer had done. He still cared for The Iris Flower and felt nothing for Nala Dekker. He wanted to be rid of her.

But she couldn’t dwell on
that
. She’d already accepted the fact that he didn’t care for her. Nala planned to move forward and uncover the truth. She needed to know who killed Gabe Cafferty. She had to know if it was Tantum, or if there could be more to it than that.

Something was definitely off. The Rowan files had been missing for three years, yet no one seemed to be concerned about them. Not until Nala and Tantum were put back on the case.
Why would they pit two agents against each other?
The question had knocked around in her head, and that was why she didn’t let them know her destination when she reported in.

In fact, it was twenty minutes just out of town, deep in the woods in a hunting lodge, a safe house previously owned by Gabe. That was where she went to get away from Tantum, away from the threat of whoever was after them.

Gabe had taken her there once for a getaway weekend. NESA didn’t know it existed, and he'd told her it was under the name of a close friend, one he trusted. He also told her that if she was ever in trouble, she should go there. She couldn’t be sure what would happen when she pulled up to the cabin, because Gabe had been dead for the past three years. She wondered if it would be occupied, or if it had been sold.

She had been relieved to find it empty and secure. The key was still in the same place, under a rock near the steps, and for the past three weeks, she’d made herself comfortable in the secluded cabin.

Her mission was to find out the truth about Marcus Richards, about Tantum Maddox. She investigated the evidence she'd acquired prior to coming to the cabin. She had snatched the files, hers and Tantum's, from his home prior to leaving. After that, a secure laptop was all she needed, something she also obtained before she made the trip to the cabin. She could log into the NESA database and do her research.

For three weeks, she reviewed the evidence. Obsessively, diligently, she dug deeper and deeper into the life of Tantum Maddox. What she found out, what she uncovered, blew her mind.

****

Standing in the dark, desolate park at eleven o’clock at night wasn’t the smartest thing Tantum had ever done, but when Bucky called about the letter, Tantum hadn’t thought twice about following the instructions. The letter had been specific. He had to come unarmed and alone. Those were the conditions. If he brought any back-up, they would kill Nala.

Instinct told him it was a setup. But they’d offered the one thing Tantum couldn’t resist—Nala. Years of training and experience ignored. Rationale set aside. Intuition disregarded. Tantum stood out in the open, exposed and ready to risk everything and anything—including his life—to get her back. After weeks of searching and with no leads, he had to put in an appearance. He had to make sure she hadn’t been kidnapped.

Nala had flipped his world upside down. Being in his family’s house reminded him of a home filled with love, and of a time before life had become cold and cruel. From the moment he opened the door with Nala in his arms after she’d hurt her shoulder, he knew he was doomed. His heart had opened as well, and she poured into it.

He’d gone insane worrying about her. His life had been pulled from beneath his feet, knocking him right on his ass. Getting back up, remaining composed, and keeping it together was difficult, but he had to get his life back. He had to get
Nala
back, and if he was about to walk into an ambush, so be it.

He crammed his fists into the pockets of his jeans, leaned back against the brick building beside the restrooms, and as instructed, he waited. A figure appeared in the path. Just as Tantum had deduced, no Nala. The shadowy form continued toward him until the man—and his pointed gun—stood a few feet away.

Baseball cap pulled down to his eyes, he gave the area a fleeting glance. “You’re alone, right?”

“Where is she?” Tantum ground between clenched teeth, not about to answer any questions until he knew Nala’s whereabouts. If they didn’t have her, he had to get out of this mess and find her before they actually did catch up with her.

The man gave the surroundings another sweep. He jerked his head. “I’ll take you to her.”

Tantum let out a condescending snort. “No. You will prove to me you have her, and that she’s still alive. Only then will I let you take me to her.” He pulled his hands from his pockets.

The man took a few cautious steps backwards, nearing the corner of the building. Once a safe distance away, a sardonic grin appeared upon his face, “
Let
me? You’ll do what I say. Don’t forget I have the girl,” he warned.

“Do you?” Tantum slowly advanced, recapturing the distance the man had put between them. “Then show me. Better yet, let me to talk to her.”

“Back the fuck off, or I’ll shoot you right here and you won’t get the chance to see or talk to her ever again.” The man gripped the gun with both hands, obviously uncomfortable with Tantum looming not far from him.

Convinced the man didn’t have Nala, Tantum clenched his hands at his sides. It had been a trap, and blinded by the need to get her back, he was stranded and momentarily powerless. He might have gone against his better judgment by coming alone, but he hadn’t been stupid enough to leave his Glock behind. He just needed a chance to reach behind his back to get it.

Deciding it was time to move things along and test his attacker, he bent down, meeting the man’s eyes at the same level. “Then shoot me,” he challenged.

When the click of a gun sounded, Tantum acknowledged that his time and opportunities were quickly running out. But when the man’s eyes widened, Tantum realized it wasn’t the man’s gun that had just been cocked back. Tantum saw a flash of metal, and then an S&W came into view. It was aimed directly at the man’s head.

“Drop it.” Nala’s determined voice pierced the brisk night air. The fear of never seeing her again, which Tantum had been trying to swallow for the past three weeks, finally descended to the pit of his stomach, where acid greedily consumed it.

Nala had appeared from around the corner of the building. She was safe and alive, and like an angel, she had appeared out of nowhere to rescue him. She pressed the blunt end of the weapon to the man’s temple. “Now!”

As the man’s gun hit the ground, she turned to Tantum. “Really, Tantum, what the hell were you thinking, telling him to shoot you?” She glared  at him.

His heart was smiling, and it had reached to his lips. God, how he'd missed her.

In response, her face tensed with anger. “Where’s your backup? Where’s your fucking gun?”

Tantum would have yanked Nala and her hot attitude into his arms, but he didn’t need to. With her attention momentarily directed elsewhere, the man knocked the gun from her hand, shoved her at Tantum, and bolted.

Tantum spun Nala around and pushed her against the side of the structure. With one hand  protectively touching her and the gun in his other hand, he carefully curled around the corner of the building. The man was nowhere in sight.

He picked up the weapons, handed one to Nala, and slipped the other into the back of his jeans. Without a sound, he motioned Nala to head toward the parking lot. He followed close behind, back stepping and keeping a keen eye on the direction the man had fled.

He caught movement in the trees. “Nala, get down!” he shouted. A shot rang out but but he couldn’t see where it was coming from. He glanced over his shoulder to check on Nala. She wasn’t there.

For the first time while on the job, facing an imminent threat, he froze. In the millisecond, it had taken him to recognize his unusual state of shock. he found his voice. “Nala!”

“Behind the car,” she called back.

Her voice snapped Tantum out of his spine-bending fear. He directed his attention back to the trees. With acute eyes, searching for any movement, he continued moving toward the vehicle. “Get in the car,” he yelled as another bullet sped past him and struck the fender of the car. Tantum opened the door and jumped inside.

Nala's large blue eyes flashed at him. “Where the hell is he?”

Tantum put the keys in the ignition. “North, in the trees.” He started the engine.

Nala glanced that way and touched his arm. “Wait,” she said, rolling down the window. She aimed her gun and blew out the front and rear tires of the only other vehicle in the lot.

Even in their dire situation, Tantum couldn’t hold back a proud smile.
That's my girl.
She flipped her head around, baring her own crafty smile. “That'll slow him down.”

First Tantum heard the sound of a bullet piercing the back window, then the sound of glass shattering. His hand immediately shot out for Nala. “Get down,” he yelled just as the hostile noise reverberated in the small space of the car. He pushed on the accelerator and spun out of the lot.