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“My motel room.” I felt her stiffen beside me and hid a wince. Yeah, I could have phrased that better. I missed my SEAL team. Where talking wasn’t my strongest suit, I could rely on Nate and Owen to pull me through. “I wrote down what your brother said. I just want you to look at it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “That’s it? Once I’ve done that, I can get my son and leave, and you won’t try to stop us?”
“That’s—”
A car came screaming around the corner, barreling toward us, and I yanked the wheel to one side, lurching the car out of the way. Nataliya yelped—her hands scrambled for the door handle. “What the hell was that?”
The car that nearly bowled into us swung around, and I swore aloud. Apparently, those two thugs at the restaurant hadn’t been alone. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Hayes had a private army at his beck and call. He could send out as many men as it took to get the job done.
Well, he wasn’t getting what he wanted today. Not on my watch.
“Hold on, okay?”
Nataliya braced herself, and I flattened the pedal to the floor, racing through the small-town streets with the other car was hot on our tail. Adrenaline kicked through my veins, and I felt almost…nostalgic. Something about this kind of danger sang in my very blood, reminding me of the best days I had as a SEAL, before it all fell apart.
The other car kept pace with us, nudging us even as I pushed it all the harder. “Please,” Nataliya murmured, mostly to herself, “please, please, please, please.”
We turned down one street after another, but our tail wouldn’t shake loose. “Can you keep the wheel steady?”
“What?!”
“Take the wheel,” I told her. Her hands were shaking as she leaned into the driver’s side and put a hand onto the wheel, but I saw the way she set her shoulders, saw the determination in her eyes. She wasn’t going to let me down. “Just keep it steady,” I said and rolled down my window, grabbing the 9mm I had shoved into the door pocket when we first got in. “You okay?” I asked Nataliya.
She nodded, eyes firmly fixed on the road. “Do what you need to do,” she said. “I’ve got this.” A little zing of desire zipped through my belly. Smart, tough, capable women had always been my kryptonite. Now is not the time, I told myself.
Turning, I leaned out the window, aiming at the tires of the other vehicle, but our car swerved before I could pull the trigger. “Steady, Nataliya,” I barked. “Keep it straight.”
“I’m trying!” she yelled back. “Hurry up. There’s a curve up ahead, and we will end up in the swamp!”
Damnit. I steadied my arm, took a breath, and squeezed down on the trigger. The front tire of the car trying to ram into my bumper exploded, and the car swerved across the median, out of the driver’s control. I turned back and resettled into my seat, my hand sliding over Nataliya’s as I took the wheel back. Her skin was smooth, pleasant to the touch, and even though there was nothing intimate about the way my fingers brushed hers, my heart still skipped a beat.
She jerked her hand away like my touch had burned her. I glanced over at her. “You did good,” I said, quickly pulling myself together.
“Huh?”
“Steering. You did good.”
Her throat clicked as she swallowed. “Thanks,” she said.
Nataliya
If I throw up on the dashboard, how mad will he be? My stomach was steadily trying to climb into my throat. I held it together as long as I could, knowing we needed to put some distance between ourselves and the other car, even if it was disabled, but after another minute of driving, I couldn’t hold back any more. “I think—” My mouth filled with saliva. “Pull over. Now.”
Luckily, Agent Pierce didn’t ask questions. He stopped, and I threw the door open just in time for my breakfast to come back up.
“Here.” I turned back, and he handed me a water bottle.
I nodded my thanks and broke the seal, rinsing my mouth out with the lukewarm water. “Those men…seeing them made me remember…” I shuddered, unable to continue.
“Have you come across them before?”
I took another sip of water and a few deep breaths, trying to force myself to calm down. “Not them, personally, but…I was attacked months ago, in Las Vegas. They broke into my home. Elias and I barely got away.”
He was contemplating something. “Do you know who Ian Hayes is?”
“He owns the Hayes Group, right? The private military.” I’d grown up with groups like that coming into and out of the RoW. Perks of living in a country with an unstable government. The situation was so bad no one wanted to send their “real” soldiers—too much of a risk of troops dying and the public back home getting up in arms—but independent contractors filled the gap, for better or for worse. Mostly for worse.
“I have reason to believe he’s involved in illegal smuggling—arms, antiquities, military secrets, anything he can sell in all the countries where he has units stationed. And I think your brother had something to do with it,” Agent Pierce said. He looked over his shoulder. “Come on. We should get moving again.”
