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“Of course. Did my friends make it out of the market okay?”
“Yes. If they hadn’t, they would have been dragged back through here by their hair. Now go,” she ordered.
I wasted no more time. I grabbed the knife from the wall and took off in the direction of the resort. I didn’t miss the way the drone followed me the whole way. Halfway between the market and the resort, I found the group standing there, waiting for me. My heart tugged at the sight.
“There you are,” Adam said with relief in his tone. He wrapped me into a hug.
“Here I am,” I said with a tight-lipped smile. The embrace we were in felt too good. I couldn’t let myself get used to this. When the mission was over, I’d go back to my field office and these guys would be up to something else. I couldn’t put my heart through that kind heartbreak.
“Are you okay?” Garcia asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Those men aren’t,” I said.
“Dead?” Strong asked.
I nodded. “Two are. One is going to wake up with a stellar headache.”
“Then let’s get you out of here before he wakes up,” Mendez said.
We walked the mile back to the resort in a comfortable silence. We didn’t want to bring any attention to ourselves by moving any faster than a brisk walking pace. Wells had his arm wrapped around Christine, and she leaned into him. Jasmine and Jones were holding hands, and they whispered. I’d never wanted a boyfriend before, but these two couples made me feel like I was missing out on something. I glanced over to Adam, and he was watching his friends too.I wonder if he feels jealous of them or if he is glad to be single?
For a moment, I had a vision of us as something more. Of me becoming a permanent member of their team. We’d travel together and continue to track down sick bastards, living as one big family. I quickly shook my head. Those kinds of thoughts would only set me up for disappointment.
That wasn’t what I needed. What I needed was to put douchebags in jail and advance my career. I wanted to be a deputy director one day.
“You okay?” Adam asked me.
He must have noticed me trying to clear my thoughts. I needed to do a better job of keeping a poker face. It was too easy to open myself up to Adam and his friends. If I wasn’t careful, I’d get sloppy, and that was hard to come back from.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I said and shot him a tight-lipped smile. He must have been satisfied with that answer as he went back to watching his friends. I didn’t miss the quick expression of longing before he caught himself. He definitely wanted what his friends had. I felt a pang of guilt, because maybe he wanted that from me. That was something I would never be able to give him. My career was too important to me to give up. What kind of relationship would it be if we spent months separated at a time while I was undercover and possibly sleeping with other men to get information I needed? It wouldn’t be a good one, and it wasn’t fair to drag anyone through that.
We made our way to our guest room hallway. By now most of Christine and Wells’ friends and family had checked out, so there wasn’t much activity here, aside from us.
“Whose room?” Jones asked.
“Mine,” Guy said as he opened his room door.
We all stuffed ourselves into the tight space, like sardines in a can.
“That was a stunning maneuver,” Guy said when he saw me.
“Thanks,” I said with a blush.
“Did you record it?” Yates said in an excited rush.
He isn’t normal.
“I did, but it’s going to be conveniently wiped in about five minutes. We don’t ever need this to get away from us and be evidence in a murder trial,” Guy said as he pulled up the video on the TV and then hit play.
I watched as Christine and Jasmine ran away. I didn’t miss the way that they looked back at me several times. They really had struggled with letting me handle the situation by myself. I felt touched by their concern for me. I’d only known them for such a short time, but they were willing to have my back, even though they were scared. Survivors of abuse stuck together; it was something hideous that bonded us together.
I watched the screen as I took down the two meatheads and kicked the knife out of the drunken asshole’s hand. The view was similar to a shot I’d seen in action movies, with a great aerial angle. If Guy ever left this whole bounty-hunter gig, he could go work in the film industry as a camera drone operator.
The knife lodged into the wooden exterior of the nearby building, and I kicked out with my dominant leg, only to have him grab it. I lifted my other foot off the ground and brought my foot to his head in a hard kick that snapped the guy’s head back before he fell backward head first. I landed in a crouched position overtop of him, and then the local woman approached me.
“Holy shit,” Yates said. “I’m so turned on right now.” He practically looked at me with heart eyes, and I had to muffle laughter. I knew it was his weird form of a compliment, and I didn’t mind it too much. I’d much rather be appreciated for my skill than my body.
Adam looked like he was two seconds from knocking Yates out. His fist was balled tight, and the knuckles were white. “Yates,” he said in a low warning tone.
