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Before they could continue to argue about the confusing Dr. Huisman, Lou sat straight up, her eyes widening. “We have trouble. Shit.”
Lou almost never cursed. Tasha moved around her, and then she was the one biting back a curse. Lou had a feed from the hotel on one of her monitors. She’d cut into the CCTV feeds early this morning, and that was how they’d found out Kenzie had pulled her fast one and wasn’t, in fact, moping in her bed.
Lou and the guys had watched them all day, and when Tasha and Kenzie had returned, they’d switched to following Dare. Lou would have made careful notes about what he did and who he met, sending intel to Langley along the way.
Now the feed showed Dare and Brian in the elevator. The next camera was already up in one of the four corners of the monitor. Lou had written a program that tracked the primary target wherever he might go, bringing up the next camera as he approached. Now it showed what Dare was about to be confronted with.
“Is that a gun?” Cooper leaned in. They were all crowded around the screen.
There was a man in a ski mask standing outside the elevator doors. He was close to the edge of the screen as though he knew there was a camera somewhere and was trying to avoid it, but he couldn’t quite. Tasha’s heart threatened to seize, and she went for her cell phone. If she could warn Dare…
Kala’s hand went to hers, stopping the motion. “Too late, Tash.”
Her sister was right. The doors were opening, and tears pierced her eyes as the attacker moved into place, his arm rising. He hesitated for the barest second as though trying to figure out which man he was targeting and then he picked.
Dare.
He’d shot Dare.
Tasha could feel bile rising as she watched Dare’s hand go to his chest and his knees hit the ground.
“It was a sedation dart.” Zach sounded perfectly calm. “I recognize the gun he’s using.”
She had to stay as calm as Zach. If she gave away the crazy panic she felt, he would do exactly what he’d said he would. Deep breath. In and out. Don’t give into panic. Fear wasn’t the enemy, her father had taught her. Panic was. “That one isn’t. That’s a SIG.”
Kenzie gasped because the man had tossed the dart gun aside in favor of one that held real bullets, pointing it at the target that was left. “Brian.”
Brian calmly smashed the button to hold the doors open and held his hands up to show he wasn’t armed.
Then proved he didn’t need to be armed.
Brian kicked out, catching the man in the gut, and gracefully brought up his elbow to break his opponent’s nose as he bent over from the kick. He slapped the gun out of the man’s hand, sending it to the floor.
“That dude?” Tristan was sending Kenzie a what-the-hell look. “You thought that dude was some frat bro from Ohio?”
Kenzie’s eyes were wide as she watched Brian fight. His opponent threw a punch he easily dodged, and then Brian wrapped an arm around his throat and squeezed. And squeezed. And squeezed until the man was dead weight in his arms and he let him fall to the floor.
His expression hadn’t changed once. The minute Dare had been hit, the happy-go-lucky smile had fled and he’d gone stone cold.
“Yeah, that dude,” Kenzie whispered, her lips curling up. “But he’s not some frat bro.”
He was obviously Agency. Or something like it. “We’re not alone.”
Zach was already on his cell, calling his contacts.
“He could be mob,” Cooper said with a shrug. “They know how to clean up a body. What if Brian is Dare’s mafia protector?”
“Or the mafia dude who makes sure Dare does exactly what he’s supposed to,” Kala mused.
She watched as Brian started to expertly handle the situation and realized she might be in deeper than she’d thought.
* * * *
“What the hell happened, Brian? And why isn’t he in a hospital?”
Dare started to come awake to a familiar sound, though he’d never heard that heavenly voice rail at him the way she was at Brian.
Tasha. Tasha was here, and he seemed to be lying in bed. When the hell had he gone to sleep? His limbs felt heavy, and his brain was in a fog.
“I need to talk to Dare before I tell you anything, Tasha,” Brian said in a calm tone. “The truth is I shouldn’t have let you in here at all. You’ve known him for a couple of days. You can’t imagine what his life is like.”
They were so loud. Dare managed to sit up, his head throbbing. He was in his room at the hotel, but he had zero recall of how he’d gotten there. He’d been down in the restaurant meeting with some wide-eyed researchers and then…
