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She needed to bring him close. The needle was small. It might not make it through the suitcoat he wore. She needed to get to his skin.
“Would you feel better if I put it away?” He moved in closer to her. “I’ve watched you. I suspect you’re not the operative they intended to use. Was Kara planning to seduce Middleton? I’ve wondered if it wasn’t pure luck that brought you into the pub that night. I knew I couldn’t let Ms. Magenta get her hands on Dare, so I gave her the hard sell. Did you know who he was going in? Am I wrong?”
He was way too close to being completely right. “I can’t answer you with that gun in your hands. And I’m not some…operative.”
Closer. He moved closer. The gun was at his side, though he hadn’t put it away. She held her ground. He was coming on her left side. She wouldn’t have to pivot, so she didn’t move a muscle.
“I don’t want to play games anymore. Something is going on here, and I don’t like it. You have to have heard the rumors about Oakley,” he said as he moved in front of her. There was nothing but confidence in his body language. He knew he could take her, knew he had her exactly where he wanted her. “We’ll talk about this when we get to my base. I’m going to assume you have a handler and it’s not that bombshell you call Kara. When we get to my safe house, we can call him in.”
Every cell of her being was focused on him as he stared down at her. She had to make this work. He was fast. If she made a move, he could bat her away. If the needle deployed, the dose would uselessly fall to the carpet or be absorbed by the fabric of his shirt.
She let her fear show, let tears pierce her eyes. They were true tears because she had no idea how Dare was going to handle the fact that the only friend he’d made in years was playing him. How would he handle the fact that everyone who made him comfortable was lying?
“I’ll go with you.” She turned and started for the door, feeling Brian move beside her.
When she got to the place where the carpet met the marble of the foyer, she “tripped.” Tasha faked a fall, carefully ensuring she came down on her right side. The pain was jarring, but Tasha forced herself to turn and look up at Brian. “I’m sorry. I’m…these shoes…”
She was fine in the shoes. She could run a couple of miles in these puppies, but she was counting on the manly belief that women’s fashion anything was silly and fluffy.
Sure enough, he gave her a slight smile. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be nervous. I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to talk. Let’s get you up.”
He offered her a hand.
And she took it, slapping her left hand over his and pressing down so the sedative quickly injected into his body.
He didn’t react for a moment, proving how small that needle was. It was obvious he hadn’t felt it. He helped her to her feet, and she smoothed out her skirt.
The door came open and Cooper moved in, leveling a gun at Brian. “Stay right where you are.”
Brian’s gun came up, and he oddly moved in front of Tasha as though protecting her was a base instinct he couldn’t ignore. “Put the gun down.”
“Don’t move,” Cooper continued.
“He’s going to have trouble obeying that command,” she explained. It was mean but she wasn’t planning on catching him, so she moved out of the way.
“I’m not obey…” Brian shook his head. “What…damn it.”
He fell to his knees and thudded to the floor.
Cooper moved next to her, looking down at the fallen operative. “I came to save you.”
“Well, you did.”
Cooper snorted. “I think you handled him pretty well, Tash.”
“You saved me from lower back pain because he looks heavy.” She sighed because they needed to move and fast. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “His team—whatever that means—is piggybacking on our bugs, and at least one of them is downstairs in the parking garage.”
Cooper nodded and leaned over to pick up Brian, his voice a whisper, too. “Then we need to get a move on. We’ll take him straight to the club. He’s going to be out for a while, and I’m not about to leave him alone.”
It looked like she was in for a wild night.
* * * *
Harry Barton looked utterly delighted as he finished showing Dare the newest data concerning his company’s smart inhalers. There were several research groups trying to develop the devices that could revolutionize how COPD and asthma were treated. Up to now the research had been promising, but they were having trouble with integrating the device with smart tech. “So you can see, we’re ahead of projections and should be able to bring our device in front of the TGA sometime next year, and the FDA shortly after. All we need is another round of funding.”
