Around-the-Clock Protector (15 page)

“You’ve got it. Bring him in without stepping on the brakes to tip him off that we know he’s back there. Are you sure you don’t want to join my team?”

“Yeah.” She shot him a grin and looked into the mirror, watching the distance close between them and the tail.

Up ahead the light turned yellow, then red.

Ava stepped on the brake and stopped, with the agent right behind them.

In one swift motion Carson swung around and squeezed off four rounds, hitting the car’s radiator.

Steam hissed out of the holes.

She smashed down on the gas pedal. The car shot forward through the red light, leaving the rogue agent behind.

Relief rippled along her nerves as she signaled and entered the Georgetown turnpike.

“You could have killed him, couldn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

Emotions bunched in her chest as she brought the car up to speed. Carson Nash was all about control. He wasn’t a relentless killer piling on the body count just for the heck of it. She knew that now. He could exercise his mercy at will.

A pocket of respect formed and seeped into her
core along with an emotion she’d never felt before. Was it love?

“I want you to remove the chip from my back, Carson.” She glanced over at him in the running shadows that surged and faded as they passed under the streetlights along the pike. “If we give Glendow the chip, he’ll leave us alone.”

The air in the car seemed to become charged with energy—positive or negative, she wasn’t sure. She only knew her request had sparked something in him, and she could feel the coming storm.

“Glendow is a murderer, or have you forgotten? He knifed Jerome Hinshaw while you watched. There’s no negotiating with a desperate man like him. Chip or no chip, we’re both marked for death.”

Ava sobered, suddenly wishing she’d never considered the idea, but in her heart she wanted to believe this could be dragged to a conclusion they could
live with. That somewhere down the line, she and Carson…and their child…could become a family.

“Please. Just think about it. We could remove the chip and hide it somewhere…get as far away as possible. Maybe even your team digs in Idaho. He won’t kill us if we’re the only ones who know where it is.”

The silence in the car was deafening.

All the pleading in the world wasn’t going to
convince Carson, she knew that, but she held out hope anyway.

“Where are we going?” she asked, fed up with the quiet.

“Shopping mall, grocery store. Anywhere we can dump this car and catch a city bus.”

“Okay.” Worried, she considered their next move. They were out of options—not that they’d ever really had any. Glendow was a traitor. He’d probably banked the Russian’s money in a Swiss account and if the deal had transpired as planned, he’d be all over it by now, and no one would have been the wiser.

Carson ground his teeth, fighting his own doubts. The details of Ava’s suggestion needed modification, but there were aspects he could use. The risk was over the top. Glendow had been systematically killing off anyone who’d been party to the transaction. With Resnick and Hinshaw dead, there was only Ava and himself to be dealt with.

“I’ll do it, Ava.” He couldn’t believe the words had come from his mouth, but he continued, drawing on his years of training to make it plausible.

“I’ll remove the chip and hide it. We’ll set up a dialogue with Glendow. If we’re lucky, he’ll take the deal and we’ll make it out alive.”

“It’ll work, Carson,” she said, a note of hope in her voice.

Carson clenched his jaw, a breath away from
taking back the crazy idea and pulling her into his arms again, but he kept still. It would work.

It had to work.

They were out of options.

Ava watched Carson move the lighter’s flame under the blade of his pocketknife.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, holding the queasiness in her stomach at bay for the moment.

It would be over soon, she reasoned. He would never intentionally hurt her—he had skills, for crying out loud. She didn’t know if one of them was minor surgery, but she trusted him anyway.

“I wish I could tell you this isn’t going to hurt.”

Her eyes flew open and she considered him in the first light of morning breaking around their location under a tree in a small park beside the mall where they’d ditched the car.

“I’m having a hard enough time trying to psych myself up without that information.”

“Sorry.” He flipped the knife over to sterilize the other side of the blade.

She closed her eyes again. How was she ever going to survive labor and delivery if she couldn’t handle what was to come. Gritting her teeth, she listened to Carson fiddle in his backpack and tried to relax.

The feel of his hands on the bare skin of her back sent a shiver through her.

“Some alcohol,” he said, followed by a cold prep on her skin as he rubbed it over the spot where the microchip had been implanted.

“The initial incision is half an inch long. I’ll follow the incision line. Hold still.”

“I’m ready.” Ava took several deep breaths and focused her mind on a snippet from her childhood, reliving the moment in her head over and over again until searing pain burned into her back, driving the happy memory into oblivion.

She gritted her teeth, trying not to react, not to move for fear of jostling the knife.

“Done…it’s done.” The sound of Carson’s relief was obvious.

She hung her head, feeling his hands on her as he placed a gauze bandage over the incision and taped it in place.

“Let me see it.” Reaching for her T-shirt, she pulled it down into place and turned toward Carson.

In the palm of his hand lay a tiny black square, covered in blood.

Ava swallowed against the tightness in her throat
and resisted the urge to touch it. “That’s what this is all about?”

“Yeah. It looks like a piece of plastic, but it’s a bootleg chip with the power to reaim our entire spy satellite network.”

She shuddered as she watched Carson close his fingers over it.

“We need to find a good place to hide it,” she said, knowing it must never fall into enemy hands. “Someplace where it won’t be—”

“I’m going to take care of it. Stay here. Keep your eyes open. I won’t be long.”

She stared at Carson for a moment, realizing his plan didn’t include her. “But—”

“It’s better if you don’t know where it is. It’s a matter of national security. Glendow won’t be able to find it unless he comes through me.”

Tears burned the backs of her eyelids, but she concealed the hurt his words had evoked inside her. In short, if Glendow did manage to take her, she’d be unable to tell him where the chip was, even if he tortured her for the information.

Carson watched horror pass across Ava’s face as she realized the sacrifice she might have to make for her country.

His heart twisted in his chest. He reached for her, but she stepped back and sat down on the grass.

Resolve flooded his veins, but it couldn’t douse the flame of self-loathing that burned inside him.

“I’ll be back. Use the pistol if you have to.” He turned and strode toward the rear of the mall, his emotions in knots and their future on the line.

Ava tried to relax by watching a string of cars pull into the mall parking lot. A walking club, she decided, as one by one women clad in sweats and tennis shoes climbed out of their cars and headed for the main entrance.

A normal life. She wanted a normal life for herself and her unborn child. When this was over she planned to go after that life with everything she had, but the ache in her heart belied the hope lodged there.

Would Carson be in it? Could he ever care about her the way she cared about him?

Footsteps behind her sent her heart rate up as she prepared to do emotional battle with him.

“Carson—”

A hand cupped over her mouth.

She tried to scream, but it was useless.

The assailant pulled her to her feet, dragging her backward across the grass.

Ava fought against the onslaught, but to no avail—he was too strong.

Shaking her head back and forth, she worked until she could bite down on his hand. He only squeezed harder.

In a matter of seconds he dragged her into a waiting van and closed the door.

The acceleration forced her to the floor along with her abductor.

Hope stirred in her as she broke free from his grasp, but the triumph was fleeting as the agent reacted by poking a pistol in her face.

Ava went still, staring down the barrel of the gun.

Director Glendow turned in the passenger seat and grinned at her. “Hello, Ava. You have something I want. Agent, do the honors, then kill her.”

She tried to dodge the burly man, but he managed to shove her against the seat and pin her down. She lay still, catching her breath, planning for a rematch.

The man yanked her shirt up on her back.

“You better look at this.”

Director Glendow moved out of his seat and shuffled into the back. “Dammit.” He ripped her bandage off.

Ava fought a cry of pain and braced for certain death.

“Where the hell is it, Ava?”

Fear knotted her nerves. She weighed the truth against a lie. Either way she was dead. Maybe she could buy some time.

“Agent Nash removed it.”

The agent jerked her up into the seat.

She faced Glendow. Breathing heavily, she regained her composure and stared back at him. A man she’d trusted, even liked until now.

“You killed Jerome Hinshaw in the back of the limo. I remember.”

A brief look of surprise crossed his face and flashed in his dark eyes. “Three’s a crowd. Hinshaw was brilliant, but he didn’t figure into the money split.”

“So you killed him and took his share.”

“I knew you were bright, Agent Ross, but this conversation is done.” He moved closer to her.

Fear screamed a warning into her brain just as Glendow grabbed her by the throat.

Ava tried to pull air into her lungs, fighting against his death grip. She clawed his hand, desperate to breathe.

He released her.

She pulled in a gasping breath, fighting dizziness.

“Tell me what he did with the microchip, or next time I won’t stop squeezing. You don’t want your baby to go without oxygen for too long, do you?”

Horror exploded inside her as she searched his face for a measure of mercy, but it wasn’t there. His features were hard and cold. His dark eyes were black holes of nothingness.

“I don’t know what he did with it.”

“That’s a problem for you,” Glendow said, leaning back against the seat. “Tell me, Ava, do you think he’ll trade your life and his baby’s life for that chip?”

Her heart ripped in her chest, torn apart by Glendow’s question. Had Carson known she’d be
sacrificed if he ever took her? Wouldn’t she be sac rificed either way?

She fought a sob as it rattled up her throat. “No.”

Glendow cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “We’ll have to see.”

Ava released the tears burning the backs of her eyelids and stared out the window of the moving van.

Had she only imagined the feelings between them? Or was she still just a package in Carson Nash’s mission?

C
ARSON RACED
for the grassy park where he’d left Ava.

In the parking lot he’d spotted the car they’d ditched being swarmed by agents. He guessed Glendow had tagged it with GPS back at the apartment, which explained why the agent tailing them hadn’t been in any particular hurry.

This was a storm they couldn’t outrun, and there weren’t any more places to hide.

Panic shot through him as he rounded the corner, staring at the patch of grass where he’d left her a moment ago.

It was empty.

Rage sliced into him. He sprinted onto the knoll, catching sight of the drag marks across the grass. His heart pounded, and he prayed his plan worked. That he hadn’t just made the biggest miscalculation of his life.

His cell rang. He pulled the phone from his belt and answered without even a glance at the screen. “Hello.”

“Agent Nash. Nice to hear the voice of the man who’s given me so much trouble.”

Carson’s nerves tightened, and his hearing went on high alert.

“Glendow?”

“You have something I want, if Agent Ross is to be believed.”

“If you hurt her, you’ll never get the chip from me.”

“So you’re willing to make a trade?”

“When and where?” Carson was careful to reg ulate the tone of his voice. “But only after I know for sure she’s still alive. Put her on the phone.”

“Carson?” Ava whispered into the cell, but before he could answer he heard Glendow’s voice again.

“Great Falls Park, north of McLean. Overlook three. Four o’clock. Come alone and unarmed. If I see anybody but you, she’s dead.” Glendow hung up.

Carson closed his cell phone. His head drooped

forward as a rush of emotion raged through his body. Ava was still alive.

His plan was working.

C
ARSON STARED
at the waters of the Potomac as they cascaded over the falls one hundred feet upstream.

He glanced at his watch. Three-forty.

Picking up his pace, he reached overlook three and
walked out onto the upper deck. In less than twenty minutes his life would change, one way or another.

The afternoon air was still, the heat dissipated only by the shade of the trees surrounding the platform. The park was virtually empty. Maybe the hikers and bikers had decided to stay inside where it was cool.

He went to the railing and turned, leaning against it in a casual manner as he stared out at the landscape, looking for signs of movement among the trees and brush.

The river at his back offered a barrier he hoped Glendow took for granted. Reaching up, he brushed his hand over his head.

He’d spent the day working the scenario in his brain until he’d convinced himself every avenue had been considered and explored. But still, he couldn’t eradicate the worry that wreaked havoc on his emotions.

He was in love with Ava Ross, and all the planning and preparation on the planet might not save her. It made the knowledge that he could lose her in an instant all the more devastating.

Gazing at the trail meandering past the overlook, he caught sight of movement through the dense forest a few yards to the south.

His muscles knotted with tension as he focused on a single individual walking along the trail.

A glint of sunshine through the canopy of leaves glanced off Ava’s mahogany hair.

His heart thundered in his chest. Something was wrong. She was alone.

Where was Glendow?

Carson stepped away from the rail, eager to get to her, protect her, but he froze in place as she moved off the path and stopped just short of the overlook deck.

He moved toward her.

She raised her hand. “Stop! Don’t come any closer.”

Confusion clouded his mind as he stared at her face.

There was no color in her cheeks. Her body trembled so much that he could see her shake.

“Where’s Glendow?”

She didn’t reply to his question, but instead reached down and gingerly pulled open the oversize white shirt she wore.

Carson’s gut squeezed.

Cold hard reality slammed into his brain, unleashing his worst fears like a bag of poisonous snakes.

His stare locked on Ava’s waist, on the block of C4 skewed with a probe detonator.

Fear coiled around his body, squeezing the breath out of his lungs.

She’d been wired with explosives.