Catch Me If You Can (Love's Command) (2 page)

“Wait, wait for me—” His voice came out like a dry whisper, barely loud enough for him to make out. He swallowed and forced himself to stay awake. She was near, the touch of her familiar, soothing.

“Don’t go,” he managed, though he doubted she could make sense of him. Suddenly, he knew she’d left. Emptiness filled him where, for too short of a time, he’d been no longer alone.

After several tries to blink open his eyes long enough to see where he was, he managed it. Seconds later the door burst open, and men swarmed inside.

His team had arrived. He fought the sheets tangled around him to get up, then his men when they tried to hold him down.

“Dare, what the hell? Scott, man, let us get you up, outta here.”

From the corner of his eye he thought he saw her, huddled and secretive in the corner, but the next instant she disappeared like the hawk.

She was real. She’d been real.
He wouldn’t believe it had all been a dream.

“No! Come back. Don’t go,” he yelled, struggling to knock four men off him. The room seemed to swirl in grays, as if it wanted to suck him down. If it did, if he let her go, he’d never see her again. He fought harder.

“Grab his arms, he’s outta it.” Ace Man sounded distant, as if he was miles away, but the hands holding Dare were right there.

A sharp pain hit his side. His beautiful girl drifted across his vision, giving him one more searching glance before she left him. He had to stay conscious. He knew it. Felt it in his bones. If he passed out, he’d never see her again.

“No, get the fuck off me, she’s gonna leave.”

“Fuck, he’s delirious,” Eagle said.

Tell me your name
! He tried to shout, but no sound passed his numb lips.

A second later, out of the gray mist swirling around him, she appeared. A sorrowful expression creased her brow. “You won’t remember me,” she whispered. “Come for me, see if you can catch me.”

Then she was gone.

Didn’t matter. He’d find her.

Chapter One

Six years later

“Target in sight, confirm visual, Scott.”

Dare glanced from his magazine in time to catch a glimpse of his target before she was lost in the crowded airport.

“Confirm, target spotted, I’m on it.”

“Careful, she can be spooked easily, stay back until we hear more, Dare. No stunts.”

“Stunts, huh?” Daren Scott, known by Dare to his old team, and the new one, the Sentinels, grinned and headed off in the crowd, spotting his target’s long black hair and purple backpack.

She’d slung a backpack over one shoulder and ducked in and out of the people with much more ease than he did at six foot five and some change. She was small, smaller than the file on her suggested. Not short, but fragile looking. Her Korean side was much stronger, than her Jamaican. Most people would barely notice she was anything other than Asian from a distance. Up close, though, he could tell she wasn’t completely Korean. . Her skin glowed with health and reminded him of a creamy latte. The way she was dressed, in a baggy sweatshirt that hung loose around her thighs, leggings and combat boots, made her look more like a hip college student than a world famous scientist’s daughter. A scientist’s daughter trained in espionage.

“Yeah, no playing the playboy with the bunny.”

Dare’s grin grew, but she wasn’t his type. He liked his women tall, busty and a little dirty. The mark in front of him looked wholesome, not at all what the report said on her. Hell, she looked like a strong wind would knock her out, let alone a long night of sex.

She turned partway to the side and he got his first glimpse of her profile. She was beautiful enough. She almost looked like a better looking Rhianna, if there was such a thing.

The Korean side of her family had defiantly given her that exotic Asian princess look, while the slightly cocoa-colored skin tone and fuller lips combined with the long black hair to create a beautiful woman. She would get second, third and most likely fourth looks no matter where she went.

After a second of scanning the baggage claim area, she turned fully and he ground to a halt.

He knew this woman. Didn’t he? But how and where?

She met his eyes across the sea of people. In that brief glance, he was certain.

She dismissed him with barely more than a glance and continued her inspection of the area. Her lack of surprise at him in itself was a giveaway. He was a black man—well, half since his dad had been white but in Korea he was all black. He towered above everyone near him. Why they’d chosen him as the lead on this mission was beyond him, but no matter what he did, he stood out. There were a lot of other foreigners here in Seoul, but none nearby at the moment and none tall and black. She should have stared. Half the people around him stared, the other half were probably taking pictures to show their kids and friends.

Odder, her lack of response stung in a more than ‘I’m the unique foreigner here’ way—it stung that part of him that liked a woman’s show of interest. Was that it? Was he intrigued by a woman who didn’t seem impressed with him? He didn’t think so. The longer he watched her turn her head from left to right and back again, scanning the baggage claim area, the more he struggled to name her, place her, but couldn’t.

She hefted her bag higher on her shoulder and, without hesitating, headed for the nearest entrance.

“Dare? Check in. What’s she doing? Leaving? Stall her, but insure she doesn’t sense a tail. Under no circumstances should she know we’re here, man.”

He was already in motion. Without thinking about what he was doing, he reached out and turned her by a grip on her upper arm. She caught his wrist, twisted, did some fancy shift and his legs got knocked out from under him. While he lay there, mouth gaping open, she met his eyes, frowned at him and released the fist she’d clenched an inch from his throat.

A shout from across the baggage claim startled her into breaking eye contact. At the same time, she released the hold she had on him and took off running before he could reach his feet.

“Dare? Dare? Check the fuck in, man!”

Dare jumped into action and almost caught her, but his fingertips merely brushed her backpack and she was gone into the mingling mess of busy travelers. He chased, not sure why he’d just blown his cover, let alone let her get the drop on him so easily.

“She’s on the run. South exit.”

“What the fuck? You broke—”

“I fucked up. She spotted me. Send men to the south exit and just let me catch her.”

“Absolutely not. Stand down, Scott. No contact. Absolutely—”

“Shit!” Dare burst through the nearest set of double doors, turned in a circle, but didn’t spot her. The street was empty except for cars and people walking to the parking area. The sidewalk was full of passengers being picked up, but not one of them wore a baggy sweatshirt and a purple backpack. No one was running. There was a ton of black, silky hair, but not one of them was his Asian princess.

“Shit!”

“Status?” Tazz demanded.

“She’s gone.” He spun around to face the doors he’d just burst through. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted black hair like silk partially hiding a delicate profile and her bright backpack.

“Got her!”

She’d changed to a white blouse, and dark business jacket and pencil skirt, but he recognized her. How the hell she’d done the switch he had no idea. There’d been two, possibly three minutes, but in that time she’d transformed herself from college student home on break to sexy Wall Street broker.

If she’d drawn eyes in the hoodie, she nearly stunned him in the skirt. A woman like that should never wear anything else, he decided, memorizing every rounded curve of her backside, then woke the hell up when he realized why he had such an amazing view of her lush ass.

She was ducking into a cab.

“She’s on the go.” He tore off after her, hailing the black SUV parked farther back. Tazz roared up to the curb seconds later.

“Yellow cab number three four five eight. Follow, now!” he muttered as soon as he shut the door.

“What were you thinking? Are you certain that was her? How did she change so quickly?”

“Hell if I know, just go!”

“The damn directive was to follow,” Tazz growled but hauled the SUV after her. “Follow, don’t—”

“I fucking know. Just drive or I will!”

Tazz shot him a frown, but Dare ignored it and concentrated on the woman in the cab.

He knew her. She was familiar—so close to coming into focus, he could taste it. Of all the women he’d met in his lifetime, she just might be the one he couldn’t walk away from once he caught her. He shot the thought down, feeling his heart skip a beat. But the idea wouldn’t go away because she was
someone
.

Something close to hope shot through his chest. Was she the woman from the desert? Could she be?

* * * *

Kylie turned in her seat and winced when she saw the big, black SUV.

She had a tail.

How did you screw this up so badly, Ky?
A day into this nightmare and already I might fail.
This should have been an easy in, easy out. It had been too, until the drop dead gorgeous agent had distracted her.

Really, I just need to get laid.

If only that was the answer. But yeah, it all boiled down to that, didn’t it? She’d been single for so long, she’d forgotten what it was like to have a man show interest in her.

And what did you do the moment you saw a man you like? You got sidetracked by him.

It wasn’t acceptable.

They were nearly close enough for her to see the outline of two men in the front seat. Instead of them falling behind in the traffic, they were gaining on her. Turning back around, she told the driver to get her to the other side of town as quickly as possible and if he lost the Americans behind them, she’d throw in an extra ten thousand RBM. The driver glanced at her once, then put his foot down so hard she would have flown backwards if she hadn’t been expecting it. No one could out maneuver a Chinese taxi driver. Even in Korea.

He grinned back at her, revealing stained and missing teeth when the SUV fell out of sight. She told him not to count on it being so easy, and true enough, seconds later, the SUV showed up again, barreling through three lanes of traffic to gain on them.

The driver took one look in his rear-view mirror and took a corner hard enough to make the tires squeal.

She ignored the drive and concentrated on turning her backpack inside out to create a red leather purse. She pulled a red sweater out, tugged it on, braided her hair and added red high heels. The quick change at the airport had been risky and should have worked to throw them off. This time, she couldn’t take any chances on being recognized. Not if she wanted to save her dad.

As soon as her driver turned twice more, she withdrew money, threw it on the passenger seat, and shouted for him to take the next turn and stop. Within seconds she was out, and he was peeling away, more than happy to lead the Americans to the other side of town—without her.

The side street was crowded with early evening shoppers and the normal flood of dinner-seeking Koreans after a long week of work. With her business suit, and dark hair off her face, she blended in easily. She ducked into the first shop selling phones and headed to the back counter to examine the offerings. Within minutes she heard horns and the roar of an engine. The SUV passed and she waited until she couldn’t hear it before she breathed easier.

How did they find me so quickly? How many others know my father is being held for ransom?

She’d assumed no one but Eric knew she had been sent here. But maybe if one person knew, more would know?

If the Americans were here, they wanted to stop her.

Several people started talking about the crazy SUV, thinking they might have been North Koreans in the vehicle. She smiled at the familiar topic. Everything bad in Korea could be blamed on the north, why not an SUV full of two obvious Americans?

She picked up a new phone and brought it to the cashier. If only it had been the North Koreans. Americans were a problem, especially if they had wind of what she had been sent to Korea to do. Americans didn’t negotiate with terrorists, they tried to destroy them. For a bigger, stronger country that worked. For a single person, she didn’t think that would work so well. She was proof of that, wasn’t she?

She stopped that train of thought, having accepted long ago that it hadn’t been the Americans who were to blame for her torture. It had been her torturers who were responsible for their actions, no other.

Besides, she reminded herself, taking her change from the cashier and heading outside into the cooler, fresher air, she had to deliver the formula to the men who had her father, or her father would die. She took her change from the cashier and headed out the outside to the cooler, fresher air. There was no one else. Eric had assured her that her father lived. He’d sworn he’d seen him, heard his voice, and accepted their promises that if she delivered what they wanted, her dad would live.

The facts were startlingly clear.

She would deliver. Not even the Americans would stop her. She’d aided them enough, and had paid dearly for doing so. Now, she would work on her own, because she’d discovered alone was the only way she could guarantee success.

Someone had obviously discovered what they were doing. That someone had to be someone her father trusted. She knew his work with the United States government was highly classified. Even he didn’t trust them though. That’s one reason he kept his research broken up and located in different labs. He didn’t trust the Americans. Or he hadn’t. Had he changed after she’d left? Had he trusted one of them enough to seek out their aid, and now they had betrayed him?

Or had Eric spoken to someone else other than her in an attempt to help her dad? She didn’t trust him. Not even the tiniest bit and having to rely on him for this—God, it drove her nuts. If someone had told her that her dad would be in danger, and that Eric Monroe would be the person she’d have to rely on…she’d have laughed her butt off.

Why would her dad’s abductors call Eric anyway?