Targeted

terrified him. He was so used to being in control, and so far she’d been fairly cooperative. He knew it was because she didn’t have any other options, but he’d expected total compliance.

“Fuck that,” she snapped, the outburst taking him by surprise. “I’m not a soldier and you’re sure as hell not my boss. If I agree, hell yeah, I’ll follow orders, unless your order is stupid. And telling me to actually leave you behind is stupid.”

An unexpected laugh escaped. The timing was inappropriate and he shocked himself, but hearing her curse and yell at him after what had just happened soothed a dark part of him.

“Is that funny to you?”

“No. Damn, Soph. That temper of yours . . .” He trailed off when she stilled.

It was subtle, but her hand tightened on the weapon resting in her lap and he was pretty sure she stopped breathing for a moment.

“What?”

“Nothing. What do we do now?” Her voice wavered slightly, but he pushed past it. Hell, he couldn’t blame her after everything that had just happened.

“Find a safe house and hole up until you have to meet Ronald tonight.” And get the hell out of this area.

Sirens blared in the distance and Jack knew that soon the local cops would be swarming the place and probably putting up roadblocks. They needed to be long gone by the time that happened.

Chapter 12

Infiltration: the secret movement of an operative into a target area with the intent that his or her presence will go undetected.

Sophie jumped as the bang against the wall from their neighboring motel room reverberated through their crappy room. Of course, the bang was followed by a string of obscene curses.

She wasn’t sure how it was possible, but Jack had picked the worst pay-by-the- hour motel in Little Havana. When they’d first arrived it was still daylight, and in the daytime it wasn’t so bad. But it was nearing dusk and she was fairly sure their “neighbors” were either dealing drugs or engaged in some sort of prostitution ring. Probably both. People had been coming in and out of their room all afternoon, and some of the noises had been revolting.

Earlier she’d tried to buy crackers from the vending machines, but had quickly returned to the safety of their room after a couple of men had asked what her “price” was. Apparently something about her jeans and sweater screamed hooker. It didn’t matter that Jack had given her a gun, she’d still felt incredibly exposed outside.

“When are we leaving?” she asked again, not bothering to keep the annoyance out of her voice this time.

Jack was lounging on one of the double beds and doing God knew what on his laptop, but he looked up when she spoke. For the briefest moment, those pale eyes darkened as he raked an appreciative gaze over her breasts. He got this little smile when he looked at her, as if he was remembering something. She wondered if he was even aware he was doing it. Damn it, the look was so . . . familiar that it jarred her straight to her core. Combined with the way he’d called her Soph in the truck earlier, it put her on edge. More and more he was reminding her of Sam.

Which was insane.

It made her feel unbalanced. She’d done fine not thinking of him for years—or at least locking her thoughts down. Now her life had gone to shit in a matter of days, she didn’t know who to trust, her best friend still hadn’t checked in—which was eating Sophie alive inside every second that passed—and she had scorching thoughts of Sam almost every time she looked at Jack.

“Give me five minutes,” he murmured as he looked away.

“You keep saying that. We need to get out of here. This place is creepy.” Gross-looking brown stains were on both bedspreads, so she’d been relegated to sitting at the small table or pacing the room. To entertain herself she’d been figuring out what the stains resembled, almost like watching clouds at the beach. Only a lot grosser.

Jack had been very quiet, constantly working on his computer and not telling her anything unless she asked him a direct question. Which was incredibly annoying. She could almost swear he was purposefully ignoring her. After they’d barely escaped from those two shooters—and her insides were still quaking over that—she guessed that the reason he’d picked such a crappy place to hole up was that cops wouldn’t frequent it. Not unless called. And considering that everyone she’d seen looked like they were up to something illegal around here, no one in their right mind would be calling.

He typed some more into his computer, then looked up again. “If it makes you feel better, Homeland Security won’t need to talk to you anymore.”

Oh yeah, that made everything better. She held off on the rude comment because it wouldn’t help and it made her feel petty. “Why not?”

“My boss made some calls. They’ll be easing off SBMS until the NSA knows more about what’s going on.”

“Good.” She wouldn’t admit it, but she’d actually forgotten about Homeland Security. There were too many other things running through her mind.

He swung his legs—his very sexy, muscular legs—off the side of the bed and snapped the laptop shut. “Bring everything with you because we’re not coming back here.”

“Thank God.”

The hard lines of his lips softened at the corners. “This place isn’t that bad.”

“The fact that you say that scares me. What kinds of places have you stayed in?”

Something dark crossed his face before he schooled his features. All traces of that smile were gone. Immediately she regretted what she’d said even if she’d only said it to lighten the atmosphere. Turning, she grabbed her sad little plastic bag of clothes and the hat with the sequined flamingo on the front and headed for the door.

“You can leave the hat,” he said quietly behind her as he gathered his things.

“I know.” The hat was impossibly tacky, but she was going to keep it because Jack had given it to her. It didn’t matter that it had been part of a disguise. Some weird part of her wanted it. When she looked back at him, he had a guarded look on his face, but he didn’t respond. Just palmed the keys to the most recent SUV he’d stolen.

The man was certainly good at that, and while she didn’t want to be impressed by his thievery, watching him in action was pretty hot. Once they were out of the stale-smelling room and heading toward SBMS, she thought she’d feel better. Instead she was terrified at the prospect of facing her boss. Which was so ludicrous she almost laughed out of sheer nervousness. She was with one of the most dangerous men she’d ever met, yet she was scared of seeing her boss, a man she considered a dear friend. She still couldn’t get the images of Jack shooting those guys out of her head. He’d been so focused, so lethal.

“If we run into any problems with SBMS’s security, your only priority is to get out of there. I’ve watched these guys and they’re not going to use lethal force, so no matter what, don’t wait for me if you have a chance to get away.” Jack glanced in the rearview mirror as they pulled out of the motel parking lot.

She sighed. “I thought we’d been through this. I’m not leaving you behind.”

“Sophie—”

“Don’t you ‘Sophie’ me. Having this argument is pointless and one you’ll absolutely lose. . . . Would you leave me behind?”

“Never.” He shot her a hooded look and for a moment, she thought he’d continue arguing, but he returned his attention to the road. “You’re going to call your boss at a quarter till seven and tell him the meeting time has been changed. Then—”

“Jack, I know all this. We’ve been over it a hundred times.” She hadn’t just sat around in the motel room.