He would be alone with her for the first time in years. He would have to work with her, stay with her, protect her.
It might be the most dangerous thing he’d ever done.
“All right, according to your GPS, you’re on the road that leads to the airfield. It should be flat without any structures on either side. I would take the limo out here,” Walt said.
Ariel pulled a ski mask over her head and brought her gun up. “I’m ready. I’m going to blow a tire. It’s a risky move, but I know Kim. She would rather I took the chance than allow her to go with him. God only knows what he’ll do with her. I doubt he’s taking her back to Langley. But this is your call.”
The limo could roll. A car accident could kill her.
She would want him to take the chance. He knew damn well he would want her to. If Levi got her on that plane, she would disappear and he would never see her again, never know what happened to her.
He couldn’t live with that outcome.
“Do it.”
Ariel slid the passenger-side window down and moved her graceful body out, balancing against the windowsill. She showed zero hesitation to put herself in harm’s way. If he lost control, she would be flung out of the vehicle, and there was no way she survived.
So he wouldn’t lose control. He let a cold professionalism settle over him. He was retrieving an asset, that was all. He’d done it a hundred times.
The trouble was the asset he was usually attempting to liberate hadn’t held him late at night, hadn’t wrapped her body around his in perfect communion, hadn’t made his whole world spin.
Hadn’t wrecked his soul with her betrayal. Hadn’t turned to the enemy for comfort.
His hands tightened on the wheel as Ariel took her shot. She only needed one. She took out one of the back tires with the precision of a true artist. A loud screech seemed to bend the air around him, and Ariel slid back into her seat.
The minute her belt clicked on, he slammed on the brakes as the limo swerved and the driver tried to regain control. The back of the limo fishtailed and the sparks flashed from where metal met concrete. Up ahead, he could see the second vehicle slowing down, but Nick and Brody were there. Before the car could stop, they had weapons trained on the men inside.
Nick and Brody had their faces covered. He was the only one who wasn’t going to bother. He didn’t care if they all knew. If he got caught, he would tell them he hired a group of mercenaries and no, he couldn’t quite remember their names.
The limo spun off the road and seemed to hit something that sent it lurching to its side.
He threw the Benz in park and got out of the car. She had to be in that limo. Levi wouldn’t have put her anywhere else. Levi had always said Kim was the queen, and he’d made sure to bring a car fit for one.
Ezra would have brought a car fit for a woman who tended to blow everything up. To him, Kim wasn’t a queen. She was a goddess who controlled so much of his world. Who brought pleasure and pain. Order and chaos.
“Ezra, no bodies.” Ariel was out of the car, moving around to the driver’s side. “We get her and we leave. If we have bodies, we have press.”
And if they had press, they had trouble.
The door came open and he saw the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. Kim crawled from the wreckage, her blonde hair out of its tidy bun and wild around her face. He started to move to help her as the driver door came open and a burly man started to climb out.
Ezra planted his feet and took aim. She couldn’t get across the road if that asshole got between them. “Get your hands up and don’t move if you want to live.”
His gut twisted because this could go south so fucking fast. If the bullets started flying, they would be outnumbered. Where was Levi?
The driver’s hands came up as Kim swung a leg over and managed to drop to the ground. He could see the zip ties on her wrists, but it looked like she’d busted them apart. She had both hands free as she got to her feet. She immediately went for the small holster she kept at her ankle when she wore slacks. She would have a backup there, likely a single-use gun she’d printed. It would be made of resin so it wouldn’t set off metal detectors. Despite the fact that he hadn’t lived with her in years, he still knew her habits. She kept a 3D printer with some super illegal files in most of her safe houses. It would only give her one shot, but sometimes that was all she needed.
The Benz pulled up beside him. Ariel had taken over driving. She’d opened the back seat passenger door so they could both slide in. “Let’s go.”
But Kim seemed to have other ideas. She had that gun in her hand and she turned back to the limo.
He wanted so badly to let her do it, end the threat. But they were sitting on a powder keg, and it could go off any second. “Kim, get in the car. Now.”
She faced him, her expression going stubborn. “He’s right there. He’s knocked out and vulnerable.”
And didn’t that sound perfect? Maybe they did have enough time. Maybe it would be worth it. If he got taken in and Levi was dead, he could handle that particular outcome.
But Brody Carter had a son and a wife, and Nick’s wife had recently given birth to their first, a daughter. Ariel had recently gotten married.
Then the questioning was over because the driver decided to take his shot. The driver moved a hand and came up with a gun pointed right at
