Elle James - Deadly Allure

“Nova?” Nicole blinked her eyes open and stared up into her fellow agent’s face.

“Yeah, it’s me. You look like hell.” Valdez held out his hand and she grabbed it, letting him pull her into a sitting position.

“Way to make a girl self-conscious,” she grumbled.

He snorted, giving her a derisive grin. “Like you’ve ever been that.” His lips turned downward. “What the hell happened? I didn’t know you were scheduled to be here.”

She pressed a hand to the back of her neck. “I wasn’t.”

Creed Thomas stepped up behind Valdez. “Tazer, what’s going on?”

“I was hoping you could tell me.” Her voice was stronger, clipped and, if Dave wasn’t mistaken, strained. “I need your help,” she admitted. “Is there somewhere we can meet that’s not so out in the open?”

Valdez and Thomas converged and helped her down from the truck.

Emma glanced at Dave. “Can we meet on your dive boat?”

He shook his head. “Better take her to the Freedom’s Price,” he said, immediately regretting getting involved, but leading the way to the far end of the marina where the yacht was tied to the end of the dock. Everything about Nicole Steele spelled trouble, from her slim figure to the swell of her breasts and hips beneath the black leather.

When she set her feet on the ground, her knees buckled. Her teammates caught her before she hit the ground.

She laughed shakily. “I’ve been on that bike for two days just to get here.”

“Two days?” Thomas asked. “I thought you were back in D.C.?”

“No. I was on assignment in L.A.” She straightened, her brows forming a tight V over her nose. “Tell me, what’s going on at headquarters? Why aren’t Royce or Geek answering their phones? I couldn’t get them to answer calls or texts.”

“Nothing that I know of. I heard from Royce three days ago.” Thomas frowned. “Come to think of it, he was going to contact me today with my next assignment.” He glanced at his watch and cell phone. “I’ve gotten nothing.”

Valdez scrolled down through the contact list on his phone. “I just returned from a short assignment two days ago and had requested a week off. I didn’t expect to hear from anyone back at HQ.” He hit the send button on his phone and pressed it to his ear. After a moment his gaze met Tazer’s in the light from the post hanging over the dock. “Nothing.”

“Let me get in touch with Sam. I think he and his wife, Kat, were supposed to be in D.C. this week.” Thomas scrolled through his phone contacts, selected the one he wanted and pressed Send, then put the phone on speaker.

After a moment a gravelly voice answered. “Yeah.”

“Sam, it’s Creed.”

“Thank God. Kat and I contacted as many people on the team as I dared to let them know what went down, but couldn’t get them all. One minute it was business as usual, the next, FBI was raiding headquarters. Then all hell broke loose. They nabbed Royce and Geek and all of the SOS computers, and took them to an undisclosed location.”

“Damn,” Thomas said. “What’s going on?”

“We’re not sure. Look, I don’t want to stay on this phone long, in case someone’s somehow monitoring this call. I suggest you ditch all your SOS phones, now. Contact me on Kat’s personal phone, if you need us. Out here.”

Dave’s fists clenched. He wasn’t sure what Thomas and Valdez did, but his gut told him they were the good guys. He had yet another reason not to trust the government or those who considered themselves “in charge.”

Valdez swore softly. “We need to get back to D.C. to find out what happened.” He started for the parking lot.

“Wait.” Nicole stuck out an arm. “I have a bad feeling it has something to do with my last assignment.” She glanced toward Dave.

Dave shrugged. “Don’t worry about me. I have better things to do than listen to conspiracy theories.”

Emma backhanded him in the belly. “Don’t mind Dave, he can be grumpy in his best mood.” She winked at him and leaned into the conversation. “Want me to leave so you three can talk all the supersecret stuff you do so well?”

Nicole glanced from Thomas to Emma and back to Thomas.

“We can trust her,” Creed said.

“And Molly,” Valdez confirmed.

“I’m just a mere mortal small-town cop, maybe Kayla and I should bug out.” Gabe McGregor glanced at his watch. “Dakota should be ready to climb the walls babysitting Tonya.”

“He’s so good with her, I know I take advantage of him,” Kayla said softly, pushing a strand of her curls behind her ear. “We can leave.”

“No.” Nicole put out her hand and touched Kayla’s arm as she and Gabe turned to leave. “Now that you know I’m here, you need to know what I’m up against.” She glanced at Dave. “You, too.”

Dave snorted. “No, thanks. I have to secure the boat for the night.”

“Yeah, right,” Emma said. “Stay and hear what Tazer has to say.”

“Could we take it inside?” Nicole asked, glancing over her shoulder again as if she expected the boogeyman to pop out of the shadows.

Not really wanting to be dragged into the drama of special agents, Dave motioned toward the dilapidated yacht. “Take her inside. There should be enough room for all of us below.”

They followed him aboard his yacht fixer-upper and descended the steps into the living area, crowding around the tiny dining table. Dave had been in the process of repairing the teak wood paneling. Some of the doors were missing and the cushions had seen better days.

“If someone’s following you, perhaps we should take you directly to the police,” Kayla said as they settled on the worn cushions.

“No.” Nicole held up her hand. “I don’t know who to trust. I barely got away from L.A. and though I might have lost my tail, something tells me they’ll find me soon enough.”

“Tazer, slow down. Who’s following you? And why?” Valdez reached out and gripped her hands. “Good God, woman, you’re shaking.”

Dave stared at the beautiful blonde. “You’ve been on the road for more than two days straight? On that motorcycle?”

She nodded, the shadows beneath her eyes appearing even darker in the cabin’s limited lighting.

“Have you eaten?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I had a couple candy bars from rest-area vending machines. I didn’t want to stop long enough for anyone to catch up to me.”

Dave reached into the fridge and pulled out sandwich meat and cheese slices. In less than a minute he’d slapped them on bread and handed it to her. “Eat this.”

Nicole took it, glancing up at him with a tired smile. “Thanks.”

“Start from the beginning,” Creed Thomas said. “Don’t leave anything out.”

* * *

Dave hated to admit it, but he was glad they hadn’t excluded him from Tazer’s story. He hadn’t heard a story that good since the last action movie he’d seen at the theater in Portland.

He glanced at the model-thin woman with the glorious mane of blond hair and shook his head. He found it hard to believe she was some undercover secret agent. Not when she looked weak enough to be broken in two with his bare hands. After she’d thrown him, however, he’d known how deceiving her looks could be.

When she finished her story, he was even more amazed. “So what you’re telling us is that you have some data someone’s willing to move heaven and earth to retrieve?”

“Looks that way.” She shoved a hand through her hair, her face pale with exhaustion.

“I’d call that breaking and entering, which constitutes a felony.” Dave shook his head. “Which means I’m harboring a felon. Nice.”

Nicole stared at him with narrowed eyes. “We do what has to be done to protect our country from criminals.”