Linda Castillo - Operation - Midnight Escape

“Take some deep breaths,” he said.

She did, and slowly the nausea receded. In its wake, she was hit by the wrenching knowledge that they’d come very close to being killed. That a monster was out of its cage. That he was a predator and she was his prey, and he wouldn’t stop until he killed her. Then she remembered the blood on Jake’s coat and her focus shifted.

“How bad are you hit?”

“Just a nick.”

A shudder of relief went through her. “How can Rasmussen be so organized and have so much power after six years in prison?”

“He’s had a lot of contact with the outside. Lawyers. Accountants. He’s got money stashed in overseas banks. He’s connected. He’s brutal. There aren’t many people willing to cross him.” Jake grimaced. “You crossed him.”

“So did you.”

His jaw flexed. “Yeah, well, he’s not obsessed with me.”

She looked down and saw that her hands were shaking. She hated being afraid, hated having to look over her shoulder. She’d spent the past six years rebuilding her life. A new name. A new job. A new apartment. Now, just when she’d finally found some semblance of normalcy and a life she was content with, the nightmare was starting all over again.

“Where are we going?”

“For now we’re just putting some distance between us and those sons of bitches with guns.”

Feeling sick again, she put her face in her hands. Hot tears burned behind her lids, but Leigh had grown adept at keeping a handle on her emotions. What she couldn’t control was the fear. She was so tired of feeling like a victim.

After a moment she drew a deep breath and looked at Jake. Her gaze went to the hole in his coat. Right side, just above his hip. It was the size of a quarter. The surrounding material was blood soaked.

“Oh, Jake, you’re bleeding.”

“I can drive.”

“That’s more than just a nick. It looks bad. You need to—”

“We can’t stop, Leigh.”

“Can you call someone at the agency for help? Have them meet us somewhere? Get you some medical attention?”

Jake didn’t answer, but she saw his hands tighten on the wheel, and something else began to niggle at her. It surprised her that even after so many years, she still knew him so well. They’d spent one short week together a lifetime ago. But it had been a week of life-and-death danger, of breathless intensity and a roller-coaster ride of emotions. They’d had a common goal, had been fighting a common monster. And for a precious moment in time, they’d shared the same reckless passions….

Leigh pushed those memories away. “Don’t you have to call in to the agency and let them know what happened?”

Jake glanced at her, the rearview mirror and then back to the road ahead. “No.”

“What do you mean no?”

“I mean I walked away from the agency this morning.”

Leigh didn’t know what to say. For Jake it had always been about the job. About getting his man, no holds barred. He defined himself by his work. Six years ago he’d been willing to sacrifice her to get at Rasmussen. Something she’d never been able to forgive him for.

She knew all too well how much his job with the MIDNIGHT Agency meant to him. She couldn’t help but wonder why he would walk away. She told herself it didn’t matter. Nothing he did now was going to change what had happened six years ago. But then, she’d always been good at lying to herself when it came to Jake.

“I hope your leaving the agency didn’t have anything to do with me,” she said.

“If I hadn’t walked away this morning, you’d be lying stone-cold dead back at that motel.” He shot her a dark look. “Or else on your way to Rasmussen.”

“You don’t know that.”

His laugh told her he did. “You might think you can handle this on your own, Leigh, but I’m telling you, you can’t. I’m asking you not to try.”

“I’m not the same dumb kid I was when I met you, Jake.”

“I never thought you were a dumb kid.”

“You just treated me like one. Until it came time for you to get what you needed, anyway.” Leigh shivered as the memory of that day pressed into her. The MIDNIGHT Agency had wired her for sound. She’d met with Rasmussen at his Michigan Avenue loft. It had been the worst day of her life. But she’d gotten Rasmussen to incriminate himself on tape. Only, she’d had to sell her soul to do it….

Shaking off the memory, she sighed. “Look, I know how to disappear. All I need is a new name. A new city—”

“He’s not going to stop looking for you,” Jake interrupted. “How long do you think you can hide? A week? A month? A year? Sooner or later your number is going to come up.”

“He’s a fugitive. He can’t elude the police indefinitely.”

“If he flees the country, it could be years before we get him. He’s got the resources to stay hidden as long as it takes.”

“As long as it takes for what?” As soon as the words were out she regretted them, because she knew what he was going to say.

“To find you,” he said tightly. “I don’t even want to think about what he’ll do to you. Damn it, you know him, Leigh. He’s obsessed with you. He’s bent on revenge. Motivated by jealousy and hate and ego. You saw the way he looked at you in court the day you testified against him. He’s fixated on you. He knows what happened—” He bit off the words and looked away. “Between us.”

Even with her heart pounding with fear, she felt an unwelcome surge of heat at the mention of what had happened between her and Jake six years ago. Leigh knew it was crazy, but that was the way it had been between them. Even with their lives on the line, they hadn’t been able to resist each other. A single, earth-shattering night in his arms and she’d been lost….

“How could I have been so naive to get involved with a man like Ian Rasmussen?” she whispered.

Jake rolled his shoulder. “You couldn’t have known what kind of man he was. He kept his secrets well hidden. He was Chicago’s favorite bad-boy bachelor. He had a successful North Michigan Avenue restaurant. The local media loved him.”

“I was with him for almost a year.”

“Don’t start the blame game, Leigh. You were young. Inexperienced. He knew that and used those things to manipulate you.”

Even after all this time, it made her feel like a fool. Yes, she’d been young—just twenty-one when she met Ian Rasmussen. But why had it taken so long for her to see him for what he really was?

As if realizing where her thoughts had gone, Jake turned to her. “If it hadn’t been for you, he never would have gone to trial.”

The mention of the trial made her feel queasy. The court proceedings had been a nightmare. Leigh had taken the stand to testify against Rasmussen. Only, Rasmussen’s high-powered lawyer had done his best to put her and the MIDNIGHT Agency on trial instead. That was when it had come out that she and Jake had been intimate. That the MIDNIGHT Agency had formally disciplined Jake for inappropriate conduct with a witness. Rasmussen’s lawyer had tried to use the information to get the case thrown out. The judge however had seen through the ruse. But Rasmussen had gone off the deep end. Not only had Leigh betrayed him by wearing a wire and getting him on tape for the feds, but she’d betrayed him on an even deeper level by sleeping with the very man who’d brought him down.

For a second, when she looked across the seat at Jake, she saw him as the man he’d been six years ago. He’d been her protector, heat and strength and steel control. But Leigh had seen that control fracture. She would never forget the way he’d looked at her the first time he’d kissed her. The way his eyes had gone dark when he’d touched her. She would never forget the way he’d trembled when he’d been inside her. Or the moment when her own control had shattered with a power that had moved her to tears….