Operation: Midnight Escape. Linda Castillo
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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….
Like it or not, those images were forever branded on her heart.
“He’s never going to stop looking for me, is he?” she asked after a moment.
Jake’s dark expression said it all. “No,” he murmured.
Chapter Four
Jake didn’t think the bullet had hit anything vital, but it hurt like a son of a bitch. By late afternoon he’d accepted the fact that he wasn’t going to make it to his destination, a small town in Michigan. A place where he had friends and family and a safe place to stash Leigh until Rasmussen was caught.
So much for best-laid plans.
The wound throbbed with every beat of his heart. He could feel his clothes sticking to his skin where the blood had dried. The pain was making him sweat, making him cranky. He was going to have to find a place to pull over and check the damage. The question was where. They were in the middle of farm country, somewhere in eastern Kansas, surrounded by fields and prairie grasses.
“Jake, you’re still bleeding. We’re going to have to stop.”
He glanced at Leigh and even though he was hurting and annoyed, her beauty took him aback. He could see how a man could become obsessed with her. She was innocence and sin rolled into a single, stunning package. But his attraction to her went far deeper than her physical beauty. He’d been drawn to the goodness of her soul, to the kindness in her heart that had spoken to his on a level he couldn’t begin to explain.
“I know,” he said. “Not yet.”
“I’m not going to sit here and let you pass out.”
“I’m not going to pass out, damn it.”
But now that she’d mentioned it, he knew she was right. Jake glanced down at the hole in his coat. His stomach fluttered uneasily at the sight of fresh blood. It had soaked his coat and was now dripping onto the seat. Damn. Damn. Damn!
“You don’t want to let a bullet wound go untreated,” she persisted. “Even if it’s minor.”
“I know what I need to do,” he snapped. “Get off my back.”
Just west of the Missouri State line, he turned onto a county road and pulled over. He couldn’t hide the wince of pain when he shifted to ease the cell phone from his belt.
Leigh looked at him, her expression worried. “Do you want me to drive?”
“I just need to make a call.”
He punched the only number he could think of. Mike Madrid was not only a highly trained MIDNIGHT agent but a good friend. Madrid answered on the second ring with a curt utterance of his name.
“This isn’t a secure line,” Jake said.
A pause. “I hope you know you screwed up when you walked out of there this morning.”
“Not the first time.”
“Could be your last if you don’t make nice with Cutter.”
“Look, I have the package, but I got sacked.”
Mike Madrid swore. Sacked was code for shot. “How bad?”
“Minor. But I need an Auntie Em.” A place to stay in Kansas.
“I’ll send you a card.” Code for a text message on Jake’s Blackberry.
“Roger.”
Jake disconnected.
“I didn’t get all of that,” Leigh said.
“Neither did anyone else.” He started to reach for the Blackberry in the back seat, but the movement caused a tearing sensation in the wound, wrenching a groan from him.
“Jake, we’ve got to get you to a doctor.”
“Hand me the Blackberry out of that leather bag, will you?”
Shaking her head, Leigh reached into the bag and withdrew the tiny wireless handheld computer. He tried to take it from her, but she stopped him. “Stop acting like a macho jerk and let me do it for you.”
Shoving back his annoyance, partly because she was right, Jake leaned against the seat. “Hit the power button. Wait for it to boot. Hit Receive.”
He watched her hit the tiny buttons, liking the way her brows knit, the way she bit her lip in concentration. They’d put three hundred miles between them and Rasmussen’s men. But Jake knew it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. Rasmussen would never stop looking for her. Watching her, Jake vowed he would do whatever it took to keep Rasmussen from hurting her.
“It’s a map,” she said after a moment.
Jake reached for the Blackberry and squinted at the tiny screen. “There’s a place we can go to rest about fifty miles north of here.”
“Jake, I don’t think you can make it that far.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
THEY DROVE PAST a huge road sign welcoming them to the great state of Missouri. Quaint farmhouses with silos and big red barns dotted the countryside. The sky had been overcast throughout the day. But as the sun sank in the west, dark clouds began to roil on the northern horizon, and Jake knew it was too cold for rain.
The first flakes of snow swirled as he turned the Hummer onto the gravel lane. In the distance, an old two-story farmhouse rose out of the flat ground like a jut of rock. As they drew nearer, he could see that the house was in rough shape. Paint that had once been white was weathered gray by years of neglect, and the harsh elements of the Midwestern seasons. Two ramshackle barns were just a gust of wind away from falling down. The house was surrounded by two hundred acres of vacant farmland.
The place was desolate and in the open. If anyone came for them, Jake would be able to see them coming. But he didn’t think anyone would find them here. For a few hours they would be safe. Once they rested and he got his wound cleaned up, he could decide what to do next.
“I hope you made reservations,” Leigh said.
All Jake could think was that he wished they were going to the kind of place that required reservations. The kind of place where they could sip champagne in front of a roaring fire. The kind of place with a king-size bed and linen sheets. A place where he could lay her down and peel away her clothes layer by layer until she was naked and trembling beneath him….