Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(53)

Rand didn’t know the man’s record, but the way both Hector and Sarah had reacted to him was enough to tell him—he didn’t want to run into Wei. Ever. Especially not with Sarah.

A smaller elevator dinged ahead.

He didn’t think. He shoved Sarah into the vending alcove, wedging her into the narrow space between the wall and a soda machine. It wasn’t big, but he somehow managed to fit both of them in the miniscule hidey-hole.

If it came to violence… If it was Wei… Rand wouldn’t hesitate.

Someone whistled, strolling down the hall. Rand hardly dared to breathe.

He could hear Sarah’s hitched breathing, the strain of it all wearing on her. She was doing so well, and yet this wasn’t what she’d been trained for.

The whistling got more distant. He edged out and peered right, then left. “Come on.”

Sarah jogged, keeping pace with him to the staircase on the other side of the hotel.

If they could get out of this place, if they could get on the street, their odds of surviving would be better. But the hotel was a death trap. A warren of dead ends and only a handful of exits.

“No, no, no.” Sarah pulled him back away from the door.

“What?”

She held up the phone and shook her head. He followed her lead, back down the hall and around a corner.

There. A map.

He peered at the “You Are Here” dot, the staircase and—there it was.

“This way.” He grabbed her hand and pushed them into a fast paced jog, the bug out bag bouncing against his hip.

Rand patted his pockets, searching for the right key card. Aha!

He swiped the key card on a door marked employees only. The door opened into a tiny break room, which in turn led into a sort of laundry service area. A man stood folding sheets at a table. He glanced up, brow furrowed.

Shit.

“Hey, hey, you aren’t supposed to be in here,” he said as though it were a practiced line.

“Sorry.” Rand ducked down the wide hall and into the service elevator entrance and swiped the card.

The doors rolled apart, the smell from the kitchens below wafting up to them.

“Hey, how’d you—”

The elevator doors slid shut.

Rand jabbed the button for the basement. The first floor would be watched far too carefully. They were better off looking for another exit. Something not so clearly marked.

“What are they saying?” Rand asked.

“They just found the guy in the closet. He’s…wait…he’s dead. His throat was cut. But…” Sarah stared up at him, confusion creasing her face.

“It wasn’t me.”

“I know, but…why?”

“Bad people do bad things. Come on.”

They reached the basement level. Rand once again put his hand on the gun, ready to pull it if it came to that. Wei had to be right behind them.

Killing one of their own would make the others more determined to catch them. It might also empower the police to do their job for them, depending on how Wei staged it. Rand would have a surveillance loop ready. He knew how he’d do it, what he’d leave behind. All the evidence would be back in their rooms.

Rand edged out, listening to the voices of the hotel staff at work. A red exit sign at the end of the hall was a beacon of hope.

“Quickly, quietly,” he whispered to Sarah.

She nodded.

They kept their heads up, hands clasped together, walking with purpose toward the door.

Covert work was different in each country, but most of the time if he walked around like he belonged somewhere, no one thought to second-guess him.

He pushed the door open slowly, peering out into the night. It was cool, with a light rain. The door let out onto a small landing at the foot of a stair. The key card entry was marked staff entrance.

Rand let go of Sarah’s hand and gestured for her to wait. He half-drew one of the weapons and peered out onto the street.

Wei was ready to kill. Which meant Rand had to be prepared as well.

Besides a few people that appeared to be hotel staff out for a smoke, the coast was clear. He waved Sarah after him.

They were just about free.

He kept his eyes peeled for a taxi, something that would get them away from here. The metro would work, but they could always be followed that way.

“What’s going on? What are they saying?” He peered over her shoulder.

“Nothing.”

“They know we have the phone.”

He took it from her, popped the back off and pried the battery out. He shoved the pieces into a garbage can as they passed.

A man stepped around the corner as they approached the intersection.

Sarah gasped.

Rand didn’t have time to draw his weapon. He grabbed the handle of his still holstered weapon tucked up against his side and walked straight into the man. Rand would fire through the holster if he had to. For now he pressed against the smaller man’s back.

“Don’t turn around. Don’t speak. Don’t even breathe,” he growled in his ear.

The man—Li was what Sarah had called him—trembled.

He was an office boy, a gopher. Sarah had spoken to him warmly, as if he might not be all that bad. And yet…he was part of the group who would eventually figure out that they needed Sarah alive. His gut said kill him, but the rest of him wasn’t so sure.