A Covert Affair (Deadly Ops #5)(61)

And this wasn’t the kind of conversation she could have with Nathan via text. Besides, he probably wouldn’t even tell her the truth anyway. He hadn’t told her about finding the bodies. Granted, he probably wasn’t allowed to tell her, but if the freaking media knew, it should be okay to tell her something. She’d put her neck on the line by going over to Mercado’s house.

Shaking her head, she stepped into her office and collapsed in the comfortable chair. Her neck and shoulders were a little sore, as if she’d run a 10K or done a bunch of push-ups. That was the least of her worries. Someone who wanted to do her serious harm was still out there.

And she had no idea who it was.

Neal Gray was a definite possibility. She hadn’t even thought of him after the first time someone rammed into her Jeep, but now that Tessa was missing she was thinking twice. She’d already given Sinclair a list of women who Gray had harassed, but she needed to contact them directly herself. If she didn’t and something happened, it would weigh on her forever.

Glancing at the wall calendar, she saw that two of the girls were on shift right now. Good, she could tell them later. Amelia nodded at Sylvia as she brought a cup of coffee in and picked up the office phone. She was calling the others now.

“Will you shut the door behind you?” she whispered as the phone started ringing.

Sylvia quickly ducked out. When Amelia was alone, she slumped back against the chair, not bothering to put on her happy face. After these calls she wanted to do the rounds at the restaurant and let everyone see she was fine.

Twenty minutes later, her calls were made. None of the girls seemed particularly worried about Gray—and that bothered Amelia. People never seemed to think bad things would happen to them. Until they did.

She stood and tucked her pepper spray into one of her pockets. She felt a little silly carrying it around, but after the attacks on her she wasn’t taking any chances. She also wanted her cell phone with her, so when she couldn’t find it, she cursed. On the way to work she’d called a few friends using her hands-free system and had left the phone on her center console.

Her flat boots were quiet on the floor as she strode down the short hallway to the open kitchen. The loud blast of voices and clanking dishes filled the air, comforting her. It was an assault on her senses after the quiet of her office, but she welcomed it. If anything she needed it to feel a semblance of normal again.

“Amelia, surprised to see you here. You look good,” Toni, a pixie-sized server, said as she hurried by Amelia in the direction of the walk-in freezer.

She didn’t even have time to respond before a cacophony of other voices mirrored the same sentiment. Smiling and feeling a hundred times lighter, she snagged Mark, the nearest server. His order pad and pens were tucked into the front of his long black apron, but he didn’t have any plates in his hand. “Can you spare twenty seconds?”

“Sure, boss. What’s up?” he asked as they started back down the side hallway for the back door. “Thought you got in an accident yesterday. Shouldn’t you be resting or something?”

She was just going to hang a sign around her neck that said “I’m fine.” As soon as she had the thought, she felt ungrateful. She should be glad so many people cared. “I’m good, promise. Just need to grab something from my car and don’t want to do it alone.” Nathan had told her that her “escort” would be waiting in the parking lot and watching her all day, but she didn’t have a way to contact the driver/temporary watchdog. And she sure as hell wasn’t calling Nathan to tell him to tell the guy she was walking outside to get her freaking cell phone.

That sounded insane even as she thought it.

“Sure.” He started walking with her. “So, what happened yesterday? I heard you were, like, hospitalized.”

She snorted and shot him a glance. He was a foot taller than her, so she had to look up. “And you believed the gossip?”

He grinned, his expression boyish as they stepped out into the sunlight. “Wasn’t sure what to think. We were all worried about you, though.”

“I appreciate it. As you can see, I’m good, so spread the word.” They were halfway across the back of the paved lot when she realized she’d forgotten her SUV keys. “Apparently I need more caffeine today. I forgot my keys.”

Mark laughed lightly. “No worries.”

As they started to turn back, a blur of motion to her left caught her eye. A medium-sized man wearing a mask jumped out from behind a row of vehicles, a gun in his hand! He was less than fifteen feet from them. Panic seized her lungs, making it difficult to breathe. Everything seemed to slow for a moment as he raised it toward Mark. She felt rooted to the spot, her gaze locked on the weapon in horror.

It wasn’t a gun, she realized. A Taser.

The man fired, the dart flying straight for Mark. Her employee flew back, crying out in pain as he hit the ground.

Calling on all her strength, she started screaming at the top of her lungs, piercing the late-morning air. She pulled out her pepper spray and ran right for the guy.

Her assault seemed to take him off guard, because he stumbled back. She’d read up on Tasers and knew the shooting type could only fire once. She raised her arm, still screaming her head off, and fired a stream of liquid at the guy.

She nailed him right in the face.

A perverse sense of pleasure punched through her when his hands flew to his eyes and he bellowed in pain. She could hear Mark groaning but kept all her focus on their attacker. The weapon dropped from his hand, but she kept spraying. The man’s knees hit the ground, his cries of agony music to her ears. She needed to get Mark away from here, but she needed to make sure this guy was down. For all she knew he had another weapon hidden on him.