A Covert Affair (Deadly Ops #5)(80)

“No one’s letting me take the fall for this,” he muttered to himself as he pulled her between bench tables and plastic chairs.

There was another door across from them with a red EXIT sign above it. Amelia didn’t want to go with him but couldn’t see another choice. But if they did escape, this guy would have no reason to keep her alive.

She didn’t want to die. God, the thought of never seeing Nathan again, of never getting to tell him that she loved him, had pretty much never stopped . . .

“Drop your weapon! All your people are in custody and you have nowhere to go,” a male voice said from the right of her.

Moving lightning quick, the doctor grabbed her arm and shoved her in front of him so that she was facing the armed man who looked as if he’d stepped off the cover of Soldiers-R-Us. “You drop your weapon or I shoot her in the back!” As if to prove his point, he dug the gun into her spine.

Sweat trickled down the sides of her face even though she was icy-cold with terror.

The other man didn’t flinch. “Don’t be stupid. You have no exit, nowhere to go. If you kill her, we’ll kill you.”

“Put your fucking gun down!” The gun dug tighter against her spine.

She barely felt it, though. There was no way the armed man would do it—

“All right, I’m putting my weapon down. We can talk about this.” He held up one gloved hand, his other one still around the big gun as he started to crouch down with it.

Amelia didn’t want him to put his gun down. She didn’t want to freaking die.

“On the floor. Now!” the doctor shouted in her ear.

She automatically winced as she watched the man gently set his weapon on the floor. If he was here, he had to be working with Nathan. Or she assumed so. Oh God, where was Nathan? Another burst of hope bloomed inside her. Maybe that was why this guy was giving up his weapon.

The doctor wavered as the man started to slowly stand up; she could feel it. He was more relaxed now that a gun wasn’t trained on him. But what if he’d rather die than go to prison? Anything could go wrong, and her rescuer had just given up his gun. Fear slid through her veins, making her even more numb. No way was this going to end well for her.

Suddenly the gun fell away from her back. Before terror could gain even more footing inside her, she fell forward, as if the doctor had shoved her. On instinct she dove for the floor and covered her head. She tensed, waiting for a gunshot to rip through her, when the doctor screamed in pain behind her. A shot blasted through the room, echoing loudly as one of the chairs toppled over from the impact. Before she could react, the gun skittered across the floor. She rolled over.

Nathan!

He had the doctor on his back and was pummeling him in the face, over and over. The middle-aged man was no match for Nathan. The way he looked right now, no one was.

She jumped up and moved to him. “Nathan, stop!” What if he killed an unarmed man? She stepped forward to stop him, but had barely moved. Then the other armed man flew past her.

He grabbed Nathan’s arm, stilling him from beating the unconscious doctor anymore. “Don’t do this. He’s not worth it.”

Nathan looked up at the guy before his eyes locked on hers. Too many emotions swirled inside them as he stood. She’d never seen him look truly angry before. Not like this. As if he could truly kill the man on the floor and not regret it.

She was barely aware of moving until she threw herself into his arms, wrapping her own around him as she buried her face in his neck. “You came for me,” she said on a sob, the words broken and desperate sounding.

His grip on her was solid, the most reassuring thing she’d ever felt. “Amelia.” Just her name, a shuddered declaration.

“I should have trusted you.” The words tore from her throat. “Seventeen or not, I should have trusted you.” Everything seemed so clear now.

He just murmured soothing sounds as he rubbed a hand up and down her back. “Get this piece of garbage out of here,” he murmured to the other man.

She didn’t look up as his teammate dragged the doctor away. With tears stinging her eyes, she pulled back so she could look at him. She cupped his face, needing to touch him. “It was Collette. I killed her and—”

“I know. You’re safe, though. That’s all that matters.” He reached up and tapped something on his earpiece, turning it off, she guessed. His lips skated over hers, the gesture a reassurance she needed. “I don’t care about the past, Amelia. Just tell me there’s a future with us.”

She tightened her fingers behind his neck. “I love you, Nathan. And I’m not letting you go. I don’t care who you work for or anything else, just that you come home to me every night.”

He didn’t say a word, just crushed his mouth over hers with an intensity she felt all the way to her core.

They still had a lot of stuff to work out and she had plenty of questions about how he’d found her and how all the other women were doing, but right now all she cared about was that the man she loved had come for her and wanted a future together.

Nothing else mattered.





Chapter 22


Black operations: covert ops not assigned to the organization performing them.





Two days later

Stretched out on her couch, Amelia smiled lazily as Nathan lifted her legs and propped them on his lap as he settled next to her.