Scott closed his eyes and flashed back to beatings from his dad and grueling physical therapy sessions, psyching himself up.Quit thinking and just do it.With a growl, he raced up the chain link. Fire streaked through his leg, but he shoved the pain aside, focusing on making his nearly numb fingers work as he climbed.
At the top, he had no choice but to use his good leg for stability as he swung over. Rather than try to pick his way around the barbed wire and climb down, he vaulted away from the fence. The second his feet hit the ground, his injured leg gave out with a stabbing protest and he landed on his ass.
He stifled a grunt of pain and focused on the water dripping from his hair as he corralled his breath. Three in, six out.This is old hat.
Valerie’s hand landed on his shoulder. “You okay?”
With a nod, he pushed to his feet and took his backpack from Valerie, motioning her forward as he slid the straps over his arms. “Let’s go.”
Dagger-like pain stabbed at his thigh as he set a quick walking pace down the road, but there was no point in slowing down now. What was a little more pain when he was already awash in it?
Scott forced himself to focus on the deserted street, watching the shadows between the barren trees for threats. The glow of streetlights hailed them from about a hundred yards out, and they soon came across a brightly lit building painted dark purple with a dozen cars in the lot.
GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS
Valerie wrinkled her nose at him. “I suppose it was the only thing open twenty-four hours.”
“Close by, anyway. Someone sitting in a car on the street this late would arouse suspicion.”
The door of a black Explorer parked on the side of the building popped open and a short, thin woman in a long parka stepped out, her face hidden in the shadow of the hood that covered her head. She waved and walked toward them.
“Tara?” he asked, grabbing Valerie by the hand and rushing the other woman. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Tara Fujimoto was Steele’s brilliant business manager. She hardly topped five-two in heels and probably didn’t even weigh a hundred pounds. No matter that she was good with a gun, she was no match for Hollowell’s hired thugs.
She raised her head, her pretty face and dark eyes finally visible in the rain-filtered light. Scowling, she said, “Nice to see you too. Get in the car and we can talk on the road.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Leesburg, VA
Wednesday, 3:30 a.m.
ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. APPARENTLY, SCOTT’S job was rife with them, but he didn’t appear happy to see this one.
He directed Valerie to the back seat of the SUV where a wool blanket and several towels lay stacked on the dark leather. Her hands were so numb and shaky that she couldn’t latch the seatbelt, but she had enough control to towel dry her hair and swab her clothes before wrapping the blanket around her body and over her damp head.
Her jaw hurt from trying to prevent her teeth from clacking together, and she couldn’t get her shoulders to relax. Had she ever been this cold?
In the front seat, Scott dried off in silence while Tara backed out of the parking lot. The woman turned down the road away from the small airport and jacked up the heat, blasting blessedly warm air through the vents at Valerie’s feet.
“The drive shouldn’t be bad this late. Less than an hour,” Tara said, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. “By the way, I’m Tara Fujimoto, business manager at Steele. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”
“Hi.” Valerie worked her cold jaw, trying to loosen the clenched muscles.
“I’m not sure if you drink coffee, but it’ll help warm you up,” Tara said, passing back a stainless steel travel mug. “I have cream and sugar if you want it.”
“Thank you.” Valerie added hazelnut-flavored cream and three sugars and clasped the precious mug with both hands. Tara had seemingly thought of everything.
“This one’s yours.” Tara looked at Scott and gestured to another travel mug. “You were limping. What happened?”
“Shrapnel.” He waved off her concern. “Valerie took care of it.”
“Shrapnel?Were you in an explosion?” Tara’s calm, almost flippant voice changed to an impossibly high pitch, fraught with concern. She took the corner a little too fast and they all swayed to the left.
“Someone shot at us as we tried to board the plane.”
“Shit.” She carefully brought the car to a stop to the side of the road just before the on-ramp to the toll road. “Was anyone else hurt?” she asked, glancing back at Valerie, who shook her head. “Is Caitlyn okay?”
