Then the elevator stopped, and they were stepping off into a corridor of luxury stores.
“They’re going to figure out our new route,” she muttered, then pushed him lightly as they reached the door at the end of the hall.
This opened back into the airport, across from a small gate with a smattering of people waiting in front of it. None of the people around them looked up right away—but down the concourse, Sydney could already see a couple of startled passengers recognize him, their fingers pointing in his direction.
“Now what?” Winter grumbled.
“Now we’re going to set off an alarm and possibly get you banned from this airport.” Sydney glanced at him. “Ready?”
“No,” Winter said, but she had already grabbed his hand and walked right past the ticket counter at the small gate across from them.
A lady in a starched shirt behind the counter blinked at the sight of them. “You can’t go through there!” she shouted—then abruptly stopped talking when she recognized Winter’s face. Sydney just gritted her teeth and kept walking.
“Stop,” Winter told her. “Stop.We’re going to get this entire airport locked down.”
“Claire’s problem,” Sydney replied.
“Ours too, if we get arrested and kicked out of the country.”
“You’re not going to get arrested for this,” Sydney said as she cast him a knowing side-eye. “They’ll want you out of this airport as soon as possible.”
“You don’t think causing this much of a scene is going to blow our cover?”
She just lifted an eyebrow. “Do you want people to believe I’m a competent bodyguard or not? At least there’ll be footage of me doing my hypothetical job.”
And before Winter could say anything else, she pushed open a heavy door leading right out onto the tarmac that was markedEMERGENCY.
An alarm blared on, followed by a rush of air. Suddenly they were outside, a hot, humid wind hitting Sydney in the face. Around the bend was the row of Winter’s private caravan waiting for him and his team, black-suited men standing at the ready in front of each car.
Then she saw him.
She wouldn’t have noticed the man approaching if it hadn’t been for her training. He looked like a typical traveler at the airport, T-shirt a little rumpled, step a little hurried, one hand dragging a bag stacked on top of a suitcase—maybe someone perplexed by the commotion who just wanted to get to his flight. As they rushed toward the waiting cars, the man headed toward the entrance nearest to them.
Sydney caught the slight shift of the man’s eyes, and the way theysettled for a heartbeat not on Winter—but on her. She memorized his face in a flash.
As if in slow motion, she saw his free hand disappear into his coat pocket.
Her instincts kicked in before her mind could. Before she even saw the glint of a knife cutting through the air, her body was moving—shifting sideways out of reach, her hands seizing Winter and pulling him to her other side, her head tilting backward in defense.
The man swung at her at the same time as she moved. The attack lasted barely a second—a lunge that Sydney barely managed to dodge.
When she caught a glimpse of his face, she could see the surprise in his eyes. He tried striking a second time. His movement was so fast that Winter didn’t even react—so distracted was he still by the crowd that was starting to cluster again around them.
Sydney whirled to look at Winter, making sure he was out of harm’s way. When she looked back in the direction of their attacker, he had vanished into the throng.
Her eyes searched the masses frantically. She had trailed plenty of people before—she was good at tracking, and her memory had preserved the man’s face as if in amber, his every feature clear and distinct in her mind. But he had disappeared into the crowd as if he had never existed. She looked in vain for his frumpy hair, his bag and suitcase, a figure facing away from them while everyone else was turned in their direction.
Winter had noticed her expression by now. He frowned, but there was no time to stop, no time to ask questions. Sydney just shook her head and motioned for them to keep moving toward the cars.
They were the first to arrive. Sydney kept searching the crowd as their door slid closed, sealing them in and offering them a temporary respite from the noise. At last, they saw Claire cutting through the crowd toward the second car, followed by Dameon and Gavi. As if on cue, Sydney’s and Winter’s phones buzzed with texts from Claire almost simultaneously.
Don’t ever do that again,she messaged to Sydney. But even through the text, Sydney could sense the gratitude.
“What happened back there?” Winter said as their car began to pull away.
Sydney shook her head and let out a sigh. “Sorry. Couldn’t help going a different route. There’s no way you could have made it through the direct path. You saw the crowd.”
Winter let out his breath. “Claire’s furious.”
