9. Charlotte
CHAPTER NINE
Charlotte
Torres went for his weapon. At the same moment, there was a loud pop. A dark spot appeared in Mr. Wall Street’s forehead. But Torres hadn’t shot him.
Strong arms closed around me from behind, tugging me backward. I drew in my breath to scream.
“Charlie, it’s me.” I could barely hear him over the ringing in my ears.
“ River ?”
Torres had his weapon out now. He spun to face me, eyes wide as he saw River behind me. “Drop it!”
“Not advisable,” River said. “We’ve got more coming.”
He put me behind him. A new figure had just emerged from the darkness of the gardens with a pistol in his fist, a ski mask obscuring his face. He charged at us, leaping over Mr. Wall Street’s limp form on the ground. River fired twice more. Tap. Tap . Just like the first shot, the sound was muffled. River had a suppressor on his gun. Otherwise, my hearing would be far worse, considering how close I’d been when he fired those shots.
The assailant collapsed. My breaths came quick and shallow. River and Torres both herded me further into the small lobby. The lights were on but dimmed.
“Who the hell are you?” Torres had turned sideways, gaze darting from the glass doors to River and back again.
“The guy who just saved your ass.”
“He’s a friend we can trust,” I interrupted. “River, there’s another agent bringing a car. Rainey. He should be here any moment.”
Somewhere nearby, tires squealed. There was a loud crash of metal. More gunshots.
“I think Agent Rainey’s having trouble, just like we’re about to.” River lifted his chin. “Incoming.”
More shapes emerged, this time on the parking lot side of the building. Someone kicked at the lobby door. The glass webbed with cracks. I flinched and grabbed River’s arm.
The door held, probably locked from the inside, but it wouldn’t for long.
“I’ll hold them off and wait for backup!” Torres shouted. “Lieutenant Governor, get to safety and notify the police of your location. I’ll catch up to you!”
“Okay.”
“Go!”
River was already tugging me down a hallway. We ran, my boots thudding against carpet. Office doors flew past.
More gunfire erupted in the lobby. Glass shattered. I cursed, wanting to look back, but I didn’t. I just prayed Agents Torres and Rainey were all right. And Brynn…the others at the fundraiser…
This was madness .
“In here.” River tried an office door, seemingly at random. It was locked, so he slammed his heel into the wood. It splintered and popped open. We went inside. It was dark except for the light from outside bleeding through the blinds .
River didn’t turn on the overheads. He lifted his jacket and slid his weapon into a concealed holster. The metal glinted as it disappeared. I stared at it.
I’d seen him kill two men like it was nothing. He’d barely broken a sweat. I’d known that River had probably killed people, but to see it…
“Your phone,” he said.
“What?”
“Your cell phone. Do you have it?”
“Yeah. Both of them.” I held up my clutch. “One personal, one for work.”
He went to the blinds. Didn’t touch them, but peered through the cracks. “Put them both in airplane mode. Then turn them off.”
I nodded, doing as he’d said. Phones were too easy to track.
If River could hack my devices, who else could?
My personal cell was already off because I’d powered it down earlier. I had to wake it up to switch to airplane mode. Two more missed calls from Jud. And texts. The man had picked a strange night to get back in touch. In the back of my mind, I wondered if there could be some connection. But no, that made no sense. Either way, I didn’t have a shred of patience to spare for Jud Hale.
“What are you doing?” River snapped.
“I’m trying to do what you said! Jeez.” I finished powering my personal cell off. Then the work one. “What now?”
“I need to make sure this side of the building isn’t being watched. This is our exit route.”
“You say that like you planned it in advance.”
“I did.”
I stared at him. He was serious.
Peering through the window, River observed whatever he could see outside. Meanwhile, I watched him, wishing I could see inside his head.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t just stay here?” I asked. “The police and SWAT and a thousand FBI agents are probably on their way.”
“Which is exactly why we need to go . They could be working for Stillwater.”
He’d mentioned a corrupt official in Hartley, but this would be a much vaster conspiracy. “How do you know that? Do you have proof ?”
“I don’t have time to explain it all, Charlie.”
“You never do.” I rubbed my bare arms, suddenly cold. “You do what you want, and expect me to deal with it. Meanwhile, for all I know, three FBI agents who stuck their necks out for me could be dead. One of them my best friend. Where the hell were you when Brynn got sick? I thought you’d left! You weren’t even paying attention to what was going on!”
“I assure you that I was.”
“Stop being so fucking calm!” I shouted.
A noise like a slamming door came from somewhere in the building. It was a lot closer than the last sounds we’d heard from the lobby. I gasped, and River lunged at me, pressing me against the wall.
We both went silent. Listening.
Footsteps.
My throat squeezed, cutting off my breath.
“Two people,” he whispered. “I’ll take care of them. Then we’ll go.” River bent, lifted his pant leg, and produced a knife. He placed it handle-first into my palm. “Hide until I’m back.”
“ River ,” I hissed.
But he was gone, slipping like a wraith through the gap in the broken door frame .
I would’ve given anything for my bow and arrow right now.
Assessing the dark office, I chose a spot where I’d be out of sight to anyone looking into the room, but in a strong position if they ventured inside. I held the knife ready.
There was a commotion in the hall. I flinched when I heard two muffled gunshots. Small grunts of effort. Something smacking into a wall. I winced.
Then a shadow suddenly loomed in the doorway.
Not River .
This man was far bulkier, wearing a stocking cap pulled over his face. Gun in his hand. I squeezed the handle of the knife.
My body vibrated as I tried to hold still.
Wait. Wait .
The man took another step. His head swiveled in my direction.
I lashed out with the knife. The tip buried in his chest, but I met tough resistance. He was wearing some kind of vest. I tried to pull the knife free. Bellowing, he turned and smacked me into the wall. Pain burst in my shoulder.
Pop. Pop . The assailant crumpled onto the ground. River stood in the doorway, weapon extended and a terrifying blankness to his expression. Eyes like a shark.
I slumped beside the wall, panting, but I managed to push myself upright. River grabbed my arm to help me. Hauled me against him. He was breathing hard too. I felt his heart beating almost as fast as mine.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Your jacket is torn.”
“It’s nothing. Tailored jackets aren’t meant for hand-to-hand combat.”
For a brief moment, I relished the comfort of his solid weight .
Then I separated from him and rolled my shoulder. “Yeah. I’m okay. What happened out there?”
“I handled the two I heard. Didn’t realize this one was skulking around too. Sorry about that.”
Holy shit. How many of them were there?
River bent over the dead man, avoiding the ooze of blood on the floor. The pool looked black in the low light.
“I tried to stab him. Didn’t go all the way in. He’s wearing a vest.”
River pulled the knife free. “You nicked him.” He wiped the blade on his torn jacket. “But go for the head and neck next time.”
“You’ll let me keep the knife?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Or you could give me your spare gun. I know you’ve got one on you somewhere.”
He smirked. “Knife it is.”
With a few swift motions, he unstrapped the knife holster from his ankle and handed it to me. “Need me to put it on you?”
His hands on my leg beneath my dress? Nope, not what I needed. At all. “I can figure it out.”
While I strapped the holster onto my leg, River crouched beside the body and checked the dead man’s pockets.
That was when I noticed the heavy belt the man wore. Handcuffs, pepper spray, utility pouches. River pulled something from beneath the man’s jacket.
A badge.
“He’s a cop ?”
River nodded. “Looks that way.” He took a few more things, including the dead man’s radio. He stuck the earpiece into his own ear.
“This can’t be right.” I was going to be sick. But River didn’t look surprised .
“I saw the donor with the white goatee leave the party. He took a side garden path and met with one of the off-duty cops who was providing perimeter security. This guy. The cop handed the donor a gun. Then I followed the donor, and he went straight for you . These are Stillwater’s people, Charlie.”
I murmured a curse. That was why River had disappeared. “Brynn must’ve gotten sick around then.” I remembered her chatting with me at the bar. She’d only taken a few sips of her soda. “The bartender was part of this too?”
“Entirely possible. They got Agent Somerton out of the way, knowing the other agents would immediately extract you. Then attacked Rainey when he went for the car. It was down to just Agent Torres. Manageable.”
“But they couldn’t have known in advance that the FBI would be here. I’d only arranged it with Brynn a couple hours before!”
“Unless a Stillwater mole inside the FBI leaked it.” River stood and turned those shark-like eyes on me again. “I don’t think they’re trying to kill you. They wouldn’t need this kind of manpower for an assassination. They intend to kidnap you.”
“But you said…”
“I did my best. I admitted there were things I didn’t know.”
The room spun, but I summoned all my willpower and banished the dizziness. The panic. I refused to believe that Brynn or her colleagues could have turned on me. No way. But unless this man’s police uniform was fake, then Stillwater had law enforcement officers in their pocket. Just as River had told me before. I hadn’t wanted to believe it.
It was happening, though. It was real.
“Why?” That was the question I kept asking. “What could kidnapping me accomplish?”
“I can’t answer that. But this is the problem with operating based on limited intel and assumptions. Any plan goes to shit that much quicker. For either side. Good thing I put my own contingencies in place.” River took my hand. His palm was smooth and dry. “We need to move.”
We made our way down the hallway again. A brief glance behind me revealed two people sprawled in growing pools of blood. I shuddered and faced forward again.
River pushed through a fire door. Checked the next hallway, then pulled me into it. We didn’t go far. There was another door, this one marked Emergency Exit .
“Is it alarmed?” I asked.
“Possible. So we’d better be quick. When we get outside, we’ll go right. The path will take us to an alley leading out of the botanic gardens property and into the surrounding neighborhood. I left a car parked by an apartment building about a block away.”
His contingency plan. Well, I hadn’t prepped for catastrophe like River apparently had, but I could think on my feet. “Wait, I have an idea.”
I used the small hammer on the wall to smash the glass over the fire alarm and pulled it. A siren sounded. Hopefully the presence of the fire department would hamper the bad guys, even if they had corrupt cops working for them.
River lifted his chin in approval. “Nice,” his lips said, though I couldn’t hear him well over the siren. We pushed through the exit door. He held me back for a second, and then we were running down the dark path.
We took the alley next, right where River had said it would be, and ran until we’d reached the mouth of it. The gardens were in a historic neighborhood of sprawling mansions and modern towers alike.
Sirens in the distance. Whether police or fire, or whose side they’d be on, I didn’t know.
River holstered his gun. I had a passing curiosity about what kind of holster he used for his suppressed weapon, and how he’d managed to keep it invisible despite the way his suit fitted his lean, muscular body like a glove.
He pressed his fingers to the earpiece he’d taken from the dead man. “They’ve got cars circling the surrounding streets looking for you. Trying to find you before they have to abort.” He listened again. “They know someone’s with you, but they don’t know who. Their commander is pissed off, that’s for sure. They’re scrambling.”
“Anything about Agents Torres or Rainey? Are they alive?”
“I don’t know. But FBI agents are well trained. They probably took out a bunch of Stillwater’s foot soldiers and then made sure the rest of the event guests got out safely. Including Brynn.”
I wanted to believe that, but it sounded like River was just trying to make me feel better. “Where’s your car?”
He pointed across the street, where the alley continued.
A sedan drove by. We crouched down in the shadows. “Is it them?” I whispered.
“I don’t know.” River slipped his arm around my waist. “We’re going to cross the street nice and calm with big grins on our faces. Like we just left a party and had a great time. Nothing to see here. Ready?”
I exhaled. “Trying to be.”
River held my chin between his fingers, making me look at him. “You’re so much prettier when you smile, sweetheart.”
I blinked at him. “You did not just say that.”
“What? You don’t like being told to smile?”
“I suppose it could be worse. You could’ve told me to stop being hysterical.”
“I could have. But it’s hard for me to walk calmly when I’ve just been kneed in the balls. ”
“True. Going to take off that earpiece? If anyone sees it, that might be a giveaway you’re not just a casual partygoer.”
“Good point.” He took off the earpiece, slipped my hand into his, and casually sauntered into the street, tugging me along. And somehow, I actually was smiling.
We were nearly across when I heard an engine. Saw headlights on my periphery. Another car had just turned onto the street. I gripped River’s hand.
“Don’t run,” he warned. “Keep smiling. Stay relaxed.”
The alley was just steps away. We were almost there.
But instead of ducking into its dark reaches, River spun me and pushed me up against a parked SUV.
And suddenly, his hands were everywhere . Tracing the shape of my body along the sides of my gown.
He dipped his head to whisper in my ear. “It would help if you look like you’re enjoying this.”
“Um…” Any coherent response was lost between my synapses, which seemed to be misfiring all over the place.
The headlights were getting closer. I dug my fingers into River’s hair, mussing it even more than it already was. Our eyes met.
And wow, was he playing his part. He looked like he wanted to devour me.
He glanced at my mouth. Leaned in.
He was going to kiss me.
But his lips pressed to the skin just below my mouth instead. A soft touch, cherishing, even though I felt the tension in his muscles as the car neared us. I squeezed my eyes shut and held onto him.
The fear and urgency of the moment competed with a hundred memories. Times in my distant past, long before I’d even considered dating his brother, that I’d imagined falling into River’s arms. But I never had. He had never touched me this way. Even now, this wasn’t really a kiss. Yet I felt it throughout my entire body.
The car drove past without slowing.
When River pulled back, his expression was back to normal. Like that display hadn’t affected him in the slightest.
“Come on.” He pulled me into the shelter of the alley, fixing the earpiece back in place. “We need to hurry.”