Chapter Thirty-Three
Hagan punched the elevator call button, then returned to Amanda’s side. He’d lost track of the afternoon while walking the slot machines. Their constant, calling whine and lights had given him a headache. Too many people milled through the corridors, like they were part of a never-ending churn.
An elevator on their far left arrived. But they’d wait for one going upstairs. Several casino guests got out, and all but two who’d been waiting took their place.
“I’m so tired.” Amanda snuggled her way under his arm.
Hagan held her close and kissed the top of her head. “We’ll order in.”
“Good plan.”
Their elevator arrived. The man to Hagan’s side walked in first, never glancing from his phone. The other man held out his hand, politely offering for Amanda to go ahead.
“Thanks,” she said.
The elevator bounced when he followed her in, reminding Hagan of how he’d jump right before an elevator would stop with his sister and brother. Their mother had sworn they’d break the cables. One day, they had jumped. The elevator had gotten stuck. They’d never done that again.
The other men didn’t look like they’d be jumpers. Amanda would be too tired to surprise him with a move like that. Still, apprehension shivered across his skin.
Amanda rolled her shoulders back and stood tall, glancing at the man with his phone. Hagan wondered if anxiousness could travel like a yawn. It sure as hell wasn’t going away.
“Slow, huh.” She moved next to him and locked her hand with his.
Their floor would be the next stop, but she was correct. The phone guy stepped toward the door. Amanda squeezed Hagan’s hand. Something wasn’t right. She felt it too.
“Hey, man,” Hagan said as they approached their stop. “This your floor?”
Because it wasn’t the number he’d pressed.
The elevator stopped. The man held his phone to the doors. It attached like a magnet.
“Shit.” Hagan yanked Amanda behind him. Cornered.
The doors whirred each time they tried to open. The high-pitch squeal of an alarm warned there was a problem.
“We’re leaving with the girl,” the man at the door said. “She won’t be harmed.”
Behind him, Amanda stepped out of her heels like she was ready to run. His fists curled by his sides. “Like hell.”
The second man removed a plastic tube. Hagan took a second glance. Who brought a straw to a fistfight? Then his stomach bottomed out. A pressurized tranquilizer triggered in a dart. He had no choice but to leave Amanda exposed. Hagan lunged for Dart Man.
Speed had always been an asset. But even with that, Hagan didn’t have the upper hand.
Everything he knew about tranquilizer darts had come from Sawyer’s obsession with veterinarian docudramas.
The Whale Wrestler. King of the Cobras. Whatever else.
If those crazy-ass doctors heralded tranq guns as their most dangerous waiting accident, Hagan didn’t like his odds against a camel tranquilizer.
He smashed Dart Man’s arm overhead. Phone Dude attacked from behind, wrapping a chokehold around Hagan’s neck and drilling a fist into his kidney. Blinding pain paralyzed him. His dominant hand weakened on Dart Man’s wrist.
Hagan gasped for air and slammed his skull back. Phone Dude howled and cursed. A broken nose wouldn’t give him too much of a reprieve, but at least he could breathe.
Dart Man struggled to aim. Hagan wrenched the straw arm until the shoulder dislocated. The tranquilizer dropped. Hagan crushed it under his heel.
“Hagan!”
He spun. Phone Dude yanked the cap off a tranquilizer dart with his mouth and spat it—Amanda used her high heel shoe to whack him in the face. The dart whizzed through their cramped quarters and pinged against the ceiling, plummeting toward Hagan and Dart Man.
Hagan dove. Dart Man grabbed his knee. Hagan twisted and caught the man’s head between his knees and squeezed. Oxygen depleting, Dart Man still thrashed. The passing seconds moved too slow as the other man reached for Amanda. She held her arms out to block the attack.
“Amanda!” Hagan released the limp man and rolled over, staggering to his feet.
Her arms collapsed under the man’s weight. He pinned her to the wall—then Hagan understood. Amanda gripped his shirt and pulled, driving her knee into Phone Dude’s groin. Like Hagan, he hadn’t expected the shot. Phone Dude buckled and stumbled. Hagan finished him off with a right uppercut.
“Talk about teamwork.” Hagan tore away the phone that connected the doors.
Amanda stepped over the bodies. “Think you did the heavy lifting.”
The elevator doors slid open, and the alarm turned off. Two janitors with a ladder and tools gaped, slack-jawed as Hagan and Amanda ran by.
“That shoe move, though.”
She laughed. “I can’t believe you’re making jokes.”
“Comes with the job.” They stopped at the newlywed suite. He pulled the keycard out of his wallet and let them in. “Though normally I know who’s trying to kill me.”
“Guess that’s the difference between you and me.”
They shoved the few items that weren’t already packed into their suitcases, erased anything that could identify them and hauled ass for the airport.
Amanda and Hagan walked into the airport, hand in hand, like their covers and like lovers.
After a hasty pitstop to change, they’d all but obliterated any hint of the ordeal they’d been in.
Blood-smeared clothes and disheveled hair were gone.
They seemed like everyone else, ready for a trip. But no one’s mind raced like hers.
She had too many questions. Who and why should’ve been on top of the list. But she couldn’t stop thinking about the store with the different name. She had no idea what the connection was, and she wouldn’t be able to discuss it with Hagan until they made it through security.
They stopped in front of the ticket counters. Hagan searched for a way out of Lebanon on his phone, keeping a hand on her as if she might float away until he needed to reach for his wallet.
“I won’t go anywhere,” she assured.
“I know.” He kissed her forehead and purchased the tickets, taking her hand as he directed them to an airline carrier. “Texted your ticket. We have ninety minutes until wheels up.”
The sweetness of his lips made her insides melt like marshmallows. “Thanks, Hagan.”
He smiled as though he could tell she was turning into goo. “Let’s check-in and drop the bags.”
Her phone beeped with the flight details text message, and she read their itinerary as they approached the desk. “We’re going to the US?”
Hagan smiled at the attendant. “Two headed for Washington, DC.” It wasn’t until they showed their identification, left their suitcases on a conveyor belt, and moved into the security queue that he added, “After what happened, where else would we go to debrief?”
Her stomach churned. Adrenaline still made her tremble. She hadn’t even thought about where they would go. Trauma wasn’t letting her think straight. “Titan has a perfectly suitable war room.”
And that suggestion was all the proof she needed to confirm that her mind was scrambled. Neither had suggested they should call Jared. Amanda didn’t know Hagan’s reason, but she had a pretty big justification to avoid Jared at all costs: he’d never let her be without security again.
That wasn’t a great situation for a woman with a security company.
But, it was an even worse problem for America’s First Daughter who had exercised her right of refusal—Secret Service would never put themselves in the line of fire for her again—and had effectively managed to reach a hermit level of reclusiveness.
Not even the press recognized or cared about her anymore.
“I want to have a conversation with Halle,” Hagan muttered.
Amanda bit her tongue until they’d presented their tickets and identification. “Why?”
“I just do.”
Hagan could have all the conversations with Halle that he wanted. None would make sense until he knew who Amanda was. God! Why hadn’t she told him sooner? This situation was like her name. It hadn’t mattered. But had she learned her lesson? No!
This omission would matter. She’d kept Hagan in the dark and put his life in danger. “I have to tell you something.”
Hagan still hadn’t let go of her hand. “What?”
Even if they hadn’t escaped an attack, she needed to tell him because it was the right thing to do, and—her heart exploded—because she needed to say I love you.