Who was this woman seated beside him?
He didn’t have time to ponder the question because she was already headed downstairs.
“Wait!” he hissed.
Grabbing her arm, he went to take the gun away, but she just rolled her eyes. He swallowed a savage curse and jumped ahead of her, the knife in his fist as he led the way down.
“Which room has a window that looks out front?” she whispered against his ear.
He nodded to the door directly in front of them that used to be Griff’s room. Quietly, they made their way inside. She gestured for him to keep an eye on the door while she edged around the perimeter toward the window. Her fingers separated two slats in the blinds a fraction and then her body relaxed.
“He’s out front.” She turned to Ben. “But he’ll only give his friend another minute. You left the back door unlocked?”
Shit. He didn’t appreciate her accusing tone. “We weren’t staying long.”
Ben wasn’t sure but he thought he heard her mumble something that sounded a lot like ‘rookie mistake’ before she checked the window again.
“He’s on the move out back. We’ll have to jump him.”
There she went again with the Wonder Woman shit. “Like hell.”
No way could she get lucky with a shot like that twice in a row. He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward his room. They entered the bathroom where he locked the door.
“Oh, right.” She scowled at him. “Like that’s gonna stop the guy, genius.”
Ignoring her, he threw open the latch to the window. “How are you at heights?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Not a problem.”
Ben went first, climbing out onto the roof to make sure it wasn’t too slippery. The cut on his shoulder burned forcing a groan from his lips. Fortunately, the assassin’s partner was already too far away to hear him. The guy was just rounding the end of the row of houses headed toward the alley when Quinn climbed out. She’d stashed the gun into the waist of her jeans.
“Is the damn safety on?”
“Of course,” she fired back.
Nodding, he grabbed hold of a branch from the maple tree out front. Stifling another groan at the pain, he swung down and landed on another branch. He then crouched down to grab that branch before swinging down to the ground. He looked up at Quinn.
“Now you do the same thing.”
She was beside him before he could finish the sentence.
“Yeah, like that.”
The blood was beginning to soak the shoulder of his dark T-shirt. Fortunately, she hadn’t noticed yet. But somehow he doubted she was the type who fainted at a drop of blood. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her in the opposite direction the assassin’s partner had gone. She dragged her feet when they were beside the thugs’ car. Glancing around, she recklessly pulled the gun from her jeans and shot the back tire. The silencer on the gun muffled the sound of the shot.
“What the fuck?” Ben dragged her along. “We need to get out of sight.”
“It may buy us some time.”
They rounded the other end of the row of houses and he pulled her to a stop so he could peer around the corner. He didn’t have long to wait before the other guy was out of the house frantically checking the alley. Fortunately, he retreated the way he’d come. Once he’d turned the corner, Ben quickly raced with Quinn to Griff’s car, grateful the other guy didn’t have the same maniacal thought as Quinn.
“Stay down,” he ordered as he started the ignition.
The second guy jumped in front of the car, his gun drawn, just as they reached the end of the alley.
“Hold on!” he yelled at her.
Ben was about to gun the engine when the guy suddenly crumpled to the ground.
“Let’s go!” She dragged the gun back inside the car.
But he couldn’t push the gas. He turned to stare at Quinn in stunned silence.
“Ben,” she said softly using that same sweet voice that had gotten him off all those years ago. “We have to go.”
He knew that. He just needed a few deep breaths to right his world. She’d just shot a second man to death with pinpoint accuracy and no apparent remorse. “I never pegged you for being so bloodthirsty.”
She sighed but didn’t offer up any excuses.
“That wasn’t a damn compliment.”
She placed her hand on his thigh as if to say “I know.” The gesture only served to irritate him more. He didn’t want reassurance, he wanted answers. Aiming a gun well enough to take down a guy with a single shot took a hell of a lot more skill than aiming a camera. It took years of training. Training no mild-mannered wedding photographer needed to undergo. If he had any lingering doubt she wasn’t who she said she was, they were obliterated when she pulled the trigger. Nobody got that lucky twice.
Right now, however, he couldn’t afford to speculate on who or what Quinn was. He needed to get them out of there before Ronoff sent another team in to finish the job. Steering the car around the dead body, he headed toward the Washington waterfront.
With one hand he punched in a code to unlock the center console. Inside was a burner phone and a Glock. He was relieved Griff still traveled with backup. He dug out the burner phone and turned it on.
Beside him, Quinn huffed out an appreciative breath. “That would have been handy a few minutes ago.”
“You did fine with what you have,” he bit out.
“Don’t tell me your male ego is feeling threatened?”
He ignored her while he dialed a number on the phone, wondering if the woman on the other end would be as ornery as the one beside him.
“I saved your life,” Quinn said. “That makes us even.”
They pulled up to a stoplight right before the highway and he risked a glance over at her. She wasn’t gloating. Instead, the look she met him with was full of melancholy. His chest contracted sharply.
“This is the second time you’re disturbing me on my day off, Agent Segar,” the Secretary of Homeland answered. “I was taking a nap.”
Ben was pretty sure the woman didn’t sleep but he didn’t bother contradicting her.
“My apologies,” he said as they pulled onto the highway. “But it seems I’m going to have to put my carte blanche authority into action.”
“Meaning?”
“Ronoff’s friends visited me at my home.”
He heard her sharp intake of breath.
“I’m going to need a quiet crime scene cleanup.”
“How many bodies?”
“Two. One is outside so this needs to happen fast.”
He could hear her typing. “Done. Anything else?”
“Yeah. I need a ride to the Think Tank.”
“Is the woman still with you?”
He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Quinn. She didn’t bother disguising the fact she was listening to his conversation intently.
“Yep,” he replied.
He expected his boss to raise a red flag about taking a civilian—who by now, he very much doubted Quinn was—to a secure, top-secret location. But the secretary didn’t hesitate. Evidently, she knew as well as he did it was the best place to keep Quinn safe and secure.
“Done.”
“I’ll pick it up at the marina on Fort McNair in ten minutes.”