She pulled back and he finally saw her face. She'd cried. She wasn't crying now, but there were tear tracks on her beautiful face. Pale and frightened and distraught, and just seeing her made his heart turn over in his chest.
He was still sort of mad at her for walking out on him and facing whatever it was she was facing on her own. But his relief overrode the anger.
Kay held on to his arms. "Nick, he's dead! That drone somehow killed him, I don't know how." She looked down at herself. The pants of her turquoise suit were dirty, like his were. They'd both kneeled next to the dead guy. He didn't care. She was alive, and so was he, and they were going to stay that way. "I think they might come after me, too. They must have the area under surveillance. What do we do?"
"We get to the garage as fast as we can. Our guys are waiting for us."
"Our guys?"
"Metal and Jacko and Joe. And Felicity's coordinating." He smiled slightly to see some of the worry drain from her face. "We're not alone, honey. We have a team at our back."
Kay let out a breath and a sob and her knees buckled slightly. He held her. He'd always hold her. "Thank God," she whispered, her voice raw. "I left. I didn't want you involved, and yet here you are. I was so afraid I'd drag you into this and bring you into danger and I was right. We're still at risk, but-"
"But with our guys on our side, we'll come out alive. We have to hurry, though, sweetheart. There's a plan but it's tight." He lifted his hands. "You okay?" Meaning-could she move? He'd felt her deep trembling, had felt her knees go. She was in shock. If she couldn't stand, he'd carry her, but it would slow them down.
She huffed out a breath, another, straightened. "Yeah. I'm okay. Good to go." She forced herself to stop trembling, looked him straight in the eyes. "But I think I'm in deep trouble."
Kay was a scientist. She lived in a world of data and research. This was not her world at all-a man had been killed before her very eyes-but she was doing her best to be brave.
Somewhere inside, he was still mad at her for leaving him to walk straight into danger. At some point in the future he was going to make sure that never happened again. At the same time, he was nearly weak in the knees from relief at finding her unharmed.
He snapped himself out of this mess of emotions back to that cold place. Emotions wouldn't help, cool mission planning would. There was still danger and he had the most important mission of his life ahead of him-getting Kay away even though enemies were probably still after her.
A mission-he could do missions, even if Kay was involved. His whole life was a mission. He forced the protector inside him into a combat mindset-a tight, narrow focus on staying alive while doing whatever needed doing.
"Put on that hat."
Her eyes widened. "What?"
He gestured to a wide-brimmed straw hat she was holding between two fingers. She looked down at it as if seeing it for the first time. She shook herself, placed the hat on her head. "I completely forgot about it."
It was possible that hat had kept her from being photographed.
"Let's go." He took off for the garage stairs, making sure she could keep up.
"There's a plan?" Kay was taking two steps to his one but she was with him.
He mentally crossed his fingers. "Yeah, there's a plan." They reached the stairwell, the elevator right beside it. No way they'd take it, elevators could be death traps.
He looked her in the eyes. "We're going to disappear. And stay disappeared until we figure this thing out."
She met his eyes, hers that beautiful sky blue, slightly bloodshot, somber. "I'm sorry, Nick," she whispered, voice raw. "So very sorry."
He shook his head sharply. Nothing to be sorry about. It was what it was. Warriors dealt in reality, not in what should be. They jogged down the stairs, Nick on full alert, until they came to the doors to level 1 of the parking area. He went first and-God yes. There they were.
The cavalry. Or rather, Jacko, Metal and Joe, standing next to three identical black Suburban SUVs. Better than the cavalry. Better than a battalion.
He could hear Kay let out a sigh of relief. Damn right.
All three men straightened, Jacko holding out a key fob. He pressed it and one of the SUVs lit up. "That's yours," he said to Nick. Good old Jacko-all business. No hi how are you? Or tell me what trouble you're in.
Jacko didn't really need a blow-by-blow explanation, though. If trouble came knocking, he answered the door. He was built for trouble.