Dare Me (Take Me 2)

The other contingent closed in on them.

Shots were fired, two hitting the side of the SUV.

“You have no choice!” The voice insisted.

Damen’s agents fired back.

Growling under his breath, Damen whipped open the door to the cabin and all but shoved Nikki inside.

Her gaze connected with Nurse Garcia’s.

Agent Garcia’s.

Rogue Agent Garcia’s.

Nikki gasped. Then cried out, “Damen!”

15

“Just sit down and buckle up, Dr. Kane,” Garcia hastily said as the others all-but fell into the vehicle and it sped off before the doors were even shut.

More gunfire ensued and Garcia swerved the SUV in hopes of avoiding the bullets, while Damen pressed a hand to the back of Nikki’s head and forced her to stay down, her temple resting against his thigh.

With his other hand, he pointed his gun at Garcia. One of Damen’s agents was in the previously empty passenger seat and trained his weapon on her as well.

Nikki squeezed her eyes shut for just a moment. Then she glanced up to the rearview mirror, where she saw Damen glaring hard at Garcia, whose gaze occasionally flashed to his as she navigated her way out of the parking garage at lightning speed.

“Speak,” Damen commanded of Garcia. “And it had better be good.”

“I’m on your side,” the agent said. “I have been this whole time. I didn’t defect. I only turned temporarily.”

“You’re a double agent?”

“I had to become one, briefly,” Garcia told him, her voice tense, yet steady. “I needed to get my hands on that intel from the terrorist cell. There were enough whispers around the hospital that I knew I had to betray a few confidences in order to earn others. And they trusted me to get that device out of the country—and to New York.”

“Dr. Kane was the obvious option for a mule?” he said between clenched teeth.

Nikki could practically feel the fury rip through him.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. When I learned that was where she was from. I knew she’d eventually return.”

“Goddamn it, Garcia!” Damen didn’t lower his weapon. “Do you know what you’ve done to her life?”

“I had no choice!” Garcia insisted. Then very methodically said, “I knew if I used Dr. Kane, that information would eventually end up in your hands, Castillo.”

“How so?”

Garcia flashed another look in the mirror—a near-smirk of an expression. “Come on, Castillo. Between the two of you asking around about each other, it was obvious you were trying to reconnect after we moved you out of the hospital. I banked on the reconnection happening. And if you were tracking the device, it’d happen sooner rather than later. Fortunately for us, that was the case. The quicker we get this intel decoded and deciphered, the quicker we can breakup this terrorist cell and lock up all these ass—Oh!”

Garcia ended her diatribe on a short shriek at the same time Nikki let out a similar sound as another vehicle slammed into the back of the SUV, making it lurch forward and jarring everyone inside.

“Keep down,” Damen told Nikki as they raced along an empty reside

ntial street. Damen finally lowered his weapon. Instructed his agent to do the same. Then, to Garcia, he said, “Shake them, fast.”

“Working on it,” Garcia lobbed back.

Nikki’s line of vision allowed her to just barely see over the dash. The SUV hit something hard, soared, and then landed with a thud that made Nikki groan from the impact.