Covert Craving (7 page)

Rebane swung with his right hand and caught Greiff
in the ear. He shook off the pain of the strike and punched the larger man in
the gut. His fist throbbed from the impact. The government agent had a torso
that felt like a slab of concrete.

“Look out!” Chloe grasped his shoulder and shoved
him aside, then cracked the agent in the head with a frying pan.

Rebane went limp.

“What is it with you and hitting people over the
head with cooking implements? The pepper spray was a damn good idea.” Greiff
caught his breath and yanked her to the floor. “Stay down and away from the
windows.”

“Shit. Shit. Oh, shit. What do we do now?”

Her pale face and too-large eyes called to his
protective instincts.

“We make a run for it. I’m done with the
government. They sent me on too many missions that didn’t make any damn sense.”
He retrieved a Glock from Rebane’s holster, turned the safety off, and dragged Chloe
to the door. “I’m still trying to understand all of this, but I know that any
bunch of spooks who’d shoot someone with a sniper aren’t people to mess with.”

“So you believe me? About the Professor? And the
camp?” He paused at the door and she crashed into his back. He tucked her
behind him and crouched down to check the hallway.

“Honey, if I said I bought all of it hook, line,
and sinker, I’d be lying.” A quick look left and right revealed an empty
hallway. He towed her out with his free hand. “But I do know you’ve got a…gift,
and my nose ain’t the normal human version. Your story about the Professor, the
testing, and all that is too damned detailed to be anything but the truth or a
really elaborate hallu—”

She skidded to a halt and snatched her hand back.
“Jerk. I’m not crazy. I have an implant in my ass to prove it. What the hell do
you think the government is doing trying to take us into custody? What kind of
man are you having sex with me if you think I’m crazy?”

Chloe barreled past him and banged on her
neighbor’s door. “Muriel, I need to come in right now!”

Stunned, he stood and stared after her. He snapped
to attention when the door to the emergency stairwell creaked open. The wreath
on Muriel’s door bumped against the panel as the door moved. He broke into a
run and shoved her through the now-open door she stood in front of. “Move! Go!”

They fell into the apartment’s small foyer. Plaster
dust floated down on them, and Greiff craned his neck to see three bullet holes
peppering the wall.

“Welcome to my home.” The old lady snorted. A
rattling noise sounded and something yowled. “Henry Jameson, if you move one
inch, I’ll cut off your internet privileges. Don’t even think I don’t know what
you do late at night.”

The yowl turned into a low whine, and Greiff had
the distinct impression he’d fallen into some kind of alternate universe. More
bullets burrowed in the wall. Greiff rolled over, returned fire, and slammed
the door shut. He angled his neck and took in the flowered housecoat and fuzzy
slippers of the short, elderly woman in front of him.

“Did you bring my cheesecake?”

“No ma’am. I’m so sorry.”

“Well, shit. Guess that means the pigeon is out
too. Better get out of here. Those men are on their way.”

He clambered to his feet and hauled Chloe up with
him. Staying in this apartment—pinned down with two women—wouldn’t work. They
had to run for it. “Don’t let anyone in. Which way to the fire escape?”

“Oh, you don’t want to do that. Go into the
bedroom on the left.” Muriel power walked across the living room, a cloud of
hairspray and the smell of boiled chicken in the air behind her. For an old
lady, she could haul ass. She led them down the hall and pointed to the room in
question. “There’s a panel in the closet. That’ll take you where you need to
go.”

“Thank you Muriel.” Chloe planted a kiss on her
cheek as they rushed past.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t think this means you’re off the
hook for the cheesecake. I’ll give you a mulligan on the bird. I’d better go
get Henry ready for our visitors.”

Greiff barreled into the closet ahead of her, shoved
hangers full of clothes to each side, and started to curse under his breath.
“For the record, I don’t think you’re crazy. Any idea who Henry Jameson is?”

“I think that’s what she calls her dog. Check to
your right-hand side. That way would just lead out into the hallway.”

He changed course with his efforts, opened a
panel, and dragged her along behind him once more. Muriel’s voice and a
thunderous bark reached Chloe as she paused to try and reset the panel in the
wall. It didn’t work well, but at least it wasn’t on the floor.

“Hurry, Jake. They’re coming. Muriel is arguing
with them, and I can hear Henry. It sounds like he’s going to eat someone.” It
was a miracle they’d gotten out unharmed.

“I know. I hear her too. Hopefully I hit the guy
in the stairwell. Should buy us a little time.”

She had a feeling he said the words to reassure
her. They’d been shot at. The people coming after them weren’t going to stop.

He shuffled sideways through the narrow space and
she gripped his waistband to try and keep up.

“Greiff if your partner was a plant, he stuck
something on you so he’d know where you were. You’re bugged. And you do too
think I’m crazy.”

He cursed and paused. A thumping noise sounded
behind them. “Well, they already know we’re in here, so I’m not sure how much
time that will buy us. And I do not. I just said that I don’t buy it all.
There’s more to this than you know.”

“What’d you do?” The hot, stale air in the
passageway stank of old musty socks. Panic and disconnected thoughts swirled in
a jumble. The government was trying to kill them. But, he didn’t think she was
nuts. To her, the most important item on the list was Greiff’s opinion of her
mental state.

The fact disturbed her. Maybe she was crazy,
because concern over some guy’s thoughts had never ranked all that high in her
book. She’d never let herself care or get attached to anyone that way, and now
she’d gone and thrown everything to the wind in less than a day.

“Threw my cell. Only thing I can think of that I
have on me all the time.”

No light penetrated the passageway. It ended
abruptly at a blank wall. The sound of their combined breathing filled the space.
Her heart pounded and she glanced over her shoulder. Nothing to see, it was too
dark.

“What now?” She waited for him to make a move.

Scraping noises and thumps followed by a strange
tock-tock
noise sounded. Dust and debris rained down onto the floor a few feet to her
right.

“Oh my God, Greiff, they’re shooting at us through
people’s apartments. Through the outside wall,” she whispered and squatted down
lower. He rapped on the walls on either side of them and in an explosive burst,
kicked through the wall, and hauled her into another closet. Holy crap, the man
was a commando.

A long-sleeved man’s dress shirt hit her in the
face. Greiff held clothing to the side so she could exit the space without
being strangled by hanging clothes.

“Did you know about this?” He pointed at the room
and closet.

How much to tell him? They barely knew each other,
but she knew deep down he’d never hurt her. She had spilled her guts about the
Professor and the camp, things she’d never told anyone before. Not even her
mom. They were under attack. What the hell? Dyson would understand. “I didn’t
know about this passageway specifically, but let’s just say a lot of the people
in this building are special.”

“Huh.” He scanned the room. A king size bed
dominated the cramped space. No dresser, photos, or even a head board for the
bed. “It smells sorta musky and dry in here, like…” his nostrils flared and he
cocked his head, “snakes.”

“Snakes? Eww.” She inspected the floor for
anything slithery and picked up a monogrammed, long sleeve shirt. Blue stitches
formed a small, elaborate double “D” on the chest. “Oh, wait. This is Dyson’s
place. We’re cool. In fact, we’re great.”

She tried to pass him and he blocked her with his
free arm and moved into the space with deliberate steps. “How far down the hall
from Muriel’s are we?”

“Uh, four apartments.” She did a quick mental
count to check. “Yeah, four.”

“There were only three doors in the hall past
Muriel’s.”

The observation surprised her, and he cocked an
eyebrow as he waited for her to answer. “Dyson has a separate entrance to his
apartment.”

He frowned then shrugged in acceptance. “Okay.
Well, if what that spook said is true, we’ve got his guys after us and the
Professor’s as well. We run for it, and they’ll be able to track us with the
thing in your ass. These guys will be trained in urban warfare and ready for
anything we throw at them.”

“I have a way out.” She swallowed hard. “You trying
to tell me you want to get the bug out right now?”

Sweat beaded on his upper lip and across his
defined chest. He nodded. “We’ve got to honey. They’re shooting at us through
walls. Probably think we’re pinned down in the passageway. These guys don’t
care about any civilians in the building, and now I’d say their objective is to
kill us, and no one is going to care.”

The rattle of displaced wood tapping against the
wall came from the opening in the closet behind her. One moment she faced
Greiff, the next she’d been bounced face first off the bed. The roar of gunfire
reverberated in the room. When she gained her feet, a figure in black hung half
out of the passageway, blood spreading in a widening pool around the body.

“Uh oh. Dyson is going to be pissed. His carpet is
toast.”

He dragged the body into the room and secured the
panel. “Spetrino was right about me. I’ve somehow managed to shoot two people
today.”

“It’s not your fault. The guy at the store shot at
you first. And so did this one.” No way he was allowed to blame himself for
crazy people’s actions. “You were protecting yourself. And me. Don’t even think
about taking on guilt for it.”

She stared as he divested the body of a large
knife and another fire arm. The extra gun he tucked into his waistband. The Professor
coming after her she’d expected. But government agents trying to kill them and
the fact Jake and she’d been to the same camp left her mind boggled.

“Yeah. I’d do it again if I had to. No one will
hurt you while I’m around.” He straightened and the resolve on his face stunned
her.

The enormity of what he’d done silenced all the
other voices in her head. He’d taken a hell of a risk, taking off with her like
he had. Warmth spread through her, and an emotion deeper than the attraction she’d
been fighting (not so successfully) since the first time she’d seen him at a
crime scene flashed through her and grew stronger.

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry about this.” The timbre of
his voice brought her back to the present. He fished in his pocket and drew out
a small pocket knife. “There will be more behind this guy, especially if they
have something to track your signal with. Our only advantage right now is that
it’s probably a small squad.”

“Right.” Time to man up. She hooked her fingers in
her waistband and stripped her pants down over her hips, baring her ass. There
hadn’t been time to put on panties. She spun and peered over her shoulder at
him. “In my left cheek. See that dark mark there?”

“Ahh….” He traced the spot she pointed to with his
thumb and frowned. “I can’t feel anything.”

“Well, neither can I, but that’s where they put it.
I saw the cut before it healed over.”

“When did they put the tracker in? Before or after
you and your roommate moved in together?” He poked and prodded the flesh.

“She and I moved in together a few years ago… The
tracker was right before I moved here.” Realization dawned. “Wait, if she
reported on me, on us…and government-boy intercepted it or whatever—”

“Like I said. More going on here than what you’ve
seen. They indoctrinated you from an early age, and you never thought to
question anything. Daisy Mae isn’t a Norm. I didn’t realize it at first because
I was so shocked by her, but I could see her in color too.” Rough fingertips
grazed her skin as he settled on one spot to the left of where she’d indicated.
“I think there’s something here. I’m sorry, sweetheart.” The blade snicked into
place as he opened the knife. “Don’t look.”

She did anyway. The metal sliced into her skin and
she hissed in pain. He poked into the wound with his finger and popped out a
small metal cylinder. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah. You got that right.” He went into the
adjoining bathroom and flushed it down the toilet. “I’d love to have that thing
analyzed, but we need to destroy it.”

Blood trickled down her leg in a warm oozing line
she tried to ignore as she jerked her pants up.

“I can’t fucking believe this . . . I didn’t
question anything, went along with whatever they wanted. Now they’re trying to
kill us and taking video. Oh my mother fuck. Those pervs watched us have sex.”

“Honey, that’s the least of our worries right now.
They’ll be here in seconds.” He ran to the door where he knelt on one knee with
the gun drawn. “Why aren’t there any windows in this room?”

“I think Dyson likes it dark.” She followed him
and stayed tight to his back. “It might be to our advantage. They might not
even know this apartment is here.”

“I know how these teams work, and our odds aren’t
good. This squad had to have info on me from my service, and they don’t give a
shit about the law. They shot Spetrino. Fuck, it’s a perfect storm. They’ll
have studied all the blueprints of the building and the ones around it as well.
The guy I shot may even be bugged.”

Despair tried to overwhelm her, but she stuffed it
down. Freaking out now wouldn’t help. “Listen to me. We have a way out, okay?
And I have a feeling these guys don’t have the latest information regarding
this building. You killed the first guy and that buys us some time. Ten to one,
Muriel called the cops already. She’s got a knack for stuff like that. Dyson
has friends on the force, and they’ll be here soon creating a shit ton of
problems for these guys. As for us, we go out the real front door.”

She stepped around him and he caught her in his
free arm. “I go first.”

Cold, nasty sewer water splashed Chloe’s calf
muscles and slime coated her feet. Dyson hated people, fully human people
especially, so his apartment had a hidden staircase that entered directly into
the tunnels running beneath the city. He’d owned the building they lived in
since the early twentieth century and with some well-placed “donations” to
public officials, this end of the sewer system remained off all the current
blueprints.

They moved as fast as possible, their words huffed
out in low tones just above a whisper.

Greiff questioned her as they traveled. “Do you
know where we’re going? Did Daisy Mae know about this?”

“Daisy didn’t know. I never told her because I
thought she was a Norm. And no, I don’t know exactly where it goes.” Away from
the apartment was good enough. Something bumped into her leg and she grimaced.
“Dyson didn’t tell just anyone about the escape route. And he made me swear I’d
never tell Daisy. We lived together for a long time. I thought she was my
friend. And Muriel didn’t like Daisy, so no way in hell she’d have let her use
the closet bolt-hole anyway.”

“Well, that’s good. At least we’ve got one
advantage.”

Anger made a tight knot in her chest. “That bitch!
I can’t believe she was spying on me this whole time, and that she had an
ability. She could have done her own fucking nails.”

They passed the third ladder leading to the
surface and she glanced at it with longing. Getting out of this muck couldn’t
happen soon enough.

“How’d you meet her?”

“Ah, I think I was…um…Holy shit Jake. I don’t remember.
It’s like one day she was just there, and I trusted her. She put some kind of
whammy on me. She had to have.” Her right leg slipped out from under her and he
steadied her. “Thanks. Do you know most of the time I paid her half of the
rent? That sleazy witch. She spied on me and she ripped me off. That whore.”
She kicked the water and almost fell on her ass from the force of her leg
swinging, but he caught her again.

“Yeah, it’s amazing the lows women will stoop to.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dim pools of
illumination provided by the light bulbs Dyson had strung up every six or eight
feet showed the moss-covered walls and brackish water they waded through.

Greiff’s shoulders tensed. “Remember what I said
about having an ex-wife?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, she got lonely and bored while I was still
a beat cop working night shift.” He turned his head to peer at her over his
shoulder, pain etched into his features. “A lot.”

“Oh.” She caught his free hand and slid her palm
into it, lacing their fingers together. Indignant anger roared in her. What
kind of woman treated a man like Greiff that way? His ex should be force fed
something disgusting like live octopi with all their squiggly tentacles
flailing around. What an idiot that woman was. “Well, I’m not a cheater.”

“Good to know.” He paused, gathered her to his
side for a quick hug, and then resumed the punishing pace he’d set. “I never
thought you were. There’s a connection between us, and it doesn’t make any
sense, but neither does being able to smell people the way I can. I don’t
understand it. But I feel it.”

“Me too.” She caught up to him and managed to kiss
his cheek, the need to reassure him of how sexy and attractive she found him
even more important than getting the hell out of the sewer. “I swear, I was
never kissed until I met you. If we weren’t in this tunnel, I’d tie you up for
some serious cowboy action.”

“How about reverse cowboy?” Tingles erupted at the
words. “It’s one of my favorites.”