Her Hidden Truth

Chapter Two

The headache was worse today.

Kat squeezed her eyes shut and tried to banish the pain, but it just wouldn’t go away. She couldn’t remember when it had begun…days ago…a week? It just kept getting worse. The bouts closer together. More intense.

Forcing her eyes open, she stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Aspirin didn’t help. Nothing helped. She blew out a long, slow breath. She had to pull it together. In three minutes she had to be ready to perform.

Kat splashed some cool water on her face in the hope of clearing the haze that accompanied the insistent pounding in her brain. That attempt proved useless, as well. She groped blindly for a paper towel. The holder was empty. She muttered her favorite swearword and wiped the moisture from her face the best she could with the backs of her hands. That was the thing about public bathrooms. One could never count on the necessary paper to finish the job.

Turning her head side to side to check the neatly coiled bun, Kat tucked a stray, fiery red curl behind her ear and smoothed her moist palms over her hair. She studied herself a moment longer than necessary, something about the person staring back at her didn’t sit exactly right, but she couldn’t put her finger on the problem.

Kat shrugged. Nothing she could do about that, either. She looked herself over again, then, satisfied with what she saw, slipped on the large, black-framed eyeglasses that were part of her disguise. She slid a hand over the jacket of her gray business suit, finding comfort in the tiny bulge in the waistband of her skirt that was for emergency use only. She preferred a 9 mm, but the .38 proved easier to conceal.

No one was supposed to die today.

Still, she wasn’t about to go into this without a way to defend herself if things went to hell in a hurry. And that could happen. Another of those things she somehow understood without knowing how.

Inhaling, then exhaling another bolstering breath, Kat picked up her brown leather briefcase and left the inadequately supplied ladies’ room.

Two minutes and counting.

At a quarter of noon, Union Station was crowded. She’d taken the time this morning as she entered D.C.’s famous train gateway to the capital to note the neoclassical facade. Inside the cavernous marble-floored lobby she’d felt the rumble of the trains below as they entered the station. It was all so familiar…comforting. She felt at home here but she had no clue why. Had she lived near here in the past? Been a regular commuter? She shook her head. She was being silly. A person remembered the places she’d lived. Paranoia, that’s all. She was just being paranoid.

The sound of the announcer singing out the track and time for the next Metroliner jerked her attention back to the task at hand. Some part of her that she didn’t understand and that was pure, well-honed survival instinct, kept the pain at bay as she focused on what had to be done. She just pushed through the throng of hurrying commuters and toward the down escalator.

Though she couldn’t name any precise instances at the moment, she’d done this sort of thing for years. She knew it as well as she knew her name, but wasn’t exactly sure how she knew. Kat was completely at ease with tracking a human target. She’d done it a thousand times. The basis of that fact also eluded her. It simply felt second nature.

God, what was wrong with her lately? She knew who and what she was…she just couldn’t get right with it all. It was as if a brick wall stood between her and the answers she desperately needed. It was weird.

Too weird.

But, like the headaches, she couldn’t think about that right now. She damn sure couldn’t let any of her cohorts see her inner struggle. Too many of them already wanted her out. Regrettably, out was synonymous with dead.

Her target moved toward the loading platform where he would catch the Metroliner to New York’s Penn Station. Kat closed in. Once in Manhattan he would rendezvous with his superiors at the new CIA branch office. In his briefcase he carried documents that would mislead those who interpreted them and cause a very important ongoing mission to blow up in their faces.

Kat had to prevent that from happening.

She was a good guy. One of her country’s invisible saviors. Countries all over the globe had them…all commissioned by the World Security Agency.

The world’s savior.

A frown inched across her brow as something deep inside her shifted, nudged her. As everything else, she couldn’t name it or understand it.

The man in the blue pin-striped suit standing only a dozen feet from Kat was no bad guy himself. He had no idea that his assistant was a mole for one of the CIA’s archenemies. It was Kat’s job to intercept the intelligence documents in the briefcase, thus preventing the planned catastrophe without any bloodshed or violence at all. Before the mole could arrange a second attempt he would be discovered and dealt with accordingly.

The briefcase Kat carried was an exact duplicate of the one her target carried. Expensive, elegant. Just like the thousand-dollar suit he wore. Kat watched the man’s body language. He was confident, impatient. In a hurry to get to his destination and get this done. Failure would be a disappointment not only to his superiors but also to him. But he’d get over it. Eventually he’d look back on today as nothing more than a temporary setback to his career.

Kat had just ninety seconds to make the switch before he boarded the arriving passenger train.

A screeching, hissing rush of air that seemed to fill the entire waiting area announced the train’s arrival as it slowed to a stop at the loading platform. In seconds the waiting passengers would be allowed to board.

She had to move now.

Bracing herself for the impact, Kat began to walk faster. Faster. She slammed headlong into her target. He stumbled back several steps, the briefcase in his hand falling to the floor. Kat dropped her own case as she used his tall frame to regain her balance.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” she cried.

He reached to steady her—chivalry too deeply entrenched to ignore, despite his years of training—and at the same time demanded, “Are you all right?”

Kat smiled engagingly as she played the part of the flustered, in-a-hurry passenger. “Oh, yes. I’m…I’m fine.” She reached for the briefcase, tracing one fingertip over the lock mechanism to make sure she had his instead of her own. The locking mechanism of the briefcase she’d carried had a slight burr in the metal in a certain spot so she’d recognize it. “I wasn’t watching where I was going. I’m so late!” She eased back just one step and pressed a hand to her chest as if to slow her palpitating heart. “I am so very sorry.”

His answering smile told her he didn’t suspect a thing. “No harm done.” He straightened his jacket and reached for the remaining briefcase. “Have a nice day.”

For one tension-filled second, before she turned away, he stared at the briefcase she held half hidden behind her short skirt. She hoped her legs would distract him.

Her heart skidded to a stop as time lapsed into slow motion.

She held her breath.

If he suspected her now—

The legs did the trick.

His gaze roved the length of her long, athletic limbs. She’d worked hard to keep them that way, and it was paying off now. The realization startled her for reasons that totally escaped her. A tremble started deep inside her. She was losing it…she had to get out of here.

Other passengers abruptly brushed past the man still staring at her, jerking him back to attention. He blinked, forced a grim smile and quickly turned away to board the train, a bemused frown still marring his brow.

Kat released a shaky breath.

It was done.

She hurried away through the crowd, taking care not to run. Up the escalator. Deep breath, she told herself. Almost there. No one paid any special note to her. No one shouted for her to stop.

She moved back through the lobby as swiftly as she dared. She couldn’t risk calling attention to herself even now. Her target would attempt to open his briefcase the moment he took his seat onboard the train and had a chance to think about the encounter. He wouldn’t rest until he’d assuaged the concerns that took root too late in his distracted thoughts.

The lock had been jammed so it would take some doing to open the case. By the time he realized what had happened, the train would be on its way. He would call Union Station security immediately and the whole place would be locked down tighter than a drum. Her description would be passed to all Metro Security personnel.

She had to get out before that happened.

Her heart hammering, her palms sweating, her fingers tight around the handle of the briefcase, she hurried toward the main entrance. When she pushed through the wood-and-glass front doors and out into the bright noonday sun, relief flooded her, made her weak-kneed, despite the gut instinct that she’d done this hundreds of times.

She zigzagged through the taxis and other cars parked along the train terminal’s busy driveway and headed toward the far end of the main parking area where the car she’d arrived in waited. Her step was a little faster now, not quite running.

Two more minutes and she’d be in the clear. A kind of calmness slid through her veins. Her heart rate slowed to a more reasonable level. She could—

A strong arm abruptly cut across her path, stopping her dead in her tracks. Her pulse leaped into warp speed again. Her somewhat sluggish reactions went automatically into offense mode.

Fully expecting to see a blue security uniform, she instinctively, stealthily, slid her hand toward the edge of her jacket lapel as she peered upward into smoky-gray eyes that were at once completely alien to her and alarmingly familiar.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the love of my life.”

Her fingers wrapped around the butt of the small .38.

“I’ve missed you, and then some.”

For three gut-wrenching seconds Vince was certain the code phrase wasn’t going to work. Kat stared up at him as if she’d never laid eyes on him in her entire life.

Then she whispered, “Vince?”

He relaxed a fraction and smiled. “Long time no see, Kitty Kat. Have you missed me, too?” Maybe the implant hadn’t gone too haywire. He’d been watching her all morning. Had followed her all the way from Port Charlotte just to catch her alone. It shifted something deep inside him when he considered that she’d remembered that little thing he always said to her all those years ago. I’ve missed you, and then some.

“Don’t move.”

The voice was male and right behind Vince. The nudge of a pistol barrel in his spleen told him it was Kat’s partner in crime, Philip Yu. The driver of the getaway car. Thankfully he’d stayed in the car and this opportunity had been the closest to catching Kat alone the morning had offered. Interrupting her assignment would have put them both at risk. Vince had tried to wait it out, but he’d had to act before she got back in the car with Yu. Now he’d learn the price of his impatience.

“You know this dude, Kat?”

She looked from Vince to the man behind him and back. The confusion on her face was clear to see. Tension rocketed to a new level. Maybe things weren’t in working order, after all. He’d soon know.

“Phil, this is Vince.” She searched Vince’s eyes, looking for answers he hoped she’d see. “He’s the guy I’ve been telling you about.”

The pressure in Vince’s side eased. He resisted the urge to exhale his relief.

“The case,” Yu demanded as he reached around Vince.

Kat relinquished her bounty. “We should get out of here,” she suggested. She glanced behind her, then scanned the parking area. “They’ll be looking for me any second now.”

Yu backed away. “Let’s go.”

Vince turned in the other man’s direction. “She goes with me.”

Something changed in Yu’s eyes. “I don’t think so.”

Lucas’s intel was correct. Philip Yu had a thing for Kat. Too bad for him. Something that felt entirely too much like jealousy burned through Vince as he snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her close before she could react.

“Maybe you didn’t hear me.” Vince met the steel in Yu’s dark gaze with lead in his own. This part was nonnegotiable. “I said she goes with me.”

“We’ll be right behind you,” Kat assured her partner. She glanced up at Vince. “Right?”

She was nervous. He could see it in her eyes. “That’s right.” He settled his gaze back on Yu’s. “Are we going to stand around here and argue about it?”

Yu glared at Vince then shifted his gaze to Kat. “We’ll talk about this later.”

In typical Kat fashion, she ignored Yu’s comment, pulled out of Vince’s domineering hold and hooked her arm through his. “See you at the house,” she said to Yu without even looking his way. She hated the macho male types. Vince would never understand what had drawn them together in the first place.

Yu hustled across the lot, tossed the briefcase into the passenger seat and dropped behind the wheel of the car he’d abandoned when he thought Kat was in trouble.

Vince looked down at the woman at his side. His gut clenched. God, she was gorgeous. She hadn’t changed a bit. Not quite as lean maybe, but otherwise just as he remembered. That alone was far more dangerous than any other aspect of this mission.

“You ready?”

She nodded, her smile a little thin.

He led her to where he’d parked his Harley. After straddling the wide leather seat, he waited for her to join him. Without hesitation she scooted her skirt high on her thighs—high enough for him to see the sexy garters that held up her stockings—and slung one long, toned leg across the seat. She settled in behind him, then scooted even closer, her thighs clenching firmly around his hips as her arms curled tightly around his waist. As an afterthought she reached up and discarded her fake eyeglasses. She laughed. The sound was contagious and as sexy as hell.

Vince tried not to confuse the past with the present. He really did. Whatever memories her implant had transposed over her real memory, were only make-believe. No matter how real this felt, it wasn’t. When she realized the truth she would hate him just as much, maybe more, than she had four years ago. That kind of emotion didn’t sweeten with age, it grew bitter. Kat would be bitter, as she had every right to be.

He’d let her down—betrayed her.

But now he had one chance to make it up to her. A chance she would never give him under normal circumstances. He gritted his teeth against his own churning emotions. Changing her mind about him would be impossible, but he could keep her safe until this was over. No matter how little she thought of him, she would appreciate walking away from this assignment with her life. And that he could do for her.

She pressed her cheek against his back, an act of trust.

A new kind of emotion surged through him. A mixture of relief and anticipation. She trusted him, temporarily anyway.

This time he would not let her down.

At the moment he couldn’t be sure what had made her use him as her Romeo. It didn’t matter. Revenge, probably. A mistake maybe? He might never know the reason and it really didn’t matter anyway.

In minutes they were on the interstate headed back to Port Charlotte. As if sensing that he was thinking of her, she hugged him more tightly. Unable to help himself, he laid his left hand over hers and squeezed. God, he hadn’t known until now how much he’d missed this incredible woman. No one else had ever made him want to change his singular lifestyle. White picket fences and the pitter-patter of little feet had flashed, however briefly, through his mind during their days of stolen moments and hidden passion four years ago.

No other woman had made him want to see her face every morning for the rest of his life…made him ache to simply touch her the way Kat had. Had made him willingly turn his back on all that he’d considered top priority.

But that was then and this is now.

The object of his reverie suddenly tapped him on the shoulder, jerking him to attention. Vince leaned his head back to hear what she had to say. Instead of speaking, she pointed to an upcoming gas station. He nodded his understanding. She either wanted a drink or needed to use the facilities.

He desperately needed to walk off the tension she’d incited below his belt. Clearing his head with even a few seconds apart would help, as well.

The one bathroom offered by the old-fashioned, full-service gas station was on the right side of the building and all the way at the back. Vince checked out the four-by-four room before allowing Kat inside. It was cleaner than he’d expected. Apparently the old geezer who ran the fifties-style joint was a neatnik.

“Is the coast clear?” Kat teased. She leaned back against the wall next to the bathroom door. “I do have a gun, you know.” She cocked one finely arched auburn eyebrow. “And I haven’t forgotten how to use it.”

Vince resisted the impulse to tell her everything. To ask her what she really remembered, but it would be a mistake. The implant was in control, that was obvious. She would have taken his head off by now otherwise. His mission was to play this out to see if he could finger the guy in charge of WSA. As long as continuing didn’t endanger Kat’s life, completing the mission was essential.

“Just making sure the facilities were fit for a princess,” he returned just as playfully. They’d sparred like this all those years ago.

She pushed off the wall and sashayed into the bathroom. “I’ll only be a minute,” she said over her shoulder, her tone flirtatious, inviting.

Vince looked away as the door closed behind her. He had to regain his perspective here. It would be too easy to fall into the old routine of taking what she had to offer. What he desperately wanted.

Except it wouldn’t be fair to Kat. She was not herself. Had no control over the situation. He’d been a jerk with her once. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

The door abruptly opened halfway. “I’ve got a little problem in here, Vince.” She reached out and grabbed his sleeve. “You don’t mind helping a girl out, now do you?” She tugged, pulling him to the door.

“What kind of problem?”

She had him in the room and the door closed behind him before the hesitant words were fully out of his mouth. Anticipation spiked, as did his male equipment. This was not a good thing.

Kat shoved him against the closed door and immediately started unbuttoning his shirt. “Why do you do this to me, Vinny?” she demanded petulantly.

No one had ever called him Vinny, except Kat. It touched him…but now wasn’t the time. He manacled her hands and held them still. “We don’t have time for this right now,” he urged, his whole body hardening at the prospect she presented.

“You disappear for weeks, leaving me to my own devices.” She looked up at him, those green eyes hooded, that luscious mouth puckered in a little pout. “Could get a girl in all kinds of trouble.”

“Kat, you—”

“Shh,” she purred, then tugged loose from his grasp and whispered, “I just can’t be expected to wait a minute longer.” She stood on tiptoes and brushed her lips against his.

All thought processes ceased. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Damn sure couldn’t speak with her looking at him that way…touching him that way.

Her fingers tangled with his buttons once more. “All you have to do is let me have my way.” Her hungry mouth captured his in a demanding kiss.

He should have resisted. Should have pushed her away. But he simply didn’t possess the strength to do it. His fingers found their way into her hair. He jerked the pins away until those silky auburn tresses fell around his hands. Her cool fingers moved over his chest sending a fire raging through him. She teased his nipples, making them bud and burn. Traced the ridges of his abdomen. Then tugged at the closure to his jeans.

Her wicked tongue thrust in and out of his mouth in time with the undulating of her hips against his rigid pelvis. He was coming unglued one piece at a time. He was hard as a rock. His mind was reeling and he couldn’t touch her all the places he wanted to at once. Her hair…the curve of her spine…the swell of her bottom. He lifted her more firmly against him. She moaned, the sound fueling the desire already out of control inside him.

She kissed him harder, then pulled free, her lips following the new path of her hands. Along his throat, over one aching nipple and downward. She teased him, dipping her tongue beneath his waistband, all the while squeezing his buttocks. Vince closed his eyes and told himself he could be stronger than this. Commanded himself to pull it together.

He couldn’t do it.

He pulled her back into his arms, did a one-eighty turn and pressed her against the closed door. He kissed her the way he wanted to…the way he’d dreamed of kissing her for four long, lonely years. He hiked her skirt up to her waist and pushed hard between her welcoming thighs. Another throaty groan echoed in the room, whether from him or her, he couldn’t say.

He found the spot that was hot and wet for him. Touched her there. He trembled. She did the same. She pulled free of the kiss and cried out his name, her fingers fisting in his shirt, tugging it from his jeans. He trembled again at the needy sound of her voice. He dragged a finger along that ultrasensitive place and reveled in her response. She arched her spine, offering that slick warmth for his taking.

“Please don’t make me wait any longer,” she murmured. Her eyes opened and she looked directly at him. “Please,” she whimpered.

In those shimmering jade pools he saw his reflection. Saw the man who was prepared to hurt the only woman he’d ever cared about all over again.

He couldn’t do it.

Not even to maintain his cover.

Chapter Three