Page 33 of Shadow Burn

Her eyebrows rose.

“Yes, temporary,” he said. “You can file a complaint afterward.”

“I’ll draft it carefully.”

“I’d expect nothing less.”

Garrett joined them again, phone in hand. “Sebastian’s on his way. CB, too.”

Mallory appeared in the kitchen doorway, notepad tucked into his coat pocket. “You’re cleared to leave. I’ll have an officer follow you if you want.”

“Not necessary, but thank you,” Garrett said.

Katherine looked like she wanted to remove Priss from the carrier and hold her in her arms, but didn’t. The cat protested the indignity of the carrier, then settled, glaring at all of them. Jasper picked up the document bag, her clothes, and the first-aid kit. Garrett grabbed the carrier and bag of cat supplies.

At the front door, Katherine stopped and looked back into the rental.

Jasper waited.

She nodded, stepped through the door, and let him guide her to his truck.

Garrett moved ahead, on alert. Jasper kept one hand lightly at Katherine’s back as they crossed the yard. She leaned into the contact for half a step before catching herself, and he pretended not to notice.

At the truck, he opened the passenger door and helped her in. Next came Priss in the carrier to settle in her lap. Katherine stared through the windshield at the night beyond the police lights.

Jasper shut the door and looked across the bed of the truck at Garrett.

Garrett’s expression had gone hard. “Library?”

“Library,” Jasper said.

“Then compound.”

“Then we lock her down.”

Garrett glanced through the rear cab window at Katherine. “Good luck with that.”

Jasper followed his gaze. Katherine sat in his passenger seat, bandaged, with a cat in her lap, and her eyes sharp enough to cut glass.

For the first time since the phone went dead, Jasper felt something besides fear move through him.

Admiration.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m definitely going to need more than luck.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Blackridge Public Library felt different at two in the morning. Quiet, yes, but no longer hallowed in the way Katherine had felt it to be. Tonight, every dark aisle looked like a place someone could hide. Every window reflected too much of the room behind her. Every settling creak in the old building made her bandaged hand tighten around the strap of her document bag.

It had seemed like a safe place and had been Agency-approved. But that was before someone had attacked her. Someone who knew she was an archivist at the CIA.

Margie had given her after-hours access with the key, but Katherine doubted the librarian had imagined four men from Shadow Point Security moving through the rear corridor like a tactical unit while Katherine stood in the meeting room doorway with a cut on her cheek and Priss yowling from Jasper’s truck.

The former Secret Service agent, Sebastian, had taken the exterior before Katherine ever stepped inside, circling the building once, then positioning himself near the front with a view of the street and parking lot.

A tall bear of a man, unmistakably CB from Garrett and Jasper’s description, stood at the rear exit, big enough to make the doorway look smaller. Garrett and Jasper moved boxes. Jasper had handed her a heavy flashlight before she’d exited the truck, showing her the second switch that delivered enough electrical charge to ruin someone’s day. A stun baton, he’d called it. It felt wrong in her hands that had just held Priss, but it also brought a kind of relief.

No one said they were arranging themselves around her. They didn’t need to.