Page 12 of Keeping Her Secrets

“It was nothing.”

Reaching under her long dress, she took one of her guns and handed it to Ash and kept her favorite in her hand.

“That is so fucking hot.”

Mustique smirked at him but shook her head.

Reaching her floor, they exited the elevator slowly, with guns raised, and found it empty. Taking the key, she carefully opened the door to her room, noting the clear tape she had put there was intact, and they silently entered. Ash cleared the bedroom as she cleared the balcony but once again kept back from the potential sights of the sniper.

“Clear.”

Mustique peered up at him as he entered. “We need to leave.”

“Agreed. I need to warn Daniel. That was too close. Five minutes earlier and…”

“Don’t say it.” She couldn’t bear to hear him say the words.

“You pack, I’ll make the call to Dan and then call Jake and Nick.”

Mustique quickly changed into her usual tight, leather pants and a tee and threw everything else she had in her bag, making sure not to leave anything behind. After giving the room a quick clean down, she wiped the handles in the bathroom too. Part of the reason Zenobi was successful as a group was nobody knew who they were or that they truly existed. Rumors were one thing, confirmation was another, and she wasn’t going to leave anything behind that could make Zenobi a reality instead of a myth.

“Ready to go?” Ash was watching her from the door.

“Yes, let’s get out of here.”

“Jake is on his way; he’ll take us to a safe house.”

Mustique nodded. As a unit, they exited the room. She spotted the cameras and motioned to him. He nodded his understanding. Taking the back stairs, they made it to the ground floor without incident and exited the fire door just as Jake pulled up with Nick. They climbed in the back seat, and Jake drove off before Ash had fully shut the door.

“The cameras will pick us up on that floor with guns in our hands.”

Jake swung his gaze to her in the rear-view mirror. “I’ll have our computer geek, Brody deal with it. What happened?”

Ash replayed the events of the last twenty minutes in full detail, leaving nothing out, and she got a glimpse of him in full SEAL mode.

Nick focused on her. “Do you think Hanley made you? You were at the same party a few weeks ago.”

The man had a point, but there was no way the senator would have made her—if there was one thing a Zenobi girl could do, it was disguises. “No way in hell; my disguise was solid.”

“Anyone else know about this?”

“No, just you.”

“What about Roz?” Ash asked, catching her eye.

Mustique kept her voice low so the men in the front couldn’t hear. “No, this isn’t being done through Zenobi. Roz would never send in a girl alone; we always work in pairs.”

Ash cocked his head in question. “So how come you’re flying solo?”

His question was not one she could easily answer without telling him at least part of the truth. The problem with that was she knew a man like Ash wouldn’t stop until he had it all. When he knew her secret, he would detest her like she did herself, and the thought of Ash hating her pained her. “I just am.” She knew it wasn’t an answer, but it bought her some time.

“Fine, in that case, we need to figure out how you were made. Someone knows you’re on to them, and they’re scared, which on the flip side means you’re onto something they don’t want you to find.”

“We’re here,” Jake announced as he pulled up outside an ugly gray two-story suburban home with an internal access garage. As a safe house, it was perfect; in the middle of other family homes, it didn’t stand out, wasn’t too old and run down, nor too new and updated. It looked like every other house on the street.

“You’re sure we weren’t followed?” she asked before she stepped out. Jake rolled his eyes as he exited the driver’s seat. “Sorry, I just… It’s hard to work with new people.”

“I get that, but you have to learn to trust.”