Page 39 of Targeted By Desire

“What?” I walked back to the edge of the cliff and peeked down at the scene.

Between the smoke coming out of the open door, there was a shadow stumbling through. I lifted the small binoculars hanging from my neck to my eyes to get a better look.

Emerging from through the gray clouds was Simone and her partner. Their arms were around each other’s shoulders as if they were holding the other up. Their grimacing faces were smeared with black char and tiny cuts. Together, they limped as fast as they could out from the wreckage.

A force tugged at the ends of my lips at the sight. This woman really wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Dammit,” Maria swore quietly.

I chuckled. “It’s alright. We’ll get her next time.”

Maria looked up at me. Her eyes lingered on the ghost of a smile on my lips. Rolling her eyes, she rose to her feet and walked back to the van.

I stayed back for a few more moments, watching Simone and her partner move further away from the destruction. They sat down on the ground, their chests unevenly heaving up and down.

A shiver ran down Simone’s spine, and she quickly looked around. Like she could feel me watching. Like she knew I was still out here.

I stepped away from the cliff so she wouldn’t know she was right.

I had to give her some credit for earning yet another point on the scoreboard. Surviving three rounds was no easy feat. I wondered how many more she had in her. Conceding didn’t seem like it was in her vocabulary.

And that meant our game wouldn’t be ending anytime soon.

THE AGENT

The light of my phone lit up my ceiling as it buzzed from an incoming call.

Still awake at the late hour, I instinctively rolled over to check who was calling. As if it would be anyone else at three o’clock in the morning.

Still, my stomach clenched at the “Unknown” sitting at the top of my screen. My finger hit the decline button quicker than I could blink. I was not in the mood for him right now.

The little stunt he pulled earlier today was too far. Not only was my life in jeopardy, but so was Gabriel’s.

My partner was the first thing that came to mind after I saw the bomb. I’d raced down the steps, yelling his name, praying I was loud enough he’d hear me.

He was still on the lower level when I found him, holding his phone to his ear. His brows stitched together at the sight of my wide, frantic eyes. Before he could even ask what was wrong, I’d grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the stairwell.

“There’s a bomb,” I’d explained as we jogged down the steps. “We need to get out of-“

The boom of the explosion cut me off.

Gabriel wrapped his arms around me and pushed me onto the shaking ground. He sheltered me with his body, bearing the heat of the flying flames and sharp ends of metal breaking out of the infrastructure.

The winds blew us forward and slammed us against the fragile walls.

We grunted from the pain, but knew better than to move.

We sat there for a moment, clutching each other with one arm and shielding our faces with the other while we waited for the waves of the blast to pass.

“Are you okay?” I’d asked Gabriel.

“Mhm,” he’d said, his voice strained.

I’d peeked my head around his arm to catch a glimpse of his back.

As I expected, the elements cut through his bullet proof vest and shirt, scratching and burning up bits of his back.

I slid out from underneath him and helped him up. Hooking his arm over my shoulders and mine around his waist, I led him through the smoke towards the sunlight peeking through the front doorway. It was supposed to be our light at the end of the tunnel. But, we ended up walking straight into another fire.