He moistened a gauze pad with hydrogen peroxide and wiped away the blood that stained the skin surrounding the wound. “Bled a lot,” he said.
Her quick intake of breath told him it hurt when he touched the wound. “Sorry. Gotta do this.”
“Sadist.”
He moistened a fresh gauze pad. Relief trickled through him when he realized the bullet had just grazed her. “It’s just a nick.” Thank God.
“If a graze hurts this much, I’d hate to find out what it feels like to get shot.”
“I’m not going to let that happen.”
She looked at him over her shoulder, and Jake resisted the urge to pull her to him and make promises he knew he might not be able to keep. “You could probably use a couple of stitches.”
“Sorry, Vanderpol, but I draw the line at your jabbing a needle into me. My turn, I guess, for a butterfly bandage. Can you make it quick? It’s getting a little drafty.”
Looking at the smooth flesh of the most perfect female back he’d ever seen, Jake couldn’t have disagreed more. As far as he was concerned, it was getting downright hot.
The thought sent another rush of blood to his groin and he nearly groaned with frustration. Shifting, he reached for a small tube of antibiotic cream. “You’ve got some bruising,” he said in a rough voice. “You’re going to be hurting for a few days.”
“Both of us are going to be hurting if Rasmussen gets that close again,” she said.
“I don’t plan on letting that happen.”
“You didn’t plan on letting that happen the first time.”
She winced when Jake affixed the bandage. “Sorry.”
“Jake, we can’t keep running like this. We have to come up with a plan.”
He debated whether to tell her about his suspicions with regard to Mike Madrid and the MIDNIGHT Agency. He didn’t want to frighten her unduly. But Jake was a realist; she had good reason to be frightened. She deserved the truth. If something happened to him it might save her life.
“I’m fresh out of plans, Leigh.”
“We’re going to run out of places to hide. These bullets are getting a little too close for comfort. First you, now me.”
“Right now running is the only thing that’s keeping us alive. We can’t rely on the Witness Security Program. Not until we find out what happened.”
“Jake, I don’t understand why you haven’t contacted your people at the MIDNIGHT Agency.”
“I told you. I left the agency. They wanted me to put you in the hands of another agency and I told them to get screwed.” Not that he’d done a stellar job of protecting her so far.
“I understand. But that doesn’t mean the men and women you work with aren’t good. I’m not exactly comfortable putting my fate in the hands of someone else but, Jake, what other choices are there?”
“I still think someone within the agency gave up our location,” he said.
She turned to him, her eyes wide with shock. “Who would do such a thing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they were threatened. Maybe they did it for money.” Jake ground his teeth at the thought.
She bit her lip. “Who? Do you know?”
“I’m not sure about any of this—”
“Judging from the look on your face you have a pretty good idea.”
Jake looked away. “Mike Madrid.”
She blinked. “He’s your friend.”
“That’s what makes this so damn difficult.”
“Jake, twenty-four hours ago I thought I could handle this on my own. I thought I could disappear. A new town. A new identity. A new life. But after everything that’s happened, I’m not so sure.”
“I knew from the start we were in over our heads. Do you have any idea how difficult it would have been to hack into the Witness Security Program?”
“If anyone could pull it off, Rasmussen can. He’s a multimillionaire, Jake. He has resources and power. If someone refuses to cooperate, he either buys them or kills them.”
“Or their family.” Frustrated and more scared than he wanted to admit—not for himself, but for Leigh—he said, “If he got to Mike Madrid, he can get to anybody. I know Mike. He’s not for sale. For him to give us up, it would have to be bad.”
“Does he have family?”
“He never talks about his family or his past.”
“What makes you think he sold you out?”
“He was the only person who knew where we were last night.”
She considered that a moment. “Ian called me, Jake. Maybe he traced the call.”
“It’s possible, but he’d practically have to own the phone company to do that.”
“Maybe he does.”
“Still, I don’t think we should rely on MIDNIGHT to bail us out of this.”
“That’s why we need to come up with a plan.”
So they were back to the plan. Jake had to admire her strength. She’d been threatened and shot at and on the run for days. And yet she wasn’t falling to pieces. “What do you have in mind?”
“We know what he wants. Let’s dangle it in front of him and see if he bites.”
Jake felt a sinking sensation in his gut. “Don’t even go there, Leigh.”