The Escape…

Blake blinked awake as the maid walked into the room and screamed in embarrassment. He tried to sit up and felt the wave of nausea hit him like a head-on collision. Drugged. He knew the feeling. He’d lived it once before, on an assignment in Mexico City gone bad. The maid ran out of the room and the door slammed shut and thank God, because he was naked and headed to the toilet. He barely made it to the seat before he threw up. And threw up some more. He’d been screwed over by a beautiful woman. He would have laughed if he wasn’t so f**king sick. He wasn’t a fool. Not by a long shot, yet, he’d acted like one.

And six hours later, when he’d finally dressed and confirmed the file was gone, he was finally capable of trying to figure out what had happened. He sat in the hotel room and dialed the offices where Tiffany Snow should work and asked for her. And just as he expected, she didn’t exist. Rachel, the woman who was supposed to meet him, wasn’t in.

Fifteen minutes later, Blake found where Kyle, one of the Walker tech experts, and a close friend keeping his pursuit of Alvarez off his brother’s radar, had parked a rental car in front of the hotel at a meter to wait on him.

Blake climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door, snatching Kyle’s sunglasses and putting them on. “Tell me you got an address on Rachel.”

“Of course,” Kyle said, giving him a sideways look from his too knowing green eyes. “You look like shit.”

“Yeah. Thanks. You look like a smart-ass.”

“Really?” he asked, pulling into traffic. “I had no idea smart-asses looked like blonde blue eyed Adonis.”

“You don’t have blue eyes.”

“And you must be sick as shit because by default you just agreed I’m an Adonis.”

Blake slid down into the seat and didn’t bother answering. The movement of the car was pissing him and his stomach off. “Drive faster.”

Thirty-minutes of hell Denver traffic later, Blake and Kyle entered the back of a small house owned by Rachel. When she wouldn’t answer her door, they entered and found her tied to a chair and gagged. “Who are you?” she screamed the instant Blake pulled the tape off. “And where is the bitch who tied me up? I’ll pay good money to kill her before my boss kills me for letting her do this to me.”

Blake knelt down beside her. He’d failed to prove himself to the boss beneath Alvarez and he had to find a way to fix that and fix it now. “I’m the guy who is going to save your ass so your boss doesn’t kill you.” He’d give her the list and arrange to get her out of the country a few weeks later, before she decided to spill his identity. It didn’t take long to convince Rachel of his plan.

There was just one lose end. Tiffany Snow. What had she wanted with that list? He didn’t like unknowns. He didn’t like being a victim. And he didn’t like letting himself do what he swore he wouldn’t do again. Get f**ked. People got killed when you were that sloppy.

He was going to find Tiffany Snow. She could count on it. He was…