Operation: Midnight Escape. Linda Castillo

a knife. Leigh Michaels was no longer the twenty-one-year-old farm girl she’d been six years ago. She’d blossomed into a stunning beauty with the street smarts of an undercover cop. The hard knocks she’d taken showed in her shadowed eyes. In the mouth that no longer smiled so readily. But she was still so beautiful it hurt just to look at her, and Jake felt the pain of it all the way to his bones.

      Rounding the bed, she picked up the H&K he’d taken away from her earlier. With the ease of a woman who knew how to handle a firearm, Leigh checked the clip, then sheathed the weapon in her waistband. She walked over to her single suitcase, picked it up and started toward the door.

      Before opening it, she turned and looked at him. Her eyes slid down his body. She hadn’t meant the slow perusal in a sexual way, but he felt her gaze like the soft caress of fingertips over sensitive skin and his body jumped in response.

      “Don’t try to come after me, Jake. I know what I’m doing.”

      “You’re making a mistake.”

      “It’s not the first one, is it?”

      “Could be your last.” He watched her, wondering if any shred of what she’d felt for him six years ago was left inside her. “Don’t do this, Leigh. You’re going to get hurt.”

      “I’ve already been hurt.” She smiled, and for a moment looked very much like the lovely young woman he’d fallen for six years ago. “See you around, Jake.”

      She slipped through the door.

      For several eternal seconds Jake stood next to the bed, his heart heavy with dread. There was no way he could let her walk away. No matter how careful she was, Rasmussen would find her, and Jake knew what would happen when he did. The thought sickened him.

      Leigh might not want to be protected, but there was no way he could stand by and let her do this. Even if he had to use physical force. It was a route he hadn’t wanted to take, but the alternative was infinitely worse.

      “Go get her, you damn fool,” he muttered, and started for the door.

      CLUTCHING HER SUITCASE, Leigh started down the hall at a fast clip. Her heart was still wildly pounding from the shock of seeing Jake again. She couldn’t believe he’d found her. Couldn’t believe the old feelings were still there, when she’d spent so many years trying to exorcise them from her system.

      The doors on either side of her blurred as she broke into a run. She wasn’t sure why she was running. Away from Jake and all the memories and feelings she’d struggled for so long to leave behind. But she knew that no matter how fast she ran she would never be able to outrun them.

      She was midway to the stairs when a man rushed out of the alcove where the ice machine was. Leigh darted left, but he plowed into her with the force of a Mack truck. The impact sent her reeling. Her suitcase flew from her grip. Then his strong arms locked around her and spun her around.

      She caught a glimpse of long hair pulled into a ponytail. Eyes full of violence. She reached for the H&K in her waistband but wasn’t fast enough. His hand shot out like a snake. Viselike fingers closed around her wrist and Leigh dropped the pistol.

      “Try something stupid again and I’ll kill you.”

      Leigh tried to twist away, but he slammed her against the wall. Pain radiated up her spine. Her scream was cut short when he slapped his hand over her mouth.

      “Don’t make a sound or I’ll put a hole in you so big it’ll take the cops a week to find all the pieces.” He backed up the threat by jamming a pistol against her ribs. “You got that, pretty lady?”

      Leigh jerked her head once. She just knew he had to be one of Rasmussen’s thugs.

      Setting his forearm against her throat, the man glanced both ways. “You alone?”

      She nodded, wondering where Jake was. “What do you want?”

      “There’s a hefty pricetag on that pretty head of yours. Nothing personal, but I’m going to cash in.”

      She cringed as he ran his hands swiftly and impersonally over her body. She prayed he wouldn’t find the knife in her boot.

      Relief surged through her when he stepped back without patting down her calves. “We’re going to take the elevator down. Nice and easy and quiet. You got it?”

      He stepped into the dim light of a wall sconce, and she got her first good look at him. He was the size of a woolly mammoth with eyes so pale they looked white. His face was pocked and angular. He wore an expensive trench coat. And he held a deadly looking semiautomatic pistol aimed at her heart.

      “Where are you taking me?”

      “You’ll find out soon enough.” He jabbed her ribs with the gun. “Start walking.”

      Leigh glanced down the hall, but the door to her room remained shut. Jake was nowhere in sight. It suddenly occurred to her he might not have heard the commotion. That he could have been on the phone with his superiors. Or maybe he was going to let this man take her and lead him to Rasmussen….

      She knew it was stupid considering this man could kill her at any moment, but the thought hurt the same way it had hurt her six years ago. Damn Jake to hell. She didn’t need him or his protection. She still had the knife, after all. All she had to do was wait….

      The man motioned toward the elevator at the other end of the hall. “He wants you healthy, so don’t try anything stupid.”

      Leigh’s legs were shaking so violently she could barely put one foot in front of the other. Dizzy with fear, she started toward the elevator.

      Rot in hell, Vanderpol, she thought as she passed by the door to her room.

      But as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she’d been secretly hoping Jake would burst from the room and save her. That hope dwindled as they neared the elevator. Leigh could take care of herself, but she was smart enough to know when she was out of her depth. The men who worked for Ian Rasmussen were in an entirely different league altogether. One that was vicious and deadly.

      She was ten feet from the elevator when the sound of steel against steel stopped her. Jake, she thought, and spun. Her legs went weak when she saw him standing just twenty feet away, his weapon trained on the thug.

      Snarling a profanity, the thug jerked her close and jammed the muzzle against her temple. “Make a move and I’ll splatter her brains all over you.”

      “Drop the weapon and let her go,” Jake said with icy calm.

      The thug backed toward the elevator, dragging Leigh with him. “I don’t think you’re in any position to make demands.”

      Jake stepped toward him. “You hurt your precious cargo and Rasmussen will make you wish you’d never been born. I’ve seen what he does to people who cross him and it’s not pretty.”

      “Who the hell are you?”

      “Your worst nightmare.”

      The thug laughed. Leigh’s heart leapt into a wild staccato. The man had his left arm locked around her waist. His right held the gun against her temple. She could hear the rush of his ragged breath in her ear. She could smell the fear coming off him to mingle with her own.

      “Let her go and I’ll let you walk away,” Jake said. “I have no quarrel with you.”

      “Walk away from a big payoff?” The thug traced the gun down the side of her face. “I don’t think you want to mess up this pretty face any more than I do.”

      “Or maybe this is a losing proposition for both of us,” Jake said, edging closer.

      They reached the elevator. The thug loosened his grip on her to press the down button. The gun wavered. Knowing this could be her only chance, that she had only an instant to act, Leigh grasped his gun wrist with both hands. Simultaneously, she brought her boot down on his instep.

      The