Charmed: A Masters and Mercenar - Lexi Blake Page 0,80

completely lost control of the situation. Hutch had said something about Patrick in her ear as she’d rushed into the room, but she hadn’t paid attention to him. All she’d been able to think about was JT and getting to him in time to save him from Deanna.

It turned out Deanna had been trying to save him from her. Apparently the assistant had figured out something was wrong and had decided to fix it all herself.

Now she was likely dead, and if Nina didn’t calm the fuck down and think like an operative and not a crazy scared girlfriend, they would be dead, too.

“I want that prototype,” Patrick was saying.

She had to stall him long enough to either take a good shot or give time for Hutch to get here. In her panic to get JT out of the line of fire, her earpiece had dislodged so she had no way of knowing how far away he was.

“So the fiancée is really a bodyguard.” Patrick sounded like he was moving into the room. The suite was huge, and he would have to move past the sofa they were using as cover if he wanted to get to the table where Deanna’s bag lay.

She glanced down at JT.

He winced but gave her a nod that let her know he was all right.

“I guess that means you knew something was wrong,” Patrick continued.

She shifted to a crouch and realized there was a mirror over the bar. She could see Patrick standing warily at the edge of the room, as though he hadn’t decided if he was going to go for the prize or run away.

“Keep him talking,” Nina whispered.

“You couldn’t think we wouldn’t realize the prototype was gone,” JT said.

“I was hoping you would think Bill had hidden it somewhere. I thought I would have a little more time,” Patrick replied. “Where is it? Deanna obviously stole it out of my room earlier tonight. I’ve got a meeting in thirty minutes and I don’t like to think about what will happen if I don’t make it to the beach.”

Probably the same thing that happened to Bill. But at least she knew where and when the drop was supposed to be. All she had to do was survive and she could catch the spy.

“I don’t know where it is.” JT moved so his back was to the couch. He watched in the mirror, too, as Patrick started to inch his way toward Deanna’s body. “She hadn’t gotten to the part where she told me what was going on. I thought she was upset I was engaged.”

A nasty chuckle came from Patrick. “Yes, we’ve all thought she was pathetic, hanging around when it was obvious you weren’t ever going to fuck her. Or promote her.”

Nina kept her eye on the mirror. She could feel JT behind her. She wished there was some way to get him out of this, but he needed to stay down. If he moved for the bedroom, he would be exposed, and she didn’t trust that Patrick wouldn’t shoot anything that moved. She studied him carefully and his arm was already shaking. He wasn’t used to holding a gun for so long. She would bet he’d had minimal training at best. It was dangerous since he wouldn’t know how to control himself or the weapon he held.

There it was again—that horrible anxiety that something could happen to JT and she would spend the rest of her life mourning him.

“If you don’t know where the prototype is, I don’t have a lot of use for you,” Patrick said, though there was a tremor in his tone.

“How do you think you’re going to get out of this?” JT’s voice was strong and steady. “Nina works for a private security company, but she’s got ties to the government. Yeah, that’s right. They know something’s happening, and they won’t stop looking for you even if you do manage to kill me. So the question is do you want to add another murder to what’s going to be a long time in prison for you?”

Nina’s heart was thumping in her chest, adrenaline flowing through her system. She could see the way this would play out in her head. Two more steps from Patrick and she could ease around the side of the couch, pop up, and plant two squarely in his chest.

Two more steps and it would all be over.

Patrick stopped. “If I kill the two of you it can look like a lover’s quarrel.