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The game had suddenly gotten a whole lot deadlier. He needed to get to Dylan and get Kara away where she wouldn’t be endangered.
Before both of them ended up dead.
Chapter 12
By 8:00 a.m., Jace and Kara arrived at the location Rafe had given him.
He guided the bike down the pothole-strewn street and pulled into a parking lot, accelerating until reaching the back of the warehouses.
Jace’s gaze assessed the ruins of the decaying, abandoned warehouses with boarded-up windows and peeling paint. Once they’d housed businesses and storage, but Hurricane Igor a few years ago had ripped off roofs and smashed glass. The owner never restored the buildings, as he was waiting for an insurance dispute to resolve legally. After the hurricane, they served as hangouts where drug dealers met at night to exchange cash for cocaine. The FBI had conducted more than one raid here, cleaning up the area with the help of local law enforcement. Few people ventured there now, scared off by the Feds. Place was as silent as a ghost town, flanked by abandoned railroad tracks.
It made for a perfect location to swap vehicles.
The big bike roared down the cracked pavement, sound bouncing off the buildings. Jace halted by the railroad tracks, engine still running. If someone had followed him here, he needed to make a quick exit.
“Can I get off now? My butt is sore,” Kara told him.
“No.” He spat out the word with more worried urgency than he cared to show. “Wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“Our ride.”
Gritting his teeth, he hoped the hell Rafe had come through, and not with an SUV that looked like a typical Fed vehicle. He needed to look innocuous, but on short notice, he worried Rafe wouldn’t be able to pull this off.
He turned his attention to the train tracks. Early morning sunlight glinted off a still unrusty section of railroad track. A dense canopy of tall, spindly Australian pines flanked the tracks, swaying in the breeze. Trash littered the tracks—soda cans, orange peels, candy bar wrappers. Brush and sun daisies grew between the tracks. The colorful yellow flowers softened the sense of decay and neglect. Grackles crowed in the nearby trees. A few dropped down to forage for scraps in the litter lining the railroad tracks.
Nature takes over everything eventually, if given enough time.
A few minutes later, a sleek black sedan drove up behind them and stopped. Engine still running, the driver’s side door opened.
Jace breathed relief as Rafe stepped out of the vehicle, leaving the door open. Never one to drop his guard, his team leader scanned the surroundings, not once, but twice, before putting distance between himself and the car. The car was an older model, nondescript, but gleaming in the harsh sunlight.
“Now we get off,” he told Kara, turning off the engine and dismounting.
As Jace grabbed their backpacks from the saddlebags, Kara removed the helmet and placed it on the seat next to the one he’d placed there. They walked over to the car. Jace bent down and peered inside. He rolled his eyes at the rearview mirror.
“Fuzzy dice?”
“My cousin’s car. He likes to gamble. Borrowed the wheels from him.”
Kara looked over Rafe as one might scrutinize a new ally. Or an enemy. Her gaze whipped back to Jace. “You look somewhat like Jace.”
Rafe offered a dazzling smile. Jace couldn’t see the resemblance. Yeah, they were about the same height, bearded, similar slender but muscle-toned build and had dark hair, but the resemblance ended there. Rafe’s skin was sun-darkened, hinting of his Hispanic origins.
His hair brushed the collar of his white dress shirt, where Jace’s was down to his shoulders.
“Hello. You’re Kara. Heard much about you, but Jace never mentioned how beautiful you are,” Rafe said in his deep voice.
“Funny. Jace never mentioned you,” she said.
Rafe gave a sharp bow. “Rafael Jones Rodriguez, at your service, Miss Wilmington.”
“Jones?” Kara’s brow wrinkled.
He shot her a toothsome, aw-shucks grin that usually made women melt. “I’m Cuban, on my mother’s side. My dad is Joshua Jones. Old family joke is keeping up with the Cuban Joneses.”
Kara’s pretty, glossy lips quirked up in a faint smile. Rafe’s dark eyes gleamed with intensity as he studied Kara. Rafe might be his friend and a top-notch, dedicated Federal agent, but he was a guy as well. Real ladies’ man, and the ladies loved him back. Kara, however, only sniffed and turned back to Jace.
