"Well, we don't have to..." I replied, trying my best to sound put out.

She laughed. "I'm kidding. That's very sweet of you. And good timing. I'm starving."

I followed Sophia back inside, drawing a few strange looks from her colleagues, but we made it to the office without any awkward questions.

"It's still kind of early," she said, as I closed the door. "What happens if my boss decides to pop round for a chat?"

"Then I will politely ask him to leave."

"He might not appreciate that."

"Well I might not appreciate him interrupting our date."

She laughed. "I suspect you may just win that encounter."

I reached into the bag and cracked open a container. The room instantly filled with the smell of peanuts and garlic. "I hope Thai is okay."

She made an appreciative noise. "Thai is more than okay."

"And the coup de grace," I said, pulling out the bottle of wine I'd brought.

She clapped. "You know me too well."

"Only plastic cups I'm afraid."

"What?" she replied, with mock haughtiness. "This is an outrage!"

We settled in, passing containers back and forth and shovelling food into our mouths with those thin, store provided chopsticks. We were ravenous, and within just a few minutes we'd both managed to drip sauce down the fronts of our clothes, but all it did was make us laugh. There was something so comfortable about this sort of sharing. I'd eaten at a lot of fancy restaurants in my day, and while they had their charms, none of them compared to this. This was a level of affection and intimacy I assumed I'd never have, but by some miracle of God or fate, or whatever you want to call it, I'd found a woman who seemed to be willing to take all of my baggage on board. And amazingly, with our lives currently wrapped up in conspiracy and danger, we could still share moments like these.

"Thank you for this," she said, as we were taking a breather.

I shrugged. "It's no Mi Casa."

She reached out to give my hand a little squeeze. "Maybe not, but it's perfect anyway." And she was right.

It was a little sad, heading back to our makeshift fortress, but that couldn't erase the joy of the evening. Sophia's eyes were sparkling more than any time since before she was taken, and that alone made me incredibly happy. She had such life in her, and at times I was terrified the situation would crush that to dust.

It was dark by the time we pulled into the driveway, but I could still see the silhouettes of one of our guards sitting in his car on the grass to one side. The other would be around the back. It was encouraging to see that, even when we weren't home and they had every opportunity to slack off, they didn't. They were true professionals.

I parked the car and we hopped out. Thumbing the door scanner, I opened it and ushered Sophia inside.

"Home sweet home," she said.

I followed her, my eyes shamelessly glued to her ass. She turned her head and caught me. "And what are you looking at?"

"You," I replied. "Or rather, a specific part of you." I gave her a gentle little smack.

"What ever happened to look but don't touch?" she asked coyly.

"I plan on doing a lot more than touching."

I reached up to slip my jacket off, and then everything happened at once. There was a light, scraping sound from somewhere to our left. It was barely more than a whisper, a shoe catching a piece of furniture maybe, but my body had been on twenty four hour alert since this all started, so it was enough to set adrenaline exploding through my veins. If I hadn't already been removing my suit, I wouldn't have got there in time, but my gun was holstered in a shoulder strap that hung just below my armpit. As the two men appeared in the kitchen doorway, their own weapons pointed in our direction, I was already moving. My hand closed around my pistol grip as I lurched to one side, instinctively throwing myself in front of Sophia, knocking her into the room behind us. The air was suddenly thick with hot lead and the scent of gunpowder.

The first man missed his mark entirely, his bullets zinging into the plaster around me, and he paid the price as my first shot took him in the chest. However the next man was better. As his partner collapsed he took careful aim and fired a single round. I felt the wind of it plough past me as I threw myself behind the lounge room wall. Two inches to the left and I'd have been done.

I landed awkwardly and scuttled up into a crouch, then spun to check on Sophia. She looked over at me from the other side of the doorway, her face a mask of terror. I did my best to seem calm and collected, but blood was pounding in my ears. It had been a long time since I'd been in a real combat situation. I'd forgotten how sharp everything gets, how your heart feels like a fist pummelling the inside of your chest.

At any moment Tony and Aaron should have been bursting in through the doors, drawn by the sound of gunfire. But everything remained ominously silent. After a few seconds, I knew we were on our own.

I didn't understand how everything had gone so horribly wrong, but now wasn't the time to think. Now was a time for action. With every passing second, the situation grew more dangerous. Our opponent had gone quiet now. Probably holing up, to wait us out. He had a good position and a tiny space to watch. The moment I peeked out, I'd be done.

If I'd been alone, I could have simply looped around behind him through the lounge room's other doorway, but Sophia was essentially trapped in the corner. She couldn't go anywhere without exposing herself, which meant neither could I. I'd die before I left her alone.

I wracked my brains for some kind of plan, but nothing came. It would have to be a straight shoot out. That was the only way. He'd hit me, but maybe it wouldn't be lethal, maybe I'd still be able to take him out before I collapsed. I might not make it, but Sophia would.

She was still staring at me with those wide, beautiful eyes, her handbag clutched against her chest like a baby. I nodded reassuringly at her, trying to etch every line of that perfect face into my mind, then I crept to the edge of the doorway. She gasped as she realised what I was about to do, but I silenced her with a raised finger against my lips. There was no other option.

Taking a deep breath, I counted to three and then launched myself out across the doorway, the barrel of my pistol panning wildly for a target.

I expected to hear gunfire. I expected to feel that hot metal sting as he calmly picked me off from his perfect vantage. But instead, nothing happened.

The room across the hall was empty.

For a second I was confused, but then panic seized me, and everything suddenly seemed to slip into slow motion as I realised what had happened. I turned my head, catching sight of the man's profile in the lounge room's other doorway as he carefully took aim at me. I'd underestimated him. He hadn't been content to wait it out. Instead he was the one who'd looped around behind.




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