Page 18 of Hot Pursuit

“Two people now.”

He clamped his palm around his thigh to stop the fidgeting.

“One person.”

Nate swallowed.

“Okay, she’s at the counter. Reaching into her purse. Appears to be a wallet. Taking out a credit card. The cashier is handing her a box. It’s sort of a tangerine orange. She’s smiling. He’s smiling. He handed her back her card. She took the box. I can’t see anything unusual about it. She’s turning. She’s walking out. She’s leaving. Not sure I can follow without my cover being blown.”

“I’m outside,” another voice jumped in. “Across the street. Eyes on. She’s walking through the door now. Hold on, she’s stopping. She’s reaching into the box. She’s taking something out, it’s a…a…oh. It’s just a doughnut or something. Oh wait, she’s reaching into her purse now. Pulling out…her cell phone again. I don’t see any contacts close by, but it’s crowded. She’s looking at the screen. Lifting it. Maybe searching for a signal.”

Nate zeroed in on the tablet in his lap.

What app was she opening?

Was she trying to make a Bluetooth transfer?

Was she trying to call someone?

Was she—

“I think she’s taking a selfie.”

Nate closed his eyes, squeezing tight as he lifted his fingers to the ridge of his nose. That was exactly what she was doing. A selfie. A goddamn selfie. Was this what his life had come to?

“I can confirm, she opened the camera app on her phone,” Nate said with a sigh, trying to remove the aggravation from his tone.

Leo snickered.

“Okay, yeah, she put the cell phone back in her bag,” the agent continued, a little bit of the energy gone from his voice. Nate dropped his head against the back of his seat and closed his eyes as every single life decision he’d ever made ran through his thoughts, making him wonder how he’d gotten here, to this assignment.

Patience, Nathaniel. His father’s voice cut through his thoughts.

Patience. Patience.

The one lesson Nate hadn’t had enough time with him to learn.

“The target is back on the move. She’s crossing the street. Heading east. Turning a corner. I lost visual. I repeat, I lost visual.”

Wait…

Heading east?

Turning a corner?

Nate’s eyes flew open.

A gentle knock drummed on his window.

His head fell to the side slowly, reluctantly.

“Morning, Agent Parker, Agent Alvarez,” Jo said with a wave, looking at them over the rim of her sunglasses, a grin across her red lips. “Want a cronut?”

- 9 -

Jo

If she could have bottled this moment to save it for later, she would have. His face was priceless. Absolutely priceless. The perfect mix of stony contempt and unabashed admiration, perhaps a little heavier on the stony contempt. But Jo took the fact that she was getting to him as an unintentional compliment—it would’ve been far worse if he’d shown no emotion at all.