For a few seconds, neither of them could move. They stayed locked together on the desk, waiting for their breath to return. The only sound in the office was the ticking clock and their heavy breathing.
Then, Jasmine started to giggle.
"I think we went too far," she whispered against his skin.
Richard let out a tired laugh.
"You think?"
She tried to stand up, smoothing her hair. But Richard wasn’t ready to let her go. He reached out, grabbed her waist, and pulled her back down toward him.
He kissed her deeply again. This kiss was different, it was hungry and desperate. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her against his chest as if he could keep her there forever.
She laughed softly into the kiss, then leaned her forehead against his, closing her eyes, savoring the mont.
"I think my break is over now," she whispered.
Richard reached up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"I want to be with you, my love. How much longer do we have to hide?"
Jasmine sighed and squeezed his hand. "Not much longer. Just stay patient. As soon as Andrew shows up, I am dumping his cheating ass."
She smiled and stood up, smoothing her white coat.
As she walked towards the nurses’ station, she pulled out her phone from her pocket and looked at the screen.
Andrew had called her many tis. She didn’t care. She swiped the notifications away.
A few days ago, Richard had brought her proof of Andrew’s infidelities. She had even pulled out the dical records of the woman Ava, only to see Andrew’s na as the father of her unborn child.
Jasmine tightened her grip on her phone. Andrew thought he was playing her, but she was done with his lies.
She didn’t even have to worry about what her family would think, because she had no one left. Her only living relative was a distant aunt who lived far away and had no children of her own.
She never should have left Richard for Andrew in the first place, she thought bitterly.
....
Zhao sat in his dark room. He was sitting behind the computer screen doing what he did best. Although he was laying low, he still needed to survive.
Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door. He jumped. Who could it be?
"Carl. Open up!" It was his neighbor, Mrs. Gable. She sounded anxious. "My water heater is leaking! I need your help!"
Zhao had changed his na to Carl since he arrived here. Whatever ss Mark had gotten him into, it was deep enough to make him jump at every sound.
He looked through the small crack in the door. Mrs. Gable wasn’t looking at him. She was banging on the door across the hall.
He frowned. She knew his entrance, so why was she banging on another door and calling his na.
That was when he saw them. Two n standing on the other end, holding guns. They had earpieces. They looked like they were FBI. Mrs. Gable was trying to warn him of the danger without tipping off the agents.
"Shit," Zhao cursed.
He didn’t stop to think. His heart hamred against his ribs as he grabbed his data drive, his phone, and his wallet in one sweep.
He scrambled toward the kitchen. Behind him, he heard the heavy thud of a boot hitting a door — the wrong door.
He had only seconds to escape.
He ran into the kitchen and jumped out of the window onto the tal fire escape.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
His boots hit the tal steps as he took them three at a ti. He jumped when he reached the bottom and hit the pavent hard, falling on his back.
"Ow... shit. Dammit."
He scrambled up, ignoring the sting in his spine, and sprinted into the alley.
Three agents saw him through the window.
"Target is moving!" one agent shouted. "He’s in the south alley. We need eyes on him!"
Miles above the Earth, a giant satellite turned. Back in the precinct, Pala was sitting behind the computer.
On the screen, Zhao, now known as Carl, was moving running through the shadows.
"I have him," she said, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "He’s heading for the main street! Sending the helicopter now."
Zhao burst out of the alley. Car horns scread. He wove through the crowd, hoping to disappear.
Behind him, a black car screeched onto the sidewalk. The doors flew open and four agents jumped out, their boots thumping on the pavent.
"There he is! Get him!" soone yelled.
High above, a police helicopter roared into view. Every ti Zhao turned a corner, he could see the helicopter banking in the distance, keeping its nose pointed in his direction.
"Visual confird," the pilot barked into his headset. "He’s on 7th and Broadway. Attempting to track."
Zhao dived under a series of street awnings, trying to break the line of sight. He had no idea the satellite was watching him directly.
"He’s under the cover," Pala reported back at the agents moving on the ground. "Switching to thermal. I see him. He’s moving toward the construction zone!"
Zhao didn’t slow down. He sprinted through a gap in a chain-link fence, knocking over a stack of orange cones.
Over a dozen n were right behind him now.
"Cut him off at the corner!" one of the agents yelled.
That was when Zhao saw the subway entrance.
"He’s going for the hole!" the pilot yelled. "Ground teams, move, move, move!"
Zhao leaped over the turnstile in one fluid motion.
Behind him, the agents run down the stairs.
The satellite view was struggling with the thick concrete, only the heat signature was still there.
"I’m losing the overhead!" Pala shouted. "Switching to internal transit cams. Co on... co on..."
The monitor flickered, showing a graining black-and-white feed which showed Zhao sprinting toward the edge of the platform.
"He’s at Platform B!" she said.
A crowded train was already there, about to move.
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