Read Covert Intents: A Branson Family Novella for Free Online Page B

somewhere else. Get out of your hair so you can do your job. Can you just toss me my sweater?”
    The man turned his back to her and reached down to get her sweater off the back of her chair, but when he turned back around, instead of handing her the jacket, he had a gun in his hand.
    She took a step back.
    “Where’s the chip?” He made his way around the desk, the gun still pointed directly at her.
    “What chip?”
    “You’re Rachel Branson, right? This is your office?”
    “Who are you?”
    The man took a step forward and grabbed her arm, eyes flinty. “Where is the microchip?”
    Rachel had no idea what he was talking about. “Listen, I know I work on the floor with mostly computer faculty, but I’m a literature instructor. I don’t know anything about microchips and stuff like that.”
    He took a step towards her, arms raised to strike. They both heard the bell of the elevator chime and creaky wheels of a cart.
    Seth.
    The man quickly peeled off his coveralls and grabbed her by the arm again. He kept his gun pointed at her ribs, the clothing covering it from view.
    “You’re coming with me. If you say anything to anyone as we leave, I will kill that person and shoot you in your kneecap. Got it?”
    Rachel nodded, not trusting herself to talk. She couldn’t allow Seth to get hurt.
    He led her out of her office, closing the door behind them. It didn’t take long before she could see Seth and his cleaning cart down the hallway near the elevator, coming toward them.
    “I have to say hi to Patrick, or else he’ll get suspicious. We always say hello to each other.” She didn’t want to take a chance on Seth getting shot just because he said hello to her.
    As they neared Seth, the man gripped her arm tighter. Seth was whistling, although stopped when he saw Rachel and the man.
    “Hi Patrick. Have a good weekend, okay?”
    What was she doing? Calling him by another name wasn’t going to do anything but confuse Seth. There was no reason he would think something was wrong, he would just think she’s crazy.
    She prayed he wouldn’t bring up last night or their kiss. She glanced up at his green eyes. His face was neutral, but his eyes were just slightly narrowed.
    “See you later Dr. Branson. Have a good day.”
    Seth had caught on that something wasn’t right. He never called her Dr. Branson, ever since she had explained she wasn’t a doctor yet. Not until she finished her dissertation. He always called her “Dr. Almost-Branson.”
    But what was he going to do, squirt the bad guy with window cleaner? The man had a gun. Seth had a custodial cart.
    Rachel didn’t know what microchip the man wanted, but she didn’t have it. And she knew leaving the building with him would be disastrous. She’d have to take a chance that the man wasn’t willing to shoot her since he thought she had something he wanted.
    They were coming up on the break room. It was the only room on the floor Rachel knew of that had two doors. It was her best bet.
    She pulled from the man just as they passed the door.
    “Hey—“ he lurched for her, but missed.
    She ran into the room and pulled down a huge pile of books on the table by the door. Although he wasn’t shooting, she realized the books weren’t slowing him down.
    She ducked behind one of the large shelves, but knew it wouldn’t take long for the guy to find her. She needed a way out. She dipped her head around one side and didn’t see him so stepped all the way around the shelf.
    He was standing right there. “There you are.”
    He lunged for her again, but just as he was about to grab her he went flying through the air landing diagonal to her.
    Seth was on top of him, somehow having managed a silent flying tackle from the side.
    “Be careful, he has a gun.” Rachel wasn’t sure how she could best help Seth. This guy was obviously a trained criminal.
    But it didn’t take more than a few moments to realize Seth didn’t need much help. He was giving as good as he