He nodded, but Drew didn’t actually speak. He’d learned long ago that some lies could taste too bitter on the tongue.
* * *
LEE’S HANDS WERE sweating. There was no sign of Mercer’s daughter, and if he didn’t turn that woman back in to the boss... I’m dead.
Anton Devast wasn’t exactly big on giving second chances. You messed up once with him and you were dead.
He motioned to Grayson, and the pilot circled the chopper around. The bird jerked in the air, then steadied. Lee hissed out a sharp breath and stared below with grainy eyes. He saw the familiar Ranger heading down the narrow, broken road. Reynolds, Morris and Sanchez. They’d been sent out to the abandoned ranch that he’d spotted. He’d given them orders to radio in if they saw anything suspicious out there.
He squinted as he stared down at them. Their vehicle was moving in the wrong direction. They weren’t heading back to the compound. They were going east.
He glanced over at Grayson. “Get Reynolds on the radio.” Where the hell was that man going? No one stopped searching, not until Stone was dead and Mercer’s daughter was contained.
Lee’s life was on the damn line.
No one stopped.
* * *
TINA STARED AT the small radio cradled in Drew’s hand. It had crackled to life a moment before.
“Report!” a man’s voice demanded.
Drew glanced over at her. One hand was on the wheel. The other was tightening around the radio. “Clear,” he barked. Only that wasn’t his normal voice. He’d responded in a voice that was harder, sharper.
“Any—” more crackling “—sign?”
“Not there. Checking to the east. Interference—” Then he slammed the radio into the dashboard.
It splintered into several big chunks.
“Like I said,” he muttered, “interference.”
She couldn’t pull in a deep enough breath. She was trying hard to stay calm, but the panic wanted to rise. Did Drew know? He’d heard her deep, heaving breaths back at the abandoned ranch. Did he realize just how much of a risk she posed to him?
Breathe. Relax. Picture the air sliding deep into your lungs.
“You think...they bought that?”
“If the chopper lands in front of us, then they didn’t.”
The chopper was about fifty yards away and it was—
Leaving.
Tina finally got that deep breath.
“Any signal on the cell?”
She glanced down. “Not yet.”
“When we get to Lightning, we’ll call in my backup. They can pick up the men we left back at the ranch, and they can get you out of here.”
“Lightning?”
“A speck on the map. One of the tiniest towns you’ve never seen.” His lips hitched as he glanced toward her. “As far as rest stops go, it’s the only option we have.”
“But...but won’t those men be looking for us there?”
“Yeah, they will be, and that’s why we have to make sure they don’t find us.” He gave a grim nod. “It’s also my backup plan.”
“Good to know you have a plan,” she said as her fingers curved around the cell phone.
“My team has eyes in that town. They’ll be able to back us up. Doc, you may even be on your way to your D.C. apartment by dawn.”
That sounded like heaven to her. Going to New Orleans had been such a horrible mistake. And to think, she’d originally believed it would be the perfect, easy assignment. A way to get out of D.C. for a while.
If only she’d known about the danger that awaited in the Big Easy.
But Drew was right. Soon she would be going home once more.
She just had to get through a few more hours of hell first.
* * *
DREW HAD BEEN RIGHT. The town of Lightning was so small that if she’d blinked, Tina was sure she would have missed the place. When they drove in, a rumble of thunder followed them.
They passed boarded-up buildings. Two empty gas stations. She saw a diner to the right that looked as though it hadn’t been open in years.
“Storms come in here like clockwork,” Drew told her as he fired a quick check into the rearview mirror. So far, there had been no sign of company. “Lightning messes up all the electrical equipment in town. Most folks don’t like the storms, so they don’t stay here long.”
Well, that would sure explain the town’s name.
He eased off the main road. Well, what passed for the main road anyway. He parked the vehicle behind the diner. “No sense leaving it too close,” he said as he took her hand. He’d taken the cowboy hat and a shirt from one of the thugs back at the old ranch. The shirt was a little too small and it stretched over his wide shoulders.
His fingers curled around hers. “Come on. Another storm will be hitting soon.”
The sky was pitch-black. More thunder rumbled. She’d just taken a few steps with Drew when the first raindrops hit her.
Then the dark clouds really opened up. The rain pelted them, hard and fast, as they ran down narrow streets toward an old motel.
The orange Vacancy sign glowed brightly.
It sure was a beautiful sight.
Drew pushed open the motel’s office door. A little bell jingled overhead.
No one was inside. No one waited behind the narrow counter. Tina shoved back her wet hair. Her shirt clung to her like a second skin and—
“Good thing you two are here.” A woman’s voice came from the back corner of the office, making Tina jump. “No one should be out in weather like this.”
Tina realized that she’d put her hand over her heart. She was ready to stop having so many scares.
“Hi, ma’am.” Drew flashed the woman a smile and tipped back his wet hat. “My wife and I need a room.” He pushed some cash across the counter. More than enough cash to cover a room.
And enough to stop any questions?
But the woman—her white hair and the deep lines near her eyes put her in her seventies—was staring at Tina’s hand. No. At the dark circle on Tina’s wrist.
Frowning, the lady asked, “You okay, miss?”
Tina dropped her hand and forced a big smile. “I’m fine. Just had a little...accident.” With a pair of handcuffs.
The woman’s gaze slid toward Drew. Now she was looking suspicious. A small name tag on her left breast-pocket indicated the woman’s name was Sarah.
“Maverick,” he said softly.
And, just like that, the woman’s face cleared of all emotion. She handed Drew a room key. “Room six. Last one on the end.” She turned around and headed into the back room.
Tina blinked. What was that about?
Drew reached for Tina’s hand. His fingers stroked her wrist. “We’ll get some ice for that.”
A bruised wrist wasn’t especially high on her list of worries right then.
They had to run back into the rain to get to their room. But, less than three blessed minutes later, they were inside room number six. The place was small but clean, so wonderfully clean, and dry.
Lightning flashed outside the window. Thunder rumbled and the window glass trembled.
Drew locked the door behind her.
Tina wrapped her hands around her stomach. “There’s a phone on the nightstand.” A landline. She’d never been so happy to see one of those before. “Are you going to call Mercer now?”
“I don’t need to.” He tossed away his hat and wiped his hand over his hair. The hat hadn’t exactly kept his dark hair dry. Droplets of water fell around him. “Sarah knows the score. She’s already made contact with the base group.”
“Sarah?” Her eyes widened. “That sweet old lady at the desk—”
“She’s ex-EOD. She recognized my code word. She’ll make sure that word spreads fast that we’re here. My team will come for us.”
That was good. That put her one step closer to ending this nightmare. It also meant that she was one step closer to leaving Drew.
Not so good.
>
He turned toward the window. “Why don’t you go shower off? You’ll feel more human after—”
“After I wash the blood and dirt away?” Tina finished. Yes, she would. But she felt as though there was more she should say to him. If the cavalry was coming in to swoop her away at any minute, there had to be more she told him. So she started with the basics. “Thank you.”
He turned toward her.
Another bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the area just beyond the window.
The thunder rumbled a moment later.
“You blew your cover to save me.” No, more than that. Tina’s gaze held his. “You risked your life.” He’d taken a bullet for her. How was she supposed to repay that kind of sacrifice?
He took a step toward her.
“I didn’t ask who those men were.” Because she knew the way the system worked. Need-to-know info.
She wasn’t an agent. That meant, according to Mercer, the less she knew, the better. Even if her life had been put on the line.
“You’re better off not knowing,” Drew said, sounding way too much like Mercer for her peace of mind right then. His jaw tightened. “They’re some of the most dangerous SOBs that I’ve crossed.”
“You could have died saving me.”
He took another slow, gliding step toward her. Then one more. She tilted her head back. Trembled as the rain water began to dry on her skin.
“Doc, I wasn’t leaving you behind.” His eyes raked her. “And I wasn’t going to let them hurt you anymore. Carl wasn’t using that knife on you.”
She was so out of her league. Not just in the middle of this blood fest, but with Drew.
The guys she dated were nice, safe. They didn’t know how to take down enemies in hand-to-hand combat. They didn’t know how to pick the locks on handcuffs.
And those men didn’t make her feel the way Drew did.
When the cavalry did come through that door, she’d leave the motel. Drew would go back to his missions, and she’d see him when he came in for his checkups at the EOD.
They’d go back to business as usual.
She didn’t want that.
What she wanted—was him.
Unfortunately she was a sopping-wet mess at that moment. No doubt, she appeared like a drowned rat.
A seduction routine wasn’t going to work right then.
Tina nodded and tried to pull herself together again. “I’m glad you were the agent who was there, Drew.” Then she swept around him before she did something crazy—such as throw her arms around the guy and hold on tight.
Or point out the fact that the bed behind them appeared very, very clean.
She opened the bathroom door and rushed gratefully inside. Before she shut the door, she heard him mutter, “I’m glad, too, Doc.”
* * *
THEY’D ESCAPED. Not just escaped, but seemingly vanished. Lee stormed away from the helicopter. He had to tell the boss that the search hadn’t turned up the missing woman. This wasn’t the way he wanted things to go down.
He hurried by the base’s parking area. More of the search teams had come back in, but they’d turned up nothing.
“You didn’t find them.” Thud. Thud. Thud.
Lee froze. The boss wasn’t inside the compound. He was right there waiting to attack. “I’m going back out. They must have gotten to a town. Got shelter. We’ll get them—”
Thud. Thud. “No, if they made it to a town, then the agent will be calling for backup. He’ll be bringing in men to take the woman away.”
“Boss, look—”
His words were interrupted by the loud banging of a horn. “What the hell?” Lee said as he turned toward the sound.
He recognized the pickup heading toward him. Leroy and Guan were coming in hell-fast, but three men were hanging on to the back of their pickup.
Reynolds? What the hell was he doing with Leroy? Reynolds had radioed that he was heading east to search.
Lee ran toward the truck. Reynolds was trying to jump off the side of the vehicle’s bed. He was missing his shirt and dried blood coated his skin.
“Ambushed us...” Reynolds yanked up his hand—a hand that was connected by a handcuff to Adam Morris. “SOB took our ride and headed out!”
Lee’s heart raced faster. “East.” He snarled that one word.
“We found ’em,” Guan was saying, “when we went over to do a backup sweep at that abandoned ranch. They were tied up in some shack.”
“Head east!” Lee bellowed. Because that was where the Ranger had been going. East. There was only one safe spot within a two-hundred-mile radius that way. “Lightning.”
They’d gone to that old town.
Now he knew exactly where his prey was hiding.
Thud. Thud.
He whirled around. “Don’t worry,” Lee said quickly to Devast. “I’ve got them.” My six hours aren’t up.
He’d blow up that whole town if he had to, but he’d get that agent.
Or I’ll die trying. Because the look in his boss’s eyes clearly said that if he came back empty-handed, death would be waiting on him.
* * *
ANTON DEVAST WATCHED Lee Slater rush away. Slater was proving to be a disappointment to him.
When he was disappointed, it meant it was time for people to die.
If Slater couldn’t catch the EOD agent and the missing woman, Anton would just have to find someone else to get the job done.
He smiled. Mercer had infiltrated Devast’s group. Thought you were clever, didn’t you, old friend?
It was Anton’s turn now. And he’d use one of Mercer’s men against him.
In their business, loyalties were bought and traded every single day. You just had to know the right price to offer.
With the right price, you could buy anything.
You could even buy your way into the EOD.
Chapter Five
The storm wasn’t letting up. In fact, the rain pelted down even harder as Drew gazed out the window. His team was coming. He hadn’t used the landline to call them. Even in a place that was supposed to be secure... Well, he knew better than to take risks.
Risks would get a man killed.
Sarah had instantly recognized his code word. She would have gone into the back and made contact through a secure system. As a backup—because Drew always believed in backups—he had used his burner phone to check in with Dylan. Now that they were in the town, he’d managed to get a signal strong enough to make the call. His friend and team leader had given him an ETA of less than thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes, and then Tina would be gone.
That’s not enough time with her.
The bathroom door opened with a soft creak. He turned to look at her. Steam drifted lightly from the small bathroom.
A loud crack of lightning seemed to explode outside the motel room.
The room—the whole motel from the look of things—was immediately plunged into darkness.
“Drew?”
Even in the dark, he saw her form easily. Drew had always been gifted with excellent night vision. He stalked toward her. “Told you,” he said softly, “the storms come in and cause chaos in the town.” The lights might come back on in a few minutes or it could be a few hours before the electricity was restored. She’ll be long gone by then.
His fingers lifted and curled around her shoulder. Her bare shoulder. Her skin was like hot silk beneath his callused fingers.
In that one moment, before the lights had flashed off, he’d seen her standing in that doorway. She’d just been wearing a towel.
Desire, need for her, pulsed beneath his skin. He’d be sent back into the field. If not on this case, then out on another one. How long would it be before he saw her again?
Now that she was compromised, now that the crazies with HAVOC mistakenly thought that she was Mercer’s daughter, what would happen to her? She wouldn’t be able to go back to her old life.
Not with that threat hanging over her.
>
I’ll eliminate that threat.
“My clothes had blood on them,” she whispered. “I just... I hated to put them right back on, but I didn’t have anything else to wear.”
He motioned toward the bed. It was just a big, dark shadow. She probably didn’t even see his hand moving. “Sarah brought you some jeans and a fresh shirt.”
She didn’t move to get those clothes.
“I have a confession,” Tina told him softly. “I’ve...watched you.” Her voice was husky in the dark. “At the EOD offices.”
He’d watched her plenty, too.
Intrigued now, he waited.
“I know I’m not your usual type of...of date—”
“Oh?” He was even more curious now. “You think I don’t go for the smart and sexy women?” Because Tina was most definitely his type. His sleepless nights could attest to that.
“You live on the edge. You love danger and action. And I hide in the background.”
No, she tried to hide in the background. She failed at that job. A woman like her could never just disappear.
“I don’t want to hide from you,” Tina told him. Her hands rose and her fingers settled around his shoulders. She was so small, seemingly fragile in front of him. “I want to be with you.”
He stiffened as desire sharpened within him. “You should be very careful what you say.” Especially to a man like him. A man who’d lived for too long wanting things that he couldn’t have.
One of those things was right in front of him.
“It’s just us,” she said, and her voice was pure temptation. “No gunshots. Not even any lights. Just us. Alone in the dark.” She rose onto her tiptoes.
His fingers locked around her waist. “I warned you before about what would happen if I kissed you again.” Naked. Pleasure...
“I don’t want a warning. I told you, I just want you.” Then she kissed him.
The need, the raw lust that he felt for her, shot through him and electrified his whole body. Her kiss was tentative, and he needed more than that. So much more. He lifted her into his arms, holding her easily despite his wound.
Tina was right. They were alone. He’d been imaging her spread out in that big bed and, with the lights off, with the dark around them...