by Cynthia Eden
Tina looked away.
After that, all hell broke loose. Or, rather, Drew Lancaster broke loose. He leaped forward and attacked the blond. The video image twisted, flew sideways, and Drew pummeled the guy on the floor.
Then another image filled the screen. A man wearing a black ski mask stared straight ahead and said, “We have your daughter, Mercer, and we have one of your precious EOD agents. If you don’t come for them, if you don’t trade yourself, they’ll both die. I can promise you, their deaths will be long and very, very painful.”
The video ended.
Rachel slowly exhaled. “That would explain why Drew isn’t making contact.”
Because he’d had to blow his cover to protect Tina.
“There is no exchange,” Sydney told them. No emotion had entered her voice. For a moment she almost reminded him of Drew. “You have to extract Tina and Drew, immediately. Backup agents will be sent down to assist your team.”
“And the original mission?” He wasn’t just going to let a domestic terrorist group walk away unscathed. If those SOBs escaped, thousands could die.
Not on my watch.
“Contain Devast’s group. Local law enforcement has already been alerted, and they’ll move on your command.”
This was a mess. A terrible, dangerous mess. “What about the group’s boss? If we just get the underlings, we don’t stop Anton Devast.” That was why Drew had gone in. To take down the real threat. Not just the lackeys.
“We’ll work to make his men turn on him. If he isn’t there, if we can’t get Devast in this raid, then we’ll use any prisoners that are taken against him.”
But they might not turn on their boss. If they were afraid enough—or stupidly loyal enough—they wouldn’t.
He ended the call with Sydney. He understood exactly what had been said and what hadn’t.
The EOD wasn’t like other government agencies. They didn’t follow official protocols, and they didn’t always tie up their cases with nice, neat little bows.
More often, their cases ended in bloodshed and death.
Their cases were the darkest. The most dangerous.
An extraction wouldn’t be easy, and attacking that compound—that attack could turn into a full-on war.
“Are you ready?” Dylan asked Rachel. Because sometimes, it didn’t take an army to fight a war.
It just took a few well-trained soldiers.
She nodded.
“Then let’s do this.” Before any more innocents were pulled into the fray.
* * *
HE’D LOST THEM, for the moment. That moment wouldn’t last long, though.
And, unfortunately, neither would he.
Drew blinked, trying to keep his eyes open. He’d driven for at least two hours, stopping when he thought he saw lights in the distance, making sure that he didn’t turn on his own lights because he hadn’t wanted to alert the enemy to his location.
He’d gotten Tina away from those men. He’d done his best by her.
But now he was about to collapse. Too much blood loss. Not enough sleep. He couldn’t even remember the last time that he’d slept and, normally, that wouldn’t be a problem but—
The bullet’s still in me. The wound was making him too weak. He had to find a place to hide. A place to rest so that he could get that damn bullet out of him.
Or so Tina could remove it. He had a doc. He was going to use her.
He saw the small ranch, a dot in the distance. Cautiously he drove toward it. The fence was broken, the grass overgrown. No signs of cattle or horses. No sign of anyone.
The windows were boarded up. The roof slumping.
“Are we going there?” Tina asked, her voice barely rising over the rumble of the motorcycle’s engine.
He shook his head. Not there. If their pursuers came this way, they’d search the ranch first. But...
Drew drove past the ranch. He kept heading across that overgrown field.
Then he saw the shack. Maybe it had been used as a storage building once or even as a small house for a ranch hand, but time hadn’t been kind to the place.
The front window was broken. Two boards had been crisscrossed over the window and nailed in place.
The little structure was nestled behind some trees, so it wouldn’t be immediately visible to anyone who came by. And, besides, if their pursuers did come this way, they’d check the ranch first.
And I’ll hear them.
“We’re stopping here.” He killed the engine.
Tina climbed off the bike, wincing a little, and he followed right after her. They walked the motorcycle to the shack where he hid it in the back and then Drew reached into the saddlebag.
“What’s that?” Tina asked as she leaned in close.
“Emergency supplies.” Because he believed in being prepared. Would the burner phone work? Only if they could get a signal in the middle of nowhere. It had been hard enough to get a signal at the compound.
Out here...doubtful.
He’d gotten the pack ready cautiously, always knowing that he could need to flee at any moment. Some food, medical supplies—and that burner phone. Everything that a guy on the run could possibly need.
He tucked the bag under his arm and hissed out a breath when his wound throbbed.
“Drew?”
“I’ll need your help, Doc.” Sure, he’d taken out bullets on his own before, but when he’d stitched them up, he’d done hack jobs on his body. Besides, with the way he was feeling, Drew was afraid he might pass out halfway through the bullet extraction.
He went back to the front of the shack. The door was locked, so he just pulled up his strength and kicked it in.
Inside, dust coated the place. The shack smelled closed-in—but, lucky for them, there weren’t any critters.
And the place had been a house. Once. He pulled a flashlight from the pack and shone the small ray of light around the interior. An old bed. A table. Some chairs.
He hauled the chairs back against the door and braced them under the now-broken doorknob.
Drew dumped his pack on the wobbly table. He reached inside and pulled out another flashlight. Drew handed it to Tina. “We can’t keep the light on for too long. If the folks looking for us come this way, it will alert them.”
She nodded.
He lifted the phone.
He realized that Tina was holding her breath.
He hated to break it to her but... “There’s no signal here.” He’d try to go outside. Walk the perimeter. Maybe he’d find—
His knees buckled. He almost hit the floor. And he almost took Tina down with him.
“Drew!” She braced him against her.
“Sorry, Doc, stood as long...as I could...” He licked his too-dry lips. “Do me a favor?”
“Of course! Anything, I—”
“Dig out the bullet.”
She grabbed for the first-aid supplies and helped him to the bed. He fell back and she came tumbling down with him. When he hit the mattress, she fell in close to him. Her mouth was just inches from his. “Want you,” he managed to rasp, and maybe he was starting to get a little delirious from the pain and blood loss because he hadn’t meant to tell her that. Talk about bad timing. “Got to...stop bleedin’ first... Can’t die on you...”
“No, you can’t.” Her voice was sharp. She pushed up to stare down at him. But he’d dropped his flashlight when his knees buckled, and he couldn’t see her face clearly. Just the darkness.
He wanted her mouth again.
He also wanted to just sleep.
Then he heard fabric ripping. He realized his eyes had sagged closed. He opened them and saw the flash of light. Tina still had her flashlight, and she was shining it on him.
She’d ripped away his shirt.
“How were you even moving?” Tina whispered. “You drove for so long.”
Soldiers didn’t stop moving. Not until the mission was done. He’d needed to get Tina to safety.
He had.
“Drew!”
He realized that she’d been calling his name. Again and again. He frowned at her.
“I’m going to remove the bullet, and I’ll sew you up, but I don’t have anything to numb the area. The kit had some alcohol and some antibiotics, but—”
“Do...it,” he growled. They’d have to run again, soon. He needed the wound closed by then.
She climbed over him. With them bound, he knew that Tina had to be creative with her movements.
If he hadn’t been hurting so much, he would have truly enjoyed having her straddle him.
Next time.
She put the flashlight at the top of the old headboard so that it shone down on him. “One hand,” she muttered. “I can’t believe I have to do this with one hand.”
He jiggled their connected wrists. “Use me.”
“You’re about to pass out on me.” She nibbled her lower lip. She’d taken the gloves from the first-aid pack. Put them on. “Don’t get an infection. Don’t get an infection...”
He didn’t think she was talking to him anymore. She seemed to be repeating that mantra to herself.
When she started applying pressure and digging that bullet out, he pulled in a deep breath. He locked his gaze on her face. Focused only on her.
He’d been shot on another mission, just a few months back. He’d been lured into a trap. Hit before he’d had a chance to call for backup. When he’d woken in the hospital, Tina had been there. “You were...worried about me,” he said, remembering.
She glanced at him. “Are you staying with me, Drew?”
“Always,” he whispered.
“Good. Because I’m not planning to let you go.” Her lips curved. She was so gorgeous when she smiled. Did she realize that?
She even had a dimple in her left cheek. A little slash that would peek out every now and then.
The dimple wasn’t showing at that moment. Tina had to really smile, had to really laugh, for it to come out. He’d caught her laughing with her friend Sydney once. That was when he’d first seen the dimple.
He’d been lost, staring at her.
“Stitching you up,” she said. “Just a little bit longer.”
He’d watched her that day, and he’d wanted. But there had been another mission waiting for him. There always was. And, even if there hadn’t been, he didn’t know how to approach a woman like her.
Wining and dining. Those were tricks that other guys used. He didn’t know anything about romance.
He just knew too much about death.
“All done.”
Drew glanced down. She’d put a bandage over his wound.
“Thanks, Doc.” He owed her. He’d find a way to repay that debt.
“Thanks for getting me out of that place,” she whispered back to him. A soft, wet cloth pushed over his skin and smoothed down his chest.
He tensed.
Her hand lightly stroked him. “Easy. It’s a bacterial wipe from the kit. I’m just going to clean the blood away.”
“Tina...”
Her hand stilled. She looked up at him.
Focus. “Don’t...leave the house.”
She nodded then smiled. One of those real smiles that flashed her dimple.
Gorgeous.
“I can’t,” she told him. Then she was the one to wiggle their cuff. “I can’t go any place without you.”
The darkness pressed in on him. “Damn straight,” Drew heard himself mumble. “That’s the way it’s going be...here on out...”
And, with Tina’s hands on him, with her smile the last sight he’d seen, Drew let the pain finally take him away.
* * *
“WHERE ARE THEY?”
Lee Slater froze at the demand. Oh, hell, he hadn’t thought the boss would be showing up so soon.
“Did you think I wouldn’t hear about this screw-up?” Anton Devast demanded as he stepped forward. Lee could easily hear his footsteps and the thud, thud, thud of his cane. “The men here are loyal to me, not you, Lee.”
Lee squared his shoulders and spun to face the boss. The guy in front of him didn’t look intimidating. Older, with gray hair at his temples, a slight slump to his shoulders, and the fingers of his right hand curling so tightly around that cane—the guy didn’t look like a threat at all.
He was. He was the deadliest man that Lee had ever met. “I’ve got men tracking them now—”
“You let Bruce Mercer’s daughter escape.”
Cold. But when he looked into the boss’s eyes, that dark blue gaze seemed to burn.
“Sh-she had help.” He was stuttering. Because he’d seen the boss in action. The guy was faster than men half his age. “We think... We think an EOD agent was undercover.”
“I know. Carl told me.”
Carl. Damn it. The guy should have waited for Lee to break the news to the boss.
“Don’t be angry at Carl. I convinced him to tell me everything as soon as I arrived.”
Lee realized that there was blood at the bottom of that cane.
It wasn’t just a cane, he knew. A deadly blade could extend from that tip. Sorry, Carl.
“An EOD agent, in my operation.” The boss began to pace around the room. Thud, thud, thud. “I should’ve eliminated Mercer years ago. The same way he tried to eliminate me.”
The boss had to use the cane because Bruce Mercer had nearly killed him twenty years before. The boss had almost lost his leg in that explosion.
He had lost his son.
Devast stopped pacing. He lifted the cane and pointed it at Lee. “You have six hours to find them.”
Lee nodded quickly. “My men—”
The cane pushed against his throat. The blade extended just a bit. “No, not your men. You. Get out there. Kill the EOD agent and bring that woman back to me.”
Lee nodded.
The blade withdrew. The cane dropped.
Lee rushed for the door.
“If you can’t bring her back to me, then you’ll be the next one to die.”
It wasn’t an idle threat. Lee grabbed for his backup weapon. He hurried out of the compound and headed toward the helicopter. They hadn’t been able to see much at night, but now that day had broken, he was sure he’d be able to track the agent and the woman.
He wasn’t dying.
They were.
Chapter Four
The knife was coming toward her hand. The man with the cold eyes smiled as he prepared to slice off her finger. Tina tried to jerk her hand back, but it was caught on something.
“Easy.”
Her eyelids flew open.
Drew stared down at her. “You’re safe,” he said, the words a low, deep rumble. “You’re with me.”
Her breath eased out as the nightmare—memory—faded.
They were on the old bed. Still cuffed. And Drew was leaning over her.
A much more aware, focused Drew than she’d seen a few hours ago. Right before he’d passed out on her.
Tina swallowed. Her throat was parched. It must have been at least eight hours since she’d had something to drink, but she figured the dry throat was the least of her worries. Her voice was husky when she asked him, “How are you feeling?”
“More human.”
Good. A fast glance showed that there had been no additional bleeding since she’d last checked him. “I don’t even know how you stood on your feet for that long. Much less controlled that bike.” Anyone else would have been down the instant the bullet hit.
Not Drew. The guy seemed to have a will made of iron.
And now that he wasn’t down for the count, she became aware of the fact that they were in a highly intimate situation.
In bed.
His body over hers, his arm curving around her.
Her heart slid into a double-time beat, and that faster pounding wasn’t just from fear.
His eyes were on hers. Golden eyes. She’d never seen a man with eyes like his before. They always looked a little wild.
His eyes we
re so startling because other than his wild stare, he’d always been so controlled in every encounter they’d had back at the EOD offices.
“I—I’m not Mercer’s daughter.” She wasn’t sure why she blurted that out right then. Especially since she’d been staring at him and thinking that his lashes were incredibly long... That his lips were sexy...
That she wanted him to kiss her.
“I know.”
He was— Wait. “You do? How?”
He just stared back at her.
He knows who Mercer’s real daughter is.
But then, so did Tina. But she only knew because Mercer had been so determined to protect one particular agency “asset” a few months ago. On a case that had caused Drew to wind up with more bullet wounds and an emergency trip to the hospital.
The asset had been in that hospital, too, and guarded by other EOD agents. Mercer had wanted to transfer the woman out of that hospital, to move her ASAP. He’d even gone so far as to order the woman drugged.
But, fortunately for the woman in question, EOD Agent Cale Lane had been there. Cale had fallen fast and hard for the asset and he hadn’t been about to let anyone threaten her.
Not even the woman’s own father.
“You...you worked on her protection detail,” Tina said slowly as she put the puzzle pieces together. That was how he knew her identity.
Drew shook his head. “Bruce Mercer doesn’t have a daughter.” Flat. Hard.
Her brows lifted.
“Bruce Mercer doesn’t have a daughter,” he said again. “Because if he did, the woman would be a constant target. She’d never be safe.”
She understood. Oh, heck, yes, after the past twenty-four hours, Tina definitely understood. “He doesn’t have a daughter,” Tina repeated. Did Drew think that she wouldn’t protect the other woman? She could have sold her out at any time, if that was what she wanted. “I’m not like that,” Tina said, suddenly angry because, after everything that had happened, Drew actually thought she’d trade someone else’s life for her own. She shoved against him.
But Drew didn’t back away. “What’s wrong?”
“You think...” Now she was the one gritting out words. “That I would throw someone else at those animals? Knowing that they’d just torture her? Kill her?” She wouldn’t stand by and watch an innocent suffer. That wasn’t who she was. “I wouldn’t.” She’d had to watch her parents suffer.