Her lashes dipped over her eyes once. Her mouth softened, and for a crazy minute he almost took that as a sign to kiss her. Yeah, if he wanted a bullet between the eyes.
“That’s a good story. At what point during your prep for the assignment did you realize the CIA spy you were supposed to eliminate was your former lover?”
“Not right away.”
“But even if you had known immediately, you never would’ve turned down the mission, would you?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I received an order. The CIA had proof.”
His words, spoken aloud now to Rikki’s face, sounded tinny and paltry to his own ears. How would they sound to hers?
She snorted. “And of course you would’ve had to reveal that you’d carried on a fling with a CIA operative while we were both on assignment in the Middle East.”
“If I had doubted the evidence against you in any way, not only would I have owned up to our…affair, but I would’ve tried to convince them to call off the hit.”
“Instead you charged right in like the good little soldier you are, all honor and duty.” Her dark gaze flickered to the half-empty pizza box and the two bottles of beer on their sides at the base of the coffee table.
“All I needed to see was one shred of proof contradicting the CIA’s story—and you gave it to me when you charged that soldier. That’s why I shot the other one. I was trying to give you a chance.”
“Are you sure you didn’t kill him because you were afraid I’d already passed along secrets to him?”
“They were low-level grunts marching you along the DMZ. I didn’t figure that was the time and place you were going to spill intel. Besides—” Quinn kicked the pizza box out of the way and braced his foot on the edge of the coffee table “—if I’d wanted to take everyone out, including you, I would’ve started with you first and then dealt with the two soldiers.”
She flipped back her dark hair with a shrug of her shoulder. “Maybe.”
“I had you in my crosshairs, Rikki. Had you there for a while. I could’ve dropped you at any time. I couldn’t do it.”
The corner of her eye twitched. “What does the CIA think? I know my name’s not cleared, so whatever you told them, it didn’t have much of an impact. Unless you told them nothing and took credit for eliminating a CIA spy.”
He scratched his unshaven jaw. How did she know her name hadn’t been cleared? How did she get out of North Korea? “I told the CIA and my commanding officers in the Navy exactly what happened. Told them their intel must’ve been wrong, that the North Koreans had you as a captive.”
“They didn’t believe you?”
“They didn’t care. I also told them the North Korean soldier had shot you dead. Case closed.”
“Except it’s not closed, is it? Here I am.”
At least the gun had slipped a little from her grip. Even in his current muddled state, he probably could disarm her. Then again, nobody ever benefited from mistaking Rikki Taylor for an easy target.
“How’d you get out of North Korea? How’d you get here? Where have you been the past—” he counted on his fingers “—sixteen months? And can you get that gun out of my face?”
“If I do, will you take me down? Call the CIA and turn me in?”
He rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do I look like I’m in any condition to do that?”
She cocked her head. “You do look pretty bad, but I’m not stupid enough to underestimate a Navy SEAL sniper—even one I shared a bed with. Or maybe that should be especially one I shared my bed with.”
“Ouch.” He held his hands in front of him, wrists pinned together. “You can tie me up or cuff me if you want.”
A light sparked in her eyes, and her nostrils flared, the heat between them still palpable.
Desire and need surged through his body, making him hard.
“Drop your pants.” She waved the gun.
He swallowed. He’d been kidding, but he should’ve known better than to kid with Rikki—not in her current frame of mind. “You’re serious?”
“Damn right. I can’t check you for weapons, but at least if you’re naked I can make sure you’re unarmed.”
“Rikki…”
“The last time we were together, if you want to call it that, you had me in the crosshairs of your sniper rifle ready to take me out.” She steadied her Glock. “What’s changed since then except I had the good fortune to escape from the labor camp?”
A knot twisted in his gut. He knew those North Korean labor camps, and the thought of Rikki confined to one of them made him sick.
“Drop ’em.”
“Okay, okay.” He pushed himself to his feet, feeling completely sober. He unbuttoned the fly on his shorts and yanked them down. The flip-flops he’d been wearing earlier were wedged beneath the coffee table, so the shorts dropped to his bare feet.
“Kick them off and stand away from the sofa where I can see you.”
He rolled his eyes but complied, stepping out of his shorts and kicking them across the room. He could get into a tussle with her right now, but she did have the upper hand.
He stepped away from the sofa and the table and held his arms out to the side. “Nothing on me.”
Except the raging erection she could clearly see bulging in his black briefs.
Rikki’s gaze dropped from his face to his crotch, and her cheeks flushed. “Now the T-shirt.”
Patting his chest, he said, “Do you really believe I have a holster on underneath this shirt? A knife strapped to my back?”
“I’m not taking any chances. Off.”
He grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and peeled it off his body. He dropped it to the floor. “Happy?”
“Turn around.”
Turning around for her inspection only made him harder. Maybe that would be enough to prove to Rikki that he was on her side—would always be on her side.
When he faced her again, he shoved his thumbs in the waistband of his briefs. “You want the rest off?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She reached behind her back and pulled out a pair of open handcuffs, dangling them from her fingers.
Quinn’s mouth dropped open. “No way.”
“I know you. I know who you are and what you’re capable of. I’ve come this far, and I’m not taking any chances.” She jingled the cuffs. “If you want any more information out of me, hold out your arm—your right arm.”
He stretched his arm in front of him. Two more inches and he could touch her soft cheek, tell her everything he’d thought about this past year.
She snapped the cuff around his wrist and yanked on it, the metal cutting into his flesh. “Over here, by the radiator.”
He would’ve preferred the bedroom, but he followed in her wake as she pulled him toward the window.
“Sit down and link the other cuff around this pipe.”
He slid to the floor and hooked himself up to the pipe on the radiator. He crouched on his haunches.
Rikki let out a long sigh and placed her weapon on the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. She dragged a stool from the kitchen and straddled it. “That’s better.”
“Rikki, I’d never hurt you.”
“You were singing a different tune sixteen months ago.”
“I explained all that to you. Now that I’m—” he rattled his cuffs against the pipe “—contained, are you going to tell me what happened? What were you doing in North Korea?”
“You mind if I have a beer? Scratch the request. What are you going to do about it?” She hopped off the stool, and he watched the sway of her hips in those tight jeans as she walked around the counter into the kitchen.
Before Rikki sat back down, she tipped the neck of the beer bottle at him. “You keep drinking like you were tonight, and you’re gonna trade one six-
pack for another…and wind up just like your old man.”
He clenched his stomach muscles. She’d been checking him out despite all the tough talk. “North Korea?”
“My partner, David Dawson, got intel that Vlad was meeting with the North Koreans.”
Quinn raised his eyebrows. “Vlad?”
“I knew that would get your attention.” She took a sip of beer. “David had a way into the country across the DMZ and tagged me to go with him.”
“Under the radar of the CIA. They didn’t know why you were there.”
“David didn’t trust anyone, and it turns out he was right.” Rikki sniffled and wiped the hand holding the beer bottle across her nose.
“The CIA didn’t kill David. They thought you had a hand in his death.”
“I know, but they were wrong. The North Koreans killed David and captured me. I had already been their…guest for several days before you spotted me marching along.”
“They killed David and were sending you to a labor camp.” Quinn bumped his manacled hands against his forehead. “If I had been faster, had taken out the soldier holding you first, you might’ve had a chance.”
“I had no chance, not there. I figured I was a dead woman when I went for the soldier’s gun anyway. The area was crawling with North Koreans. You saw that after you took your shot.” She dragged her fingernail down the bottle’s damp label, ripping a line through it. “I-I thought the person out there was trying to save me and I didn’t even know it was you—not until later. And then I found out it was you and you were trying to assassinate me.”
He clanged the bracelets against the radiator. “Not when I killed that soldier. I’d changed my mind already. I was trying to help you, Rikki, but I failed, and I’ve been punishing myself ever since.”
Her gaze swept over his unkempt apartment, his tousled hair, the stubble on his face. “Maybe the Navy punished you for failing in your duty, for failing to take out the rogue CIA operative.”
“They didn’t. They figured you were dead and one way or the other, I was the cause of your death.” Closing his eyes, he lowered his backside to the floor and drew his knees to his chest. “I’d figured the same thing.”
“That’s why neither the CIA nor the Navy can know I’m still alive.” She pinged her fingernail against the bottle. “Not until I can sort all of this out.”
“How did you escape from the labor camp?”
“The kindness of strangers.”
“The kindness of strangers and a will to survive. I know you, too, Rikki.”
“I had a lot to live for.”
“Because you got information on Vlad?”
“Yeah, Vlad.” Her eyelashes fluttered. “And now I’m going to bring him down and clear my name.”
“I’ll help you.”
She chugged some beer, eyeing him over the bottle. “How do I know I can trust you? How do I know you’re not going to run back to your commanding officers and tell them I’m still alive?”
Quinn lifted his hands. “Do you really think I couldn’t get out of these if I wanted?”
She sputtered and slammed her bottle on the counter. “Try it.”
“I don’t want to.” He hunched his shoulders. “That’s the point. I want you to feel secure. I’m no threat to you, Rikki. I wanna help you.”
Someone banged on the front door, and Rikki jumped from the stool, grabbing her weapon. “Who’d you call?”
“Nobody.”
“Quinn? Quinn, buddy? You alive in there?”
Rikki took three steps toward the radiator, raising her brows and her gun in his direction.
Quinn whispered, “It’s just a friend, an acquaintance from the bar.”
Leaning over him, Rikki pushed open the window. As she clambered onto the sill above him, she said over her shoulder, “Get rid of him.”
“You’re crazy.” Quinn tried to grab her ankle with his manacled hand, but she slipped out the window and onto the ledge outside the building.
“Quinn? I know you’re in there, buddy. You left your hat at the bar.”
A knock followed his words, and a woman’s voice came through the door. “C’mon, sugar. Open up, and we can continue the party.”
His hat. Damn it. He didn’t care about the hat.
Alice’s singsong voice continued. “Little pig, little pig, let me in, or I’ll huff and puff and blow.”
The doorknob rattled, and Quinn’s stomach sank when the door started to ease open. He’d forgotten to lock it. He rose from the floor and stuck his head out the window. “Rikki. Give me those keys.”
In response, she slid the window half-closed and left him to his fate.
CHAPTER THREE
Rikki heard the door bang open all the way, and the woman with the Southern accent let out a whoop.
“Whatcha doin’ there, sugar?”
The man, who seemed a bit more sober, said, “This isn’t a burglary or anything, is it?”
Quinn rattled the handcuffs. “Just a little…fun that got out of hand.”
The man swore and chuckled. “Is the little lady still here?”
Rikki held her breath as she pressed the palms of her hands against the rough siding of Quinn’s apartment building.
“Long gone. Can I get some help here, Elvin?”
“I don’t know about that, sugar. I like what I’m seein’.”
Rikki didn’t blame Ms. Southern Belle. She’d liked what she’d seen of Quinn, too. His slide into despair over her supposed death couldn’t have been that dire, given the condition of his hard body. Hard all over. Hard for her.
Elvin grunted. “Alice, if you think I’m going to hang around while you torture Quinn here, you’ve been drinkin’ too many Hurricanes.”
“Who said anything about torture, and who said anything about you hanging around?” Alice must’ve walked toward Quinn, as her words carried right out the gap in the window.
Rikki shuffled a few steps on the ledge to the left.
“I finally got Quinn right where I want him, as soon as he loses that underwear.”
Quinn cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, I think I’ve had enough fun and games for the night. Thanks anyway, Alice.”
Elvin interrupted Alice’s foreplay. “Do you have the keys, man?”
Rikki traced the outline of the cuff keys in her front pocket. At least Elvin seemed to be in a hurry to get out of there. A nearly naked man in handcuffs would probably give this good ol’ boy nightmares.
The handcuffs jangled against the radiator. “She took the keys. Must’ve thought it was pretty funny.”
“You want me to call a locksmith or something? Go home and get my saw?”
“God, no.”
Quinn practically shouted, and Rikki couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips. Served him right for leaving her for dead in the DMZ.
“Grab a paper clip from the drawer by the dishwasher. There should be a bunch of loose ones in there. That’ll do it.”
Rikki heard heavy footsteps and then heavy breathing near the open window.
Alice asked in a low, hoarse voice, “You sure you don’t wanna give me a whirl, sugar? I know I could do you better than the girl who left you here.”
“No offense, Alice, but I’m not sure you could. She wore me out.”
Rikki clapped a hand over the laugh bubbling on her lips and teetered forward.
Finally, Elvin came to the rescue. “Will this work?”
“That’ll do it. Right there.”
A scrape and a click later and Quinn said, “That’s better. Thanks, man, and thanks for picking up my hat. I could’ve lived without it.”
“We’ll get out of here. Maybe that little firebrand will return.”
Quinn raised his voice. “I hope so.”
“Can we at least
take the pizza?”
Quinn answered, “Go for it, Alice. I’ll see you guys around.”
“Maybe another time, sugar, when you’re not so…tired.”
Quinn mumbled something incoherent, and Rikki closed her eyes and took a deep breath, thankful she didn’t have to listen to some other woman having her way with a naked and chained-up Quinn.
The front door shut, and Rikki’s eyelids flew open. Now Quinn was free, probably armed and most likely pissed off.
The window beside her slid open the rest of the way, and Quinn stuck his head out. “Are you okay out here? God, I had visions of you tumbling off my building.”
Rikki tossed her head. “It’s a wide ledge and it’s so humid out here, I’m practically stuck to the side of the apartment.”
“Come here.” He stretched out his arms. “And for God’s sake, be careful.”
She sidled along the wall and ignored his help when she got to the window. “I got this.”
When Quinn stepped back, Rikki swung into the room, her gun in the waistband of her jeans. She drank him in, still in his briefs, a light sheen of sweat dampening his chest.
“Why did you do that? Why’d you leave me hooked up to the radiator?”
“How was I supposed to know your front door was unlocked? If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of breaking into your place through your bathroom window.”
“You left me exposed to that…man-eater.” He hooked a finger around one bracelet of the cuffs and dangled them in the air. “I should’ve taken her up on her offer and left you out on that ledge until morning.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Her question wiped the smile from his face. “Because you’re here, standing in front of me, fulfilling every one of my wishes over the past year, and now I don’t ever want to let you go.”
Before she had a chance to blink, Quinn had her in his arms, and hers curled around his neck in a traitorous response.
His head dipped, and his mouth sought hers. The kiss he pressed against her lips tasted like booze and…desperation. Her muscles tensed. She wasn’t here to be Quinn McBride’s salvation.
Kick A** Heroines Box Set: The UltimatumFatal AffairAfter the DarkBulletproof SEAL (The Guardian) Page 92