“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.