He hadn’t stuttered. “I’ll take first watch.” Because he didn’t trust anyone else with her. Definitely not Lee or Carl.
Lee’s eyes were angry slits, but he gave a grim nod. “Fine, you do that.” His short, red hair looked as if he’d raked his fingers through it. “You can stay with her while I get some sleep.”
He made his words sound like an order. Whatever. As long as the guy got out of there...
Drew released the man.
It only took an instant for Lee’s smirk to come back. “I’ll see you again soon, sweetheart,” he promised Tina. His gaze flickered to Drew. “And I’ll see you later, too, Stone.” A threat hung in the words.
He’d have to stay extra alert. The way Lee was eyeing him, Drew knew he might find a knife shoved into his own ribs during an unguarded moment.
Not like that would be the first time.
Drew lifted his hand and his fingers traced over the thick scar on his right cheek. “You sure will.” He made certain that his words held just as much of a threat as Lee’s had.
Actually they held more of a threat. Showing a weakness with these guys was a mistake, because they’d most definitely attack that weakness.
Drew didn’t move until Lee and his two cronies were out of the room. When the door shut behind them, he exhaled slowly.
Tina was still staring at him with her wide, desperate eyes.
He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but he couldn’t be sure listening devices weren’t in the room. When he’d first reached the compound, he’d found two bugs in his bunk room.
It only figured that there would be some in there, too.
He glanced toward the door. Even though Drew had said that he’d take first watch, Lee might have stationed a guard outside.
“Mumph.”
His attention slid back to Tina.
“Mumm-mph...” She jerked in the chair. Someone had tied her to the chair. Probably Lee.
He crossed to her side and knelt on the floor so that they’d be at eye level. “The ropes were tied too tight,” he muttered, feeling anger try to push past his control once more.
Can’t have that. Must maintain cool.
The other agents had him all wrong. They thought he was made of ice. That he didn’t feel when he went out on his missions.
The problem was that he felt too much. And if he didn’t control his fury... Then I’m too dangerous.
He loosened her binds. He glanced up at her, his gaze colliding with hers.
A crack ran across the right lens of her glasses, looking like a spider’s web. He reached up.
She flinched.
“Easy,” Drew murmured. “I’m just checking you out.”
He lifted the glasses away from her face.
She blinked at him.
Hell. She was just as sexy without the glasses as she was with them. He’d thought maybe it was just a hot-librarian-type thing working for him, but no. The woman was simply temptation.
He didn’t need temptation. He had a job to do.
She’s the job right now. The words whispered from within him.
He put her glasses on the nearby table.
“Mumph!” Ah, now Tina was sounding angry behind the gag. He wasn’t sure what would be better for her. Fear or anger. Unless they were careful, both might just get her killed.
He leaned toward her. Brought his mouth right to her ear just as he’d done before. Her scent, light, sweet strawberries, wrapped around him.
Because of Tina, he’d developed one serious addiction to strawberries over the past year. Not that she knew it. Not that she knew anything about him. To her, he was just another agent.
Another adrenaline junkie that she had to patch up and keep alive.
Only now it was his turn to keep her alive.
“Be very careful what you say,” he barely breathed the words against the delicate shell of her ear.
Tina shivered.
Was that shiver from fear? Had to be. In these circumstances, he was foolish to think it could be from anything else.
But, just in case, he filed that reaction away for future notice. Because he’d sure like to know every sensitive spot on Tina’s gorgeous body.
“They could be listening.” His mouth brushed across her ear.
She gave the faintest of nods.
Her smell was incredible.
Focus.
He lifted his hands and undid the gag. The cloth dropped from her mouth.
Tina licked her lips and sucked in a deep gulp of air. “Thank you.”
His own mouth tightened. She shouldn’t be thanking him. He hadn’t saved her. “I’m going to patch up your arm.”
She blinked once more, and her gaze found his. She was still breathing deeply, gulping in air as if she’d been starved for it.
Her skin was porcelain pale and he wanted color staining her cheeks once more. He wanted the fear gone from her eyes.
Trust me. He mouthed the words to her.
After the faintest of hesitations, Tina nodded.
The ice melted a little around him. He turned away from her. Fumbled through the drawers in the room until he found some first-aid supplies. The men—and women—at the compound were always ready for battle, so that meant they had to be ready for the cleanup after that battle. He’d quickly learned that there were first-aid supplies scattered all around the place.
Tina didn’t wince when he began to clean her wound with an antiseptic cloth. “It’s not deep enough for stitches,” he said as he put the bandage on her arm. “You’re lucky.”
Both her brows shot up.
Fine. So “lucky” hadn’t been the best word to describe her current situation.
He grabbed a chair and pulled it toward her. She was still tied up, and he had to keep her that way or the others would wonder what the hell was happening. “You’re going to be all right.”
Tina’s gaze just stared back at him.
He realized that she didn’t believe him. Maybe that was good—because Drew hated making promises he couldn’t keep.
* * *
“MR. MERCER?”
Bruce Mercer looked up from the files that were spread across his desk. His assistant, Judith Rogers, stood in the doorway. Judith hated buzzing him. She’d said once that buzzing was too impersonal for her, and she usually came in to tell him when he had a visitor.
So her standing there...walking in unannounced...that wasn’t unusual.
The fear in Judith’s eyes was unusual.
“Tina Jamison is missing,” Judith told him as she twisted her hands into fists. “I just got the call from an agent at her hotel. The lock on her door was broken, and Tina—she’s gone.”