With the big boss coming in, the guy wouldn’t want any screw-ups.
Lee grabbed Carl’s shirt. “You get outside that door. You make sure that no one enters and no one leaves until I get back.” His hold tightened on Carl. “I trust you. You came up with me through the ranks.”
How wonderful for them. Drew’s eyes narrowed as he filed that little piece of information away for later.
“In case this jerk has any other teammates here undercover, I want you securing him. No one but me comes in here, got it?” Lee demanded.
Carl nodded. “Got it.”
After firing one last fuming glare at Drew, the two men marched from the room. The door slammed and Drew heard the distinct sound of the lock setting into place.
“I’m sorry.” Tina’s voice was hoarse.
He grunted and yanked against the pole. He didn’t have anything with him that he could use to pick the lock on the cuffs, so he had to find another means of escape. Yanking down the pole seemed like a fairly good option number two.
“The bullet is still in you, isn’t it?”
“That’s the least of our trouble.” As soon as Lee realized that EOD agents weren’t about to swarm the place, the guy would be back. He’d torture Drew then kill him, and Tina would get an up-close seat for that bloody show.
The pipe began to groan.
“What are you doing?”
Drew figured there was no point in sugarcoating things with her. “You know this is a torture room, right?”
Her breath rushed out.
“See the drain over there? It’s so they can hose the place down when they’re done and just wash the blood right away. Fast and easy cleanup.” Lee had transferred them into that room so that he could fully take advantage of the facilities.
Lee had plans.
Drew was ready to destroy those plans.
“He should’ve checked the equipment,” Drew said softly. “Sloppy mistake.” Lee had probably cuffed other prisoners to this pole before to hold them in place.
But one thing Lee seemed to have missed...desperate prisoners struggled. The men and women that Lee had hurt in the past would have struggled desperately to escape from the pole—and the pain.
And their struggles had loosened the pole. It wasn’t fully embedded in the hard floor any longer.
Perfect.
“Drop with me,” Drew ordered in a low whisper. He didn’t want Carl hearing them.
Without a word, Tina dropped with him. The floor was cold and hard, and it smelled of blood. Hell, he wanted her out of that place. No way did Tina belong in a room like this. He yanked again against the pole and then...then Tina was there, adding her strength to his. She’d positioned her body closer to his, and she was jerking on the pole with him.
It groaned again, and Drew stilled. “Wait.” Because he didn’t want to alert Carl, not yet.
But Carl didn’t come rushing into the room.
“Again,” Drew whispered.
They yanked again, and the pole lifted off the floor, just a few centimeters, but that was all Drew needed. He slid his cuff under the pole and his left wrist was free.
Hell, yes.
He jumped to his feet and Tina rushed up with him. “What about this one?” she said, tugging on the cuff that connected their wrists.
“That one’s going to have to stay.” Until he could find something to pick the lock or find a saw to cut the cuffs off. And if she was going to stay cuffed to him, then Tina needed to realize... “We’re going to be targets.”
Her eyes were wide. Stark.
No glasses.
He swore. “Just how much can you see?”
“I’m fine. I’m near-sighted, so I can see up close pretty much perfectly.”
Which should work, since she had to stay up-close with him.
“I’ll be your eyes for distance,” he said.
She licked her lips and, of course, that just made his gaze drop to her mouth.
Focus.
He exhaled slowly and let the ice sweep over him. “You follow my every order, understand? No hesitations, no questions. Because a hesitation will get you—or both of us—killed.”
She nodded. Her dark hair brushed over her shoulders.
“These are bad men, Tina.” Bad was an understatement. “You know what they want to do to you.” Cutting off her finger would just be the start of their fun.
Her gaze held his.
“So just be prepared for what I have to do...to them.” Their escape wasn’t going to be some walk in the park. It might even turn into a blood bath.
“What can I do?” She shook her head. “I want to help you, not just be some burden that you have to carry out of this place.”
“Help by staying alive.”
Her lips tightened. “That’s not what I meant.”
He knew, and Drew also knew that he didn’t want to risk her. But she will be risked. There was no escaping the danger surrounding her. “How the hell did you even get in this mess?”
“I don’t know.”
His left hand lifted. The loose cuff dangled from his wrist. He touched her cheek.
Tina flinched.
“Easy.” He wouldn’t hurt her, ever. Didn’t she realize that? “Before I open that door...” And I run the chance of losing my life before I get the one thing I’ve wanted for so long... “There’s something I need to do.”
A faint line appeared between her brows. “What?”
He was a bloody, bruised mess. When he’d imagined this moment—and he had, many times—it had been different.
Oh, well. So much for his best-laid plans.
“What?” Tina asked again.
“This.” He put his mouth on hers. Drew had to do it. He had to find out if the woman would be as good in reality as she was in his dreams.
At first Tina didn’t move at all. She’d frozen on him—maybe his ice had transferred to her.
Some dreams were better than reality. He began to pull away.
Then Tina leaned toward him. Her lips parted beneath his and she kissed him back with a wild, reckless passion he hadn’t expected.
Some dreams couldn’t touch reality.
He put his hand under her chin, aware of the weight of that dangling cuff. He tilted her head back so that he could plunder her mouth, so that he could taste her.
Hell, in that moment, he wanted to consume her.
His body ached for her. Need pulsed through his veins, and if they weren’t in some pit of hell...if the bad guys weren’t just down the hallway...
Drew lifted his head. “Then you’d be mine,” he rasped.