the prosthetic from her chest in front of him. She left the filthy shirt tied beneath her breasts and pulled the thick turtleneck on over it. His tantalizing scent swirled through her, suffocating her. Worse, the sweater still carried his heat.
Ignore it.
Somehow she managed—until she glanced up and caught the glimmer of moonlight slipping across that seriously sculpted, dangerously dusky chest. A moment later the rippling muscles disappeared beneath the T-shirt. Disappointment warred with relief as he tucked the hem into his jeans, then leaned down to repack his rucksack. But at least her lungs had kicked in. She breathed deeply as she pushed up the sweater’s sleeves.
Shock yanked the air right back out.
Blood?
She raised her right arm and fingered the damp stitching again, the raw edges of the rip. She leaned closer, this time sniffing the knit fabric, and cursed.
“You were shot.”
He nodded as leaned down to tuck his jumpsuit into the ruck. “Grazed.”
“Let me take a look.”
“I already did.” Before she could argue, he reached into his first-aid kit and pulled out another cravat. He flipped the green fabric over itself and wrapped the resulting triangle around his right biceps as he stood. “But you can tie it off for me.”
Alex retrieved the ends as he stepped in front of her, avoiding the man’s steady gaze as she pulled the fabric snugly against the muscle bulging beneath the bandage. His subtle, smoky scent swirled through her. Dammit, he was fantasy fodder, nothing more. A figment of her dreams. She secured the knot quickly and stepped back. “How far?”
His dark brows rose as he glanced up.
“The hike,” she clarified. “I assume we’re headed to a safe house.”
“We are. Four kilometers.” He flipped his thumb over his right shoulder. “That way.”
“And this new assignment? It has to do with Karl and Bruno DeBruzkya, doesn’t it?”
Jared took a step back, as well. But he said nothing.
He was holding out on her. She could feel it. The air between them had changed. Grown cool, distant. Almost wary. Like him. For a man who’d been tasked with a mission, a mission he’d already told her she shared, he was suspiciously closemouthed. Why? All she’d done was ask about DeBruzkya and—
“Karl.”
Jared reversed his direction, this time stepping toward her. Still guarded, still wary. If anything, even more so. His body language sealed it. Her memory might not have been functioning up to par, but her instincts were. She took a deep breath, sucked up the pain and regret and just said it. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
Jared nodded slowly. “When ARIES lost contact with you, they went searching for Karl. He wasn’t there. Not in your room or his. He didn’t settle his hotel bill, nor did he attend his own lecture scheduled for the following day. He just vanished. Our recon team found traces of blood in his room. His type. A week later his body turned up on the outskirts of town. It wasn’t pretty.” He reached out and cupped his hands to her shoulders. “You okay?”
“No. He was a contact, but he was also my friend.” She grimaced at the irony of it. At her pathetic self. Karl might have been her friend. But he hadn’t even known she was a woman.
“H-how—” She swallowed the tears that threatened for the second time. She refused to give in to them. Nothing would be gained by it. Karl would be better served if she focused on finding the bastard who murdered him. She pictured her friend. His shaggy blond hair. His awkward, hulking body. That damned goofy grin. The passion that radiated off him when he spoke about his true love, physics.
It worked.
The tears dried and the pain in her heart eased, if only slightly. But at least she could think about Karl without that stifling sense of suffocation that had clamped down onto her lungs since she awoke. She could even see him at the conference, in his hotel room— “That’s it!”
“You remember seeing him?”
“Yes. We were supposed to meet in his hotel room. We did. I was furious, too.”
“Why?”
“Because he’d had me fly halfway around the world to rehash some wild Rebelian legend about the Gem of Power.”
“The Gem of—”
“Power.” She nodded. “I know. As wacky as it sounds, it’s true. It has to do with some ancient regional story about a jewel that was supposed to give one man the power to rule the world. Can you believe it? Karl Weiss was a contender for the Nobel prize in physics three years ago, and he’s wasting my time on some pile of hokey drivel. I was pissed as hell and I told him so.” Poor, driven, didn’t-get-out-much, Karl.
Maybe that’s why they’d hit it off.
“You’re sure it’s hokey?”
She blinked. Surely Jared wasn’t referring to Karl’s tale? She studied his face in the moonlight.
Good Lord, he was.
“What did you say your degree was in?”
“I didn’t.”
She waited.
“Well?”
“I dropped out before high school. Eighth grade. I have a GED.” Shame burned through her as he stepped away and turned to busy himself with tucking the spare ammo magazines into the side pockets on the rucksack. Except for the prosthetic chest, the remnants of her disguise followed his gear into the main pouch.
He pulled the flap down and tugged it tight.
Way to go, Alex. Open mouth, insert foot. Chew.
He stood.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why?” He shrugged. “I’m not.”
She opened her mouth, but his gaze cut her off. A gaze that unfortunately, despite the two feet of forest between them, she could see quite clearly. Steel wasn’t gray, it was amber.
Dark, cool amber.
He swung the ruck onto his shoulders, then grabbed the machine gun and prosthetic, effectively ending the conversation as he turned to take the lead position through the sparse but shadowy forest undergrowth. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was best to let it drop. At least for the moment.
She turned to follow him. Alex took exactly five steps—and stiffened.
Either Jared’s hearing was as good as hers or his instincts were better, because he swung around. “What is it? Are you still feeling dizzy—”
She held up her hand.
He fell silent. Unfortunately the forest didn’t. The sounds were faint, but they were definitely
