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.”
Mercer didn’t let the expression on his face alter.
This situation had been one that he feared. He was playing a deadly game, and Tina could have just become a pawn in that game.
If he wasn’t careful, he might lose his pawn.
He might lose the whole damn game.
“Get me Dylan Foxx,” Mercer demanded. “Right now.” Because he was going to need agents in the field to work this case and to make sure that Tina survived the battle that was coming.
He’d foolishly positioned Tina right in the middle of that battle.
I’m sorry, Tina.
He didn’t make mistakes often, but when he did...they were deadly.
Chapter Two
“It’s time for me to take over.” The gruff voice had Tina’s head jerking up.
She’d actually fallen asleep. How was that even possible? Tina blinked bleary eyes and found herself staring at Drew.
He was right in front of her. His gaze held hers an instant, then he turned his head and looked at the guy who’d just come into the room.
Tina had no idea who this blond man was. As he watched her, his hard brown eyes glittered. There was a holster at his hip—she could see the butt of his gun. And he had a knife strapped to his left side.
After her last encounter with a knife, Tina wasn’t exactly eager to go another round with a blade.
“Lee said for me to relieve you,” the man said in that same gruff voice. He shrugged. “So here I am.”
Tina wanted to reach out and hold tight to Drew, but that wasn’t possible.
Mostly because she was still tied up, but at least the gag was gone. That horrible, terrible gag. If
