ALEXIA’S HEAD WAS SPINNING. She wasn’t so sure her body wasn’t, too.
The last five days had been surreal. Like something out of a horrible nightmare that not even her own subconscious would torture her with. And now it was over?
Or, she blinked and looked around the tent, almost over?
The tent was awfully well equipped for a temporary stop. Two cots, a cookstove, an array of equipment that looked as if it could control rocket ships. A small arsenal in one corner and a table and chairs in the other. And Blake in the center. Boxes were piled at the back wall and, she squinted, there was a stack of books on one of the cots.
As always, her gaze landed on Blake.
Nerves that’d gone numb on the bone-bruising flight over the snow started coming to life again with big, snapping bites.
He wasn’t paying any attention, though. He’d pushed back his hood and now set his goggles aside so he could pull on a radio headset.
She watched carefully, noting what buttons he pushed, which switches he flipped.
“Base, this is Boy Scout. Hostage secured. Will await your go. Boy Scout out.”
“That’s it?” she asked, frowning as he turned everything off with a push of his finger. She wanted to grab the radio and yell into it. To insist someone hurry the hell up and come to get them. She wanted to go home, dammit.
“That’s it,” he said.
No, she wanted to moan. She wanted a shower and warm clothes. A bowlful of hot fudge. Her own bed, popcorn, to hug her brother.
“Where are we?” she whispered, more than ready to hear him say the icy bowels of hell.
“Alaska. North Slope,” he told her as he moved around the perimeter of the tent, turning on small heaters so the space was soon a warm cocoon. Then he flipped on a series of tiny monitors. At first they all looked white, as though they weren’t tuned in. Alexia stepped closer, her eyes narrowed as she realized the white was snow. Then she saw the angled rock he’d parked the snowmobile behind.
Security cameras.
Did he really think someone might follow them? That, and a million more questions chased through her mind. But the first ones to tumble out were, “How long are we waiting here? Is someone picking us up? Who sent you to get me?”
“We’re here until we’re told otherwise,” was the only answer he gave.
“Is that going to be hours? A day? Two? What’s that mean?” Alexia realized her voice had hit a pitch high enough to trigger an avalanche, but she couldn’t help herself. Feeling trapped, barely able to breathe, she yanked the kerchief from her face and ripped at the strings tying her hood closed. Her fingers, clumsy and fat in the thick gloves, couldn’t undo it.
Her breath was coming in gasps now. Black spots sped across her vision, racing one another from side to side. Before she could give in to the scream building in her throat, Blake was there.
His knuckles were warm as they brushed her frozen face, fingers making swift work of the ties, before he gently pushed the hood back and pulled the goggles off.
“Breathe,” he instructed quietly. “Pull the air into your belly. Attagirl. Hold it, then let it out.”
Her eyes locked on his, she followed his breath, listened to his instructions, and slowly, painfully reeled in the fragile threads of her control.
“Sorry,” she murmured as she started to feel like herself again. The heat warming her cheeks should have been welcome in this bitter cold, but shame was never comfortable.
“Nothing to be sorry about,” he told her as he continued to gently release her from the coat’s bindings, then slipped the gloves off her hands. If he tried to take her boots and socks, she just might have to smack him. It’d be a long time before she wanted to be barefoot again, she realized. “You’re exhausted, stressed and probably starving. The natural expectation after being rescued is to go home.”
“Can you tell me why I can’t?” she asked in a low whisper, not taking her eyes off his. She waited for him to prevaricate or outright refuse. That’s what her father would do. All information—right down to which state they’d be attending school in the following month—had always been imparted on a need-to-know basis.
“This is a two-stage mission,” he explained. “Rescuing you is stage one. Neutralizing the enemy is stage two. If we’re pulled out, it could compromise the team’s efforts. Added to that, it’s nighttime. It’s safer to wait until light to head out again.”
Alexia’s jaw dropped.
“What?” he asked, pausing in the act of taking off his own jacket and hanging it with hers on a hook.
“You, well... You answered my question.” She realized how stupid it sounded when she said the words. But she’d never gotten answers as a kid. Had been told time and again that good little soldiers followed orders without question—that questioning was a sign of disrespect, of showing doubt toward one’s superior.
“You didn’t ask for classified information,” Blake said, dismissing what she thought of as a miracle with a laugh. “I’ll answer whatever I can. You have the right to know what’s going on.”
It was as if he’d twisted a spigot. Before she realized it was happening, Alexia’s cheeks were wet with tears. Her breath came in hiccupping gasps as she fell apart.
He looked at her as if she’d just turned into an alien giraffe with four heads and an Uzi pointed at his man parts. Horrified, shocked and desperate to make it stop.
“I’m sorry,” she wailed, trying to control her sobs.
“What...” He shook his head, clearly realizing that this wasn’t the time for a reasonable discussion. Then he crossed the tent and pulled her into his arms.
She didn’t care that she’d spent months being angry with him, or that she’d imagined countless scenarios in which he saw her again and, miserable and unable to get his party on sexually without her, he’d begged her to let him into her life again.
In her imagination, she’d always turned him away.
In real life, she grabbed on as if he was the only oxygen in the room. As soon as she did, her tears slowed. Her heart stopped aching. She felt like a scared little girl and he was her security blanket. Now she wanted to wrap him all around her.
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” she said, her words as shaky as her breath. “I’m safe, right? I’m away from that lunatic and his insane demands. He can’t hurt me. His henchman can’t touch me, right?”
Blake’s arms stiffened around her, his fingers digging into her spine as he pulled her closer, tighter. As if he could wrap himself around her as a shield, keeping her safe. Protected.
“You’re safe with me,” he vowed.
She never wanted to be anywhere else.
Realizing she’d plummeted into
