familiar response. He clenched his jaw and swallowed a groan of frustration. Sex had never been the problem between them.
It sure as hell hadn’t been the solution.
Mindy stiffened at his frustrated moan, slamming his brain with a harsh reminder that this wasn’t old times, it was deadly serious.
But she didn’t lash out at him or try to move away. In fact, she angled her head to give him better access to the cloth that gagged her.
He bit and tugged at it with his teeth until it began to loosen. He tried to hold his breath, tried to ignore the soft, sensual tickle of her hair against his nose and cheek.
After a lot of tugging and nibbling and some extremely uncomfortable brushing of his mouth against her lips, cheeks and chin, he finally got her gag loose.
When he straightened, his head felt clearer, although wherever they were was dark as the cargo hold of a C-17 transport plane at midnight. The only light was pitifully dim and came from a window high above their heads.
The smell of mildew and dirt chased away Mindy’s familiar, evocative scent.
“Basement,” he muttered. They had to be in a basement.
Mindy groaned and wriggled against him.
“Min? Are you okay?” he asked, squinting in the darkness. He could barely make out the silhouette of her face. Her dark clothes blended into a pool of shadows just below her shoulders. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Just practically broke my arms when he tied me up.” Her normally husky voice was soft and raspy.
And sexy as hell.
Deke cursed to himself. What a chump he was. After all this time, his ex-wife could still turn him on just by talking.
She coughed. “By the way, thanks for involving me in your little adventure.”
And she could still tick him off.
He took a deep breath and winced when the blast of air sent a piercing ache through his temples. “Here we go again,” he muttered.
“Don’t even try to tell me this doesn’t involve one of your rescues,” she rasped.
“You think I’d put you in danger if I could help it?”
“What I think is that you’ve gotten yourself in over your head again. You’re never going to learn that you can’t save everybody. And even if you could, it wouldn’t fill up that hole inside you.”
Deke grimaced. It was an old argument, and he’d be damned if he let her lead him down that road again.
He raised his gaze to hers and curved his lips in a confident smile, prepared to give her back a smart retort. But even in the dimness he could see the fear that darkened her olive-green eyes. The same fear he’d heard in her voice. It knocked the confidence right out of him.
“Min, are you sure you’re okay? You don’t sound too good.”
She focused on a point somewhere behind him and to his left. Then she arched her neck, and sonofagun if she didn’t stick the tip of her pink tongue out to moisten her lips.
Do not go there, he ordered his brain. But it went there anyhow—to all the amazing things Mindy could do with her tongue. Not the least of which was cut him down to size with a well-chosen word.
“I’m—okay,” she rasped, then coughed again.
He knew how she felt. Her throat sounded as dry and sore as his. “What the hell happened? How’d they kidnap you?”
“I got a call about some—something addressed to me that had been delivered to the wrong place.” Her voice gained a bit of strength as she talked. “When I went to pick it up, they grabbed me.”
“Damn it, how many times have I told you—don’t go to strange places alone. You know how dangerous it can be.”
“Right,” she croaked. “Because of your dangerous profession. Well, silly me. Since we’ve been divorced for two years I was kind of hoping your danger wouldn’t rub off on me anymore.” Her hand went to her throat.
“Besides, this was a young woman. She told me she was also pr—” She stopped.
“Also what?”
After a split-second pause and a brief shake of her head, she continued: “She said a store had delivered some things to her by mistake. They were addressed to me. She asked if I could pick them up because she was—ill.”
“Damn it, Min. That’s an obvious scam. I can’t believe you fell for it.”
“Would you listen to me?” she snapped. “She said the sender’s name was Irina.”
Deke’s scalp prickled. More proof that Novus had deliberately targeted Mindy. He’d expected it, but that didn’t mean he liked it.
“The girl said that?”
She nodded. “I should have been suspicious, because Irina wouldn’t know—I mean, there’s no reason she’d send me a b—a gift out of the blue.”
“What’s the matter with you? Did they drug you, too? You sound strange.”
“As soon as the door opened, somebody dragged me inside and stuck something in my neck. The next thing I knew, I woke up here.”
“Did you get a look at them?”
“No. I was blindfolded until they brought you in this morning. He took my blindfold off right before he left. I never saw him.”
“But it was a man? What did he tell you? Anything? What made you think it had anything to do with me?”
Mindy made a small, impatient noise. He knew the look she was wearing, as well as if she were standing in a spotlight. He’d seen it too many times before. It was her do not treat me like an idiot scowl.
“What made me—? Maybe because I’ve never done anything that would cause anyone to kidnap me. You, on the other hand—”
“Me what?” His evasion was automatic. He’d practiced evading the truth from the time he could talk. It was ingrained in him—part of his survival tactic.
But he knew she was right. He’d done plenty in his lifetime that might make him the target of revenge. Not the least of which had been just two years ago.
A lot of people, including Mindy, would want his head on a pike if they knew what he’d done—for and to his best friend. His only friend.
However, what a lot of people thought meant nothing. He’d do it again. That and more, for the one man who’d always believed in him—who’d trusted his life to him.
His life and his death.
I just hope your sacrifice wasn’t in vain, Rook. Because here they were battling
