his dark brown brows dipping as he leaned over her. “I won’t hurt you.”
In seconds he had released the gag, and threw it with disgust on the dusty wooden floor. His touch remained gentle as he ordered Kai to roll over onto her stomach so that he could untie her hands.
“Damn,” he muttered.
Kai clenched her teeth. No matter how careful he was in releasing the biting ropes that bound her wrists, that wasn’t careful enough. Tears of pain squeezed from beneath her tightly shut eyes. Her wildly beating heart began to calm. Just his presence assuaged some of her fear. Who was he? Why wasn’t he like the other two? Oh, my God, Kai thought disjointedly, who are they? What do they want? The last rope gave way; suddenly her numbed, cramped arms were free. They fell to her sides as if she were a rag doll. Pain soared upward through her extremities, and Kai felt blackness engulfing her once again. Just the thought that the stranger named Taylor was nearby gave her solace as she slipped over the welcome edge of oblivion and escaped the living nightmare….
Matt knelt down beside the bunk, his hand resting protectively on the damp shoulder of her sweat shirt. She had fainted. Compressing his lips, he pushed several strands of auburn hair away from her tear-stained cheek. Dammit, this shouldn’t have happened. He knew little about Boyce except that the ex-con had a history of sexual assault. He had fought unsuccessfully to keep him off the kidnapping, but Garcia had insisted. Matt’s gray eyes narrowed. Garcia, he reminded himself. This is the last step in getting to Garcia…. As his gaze settled on her wrists, Matt winced. Boyce needn’t have trussed her like an animal.
Getting to his feet, Matt looked around the small, squalid room. There was one dusty blanket on the bunk. The room smelled musty. What unused warehouse wouldn’t? Worriedly he shifted his concern back to the woman. Had she fainted from pain or from the drug? It shouldn’t be the drug. She ought to be recovering from the effects of it by now. He leaned down, placing his fingers along the exposed part of her slender neck to check the pulse at the carotid-artery point.
His frown deepened; her pulse was rapid and weak. Her skin was clammy, small beads of perspiration dotted her forehead and upper lip. Cursing silently, Matt straightened up. Was this a drug reaction? Either Boyce had shot her up with too much of it, or she was allergic. Either way, she could end up dead. He studied her tense, drawn features, and his heart wrenched unexpectedly in his chest. She was attractive in an unusual way. Shaking himself, Matt continued to stare down at her. They had just successfully kidnapped the daughter of one of the richest oil tycoons in Houston. And the woman was affecting him in a way he never would have expected.
Angry with Boyce and disgruntled by rampant feelings Matt thought had died within him long ago, he quietly left the room. But not before shedding his own jacket and placing it across Kai’s shoulders in an effort to keep her warm.
* * *
FORTY MINUTES LATER Matt reentered the room with another blanket and a small sack of supplies. Exhaustion shadowed his gray eyes as he covered her with the blanket. Guilt plunged through him. She had curled up into a tight fetal position for protection. Tucking the blanket around her body, he felt the pulse at the base of her neck again. This time it wasn’t so jumpy. That was a good sign.
As gently as possible, Matt brought her arm up to examine it. There had been no reason to mar her flesh. Her skin was smooth, reminding him of the velvet quality of a ripe peach. Reaching down, he pulled out a bottle of antiseptic, some cotton and gauze from the sack at his feet.
Kai moaned. She had felt someone’s hand on her lower arm. Nausea brought her back to consciousness. Drowsily she forced open her eyes. She looked up only to meet his concerned pewter gaze. A rush of warmth flowed through her, and immediately Kai relaxed. She was safe with him. Though she opened her mouth to speak, only a croak came out.
His gaze grew more intense as he studied her in those heart-stopping seconds. “Water?”
Kai gave a weak nod of her head. Why did her body feel as if she’d been in an accident? She was vaguely aware of Taylor as he changed his position and gently gathered her into his arms. Kai’s head lolled against the hard, well-muscled wall of his chest. She felt as if she had sawdust in place of her bones.
“You’re weak,” he cautioned her, supporting her so that he could maneuver the paper cup to her parted lips.
Kai was conscious of his strong, slow heartbeat. It gave her a sense of stability. Eagerly she consumed four cups of water before her thirst was quenched. She felt his hand tremble as he awkwardly caressed her hair in a gesture meant to give her some comfort. Her mind told her she should remain on guard, and she stiffened in his embrace. He smelled of rain, and that combined with the masculine scent of his body was like a perfume to her reawakening senses. She saw the corners of his sensual mouth curve slightly upward.
“More?”
His voice vibrated through her, telling Kai this man was different from his companions. She groped to understand why he was being kind. And yet, he was her captor.
“N-no.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Awful….”
He carefully placed her back on the bed. “They shot you up with too much of the drug,” he said as he briskly placed the blankets over her once again. He lifted her arm and rested it across his thigh so that he could cleanse the rope wound.
Kai licked her lips and forced her jigsaw thoughts into some semblance of order. “Please, what’s going on here? Where am I?”
She stared up at him, her vision continuing to improve. His face was somewhat narrow. There was an intensity to his handsomeness. It showed in his well-placed cheekbones, which gave his face breadth. She saw his mouth tighten when she asked the questions. His nose had been broken, her nurse’s observation told her—at least twice. He glanced up briefly from his duties, and Kai detected a haunted expression in his eyes before he veiled it. She tensed then.
Matt froze, realizing he must have hurt her. “Sorry,” he said gruffly, “but these cuts have to be cleaned.”
Kai avoided his stare. “I’ll try to be braver.”
“For being Susan Easton, you sure aren’t the society witch I thought you’d be.”
“Susan?”
“Yeah. You’re Susan Easton. Or has the drug erased your memory, too?” he taunted.
“N-no. I’m not Susan. I’m Kai Easton. Susan is my half sister.”
He reared back, surprise mirrored in his expression. Then, just as suddenly, the flicker of shock was gone, and only that gray, opaque stare remained.
“Susan Easton has red hair, she is five feet seven inches tall and weighs one hundred twenty pounds. And she jogs that same route every day, seven days a week. Boyce has been keeping track of her movements for three weeks now…. He couldn’t have made that kind of mistake.” An then Matt pulled out a black-and-white photo from the pocket of his shirt. It was a poor, partly blurred photo of Susan jogging in one of her tailored outfits. He held it near Kai’s face. “You do look similar with your hair pulled back by a sweatband,” he groused, shoving the photo into his pocket once more.
“Susan didn’t jog today because it’s raining. And I just got home on leave yesterday. I borrowed one of her outfits because I forgot to pack mine.”
Matt
