Undercover Captor

Can’t have that. Must maintain cool.

The other agents had him all wrong. They thought he was made of ice. That he didn’t feel when he went out on his missions.

The problem was that he felt too much. And if he didn’t control his fury... Then I’m too dangerous.

He 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 she hadn’t gotten her medicine just a few hours before the men had taken her, she wouldn’t have been able to handle the gag. Tina wouldn’t have been able to breathe.

“Keep that knife in its sheath, Carl,” Drew told him flatly.

Oh, no. Oh, that wasn’t good.

Drew’s face—handsome, hard, fierce—seemed to tighten even more as he studied the other man.

Drew Lancaster was a warrior. She knew it. Had known it from the first moment she’d seen him. He’d been dripping blood at the time, courtesy of a fresh bullet wound. He hadn’t even flinched when she’d dug that bullet out of him.

He was big; about six foot three, with wide shoulders, narrow hips and what she thought of as a go-to-hell golden gaze. His skin was tanned from hours under the Mississippi sun, and that slow drawl that crept out every now and then...

That drawl was temptation in a dangerous package.

She knew how lethal Drew was. She’d gotten a glimpse into his file once, thanks to her friend Sydney Ortez. Sydney controlled all the intel at the EOD, and when she’d noticed that Tina was spending a bit too much time gazing after Drew, Syd had wanted Tina to know exactly who she was day dreaming about.

Not a white knight.

More like a killing machine.

Drew’s gaze slid to her once more. His face was all tough angles and planes. The scar that cut across his right cheekbone just made him appear all the more dangerous.

Her breath felt too hot in her lungs.

After a tense moment Drew gave a curt nod and rose to his feet. There was a tiny window in the room and sunlight spilled inside that window. The light fell on Drew as he passed it.

“Told you she was pretty,” the one he’d called Carl mumbled.

Drew leaped at the other man. In an instant Drew’s lower arm was under the guy’s chin and Drew had him pinned against the wall. “And I’m telling you...keep your hands off her.”

The other man blinked. Then Carl smiled. “Like that, huh? Calling her yours already?”

I am in a nightmare. And Drew wasn’t calling her anything.

But he was leaning in even closer to the blond male. “If you hurt her, if you so much as bruise her, I’ll make you pay.” A deadly promise.

The blond man gulped. “No worries, man. I’m just watchin’ her.”

Drew stepped back. “See that you do.” He fired one more glance at Tina.

She had to press her lips together so she wouldn’t cry out and basically beg him to stay.

He was undercover. He had a job to do. But she knew that he’d get her out of there.

She just had to hold on long enough for the rescue to work.

Drew turned and left the room without another word.

Carl eased toward her. “Guess you two got cozy, huh? Figured old Stone was a secret ladies’ man.”

He dropped into the chair near her. His hand went to the hilt of his knife.

Tina tensed, but he made no move to pull out the weapon.

His gaze swept over her face. “Such a pity,” he murmured. “I hate it when pretty girls have to die.”

* * *

HEWASTAKINGa risk. A huge one, Drew knew it, but he had to make the call. He slipped away from the others at the compound and headed toward the old fence on the right side of the property. He’d scouted before, and this was the weak spot in security. No cameras could see this location, but, thank goodness, there was actually cell service here.

Sydney Ortez had been the one to tell him about this sweet spot. Before Drew had gone in undercover, Sydney had used her satellites and her computer magic to try to find him a safe contact zone.

Safe, but not one hundred percent secure. Because in a situation such as this one, you never knew when the enemy might decide to take a stroll and blow your plans to hell.

Drew fired a quick glance over his shoulder. The phone was clutched tightly to his ear. One ring...

“I know about your problem,” the voice on the other end of the line said. No identification was necessary. Drew instantly recognized the voice of his team leader, Dylan Foxx. The former SEAL had been the one to convince Drew to join the EOD in the first place. The two men had become old friends on the battlefield, on missions that they’d never discuss. So many years—so many missions. Through them all, Dylan always had Drew’s back.

“Yeah?” Drew surveyed the area around him, trying to make sure no one was close enough to hear him. “So what the hell are we going to do?”

“Keep her alive,” Dylan responded instantly. “Mercer knows what’s happening. He says that Dr. Jamison’s survival is priority.”

Mercer knew. Right. The guy had eyes and ears everywhere.

I’m a set of eyes and ears for him now. “Does he realize I’m the one undercover here?”

“He does, and he said that you should make certain you stick to the doctor.”

“They think she’s his daughter,” Drew stressed. How long would they keep working under that wrong assumption? How long until someone figured out they’d screwed up?

There was silence from Dylan, then he asked, “Is she?”

No. But Drew didn’t give that immediate response. He trusted Dylan, of course he did, but there were some secrets he couldn’t share.

Drew was one of the few people in the world who knew that, yes, Bruce Mercer actually did have a daughter. But that daughter wasn’t Tina. “Hell if I know,” he said.

It was a good thing Dylan wasn’t there to see him. The guy had always said that he could read any lie on Drew’s face. Lucky for Drew, the bad guys didn’t have such an easy time of seeing past his deception.

“Tina Jamison wasn’t supposed to be involved in this case,” Drew growled. “No way. Who messed up? How did this happen?” Tina wasn’t the bait for the trap they needed.

“I don’t know.” He could hear the frustration in Dylan’s voice. “That’s why I asked if she actually is his daughter, because that’s the only thing making sense on my end. We gave Devast’s men the false trail. They were supposed to follow it to our operative, not to Dr. Jamison.”

Something had gone wrong. Very wrong. Now Drew had to stop the train wreck before Tina was killed.

There was a murmur in the background then Dylan said, “Get back to her. Word just came down that someone is about to send proof of life to the EOD.”

Drew ended the call and started back toward the main house. Proof of life could be anything. Providing proof was the standard deal in an abduction case. That proof could be a video of the prisoner. A phone call from the captive.

It could be a severed finger. An ear that had been sliced off. That kind of physical evidence was actually often needed. High-profile prisoners were valuable and, before they were ransomed, their DNA had to be confirmed.

He couldn’t let anyone cut into Tina.

He checked his weapon. Fully loaded.

Then he kicked up his speed and raced frantically back to Tina.

* * *

THEREDHEADWASBACK. Tina stared up at him—no, she stared into the guy’s phone. He’d turned the phone sideways; he was video-taping her.

“This is what we call proof of life,” he murmured. “We need you to prove to your dear old dad that you’re still alive.”

They weren’t proving anything to her father. Her father was dead. So was her mother. They’d both died shortly after Tina’s eighteenth birthday.

Their blood had soaked her fingers. She hadn’t known how to save them.

I do now.

“Look into the camera,” he ordered her. “Say your name.”

The door opened behind him. Drew. Drew was back.

It got easier for her to breathe then.

She stared toward the redhead and his phone. “My name is Tina Jamison.”

“Good girl,” the redhead murmured. Lee. That was his name. She’d heard one of the other men call him that earlier. “Now tell us the date.”

She did. Her voice didn’t tremble. Tina was proud of that fact.

“Bruce Mercer, we have your daughter,” the redhead said. His voice was cold and flat. “She’s alive right now, but, if you don’t follow our orders exactly, she won’t be alive for long.”

Tina kept staring at him.

“We want an exchange,” Lee continued. “Her life for yours.”

That wasn’t going to happen. Not ever. Mercer was too important. He had ties to too many governments, too many agents, too many secrets.

She was just the doctor who patched up the team members.

I’m expendable.

Bruce Mercer wasn’t.

“For every day that you delay, we will hurt her.”

Oh, wait. What?

“We gave you proof of life,” he continued. Her eyes narrowed. Was he recording these images of her? Or streaming them live to Mercer? If the fool was streaming them, the EOD would be on top of this group in hours. Sydney would trace the signal back to this location.

His hold tightened on the phone. “Now it’s time for proof of pain.”

He’d barely even got the words out before the other guy—the blond who’d kept her terrified for the past hour—came at her with his knife.

Tina tensed, but the knife just went to the ropes that bound her. Carl cut through the ropes that circled her right hand.

“What the hell...” Drew began.

“Slice off her finger,” was the order that followed.

Carl smiled.

Tina tried to jerk her hand back.

She couldn’t. He was too strong.

“Stop!” Drew bellowed.

He wasn’t stopping. The knife pressed toward her hand.

Tina looked away.

But the blade didn’t slice her skin. Instead she heard the brutal thud of two bodies colliding. Her head whipped back toward that sound. Drew had just slammed into Carl. He’d tackled him, and both men had hit the floor. The knife clattered away.

“What are you doin’, Stone?” Finally, Lee had dropped his phone. The video show seemed over.

Drew pounded Carl’s head into the floor. Then he leaped to his feet. “You aren’t cutting her, Lee.”

“I’ll do anything I want!” His chin jutted out, and Lee motioned to the other two men who stood against the back wall. “Take that fool down.”

They ran toward Drew.

But they were the ones that hit the floor.

As he fought, Tina began to yank at the ropes still around her. Now that her right hand was free, she could escape. Her fingers were shaking as she undid the knots on her left hand. Then she started jerking at the ropes that tied her feet to the legs of the chair.

Grunts filled the room. The crunch of bones. The fight was brutal and—

More men were rushing inside.

Drew put his body in front of hers.

She untied the last knot and jumped to her feet.

“You aren’t hurting her!” Drew shouted.

Then she heard a new sound. A very, very loud boom. A gunshot.

Drew’s body jerked at the impact, but he didn’t stop fighting the men who came at him. Of course, he didn’t stop.

A killing machine.

He took down another man. Broke the nose of the fourth guy who rushed at him.

Hard hands grabbed Tina. A gun was shoved against her temple. Then Lee ordered, “Stop!”

Drew whirled. His gaze dipped to Tina’s face, then back to the face of the gunman—Lee. “You aren’t killing her,” Drew said. His lips twisted into a humorless grin, one that was ice-cold. “She’s no good to you dead.”

“True.” The gun lifted away from her. “Though it seems that you are no good to me alive.”

He was going to shoot Drew again. Kill him while she watched. “No!” Tina yanked free of Lee’s arms with a wild burst of strength. She put her body in front of Drew’s. “Don’t!”

Lee hesitated. His gaze went from her face back to Drew. “Interesting.”

“I’ll cooperate,” she said, desperate because more men had run into the room. Alerted by the sounds of battle, they’d rushed inside. Now she and Drew were surrounded by guns and by men who looked as though they were ready to fire those guns at any moment. “I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll get my...father to meet your demands.” Such a lie. “But, please, don’t hurt him.”

Carl had dragged himself off the ground. Blood dripped from his busted lower lip. “T-told you,” he stuttered to Lee. “Stone here got sweet on the girl during his night duty.”

“I think it’s more than that,” Lee said. A shrewd understanding filled his eyes. “Get some cuffs. Snap ’em on him.” His head cocked to the right. “Cuffs will hold him better than rope.” Then his lips lifted into a cold grin. “Even better, cuff him to her.”

* * *

SOMUCHFORkeeping his cover in place. He’d sure blown that fast enough.

As soon as that knife had come close to her fingers, he’d attacked.

Where was the ice? When the knife had hovered over her delicate hand, rage had ignited within him, driving right past his control.

The cuffs bit into his wrists. He wasn’t surprised they’d used cuffs on him instead of rope. But when it came to thinking that the cuffs would be more secure than the rope, Lee was dead wrong.

They’d taken him and Tina into another room, a smaller room, with no window and sealed with a heavy, metal door. They’d cuffed one of his hands to hers, and his other hand—they’d cuffed it to a metal pole that came straight out of the floor.

Carl smirked at him. “That will hold you until it’s time for us to play.”

Play. Right. Wonderful.

Lee stood in the doorway behind Carl. “You know, Stone, there was something about you that I never liked.”

Carl drove his fist into Drew’s gut. He grunted. The jerk sure knew how to deliver some pain with a hard punch.

Lee sauntered into the room. He pushed Carl back and glared at Drew. They’d taken Drew’s weapons. They’d also given him plenty of punches in the other room, despite Tina’s pleas for them to stop.

They weren’t exactly the type to show mercy. He didn’t expect any.

“You’ve got secrets, don’t you, Stone?” Lee said. His left brow rose. “If that’s even your name.”

Drew smiled. “You know you’re a dead man.”

Lee’s lashes flickered. The flash of fear was obvious as the guy stepped back.

“I’m sending the video to Mercer. The video of his daughter...and the video of you, getting your butt beat.”

Drew shrugged. “I don’t think Mercer will care that some jerk he doesn’t know was attacked.”

“Maybe. Or maybe...just maybe...he does know you.” Lee’s gaze cut to Tina. “You made a mistake.”

Saving her? No, it hadn’t been a mistake. Saving her had been worth every second of pain.

“You looked at her with a lover’s eyes, and you’ve never looked at anyone like that before.”

Every muscle in Drew’s body stiffened. Lee wasn’t as dumb as he looked. He’s too observant.

“I’ve seen you with plenty of women. You play around, you drink, and you don’t care what they do when you’re done.” Half of Lee’s mouth hitched up in a taunting smile. “But when you looked at her, when you burst into that room and saw me cutting her, your eyes were different. I saw you.”

This was bad.

“And you went crazy when I let old Carl loose on her.”

He forced his back teeth to unclench. “Carl shouldn’t be turned loose on any woman.”

“She’s not just any woman, is she? You know her.”

Tina wasn’t speaking beside him. But he could hear the sounds of her breaths, coming far too fast.

Then Lee advanced toward her. He grabbed Tina’s chin. “And you know him, don’t you?”

“No!” Tina cried.

Drew could almost believe her denial.

Almost.

“Well, I’ll find out. I’ll send this message to Mercer, and then I’ll be back to see just what secrets you have...you and Stone here. When I let Carl begin to cut him, I’m betting either he’ll talk—” Lee’s fingers tightened on her chin “—or you will.”

“Leave her alone,” Drew ordered.

Lee shook his head. “See, that’s what I’m sayin’. You get too protective for a man who doesn’t know her, and that makes me wonder... Just how do you know her? How would a man like you know Bruce Mercer’s daughter?” Menace layered his voice. “Want to know what I’m suspecting?”

“Not really. I don’t give a damn,” Drew retorted. He just needed Lee and Carl to get out of there so he could escape and get Tina to safety.

“I think one of Mercer’s agents would know her. I think you’re a man with a certain set of skills, skills a guy like Bruce Mercer would appreciate.”

“You’re thinking way too hard,” Drew told him. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

Lee’s eyelids flickered. “Getting an agent in here, monitoring us...that would be a Mercer move,” Lee continued as he stepped away from Tina. With a nod, he said, “Maybe you are the killer I thought you were—only you’re killing for the U.S. government. Not for HAVOC.”

Drew made himself smile. The bullet was still in his shoulder, and it hurt, throbbing and burning constantly. But he was used to ignoring pain, so he shoved that burn deep into the back of his mind. “If I am EOD, then you need to be watching your back. ’Cause maybe—” he deliberately tossed the word back at Lee “—I got a team here, backing me up. Maybe this little place of yours is about to explode around you.”

No, it wasn’t. Drew’s team wasn’t close enough for that fast of an attack. They wouldn’t even realize he’d been compromised at this point.

But Lee didn’t know he was bluffing. And all of a sudden the guy started to sweat as worry sank in deep. “We need to sweep the perimeter!” Lee said as he spun toward Carl. “I have to make sure the place is secure.”

With the big boss coming in, the guy wouldn’t want any screw-ups.

Lee grabbed Carl’s shirt. “You get outside that door. You make sure that no one enters and no one leaves until I get back.” His hold tightened on Carl. “I trust you. You came up with me through the ranks.”

How wonderful for them. Drew’s eyes narrowed as he filed that little piece of information away for later.

“In case this jerk has any other teammates here undercover, I want you securing him. No one but me comes in here, got it?” Lee demanded.

Carl nodded. “Got it.”

After firing one last fuming glare at Drew, the two men marched from the room. The door slammed and Drew heard the distinct sound of the lock setting into place.