Authors: Allie K. Adams
At Any Cost (6 page)
JT mulled over how she was going to convince him to hand over the disc. She could try to take it by force, but that would be futile. He had to be six three, maybe six four, and a good two hundred something perfectly proportioned pounds. His dark cotton shirt stretched to capacity to cover his broad shoulders, and showed off a rather impressive torso. The black BDUs hugged his thighs. She wouldn't be able to get her Battle Dress Uniforms to look so good on her. They'd never looked so good on anyone, and she doubted they ever would. Those dark blue eyes narrowed when he caught her looking at him. No, not just looking at him.
Gawking at him.
She smiled, though she couldn't begin to explain why. Lord knows he hadn't given her much to smile about thus far. He cocked his brow, mumbled something she knew she didn't want to hear again, and turned his gaze to the window. "Stop looking at me like that."
Licking her lips, she replied, "Like what?"
His brows pulled together as he turned his head, resting his eyes on her. He didn't look all too pleased and JT wanted to dive under the covers. The thought of him joining her stirred up something heated and dark in the depths of her soul.
Stop that!
JT huffed.
"Like that. The way you're looking at me right now. It might have worked on the others, but it won't work on me."
"O-kaaay." JT turned away. She didn't have a clue how she'd been looking at him. Well, okay. So she may have been mentally undressing him. That and she may have been wondering what it would feel like to run her fingers over what she was sure would be the perfect balance of chest hair and heavenly chorded pectorals.
Why did he keep talking about others? Other what? Maybe other voices in his head? No wonder NASSD booted him to the curb. The guy was nuts. Too bad. "You've got issues, Weber."
He chuckled, but there wasn't an ounce of humor in its sound. "You have no idea."
Her insides turned to molasses. Were they having a moment? Was he, dare she say, starting to warm to her?
"I have to make a call. Try to escape and I'll shoot you without a second thought." With that, he was gone.
So much for that theory.
JT couldn't hear Dan as she watched him pace around the front of the RV, his cell pasted firmly to his ear. Whatever conversation he was having, and whoever he was having it with, wasn't going well.
He glared up at her through the windshield as if he could feel her watching him. JT chewed on the inside of her lip and looked around the RV for an escape route.
"No, damn it!" She whipped her head toward the door as Dan stepped inside, his cell still on his ear. "Donovan, this is insane. Yes, she's sitting right here. No.
No
, damn it! There's no other way?"
JT watched his face grow more and more red. The little vein in his temple started to throb. Whatever Donovan had to say didn't settle well with Dan Weber. It was probably Ron Donovan from HQ, one of the head honchos she'd met back at
He paced up and down the narrow hall of the RV, growling every time he bumped into something. JT wondered why he came back inside if he wanted to stay mobile. The motor home definitely didn't lend itself well to a pacer.
"There's
got
to be another way." He glanced sideways at JT as she combed her fingers through her hair. He paused, watched the action with great interest. A quick blink and he was back to his wonderful, agitated self. His back to her, he became a brick wall. Suddenly at a stop, he abruptly turned and rested his cold eyes on her. "No.
She
told me that."
Told him what? What did she say? JT stood and eyed the window. It would be a tight fit, but she'd make it. Stevens and Brooks wouldn't even slow her down.
Dan Weber, on the other hand, would find great pleasure in stopping her. Dead.
"Fine. No, I'm not. Not like I really have a choice in this, is there?" He slammed the top of the cell down. "Looks like there's been a little change in plans, Turner."
She stepped toward the window. NASSD agents disappeared all the time. No way was she just going to sit back and let him take her out to the middle of nowhere to put a bullet in her head. "Like what?"
"You let me worry about the details."
Another step. She felt a tickle as a bead of sweat ran down between her shoulder blades. Her heart started to thud in her chest. Ignoring the pain, she stretched out both shoulders to ready herself. "Who was that?"
He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. "HQ. Apparently they don't want you." He captured her eyes with his. "And neither do I. So now we have a situation."
Situation? Not if she could help it. Another step. One more and she'd rip open the window and jump. If he shot her in the back, at least she'd go down running. Oh God, her heart fluttered so fast she felt close to passing out. "What sort of situation?"
"It seems I need to either get rid of you." He looked at her when she inadvertently gasped.
That's all she needed to hear. With a swiftness ingrained through her training, she jumped toward the window and grabbed the frame to throw it open. The damn thing wouldn't budge.
She felt for the lock. There wasn't one. What, was the damn thing welded shut? She spotted the welds and her heart flipped painfully.
Damn. Of course.
Her eyes darted around, searching for another escape. God, please. She didn't want to die like this. She could be a good agent. Just let her get through this. She'd prove it to NASSD.
"What are you doing?" He asked casually. Way too casually. Didn't the man even have a heart?
"No way are you going to kill me, you bastard." She wiped the sweat off her upper brow and jumped across the bed to the other side of the small room, to the window on the opposite side. Same thing. It wouldn't budge.
Double damn
.
"Turner."
JT swallowed to force her heart back into her chest. So much for remaining calm in any situation. She looked around the room and rested her gaze on the vent above her. If she jumped on the bed, she just might make it.
"Don't even think about it."
JT hopped up on the bed.
"Turner, you aren't going anywhere."
"The hell I'm not." She raised her arms and started bouncing on the bed. The motion brought such an intense pain to her shoulder it almost took her down. But she continued to bounce, to get enough of a lift to reach the vent.
She felt a hand on her ankle. With a swift kick, she connected with his chin. Her foot exploded in pain.
Ouch
. She forgot she wasn't wearing any shoes. Just her luck, she probably broke her foot on the man's iron jaw.
"Damn it, woman!" He growled, holding his chin. He grabbed both her ankles, knocking her off-balance. With the grace of an Albatross bird's landing, JT tumbled back, Dan on top of her.
"Get off of me!" She struggled under his weight. Bunching up her fist, she tried to throw a punch. He caught her wrist. JT tried to shove at him with her free hand, but did nothing more than give him the advantage of grasping that wrist, too.
"What is the matter with you? Stop struggling. Look what you're doing to your shoulder."
To hell with her shoulder. She'd live through that. If he won, she wouldn't live through the day. That thought gave her a little more fight.
His hard body suffocated her. She squirmed to try and break free, but he shifted his weight so she couldn't move. Hell, she couldn't
breathe
. His lips twitched as he looked down at hers. She could feel his breath tickling her face. With a blink, she brought her eyes up to his.
If the air hadn't already been sucked out of her lungs when they landed, she would have lost her breath. She stopped struggling at the sight. He was looking at her. Not just looking at her.
Gawking at her.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said, his breath warm against her cheek. His dark, sexy voice made his chest rumble. JT felt a tremble wash through her in response, settling between her thighs. It would be so easy for him to close the two-inch gap between their lips and seize her mouth with his. She licked her lips and swallowed.
He watched the gesture with interest.
Get a grip, Turner. Stop thinking of him as a man.
He wasn't a man. He was an assassin. Just like her. She was his target, and she had the distinct impression he never missed his target.
He dropped his head down another inch, settling his lips right above hers. She felt his breath catch as she flexed her butt cheeks to bring feeling back to her backside. His body responded and when she felt the rigid shaft of his cock pressing down on her, her clit started to throb. Oh how she wanted him to kiss her right now, to cover one of her aching breasts with those enormous hands of his.
With his knee, he parted hers, resting it on the bed between her legs. His breath came out is shaky rasps, the warmth tickling her skin and washing delicious chills across her body. She could feel herself
quiver and swell as she softened. "W-What are you doing, Weber?"
She watched as he swallowed, his eyes never leaving her lips. "I don't know." His lips lowered, whispering an intimate caress over hers. The world around them seemed to slow. Her blood turned to syrup. She wanted those lips on hers fully. Now. Lifting her head, trying to establish the contact she was desperate for, Weber stiffened with a jerk and blinked at her. He rolled off and hurried off the bed.
Feeling robbed, embarrassed, and down right horny, she sat up and turned away from him. Blinking back the burning behind her eyes, she sat perfectly still for several seconds as she regrouped. Agents did not cry, damn it.
She rubbed her foot. It didn't feel broken, but holy hell did it hurt. Good luck running now. Hell with running. Good luck walking. Damn. Couldn't she even escape without botching it?
"Let me see that." Dan scooted her around and pushed her hand out of the way to examine her foot. Against her better judgment, she let him. Even though a few moments ago she attempted to somehow escape through a six-inch square vent. Go figure.
But then he touched her, gawked at her as he looked down at her. It did incredible things to her resolve. She wanted him, wanted him to rip the borrowed clothes from her back and take her without restraint. She wanted to feel him inside her, filling her completely. She'd never wanted anything more.
And then, without warning, he simply turned it off. Her mind still reeled from their close encounter. She still felt the effects of his body over hers. She still ached to be touched, to be loved. She bit on her lower lip as she looked down at her foot. Following his arms up with her gaze, she parted her lips when she realized he'd been staring at her.
Clearing his throat, he went back to the task of checking out her ankle. He turned it this way and that, working all of the movable parts. "Ouch! That hurts." She pulled her foot back. He resisted at first, then let it go. "Thank you."
"You'll have a nasty bruise, but you'll live."
JT stood and started toward the door. It hurt to walk on the foot, but she'd manage.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"My disc, please." She held out her hand.
He lifted his brow, mocking her very statement. Hell, if the roles were reversed, she would have done the same thing. "
Your
disc?"
"Yes,
my
disc. I stole it. That makes it rightfully mine."
To her astonishment, he pulled it out and handed it over. She stared at it in her hand, not really believing what she just witnessed. Did he really just give in to her?
She didn't want to rationalize what he'd done, or why. So he had a temporary lapse in sanity. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? Holding her breath, she took a step out of the RV.
The sound of his voice stopped her. "Hold it."
She knew it had to be too good to be true. Turning back to him, she sighed. "You aren't getting the disc back."
"I don't want the disc." Weber's lip twitched.
That statement gave her pause. "You don't?"
"No." He refused to meet her eyes. For some reason, the man who couldn't keep his eyes off her now wouldn't even throw a glance her way? Odd.
"Then what do you want?"
He shook his head, cursing under his breath. With a deep breath, he finally looked at her. "I want in."
In on
what
? On her? Although the idea definitely had her intrigued, and somewhat aroused, now was not the time for them to do the horizontal bop. As much as she wanted to. "Come again?"
"You heard me. I want in on the deal. I know how much
Oh, Jesus. Oh no. She'd succeeded. Her realization chilled her to the core. She just found the mole.
