Retribution (22 page)

She cleared her throat. “Okay. So, like I said, I’d like to give you something.”

“Yeah? What?”

She took a deep breath and fortified herself with all the desire she felt for him. “Well, you know, I’ve realized I haven’t been very fair to you. Here you are trying to help me, save my life, and I’m being a royal pain in the ass. I want you to understand, the feelings you bring up in me are so foreign. I’ve acted poorly, denied to others and myself how vital you became to me after just one look on that mountain in hell. You’ve been so entwined in my life for so long now I’ve wondered if there was anything I could give you to show you just how much you mean to me.” She shrugged and let the full force of her gaze punch into him. “There isn’t much I have, but I’ve decided that I’m going to give you what little it is I do.”

Somehow his gravitational pull had dragged her closer. Okay, she’d moved closer instinctively. But now she pulled away from him slightly, and her gaze moved from his to fasten on his chest. Her courage was a fragile thing at this point.

“You don’t have to give me anything,
leanbh,
” he said quietly.

There was that blow to her solar plexus. His Gaelic did it every time. “Well, it’s not that great of thing really. In fact, you might end up thinking it’s the ultimate in booby prizes,” she joked, sobering when he tipped her head up and forced her to look at him.

His finger stroked along her jaw, but his gaze held hers now. “Whatever you choose to give me, I will treasure always, but again, you don’t have to give me anything. I chose to save you in Afghanistan. I choose to keep you safe now. All I really want is your cooperation.” Then laughing ruefully, he said, “Well that’s not
all
I want exactly, but for now it’ll do nicely.”

“Geesh, I’m trying to bestow a gift on you here. Would you just shut up and let me?” she asked in an overly dramatic tone.

His mouth quirked up. “Go ahead, Sasha, tell me what it is you want to give me,
mo ghrá
.”

She stared at his mouth, and when he smiled, she realized she’d become distracted by his sexy voice and lips. She got herself under control and, mustering up all of her courage, looked him dead in the face.

“Dray Bonner, I’m giving you me.”

Then she turned around and walked back to the car, making sure she put a little extra sway in her hips as she did. Before she was too far away, she heard him hiss in a breath.

Perfect.

“Sasha, baby, wake up, we’re here.”

Dray’s deep voice pulled her from a surprisingly restful sleep. She woke up to his big hands stroking her hair and his hard thigh beneath her head.

She covered a yawn and rubbed her eyes, rousing enough to focus on him. “Where’s here exactly?”

“My old stomping grounds in Boston. Specifically, Rowe’s Wharf right off the Charles River. Are you awake yet? I need to give you some instructions before we head in.”

His hands dropped from her hair as she sat up. She shook her head, trying to clear the sleep away. Compared to the last day of near silence, this was a veritable conversation. He hadn’t said one word since she’d left him standing at the rest stop bathroom with his mouth hanging open. His silence hadn’t bothered her.

Sasha had gone back to the car, retrieved her iPod from isolation in her luggage, and given herself over to her music. Sure, the tension in the car had gone from tension to
tension.
But she’d set the game up, and she’d been willing to play by whatever rules were necessary. Besides, his veiled looks hinted at the fire simmering beneath his calm veneer, and she’d initially been excited. After about two hours of it, she’d let exhaustion have its way with her.

Drawn to him even in sleep, she’d fallen over into his lap, where she’d snuggled contentedly until moments ago. While she tried to get the sleep to throw its heavy blanket off her mind, she briefly mourned the loss of his warmth and his hard leg beneath her cheek.

It was time to wake up completely. Pitch-black outside, the darkness taunted her to face this evolving problem of someone wanting to hurt her.

She sighed. “Yeah, I’m awake. Give it to me.”

His mouth fell open. “What?”

She snorted. “Oh my, you should see your face. I
meant
, give me the information you need me to have so I’m not operating in the blind. You dirty-minded man you. I was beginning to think you didn’t have it in you,” Sasha taunted him.

“Yeah, well, later on I’ll show you just how dirty my mind is, but for now we have to be all business.”

Her gaze strayed to his lips, and she licked her own. His breath hissed in, and she smiled. She was figuring him out slowly but surely.

“I’m going to make you pay for this,” he said in to her silence.

“And I’m so looking forward to that,” she whispered back.

He tapped her chin and chuckled. “Listen up, because I’ll only say this once. This building is outfitted with security that rivals anything anywhere in the world. Short of blowing up the entire block, which I don’t think even Dempsey will try despite how much he hates me, we will be safe within its walls.” His gaze speared her. “You cannot leave, Sasha. You don’t step foot outside these walls without me. That’s imperative. You cannot be alone without protection. Con is coming in tomorrow, and the hounds of hell will be on his heels. We’re baiting Dempsey to this area. There will be two days of relative peace, and then I’m betting Dempsey will make his move. When he does, he’s a dead man. Please don’t make me worry that you won’t obey my orders. Don’t do that to me, okay? I need you safe and out of the line of fire at all times.”

“I can handle it, Dray. I’ve heard you tell me over and over that it’s your mission to keep me safe. I understand. I’ll stay out of your way and listen to what you say without question. Do you understand how hard that will be for me? Following you unquestioningly? I hope you do.” She stared at him, but his face was harsh and unyielding. “Anyway, are we ready to go in yet? I need to use the facilities.” She smiled as she teased him and said, “You can even go in with me this time if you want.”

He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him. “You go nowhere without me,” he reiterated harshly, and then kissed her hard and got out of the car. “Let’s do it.”

Sasha stepped out of the car, turned, and he was immediately behind her, protecting her with his big body. She was safe with him, no question about it. This man who had devoted his life to his country was now devoting his time to shielding her. It blew her mind. She didn’t want his duty, though. No, no, no, she was going for the big Kahuna—his love. He kept her locked to his side, one arm around her waist, as he ushered her to the huge building.

“I smell fish,” she said with a wrinkled nose.

“You should; we’re at a wharf. This building is an old warehouse. It was completely renovated in the fifties by a shipping magnate who thought he could make money shipping from here. Unfortunately, he failed, but I bought the property for Presidio last year, and we’ve outfitted it with every modern convenience, including the best security system in the world. You’ll be safe here; you have my word.”

“So how do you know it’s the best?” she asked.

“My brother created it. He’s the best, therefore his system is the best,” he responded without hesitation, his tone not inviting further questions on the subject.

Never one to be deterred, Sasha said, “I didn’t even know you had a brother. You’ll have to tell me about him sometime.”

He ignored her. She sighed.

The building he herded her into was nondescript. Big, brick, and metal, it was a relatively huge structure but not out of the norm for a wharf. They entered a door in the side of the building, and Dray stepped to a panel in the wall. He punched in a code, and the panel opened, revealing a gadget that looked more at home in a science fiction movie than present-day Boston. He moved his face close to a raised platform on the gadget and completed what could have been a retinal scan. She had to close her mouth when he grinned over at her.

A female voice with a British accent prompted her to do the same. She glanced with no small amount of confusion at Dray. “Why me? And how’s it going to know it’s me?”

“The best security in the world.” As if that answered every question she could ever have about the subject. “Remember, you said you’d listen to my every order,” he mocked in a chiding tone as he deftly avoided the second question.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she muttered as she stepped up to the scanner, still curious how it would recognize her retinas as opposed to say some random lady down the street. Maybe she’d find out one day.

“Scan complete. All perimeter doors sealed and secured. Please proceed on to level two, Mr. Bonner Number One and Ms. Bennoit,” the disembodied voice prompted.

“Bonner number one? What’s that about?” When he didn’t look inclined to comment, she whined, “Come on, Dray, just a little information as we go, please?”

“Quit whining.”

She couldn’t be mad he called her out even though he’d had a grin plastered on his face the whole time. His voice was too damn sexy.

“You’ll get what I give you, when I give it to you.” His words alluded to so much more than just giving her information. She squeezed her thighs together and almost—oh, almost—moaned.

Sasha cleared her throat. “Well now, we’ll just see, won’t we?” she asked, before moving to safer conversational ground. “So why Boston?”

“Why Boston what?” He grinned. It was all teeth and oh-so-knowing. “Smooth change of subject, chicken.”

His arm pulled her to his side again, and they ascended a flight of steps, stopping in front of a large steel door.

“Back to my very valid question, why do you have a safe house here in Boston?”

“Cluck, cluck, cluck.”

Sasha elbowed him, and he grunted appropriately, though she knew there was no way in hell she’d hurt him.

Dray pushed his hand through a small cubby hole and then removed it. He glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. She stuck her hand in the hold too. The sound of a bolt disengaging was loud in the corridor.

“It makes no sense how this system could know me from some random woman,” she mumbled.

Dray ignored her muttering. “I’m from here. I know you picked up on my accent, though it’s gotten better over the years. Anyway, I grew up not too far from here in Beacon Hills. I know this area like the back of my hand. Dempsey will be on my turf, not his own. Plus, I have solid connections in this area. People will go out of their way to let me know if someone has stepped into this area asking questions.”

He ushered her through the door.

“So you’re connected, huh?” Her train of thought was derailed as she got a glimpse of the space they entered. “Dray, this place is amazing. I expected a dump from what the outside looks like, not this. Safe house brings to mind some little shack in the woods far away from civilization, not,” she threw hands to encompass the lavish area, “this.”

She turned at his silence and found herself nose to chest with him. She looked up into Irish eyes that gleamed like fire-backed emeralds. His lips moved, but she couldn’t get past his eyes to focus on what he was saying.

“What?” she asked him dazedly.

“I said, about your earlier comment…”

“Okay…” Where she had been completely discombobulated by the man’s eyes, she was now fascinated, and rightly so, by his lips. “Which comment?” she whispered quizzically.

“You know. The one where you were going to give me a gift?” he prompted, continuing to gaze at her with an intensity that rendered her stupid.

Heat climbed up her neck, centering in her cheeks.

“Oh,
that
comment.” Sasha laughed nervously. “Well, here’s the thing. I’m all about giving you that gift—you know the one I promised you. There’re just a couple of things we need to discuss before I give it. So, um, we’re going to have to discuss them right now or wait until we have a minute,” she cleared her dry throat. “Or three.”

His smile disarmed her. Took her misgivings and sudden insecurities and shot them into the ether.

“So it must be pretty heavy stuff, huh, if it’s going to take a minute or three? Well then, maybe you should just rustle us up some grub while I go check out the outside perimeter.”

Her heart tripped. He wasn’t going to push the issue now.
Hallelujah
.

“You do that. Uh, did you say ‘rustle up some grub’?” she inquired.

“You can cook, right?”

“I’m feeling a great need here to stress the importance of knowing your audience before you ask for things that may be just a tad out of their reach. We really need to spend some quality time together before we embark on these types of journeys,” she muttered, “without a chef.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. Sasha shifted from foot to foot. “You can’t cook, can you?”

She grimaced. “I can cook. You just may not want to
eat
what I cook. In fact, while several people have told me that I
can
cook, they have later informed me that I just don’t do it
well
. So if you’re asking if I can cook to sustain our life, well, let’s just say…no, unh-uh, I can’t. I burn water,” she said mournfully.

Better he know now that life with her wasn’t going to be all
Family Circle
cakes baked by Julia Childs. She’d heard of lesser men’s opinions swayed against a woman by her inability to fill their belly with edible food. Her sisters bandied about those stories frequently as they teased her about her nonexistent cooking skills.

Looking dejected at the thought of having to possibly cook for both of them, he shook his head and mumbled, “Well, damn.”

Putting on her brave, I’m-so-sorry face, she sent him a bright, sunny smile, lifted her hands in the air palms upward, and said, “Sorry.”

“Okay, then,” he replied morosely. “I’m going to check the perimeter. You stay here, and I’ll be back in a few minutes. We’ll figure out what to do about food then. So was that what you needed to discuss with me a minute ago?”

Confusion shot through her. “What?”

“The fact that you can’t cook. Was that what you had to tell me earlier?”