by Pamela Clare
He chuckled and muttered, “You’re definitely bothering me.”
The man had a death wish. He should be careful. She was in an accommodating mood right now.
“Let me move, cowboy, and I will no longer impose on you.”
“Jin?”
She fisted her hand. “Do not use my name again until you give me one in return.”
“Look at me.”
“No.” If she did, he’d see the depth of her humiliation at fantasizing over him.
“Please.”
Had he really said please? She wanted to ignore him, but that was the first time he hadn’t ordered her to do something. She had always prided herself on being calm and patient in the face of crisis. Now would be a good time for those qualities to show up.
She took a deep breath for courage, then she turned and leaned her head back to face him.
That was a mistake.
He wasn’t attractive. He was gorgeous. The rumpled hair and heavy-lidded gaze actually upped the sexy factor.
He brushed a hand over her hair. “You aren’t imposing on me. Well, maybe stompin’ all over my sanity, but right now you’re not imposing. I like you right where you are.”
And there he was, touching her again. She drank in the feeling of his hand smoothing over her hair the way a flower drank in water. He confused her. She confused herself. “You said you did not want to touch me.”
“No, I said I didn’t mean to and should have added, without your permission.”
Leaning forward, he kissed her hair, then nuzzled her neck and kissed her throat. “Do I have your permission?”
She shivered, hungry all over for his touch. This was not a wise move. She said, “I thought you did not want to—”
His lips moved to kiss behind her ear. “Did not want to what?”
“Uhm, do this.”
He kept kissing his way down her neck to her shoulders.
Her breasts ached, impatient for their turn.
“I love doing this,” he whispered against her collarbone. His hand had moved back up her side and he raked a finger across the hard tip of her nipple.
She clinched her legs and shook. “We should—”
“That sounds like permission. Is it?” he asked and the husky sound shimmered through her. He kissed her shoulder and his finger kept toying with her nipple.
She couldn’t think when he surrounded her senses and held them captive. Yes, she wanted to scream yes.
Nothing had ever felt so amazing as his hands skimming beneath the T-shirt that had ridden up to her navel.
What was that awful noise dinging and dinging?
His wonderful hands stopped their exploration. He let out a frustrated sound that didn’t come close to matching hers. When she opened her eyes, his face was right in front of her.
“I wish I could blame this on you,” he said. “But this was my fault.” His phone was vibrating and dancing across the desk. “I’m sorry.”
She was working to slow her breathing. She was starting to sound like Har. “You’re sorry we did this?”
His eyes filled with a tenderness that surprised her, considering the tent in his boxer shorts—she could feel the evidence poking her—and that stupid phone was having a fit.
“Don’t misunderstand me, darlin’,” he started. “I love touching you and kissing you, but I’m not supposed to be doing this. We haven’t come to any agreement, I still don’t know what your real agenda is, and only a bastard would be touching you right now with no idea how any of this is going to work out. I still have a job to do, and you have plans that you’re not sharing. Even if I find out you’re telling me the truth and we both end up successful, the chances of us ever seeing each other again after this are ridiculously slim.”
What could she say to that? Nothing. He was right.
He ran his hand over her hair and kissed her forehead. “Now I feel even more the bastard for not finishing what I started.” He shook his head in a way that seemed as though he condemned himself. “Regardless, you deserve better than that.”
Extracting his body from their tangle of limbs and covers, he walked over and picked up his phone. When he finished reading and thumbing some keys, he turned to her. “I’m going to find us some food. Will you stay here while I’m gone?”
She nodded, afraid her voice might crack at the emotion tumbling through her. You deserve better. No man had ever told her she deserved anything good.
He dressed quickly and started out, turning back to her at the door. “One more thing, Jin.”
“Yes?”
“My name’s Tanner.”
Then he was gone. She fell back on the bed and hugged a pillow to her. Tanner. She liked that.
It fit him. Sounded honorable, like the man.
But right now her body hurt from wanting him and she wished he’d been just a little dishonorable instead of leaving her with this ache.
Her heart was knocking on her mind with its own concern. One it shouldn’t have. Would this morning—and what had happened between them—make any difference to Tanner, or would he hand her over to someone else once she told him why Pang and Har had been sent here? Would Tanner even have a choice?
Pang considered himself a star among his competition, but he was replaceable.
Jin was not.
That was why once she found her sister, Jin would take her and vanish. She could admit that she would have opened herself up to Tanner and enjoyed this short reprieve from her real life, but she knew she could not stay with him.
Unlike Pang, she would be hunted to the corners of the earth and anyone close to her would be killed.
She did care about this cowboy, far too much to bring about his death.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sunshine backlit the sheer hotel curtains across the room from where Tanner stood talking to Dingo on the phone and watching Jin in the middle of one bed eating her McBreakfast. “How long before you can leave the hospital?”
“White Hawk just showed up. Nick’s vitals were looking up an hour ago. He was awake for a few minutes, but they’re keeping him heavily drugged. Blade is making a last check on Nick … wait, here he comes now. We’re headed your way.”
Tanner told him he had the key to their room then added, “No news from Atlanta yet. As soon as you grab some sleep, we’ll hit the ground running.”
“Blade traded off with me for a few hours last night and I’ve eaten. I’m fine for now and I might have someone who can help us.”
That would be nice. “Who?”
“A woman who specializes in locating people and items of exceptional value.”
“She sounds expensive.”
“She is, but I know her.”
Dingo never talked about his private life, but just the way he said that told Tanner there was more to this than a business association. “I’ve got someone, too,” Tanner said, his gaze locked on Jin as she handled her food with precise movements. She wore mint-green workout pants that came with a matching jacket. Beneath that, she had on a white T-shirt and socks. The sneakers he’d bought her at Walmart when he made the food run were a half size too large, but they wouldn’t fall off.
“And who’s that, mate?” Dingo asked, reminding Tanner he still had to decide if Jin was staying or not.
Until he did make up his mind, he had to keep his damn hands off her.
Tanner hedged to buy time with Dingo. He didn’t want to do this over the phone. “Think it’ll be easier to show you. See you in ten.”
“Roger that.”
Tanner dropped his phone on the desk and finished his coffee, then tossed the cup in a nearby wastebasket.
Time to be the tough guy. That would be a whole lot easier if he hadn’t had his hands full of Jin this morning.
And that wouldn’t have happened if he’d been in his own bed where he wouldn’t have wakened from a dream about Jin to find his hand holding a breast his fingertips still itched to feel again.
He waited for her
to finish her food before he broke out his hardass routine.
Jin packed the paper and containers left from her meal back into the bag and folded the top neatly. Everything she did was precise and organized. She sat cross-legged and raised her chin, facing him when she said, “I am ready.”
But she wasn’t ready. She wore her heart in her eyes for anyone to see. He’d just as soon pick on a newborn foal as lay into Jin.
Tanner stayed across the room where he hoped distance would keep him from sliding off track. He started with the first question that came to mind. “Why aren’t you willing to tell us anything about the vicious attack planned on this country?”
“I did not say that!” She propped a fisted hand on each hip. “Do not twist my words.”
“You said Pang and Har were here to play a role in an attack. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“And you wanted to go with them. Were you going to help with this attack just to find your sister, Jin?” That thought had been badgering him since he’d left to pick up food.
“No. Once I find my sister and she knows that I am here to help her escape, she and I will prevent the attack and hand everything over to your government.”
That sounded simple and justifiable, but not the least bit realistic. “Tell me what they’re going to do.”
“First we must come to an agreement.”
He crossed his arms. “Okay. Now’s the time to give it your best shot at convincing me that I need you to locate and/or stop Pang and Har.”
She folded her hands and dropped them in her lap. “The people Pang and Har belong to are well organized and very dangerous. They are capable of executing this plan.”
“That’s not exactly news to me since I was sent over to yank those two out to get them away from your leader.”
She waved a hand in a motion that scoffed at him. “See? You do not even realize that the DPRK is not behind this. North Korea will never be as dangerous as the organization who has manipulated your intelligence operations.”
Tanner took a step forward. “Who are you talking about?”
Folding her hands in her lap, she said, “Have you ever heard of the Orion Hunters?”
No fucking way. He tested her to see if this really was that bunch of fanatics. “Orion who?”
“Orion Hunters. They are an ancient organization who are searching for rare artifacts they believe will reveal Orion’s Prophecy and bring about the final conflict.”
Yep, she knew who they were, but Tanner wasn’t about to let on that he did, too. “So you’re saying these people are here looking for a final conflict?”
“No. You are not listening,” she chastised.
Damn, she was cute when she got her feathers ruffled. He rolled his hand in a “go on” motion. “What final conflict?”
“They believe that once they locate five specific artifacts and bring them together a message will form, or appear, that dictates a final conflict in this world. We would think of it as World War III. Now do you understand?”
All too well.
The Orion Hunters were not common knowledge, being that they were a secret society and all, but they had been on the periphery of Slye Temp missions this past year. Czarion was another name that popped up during the same time, but no one in Slye Temp had figured out how Czarion and Orion Hunters were connected.
Tanner was torn between believing that a band of fanatics was behind the kidnapping and attack on their safe house, and throwing the bullshit flag. “Prove it’s the Orion Hunters behind all this.”
Her little jaw jutted out and her eyes warned that she had little tolerance for stupid questions. “If it was so easy to prove, you would have known you were being fooled, but you did not. That’s why Pang and Har are here and not in your custody.”
Ouch. Thanks for shoving a blast of salt in that wound. “What exactly was your role in this, ninja?”
She growled softly at being called ninja but did not correct him this time. “I have been trained to perform research as well as fight, but once the Hunters decided I could be trusted I was also used as a messenger. The DPRK is infested with Orion Hunters, as are other governments,” she said pointedly, letting him know the US was not immune to this group. “Over the three years that I carried messages, some information was the truth and some not so much. That is how they were able to deceive your intelligence people when they needed to have Pang and Har transported safely to your country.”
His team had done that all right. “What does the DPRK know of this?”
“Our leader is not an Orion Hunter. He will think Pang and Har have escaped to China, the usual way that most defect. Money will be offered for their return, but when the Chinese deny knowledge of this defection our leader will do nothing. He does not want to anger China so he will not expend a great deal of energy on finding Pang and Har.”
These Hunters in North Korea were a ballsy bunch to risk getting caught by that leader. “Who put this plan into action?”
“The leaders of the Pyongyang division of Orion Hunters.” As she spoke, Jin grabbed her hair, twisted it into a knot of some sort that stayed up on its own. “Once I find my sister, I will give you names, but those names will mean little because they protect themselves through many layers.”
“Just how do you intend to stop Pang and Har?”
“Do we have a deal yet?”
He rolled his eyes and waved his hand. “Keep talking.”
“Once I understood the Hunters had a plan in mind for the US, I spent every minute of the past three years learning all I could about them. I trained twice as hard to be someone of value to the Hunters for one simple reason—to find my sister and help her escape. They think little of women, but they never waste a resource, even an Amerasian. It was simple to convince them I was honored to have any position. When they realized I was intelligent and … submissive—”
Tanner snorted. “As if.”
“—they began to trust me and give me more responsibility.”
“Why didn’t you find a way to insert yourself on the original mission?”
She chuckled and the sound surprised Tanner, after seeing her so open earlier. This sound came from a part of her soul that had to harbor something dark. “I said they trusted me, not that they valued me to be of any use here. I had already made up my mind to find a way to leave with Pang and Har, but when I saw soldiers outside my apartment, any question about leaving ended then. I did not think escaping would be quite so difficult.”
And it wouldn’t have been if Tanner’s extraction plan hadn’t fallen apart. Or had it been sabotaged? “Did you leak the information and undermine our exit strategy?”
“No. I told you the truth. Pang’s boss betrayed him.” She swept her gaze away from him.
“Why would he do that?”
Her gaze returned to his and shot sparks with every word. “Pang’s boss was an evil man. The soldiers found information that pointed the finger at him for Pang and Har going missing.”
Tanner had a feeling she knew something about how that information ended up in the hands of the soldiers, but he didn’t press it since that had no bearing on anything except the extraction. “He’s probably answering questions about you right now.”
“He knows nothing about me. I am invisible to him.” She stared off for a moment. “It does not matter. He is dead by now.”
She’d said that in a hopeful tone. Tanner shrugged. “That’s a possibility.”
“More than just possible.” She returned her gaze to meet his. “Orion Hunters do not allow anyone who betrays them to live.”
That would mean her, too.
She definitely couldn’t have stayed or gone back, but the State Department might ship her home to North Korea if they didn’t allow her asylum.
This was going nowhere and any minute now Dingo would—
There was Dingo’s quick double rap.
Tanner stepped over, checked the peephole and opened the door with his body blocking v
iew of the room.
Dingo was saying to Blade, “That head nurse was an earbasher all right.”
“Your room’s two doors down,” Tanner said, offering each of them a keycard.
Blade snatched his. “Stick a fork in me. I’m done.” He walked down two doors and disappeared into his and Dingo’s room.
That was one person out of the way.
Tanner would rather make this decision with just Dingo. He stepped back from the door.
“We need to—” Dingo had stepped into the room and stopped. “She’s back?”
Tanner shut the door. “Yep. I found her in the Suburban when I drove it here.”
If Dingo had any thought on that, he didn’t share it. “You told Sabrina yet?”
“Not yet.”
Dingo was rarely pissed, but the perception of leaving Sabrina’s ass in the wind with the government did it. “Call her. Now.”
Tanner held up his hands. “I’m just as concerned about getting Sabrina out of a jam as you. We’ll call her if you still think that’s a good idea in the next few minutes.”
Dingo considered that and nodded. “Explain.”
Tanner filled him in on what Jin had told him about Pang and Har.
The only reaction Dingo had was a sharp lift of his eyebrow at learning their team had smuggled terrorists into the country, then a glint of surprise at hearing about the Orion Hunters. He muttered, “I’ll be gobsmacked.”
If that means blown away, call me gobsmacked, too. “Jin claims she’s the best chance we have at finding—and stopping—Pang and Har.”
“Why?” Dingo asked in Jin’s direction.
Pushing a few stray hairs off her face with both hands, she said, “The first thing you must do is find the doctor who would treated Har, or is still treating him. The Hunters would not risk losing one of the physicists.”
Tanner asked, “Do you have any idea what might be wrong with him? He wasn’t responding to nausea medicine.”
“No, I do not know, but I would not be surprised to find that Pang had poisoned him at some point once we arrived in Seoul. He may have been told that one of them needed to pretend to be ill so that they would not leave Los Angeles before the Hunters found them.”
