He might not have really been sleeping, but he’d made a good appearance of it. And hell, maybe he had slept. Blindfolded as he was, there hadn’t been a chance for him to enjoy the scenery along the way. She didn’t particularly care. After having a terse discussion with the law enforcement at the hospital, who’d required a little nudge from the Hawaiian government task force to expedite the statement they needed from her, she’d taken herself and Jason away from the scene as quickly as possible. Raul would smooth any ruffled feathers. It was part of his job as liaison for Search and Protect with the task force itself. Getting out of there had still taken longer than Arin liked.
She’d checked her vehicle carefully for any tampering and left the premises, then swapped it at a car rental for a new Jeep. King had taken it all in stride, simply napping in the back. But Jason had grumbled once he realized she sucked for conversation when she was driving. Actually, she considered herself particularly bad at random chats in just about any situation. After a few tries, he’d tired of being shut down and tipped his head back to nap away the impromptu road trip.
He’d stopped snoring as she’d rolled to a stop. When she put the Jeep in park, he lifted his head. “Are we there yet?”
Even his voice was sexy when he woke up. And the effect was definitely unique to him because she’d woken up with her share of partners over the years—though none since she’d moved to Hawaii—and she didn’t remember liking a voice quite so much as his. He had a hint of a South African accent, and it paired with the mellow timbre of his words in a seductive way.
“We’re here.” She hopped out the driver side. “King gets out first, then you.”
“Do we both get to take a piss?” Jason called out as she walked around to the back of the Jeep.
She opened the back and murmured a quiet command to let King hop down. Her GSD disembarked and stretched briefly, with a big yawn, then followed up with one of those all-over body shakes. When he looked up at her, it was with a wide doggie grin. She smiled back at her partner. He was always ready and willing to work.
Shutting the back, she circled around to the other side of the vehicle and opened the passenger side door. Despite his blindfold, Jason turned his face toward her. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Behind her, King found himself a fern and lifted his leg. Jason tilted his head at the following sound of trickling relief and grimaced. “Aw, c’mon.”
She sighed. “Hold on another minute or two and we’ll find you someplace a little more private.”
He smirked. “Suit yourself. I don’t mind exhibition. I’ve got enough to flaunt.”
She wrapped her hand around his bicep, or some of it. His muscles were more impressive than she’d admit out loud and her fingers barely got halfway around. “You’d only be showing off to King at the moment and he has a lot of practice with pissing contests. Let’s just not.”
She grabbed her duffel from the back seat and closed up the Jeep, then took him by the upper arm again and started to steer him across the tiny lot.
“This would go better if I could see.” There was a thread of irritation under his otherwise light words.
To be fair, they were walking over gravel. It sucked to go over uneven ground without being able to watch where you were going. She’d done it in the past. “Just another minute or two.”
At the edge of the parking area were a series of paths. To the right, there was a larger walkway with good lighting. It led to the main house and check-in. She directed him to the left.
The gravel gave way to hard-packed dirt on the narrow trail, with only enough lighting to keep from stumbling. The tropical rainforest closed in around them and after a few steps, neither the parking area nor the walkway to the main house were visible through the thick ferns and falling darkness. She loved this place and the privacy it offered. A person could literally tuck themselves away and forget anything else existed. Yet it was only twenty minutes to the nearest Thai food restaurant. Not that her guest had to know that.
This was a hideout. A temporary place for her to rest when she was on a mission away from home for longer than a day.
She stopped him in front of her cabin and removed his blindfold. He could pretend to stumble on the steps and she wasn’t in the mood to grapple with him if he did. But he remained where he was standing, rapidly blinking his eyes as he looked around and gave his vision time to adjust from the pitch black of the blindfold to the relatively bright light of the cabin porch. She caught herself staring, watching the dark rings of his irises widen and contract.
He glanced around, efficiently taking in his surroundings. “Looks like your tree house fell out of its tree.”
She lifted her chin, shaking off her fascination. This wasn’t the time. “Inside, please.”
“Okay, okay.” He proceeded up the steps without any further wise cracks. Once they were inside, he stood in the middle of the small space. “Cozy.”
Yes. Both cozy and private, the way she liked things. What she didn’t like was having to have him in her space. There hadn’t been time to arrange for a separate safe house, so here they were, in one of her favorite hideaways, and she’d never be able to come back to this one again. Once someone knew about one of her places, she tended to change it up and never go back. It was just good practice when you wanted to disappear on a regular basis.
She’d spent some time working freelance after her military service had ended, and her looks, combined with her skills, had taken her into some actual cloak-and-dagger insanity. She’d taken a lot of lives and there’d been plenty of people happy to go after hers. Arranging bolt-holes while she was on a mission was a habit she’d developed to stay alive. Zu had given her a future with the Search and Protect team, with a decently longer life expectancy, but some habits were hard to break.
As much as she’d tried not to get attached to locations, she did appreciate good accommodations. This place had amenities to make her stay comfortable if she had to be here for more than a few days. It was beautiful, peaceful, and with King’s help, she could tell if someone was approaching with plenty of time to decide on a course of action.
Jason turned to her and waited for her to meet his gaze. She must’ve been tired to let her thoughts wander like that. It annoyed her, so she glared up at him. Damn, standing right in front of him, he was head and shoulders taller. “What?”
He lifted his wrists, bound with zip ties. “I could take a piss like this, but I was hoping for a sign of good faith.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “It was already a sign when I secured your hands in front instead of behind you.”
Still, he hadn’t tried to leave on the entire trip here. She’d secured his hands to reduce the chances of him killing her along the way. Not that he couldn’t have managed it if he’d really wanted to; she could’ve done it if their positions had been reversed. But so far, he hadn’t made a great effort to escape. It’d be interesting if she gave him more slack to try to leave.
The way he was acting, he really wanted to stick with her. It could mean he truly wanted to help. Or he could be trying to get close to one of the Search and Protect team for dangerous reasons. She was more inclined to believe the latter rather than the former. Maybe.
She didn’t like being this indecisive. Taking a pocketknife from a handy pouch on her shoulder harness, she sliced the zip ties holding him. “Fine. Bathroom is right over there. Don’t take long.”
He made a show of rubbing his wrists. “How about I talk to you as I go so you know I’m still really in there?”
She glared at him. “I can tell the difference between water going into the toilet and running water in a sink.”
He turned away and crossed the distance to the bathroom with his hands in the air. “I figured. Still, there are things you wanted to know. Why waste time since you’re all tense?”
She was. There was no point in denying it. But she had every reason to be. His relaxed attitude only pricked her temper. “People died tod
ay.”
The bastard stepped into the bathroom and only closed the door most of the way, leaving it cracked open. She heard every moment of him slowly unzipping his damned pants. And he even groaned as he let loose his bladder. “Standard action when there’s a change in management higher up. Clean up any compromised locations and tighten up the paper trail. The new boss wants to get business back on track and that means he needed to reduce liabilities.”
It took the entirety of his little speech for him to finish, too. It occurred to her that they’d had him on a saline IV at the hospital but neither of them had hydrated on the car ride here. She stepped over to the cube-sized refrigerator under the entertainment center and nabbed two bottles of water as the sound of running water in the sink indicated he was washing his hands. When he came back out of the bathroom, she held an unopened bottle out to him.
He took it with a nod and opened it, taking a sip. After a moment, he caught her gaze with his own, steady and…melancholy. There wasn’t a hint of the teasing or humor he’d maintained over the last couple of hours. “I am truly sorry those people died. I was out there to try to save them. I’m still here now because I want to share what I know. Maybe they won’t have died for nothing.”
She studied him, considered the tone of his voice and his body language. She searched for a dozen different physical tells to indicate he was lying, but he was telling the truth. He just wasn’t telling her everything.
“You’re just going to leave me here? I thought we shared a moment there.”
Jason scowled at the handcuffs chaining him to the foot of the bed. Seriously, it wasn’t as if they could really hold him. But he stopped and considered his hostess. He’d meant what he’d said. He’d been out there trying to help. People had died anyway. Now, the only thing he could do was help her and her team take down that human trafficking ring by sharing whatever he knew. But it’d only help if she trusted the information he gave her.
Conversation was obviously not the only way she was going to find out what she wanted to know about him. Otherwise, she’d have grilled him the entire car ride. Instead, it seemed like she was taking in how he chose to deal with things. Testing him in little ways, maybe, but not with the malicious intent some people had. If anything, it felt like an invitation to a game and he was amused. So, how to deal with the handcuffs and give them both a path forward for an amicable chat when she came out to see what he’d done?
“For the next five minutes, yes, you can stay there.” Her voice came through from the bathroom clear, even through the closed door. There were small spaces in the wall near the ceiling and he heard the water in the shower start flowing. After a few seconds, the scent of lavender and mint came into the room along with a bit of steam.
The thought of droplets of water running over her golden skin took over his brain and he was caught wishing she’d invited him to join her.
Great. Even inside the cozy single-room lodge, he wasn’t crazy about being stuck standing in the center of the room getting more turned on by the second. He could pick the lock and get free, sure. But she had to know that. It was about what he would do next. He could leave. He could stay and poke around her private space like a creep. Or he could be even worse and peep on her in the shower. None of those things would win her trust.
“Do I get a shower next?” Come to think of it, he’d appreciate the chance to clean up. They must’ve wiped him down some at the hospital, but he could do with a thorough hot shower, too. The idea of her soaping him up was appealing, only trumped by the follow-up thought of returning the favor for her. His palms heated at the thought of lathering soap over her shoulders and down her back, up her flat abs and over her breasts.
Maybe a cold shower would be wiser. He was getting way ahead of himself and she hadn’t shown any signs of interest in him.
He wanted her to be interested in him.
“You could.” She paused. “A change of clothes would be a problem for you, though.”
“Good point.” And an effective way to cool his naughty thoughts. It was almost worse to get clean and put on dirty clothes again. He’d done it plenty of times in the past. “I’m considering whether it’s better or worse to stay as I am. To stink or not to stink, that is the question here.”
She laughed. “King could find you either way.”
He glanced at the dog. The big GSD was lying across the door to the bathroom, head on his paws, watching Jason. The dog wasn’t a threat at the moment. She hadn’t given King the command to keep guard, so Jason could move if he wanted to. It was another hint that she was testing him.
He was entertained by this little game but she was going to learn he gave as good as he got. He let a little edge into his voice. “I asked to come with you. He’s not going to have to come looking for me. I told you why I’m still here, too.”
“True.” Her response sounded non-committal.
Sure, he could cooperate and stay put, but he didn’t want to be completely compliant. He wanted her to recognize him as a fellow professional, respect him as someone who could be a challenge in other circumstances. He was choosing to help her here and now. The time he spent with her here was his chance to interact with her and he intended to learn as much about her as he could while he was at it. He also needed to get her comfortable enough to let him give what help he could.
She seemed intelligent and jaded, with a respectable amount of experience gained in a dangerous way of life. She was probably a good judge of people and was likely right most of the time. He was tempted to surprise her a little in the way he handled these stupid handcuffs and let her know she was engaging in a meeting of minds. He wasn’t a simple subject to study and he wasn’t likely to do things exactly the way most people would. He liked to be surprising.
“So I’ve got two basic options here. Stay where you left me or get out of the cuffs and leave.” He decided to switch gears, changing his tone to light and conversational. “Staying means I’m cooperating, A gesture of good faith and all that.”
Presumably it’d indicate he was trustworthy. If he wanted her to trust him, that’d be the best option to show his intent.
“Sure.” She sounded almost cheerful this time.
He chuckled. He was glad she was having fun with this. He liked that she was playing a little with him. “The other option is to try to escape. Which, considering the skills your doggie friend has demonstrated, would not only prove me to be untrustworthy but also stupid.”
She didn’t answer. Uh huh, she wasn’t going to comment yet on whether she thought he was either of those things. Well, he was in the process of proving himself someone she could trust and the conversation in general should’ve already proven he wasn’t just stumbling along with the course of events. He was thinking every step of the way.
“All in all, this is a kinder choice than the lady or the tiger for all parties involved.” And he didn’t deserve kindness at the moment.
Well, he was here because he did want to help. That meant getting Arin to accept him as a potential ally, someone she could work with, and he wanted to have a little fun in the process. He was going to stay on his terms, so the cuffs had to go.
Glancing around, he considered what might serve his purposes. She hadn’t left any convenient bobby pins or paper clips around and he didn’t have something suitable in his pockets. There was a small breakfast table set against one wall. Place settings for two had been arranged with care. He stepped toward the table and reached, just able to snag a fork. It was a decent piece of flatware, nice enough to look neat in a place setting and not so high quality that someone would want to take it home with them. For his purposes, it meant the tines were also reasonably easy to bend.
He picked the lock on his handcuffs with little fuss, then grinned as he stepped to the head of the bed and hung the open cuffs from the headboard. She could take that as any kind of message she wanted, but it amused him to see them up there, resting on one of the fluffed pillows.
The water
in the shower turned off and he decided he wasn’t going to get too comfortable. Lying on the bed was just asking for trouble. He didn’t want to sit at the breakfast table either, with it pressed up against the huge picture window. There was nothing but rainforest out there but he didn’t like putting his back to it. King rose to his feet and Jason made his decision. As Arin emerged from the bathroom, dressed in a fresh pair of pants and a plain tank top with a towel draped over her shoulders, he was waiting in the armchair by the gas stove.
She studied him, her gaze unreadable. Her hair was still wet. She must’ve finger combed it and twisted it to hang over one shoulder. Probably an easy habit to her and the effect was alluring. He had all sorts of thoughts of being with her on a beach or beside a lagoon, even in the water.
But first, he needed to convince her to work with him. Play came later, maybe. He did have priorities. He wanted this human trafficking ring damaged again. Shut down would be even better.
He smiled, deciding to go with a combination of confidence and charm until he had a better idea of what sort of attitude she’d work with best. “Macadamia nuts? They’re covered in chocolate. Good snack to keep us thinking clearly while we go through what I know and figure out how it can help you.”
He held up a couple of the snack packs he’d found in the basket on the table.
She smiled. Sort of. Okay, it was more like the ghost of a smile, there and gone again once he blinked. But she had at least a little humor and he was happy to see it. Their line of work was serious, yes. But he found the professionals he respected most, could work with the best, and genuinely liked on a personal level, were the ones with a bit of humor to balance the gravity of their actions.
He’d contributed to some horrible things and he’d go insane with guilt without levity to balance him. He wanted to help Arin and her team to make up for what he’d done, yes, and he also wanted to know what it was like to work with her. Get to know her better. And damn, get to know her personally.
Fierce Justice Page 4
