Uncut Bundle

by Susan Stephens

  Prison. A Colombian prison. You wouldn’t kennel a stray dog in those that he’d seen. Would she know that? Yes. He’d bet she would.

  “Okay,” he said matter-of-factly, “that’s it. I’ve done what I can. You leave me no choice. I’ll have to take you back.”

  “Back?” Her face paled. “To Hamilton?”

  It wasn’t the answer he’d expected but the look in her eyes told him to go with it.

  “Sure. He’s the guy who asked me to find you.”

  “No,” she said in a low voice. “Please. Don’t do that.” She lifted her head and her eyes met his. “I don’t know who you are,” she whispered, “or what you think I’ve done but I beg you, don’t send me back to him.”

  She sounded terrified. Matthew told himself it didn’t mean a damn. She was one fine actress, that was all. Look how she’d fooled her own lover.

  “You don’t want me to send you back? Fine. Just tell me where the dope is.”

  “The what?”

  “Come on, baby. The cocaine. Tell me where you hid it and I’ll let you go. What happens between you and the colonel is your business. The dope is mine.”

  “I don’t have drugs! Thinking I do is crazy. You searched my room. Searched my car.” Two stripes of crimson angled along her cheeks. “You even searched me. If I had cocaine, you’d have found it.”

  She was right, he thought. He would have.

  “Then, why did you run?”

  “I told you. Douglas wouldn’t let me end our relationship.”

  “Right,” Matthew said coldly. “So, what was he going to do? Lock you in your room and throw away the key?” She turned her face away and he caught her chin, jerked her head toward him. “You had old Dougie by the balls. Separate rooms, no sex… I’m right, aren’t I? There wasn’t any sex.”

  “I—I—”

  “Answer the question, damn it. Were you sleeping with him?”

  The world, and time, seemed to stop. Her eyes met his and he waited, waited…

  “Of course I slept with him,” she said. “He was my fiancé. Why wouldn’t I?”

  Why wouldn’t she, indeed?

  “Yeah.” Matthew cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he said again, and his voice roughened. “I guess teasing the poor bastard could only take you so far.”

  “Does insulting a woman make you feel good?”

  He had to give her credit. She was terrified, but she was determined to give as good as she got.

  “I want to know why you ran away.”

  “I told you. Douglas wouldn’t—”

  “That’s bull,” he said bluntly. “You ran because you took something that wasn’t yours.”

  “I didn’t take anything,” she said, but she was lying. He saw it in the sudden contraction of her pupils and all at once, he knew he’d been lured into a game where the only rule was survival.

  Working quickly, he untied her and hustled her to the car. He shoved her inside, got behind the wheel and started the engine. The car lurched forward.

  He ditched it a couple of hundred yards from the inn. Whoever found it in this godforsaken town would undoubtedly view it as a gift from the gods. The car would never be seen again.

  “What are you doing?” Mia demanded as he bundled her into his SUV. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”

  “A couple of minutes of silence, for a start.”

  “No! Answer my questions. Tell me who you are and what you want.”

  Involuntarily his eyes went from her face to her breasts. Her face colored and he knew she was remembering what had happened in the hotel room.

  Hell, so was he.

  “Try to get this straight,” he said coldly. “I ask the questions. You give the answers. That’s it.”

  “I have the right to know your na—”

  She cried out as he clasped her shoulders and pulled her to him.

  “You have no rights, baby. The only thing you need to know is that I’m going to find out why you ran. What you stole. Where you’re go—”

  His cell phone rang.

  The sound surprised him. His brothers knew he was out of the country; they’d be unlikely to call him, and few other people had the number.

  He let go of Mia. She shrank back against the seat as he took the phone from his pocket and flipped open the cover.

  “Yes?”

  “Mr. Knight.”

  It was the colonel. How will I get in touch with you? he’d said, and Matthew had rattled off the cell number.

  “Yes?”

  “I was hoping you’d made progress in your search for my fiancée.”

  Matthew looked at Mia. Her eyes glittered as much with defiance as with fear.

  One word to Hamilton, and this would be over. He didn’t even have to return to Cartagena. The colonel could easily arrange to have someone meet him here to pick her up.

  “Mr. Knight? Do we have a bad connection? I asked if you’d made progress.”

  “I heard you, Colonel.”

  “Well, have you? Have you found Mia yet?”

  Matthew looked at the woman beside him again.

  “No,” he said calmly, “I haven’t.”

  He closed the phone, tucked it back into his pocket and started the Escalade’s engine. Then, in what was perhaps the most illogical act of his life, he leaned across the console and took her mouth in a quick, hard kiss.

  Moments later, the inn and the town were far behind them, lost in a cloud of leaves and dust.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE MAN sent to find her drove like a madman.

  But then, why wouldn’t he? Weren’t killers nutcases by definition? And that’s what he was. A killer. “Finding” her was just a sorry attempt to hide from the truth.

  Mia risked a glance at him.

  She’d met killers before. There’d been men who’d come to Hamilton’s villa late at night. None had come right out and said, “Hello, I’m on the cartel’s payroll as a hired gun,” but she knew what they were.

  Most of them looked as if taking a life would be no more trouble than swatting a fly.

  Not her captor.

  He was good-looking. Actually, that was an understatement. He was heart-stoppingly beautiful and yet completely masculine. He reminded her of the statue of David she’d seen on that trip to Florence, her senior year in college…

  Or of a big, exotic cat.

  And that was exactly what he was. A powerful, magnificent, predator. He’d wasted no time proving it to her, either. The way he’d treated her… Making her stand naked before him. Watching her dress. Putting his hands on her.

  His hands.

  An electric tingle shot through her body.

  What a horrible thing to have done. Touching her so intimately. Caressing her nipples. Pretending he was searching her and cupping her breasts. Touching her between her thighs.

  She shuddered.

  She’d hated it. Hated him…

  Hated herself for responding. For wanting to moan as much as she’d wanted to weep. For wanting to close her eyes. Lean back. Feel his hard body supporting hers. Turn in his arms, seek his mouth…

  Mia swung away and stared blindly out the window.

  She knew why he’d done it. It was all about power. Domination. Making it clear that he was in charge. She even knew…she shut her eyes, then opened them again. She even knew why she’d had those insane reactions when he touched her.

  In situations as highly charged as this, fear could give way to something darker. A bond, between captor and captive.

  It could benefit him by making her compliant.

  Or it could benefit her.

  Unless she’d read him wrong, he was attracted to her. She swallowed dryly. False modesty was stupid at a time like this. He was more than attracted.

  He wanted her.

  Maybe sex and violence were all part of the same thing in his head.

  Knowing that, understanding it, could give her power. She could use his desire. Work him. Finesse him. God
help her, seduce him, if she had to.

  And the probability was that she’d have to because if he took her back to Cartagena…

  If he did, she was as good as dead.

  Hamilton would have her killed. What she’d suspected about him had made her dangerous. What she’d found and taken before she left, marked her for removal.

  At least she had some kind of a chance with this man.

  Mia cleared her throat, then looked at him.

  “You’re wrong, you know.”

  He glanced at her. Was that amusement in his eyes?

  “Really.”

  She nodded. “You know my name. I should know yours.”

  “Meaning, I’ve forgotten my manners?” His tone mocked her. Then, to her surprise, he nodded. “Why not? I’m Matthew. Matthew Knight.”

  “And you work for…?”

  “I don’t work for anybody.”

  “You’re a private contractor.”

  Something in the way she phrased the statement made Matthew wary. It was a strange choice of words.

  “You might say that I’m here as a favor to your boyfriend.”

  “He isn’t my boyfriend.”

  “Sorry. Your fiancé.”

  She started to tell him he was wrong on that, too, but why bother? Matthew Knight would go on thinking whatever he liked.

  “I thought you might be Colombian. You speak Spanish like a native.”

  “Don’t waste your time trying to flatter me.”

  “It was just a comment.”

  She waited, but he was silent. After a while, she tried again.

  “Are you North American?”

  “Last time I checked, Dallas was in North America.”

  “How do you know Douglas?”

  “Through a mutual acquaintance.”

  Her determination to play cool and calm evaporated. “Damn it, don’t you ever say anything that has meaning?”

  Matthew looked at her. “The sky is very blue today,” he said politely. “Not a cloud in sight.”

  She wanted to hit him. Just ball up her fist and let fly.

  “At least tell me where you’re taking me.”

  “I told you. Somewhere quiet, where we can talk.”

  A cave? A shack in the mountains? A place where nobody could hear her scream?

  She took a deep breath. “If you let me go—” She swallowed dryly as he downshifted into a tight turn. “If you let me go, nobody has to know about it.”

  “I’d know. So would your boyfriend.”

  “I told you, he isn’t my boyfriend.”

  “Try telling him that.”

  “Besides, he wouldn’t know. I certainly wouldn’t tell him. Neither would you.”

  “And what would you give me, if I did let you go?”

  Her heartbeat quickened. “What would you want?”

  “I don’t know, baby.” His voice turned husky. “You’re the one making the offer.”

  She could offer herself to him. Wasn’t that what she’d just been thinking?

  No. She couldn’t do it.

  Mia took an unsteady breath.

  But—but sleeping with him would be incredibly exciting. He wouldn’t hurt her. Not in bed. Crazy as it was, she knew that. What he’d do, what he’d make her feel, might be dangerous, but only in ways her suddenly thickening blood told her she’d find pleasurable.

  And he’d be in command. Of her. Of himself. Even when he’d searched her, she’d been aware of his sense of control. What would it be like to make him lose that control? To make him forget himself in her arms?

  “Well? I’m waiting.”

  Mia touched the tip of her tongue to her suddenly dry lips. “I could—I could pay you.”

  He grinned. “Now, there’s a thought. How much?”

  “How much do you want?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Let me think. How does a billion dollars sound?”

  He laughed. Mia felt her cheeks flush.

  “You think this is amusing.”

  “You can’t buy me off, Mia. Don’t waste your time trying.”

  He wasn’t stupid. She had to remember that, just as she had to remember that he was only muscle for hire and she was a trained agent.

  A semi-trained agent, she thought, and swallowed a hysterical laugh.

  “You could tell Douglas that I escaped.”

  “From me?”

  That won her an incredulous stare. The arrogance of the man!

  “Yes,” Mia said. “From you.”

  “Nobody would believe it.”

  A hill rose ahead of them, cutting through trees that looked as if they’d stood here for hundreds of years. Matthew eased the swift-moving Escalade around a tight turn and suddenly a valley opened before them.

  Towering trees. Lush ferns. A lazy ribbon of sapphire-blue. And a house. Big. Sprawling. A house that seemed to be all glass.

  “Is this it? The place you’re taking me?”

  No answer. She felt a tightening in her throat.

  “Is it?”

  “Just sit back and relax.”

  “But—but where are we?”

  “Where nobody will bother us,” he said in a flat voice and Mia realized, in that instant, that the old cliché was true.

  Your blood could run cold.

  The road into the valley had not changed.

  Narrow. Winding. A dizzying drop on one side and a wall of green on the other. Matthew had loved this place on sight when he first saw it, all those years ago. He’d spent a long weekend here, courtesy of some fat-cat Department of Defense official who’d owned it.

  “My wife’s Colombian. She inherited the place from her uncle,” the guy had said, “but I’m gonna unload it. Damned thing isn’t worth keeping, out in the freaking middle of nowhere.”

  The fact that it was in the freaking middle of nowhere was what had appealed to Matthew. A determined enemy could find you virtually anywhere, but this terrain made the job ten times more difficult.

  And then there was the primitive beauty of the quiet forest, the swift rush of the river and the idyllic pool hidden in a clearing he thought might never have known a human footprint until his.

  Back home, the Agency just a bad memory, money piling in from his new business, he’d phoned the guy from DOD, asked if he was still interested in selling.

  He was, and he’d named a price that seemed right. Actually, any price would have seemed right back then. Matthew was still awakening in the middle of the night with images of Alita’s violated body burning his brain.

  Somehow or other, he’d thought going to the house that was now his, giving himself over to a place where time and evil had no meaning, would dispel his demons.

  He’d never found out if that were true.

  Returning to Colombia had begun to look about as reasonable as returning to a nightmare.

  Now, the valley seemed the only safe place.

  Something was wrong with this entire setup. Nobody had told him the truth. You got used to that, when you were in Cloak and Dagger Land, but he wasn’t on that turf anymore.

  The colonel had asked him to find his fiancée.

  Simple enough, or so it had seemed. But the colonel’s fiancée kept insisting she wasn’t his fiancée, and the colonel seemed less concerned with what might have happened to the woman he supposedly loved than he was with locating her.

  Wouldn’t her welfare be paramount? This was a big country. Most of it was beautiful, but parts of it were more dangerous than Mogadishu at midnight.

  How come the colonel had never once expressed concern over Mia being out there, alone?

  Then there was Mia. How come she’d tried to smuggle dope? How come she was on the run? If the answer was cocaine, Matthew would have found it by now.

  And, finally, the million dollar question.

  How come all he could think about was getting Mia Palmieri naked on a bed?