“Fine.” She’d been thinking all along that, as soon as they stopped, she’d make a run for it. If she went straight to Michael and told him she agreed to their union, there would be no reason for him to go after Kell. Now, curiosity propelled her out of the car and into the hotel room.
It wasn’t the Waldorf Astoria, for sure. The choking diesel exhaust hanging in the humidity outside gave way to an assault of floral-scented carpet cleaner trying to mask the taint of stale cigarette smoke. But it was clean. Cool. Two queen-size beds shrouded in dizzying floral spreads completed the ambience.
Mori sat on the edge of the bed nearest the door while Kell closed and locked it, even latching the chain. Then he wedged the straight-backed chair from the desk under the doorknob.
“Paranoid much?”
He barely flicked a glance her way as he hefted the duffel bag and dumped it on the other bed. She couldn’t see his face when he straightened up, but his back hurt. His movements, usually fluid and graceful unless he’d been sitting for a while, spoke of sore, stiff muscles. That she knew such a thing meant she’d obviously been watching him way too closely.
He sat on the bed opposite her, perched on the edge of the mattress with legs bent and shoulders tensed like he was ready to sprint on a split second’s notice. She sat in much the same position.
Mori fought the giggles — and lost. She laughed so hard that it came out as a snort, which made her laugh even harder. “We are such losers.”
Kell’s expression traveled the continent from anger to confusion to reluctant half smile. “Pretty much. What gave it away?”
She closed her eyes and took a deep gulp of air to get the silliness under control. At least her outburst had suffocated her anger, and eased his as well. “Look at us. We’re both so wrapped up in secrets we can’t untangle ourselves, with me ready to run and you ready to chase. And yet…”
And yet her lies had been meant to keep him safe — to keep them both safe.
And yet, even though they’d both thought they were so smart, they’d still ended up hiding in a truck stop paradise.
“And yet here we are,” Kell said softly, his blue-green eyes a forty-fathom ocean of feelings she couldn’t read, “still together.”
Mori nodded, her tongue poised to ask questions. Who was he? Why had he come to the Co-Op using a fake name and pretending to be an environmentalist? And doing a poor job of it, by the way. But the answer came to her.
“Oh my God. You are a cop. Or something like that.” He’d shown up at the Co-Op only a few minutes before the Homeland Security guys arrived to take her in. He obviously knew when they were going to release her, and had made sure he was there. “You’ve been playing me all along.”
“No, Mori. You don’t understand.” Kell stood at the same time she did, reaching for her.
She punched him mid-chest with her closed fist, earning an oof. “You came to my apartment and slept with me, knowing you were trying to…to…” To what? Find evidence against her? Seduce her with gentle hands and a hard cock? But wait. Hadn’t she made the first moves on him? How screwed up was that?
The heat of shame flushed across her, dulling the effects of the air-conditioning. She pushed past him, knocking away the hand he reached out to stop her. “God, I feel so stupid. I’m out of here. Shoot me if you want to.”
It was a good solution. All her problems would disappear if she died. Except, Michael would continue to kill. He might do it anyway, now that he’s had a taste that it will work, now that he’s gotten control of the governor and the industry plans have fallen apart.
A foot from freedom, a vice closed around her right ankle, her leg buckled, and she fell to her knees. “Damn it, Kell. Let go of me.”
She rolled over and kicked at him, but he was on the floor with her foot tucked under his arm like a football.
His tone was just short of a shout. “Quit squirming and listen, damn it.”
She raised her other foot to kick the crap out of him, but lowered it. And the truth hit her like a lightning bolt released by Thor himself. She was being weak by choice. No man — no normal man — could ever physically restrain her. Not with handcuffs and not with a death grip on her ankle. Not if she really wanted to run.
And there was the problem. Part of her didn’t want to run. The part that hoped somehow — impossible as it might seem — Kell could help her.
Sensing her change of mood, Kell released her foot and climbed to his feet. He turned his back on her, hobbling to the duffel. He unzipped a pouch, pulled out a bottle, and shook pills out in his hand, swallowing them dry as if he’d done it a lot.
Mori watched him, indecisive. Oh hell, whom was she kidding? She needed to hear him out before going to Michael, to know if that one last night of pleasure she’d allowed herself had been real or a setup. “I’m sorry.”
Kell raised an eyebrow at her before turning to fill a plastic cup with tap water. “Sit.”
“Please.”
Kell turned. “What?”
“I am not one of your Rangers that you can bark orders at like a dog. Say, ‘Sit, please,’ or ‘Mori, let’s sit down and talk.’”
One edge of his mouth lifted, softening those fierce eyes. “At least you didn’t call me a Marine.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Please sit down, Mori, and I’ll tell you what I can.”
What he could. Which meant not everything. She sat on the bed, crossed her arms in a mimic of his, and jerked her head toward the other bed. “Please sit down, John Kennedy Kellison Jr., and tell me who and what you are. I’m ready.”
He sat, wincing.
“What happened to your back?” She wished they were at a place where she could help him — put a hot, wet towel on it, smooth out the tense muscles. But survival took first priority.
He rolled his head from side to side, tendons popping. “Compression fracture in Afghanistan on my last tour.”
So the soldier part was true. “Can’t it be fixed?”
He cocked his head as if surprised by the question. “There’s a surgery that can be done, to fuse some things together. But my mobility would be limited. Or worse.”
Kell’s gaze had gone distant, his expression troubled.
Clearly a subject he’d given a lot of thought. “You’ve been weighing the possible worst outcomes against what you can and can’t live with, haven’t you?” She knew, because she’d been doing the same thing.
His eyes widened slightly before he pulled his stone face back into place. She’d called that one right.
“Here’s what I can tell you.” In a snap, Jack Kelly the easygoing volunteer disappeared, replaced by a harder, grim-faced version. “You saw my license, so you know my name is Jack Kellison. Kell really is my nickname. The part about me being just off my last Army tour and being injured is also true. The reason I volunteered at the Co-Op is a lie.”
Mori nodded. She’d figured that much. “Are you a cop?”
“No.” He ran a hand through his short hair, and she tracked the movement. Strong hands, with long fingers, short nails, a couple of scars. Nice hands.
“Then, what? FBI? Homeland Security?” Had to be something like that.
“Let’s just say I’m part of a counterterrorism team trying to find out if the caller who fingered you for the bombing was telling the truth.”
A chill stole across Mori’s shoulders. Suddenly, the air-conditioning seemed to be doing its job too well. Worse than Homeland Security, then. Maybe one of those “secret force” kinds of guys she’d seen in the movies, whom she’d always assumed were only fictional. The ones who made up their own rules. “And what did you find?”
Kell stood up and paced between the beds, his hands jammed in his pockets. “Not a damned thing but hunches, but I’ve learned to trust my hunches. They give me a few details.” He stopped and frowned at her.
Mori’s mouth felt like an acre of East Texas dust had filled it, and she swallowed hard. “What?” She steeled herself for his answers.
>
“You’re not guilty, for one thing.” He walked back around the bed and sat facing her. “At least not of the bombing. And I don’t believe for the time it would take a snowball to melt in hell that you had anything to do with Carl Felderman’s kidnapping.” He paused. “Alleged kidnapping.”
Mori couldn’t help it. The tears were there before she had time to blink them away, and the tickle of one trailing down her cheek embarrassed her. She should be a stronger woman, the last of her kind. How had she become so damned needy that she turned to mush just hearing someone say he believed her?
She wiped her cheeks impatiently. “You’re right. I didn’t have anything to do with either one of them.” But that wasn’t quite true, was it?
“I didn’t say you were innocent, either.”
Kell’s detached scrutiny helped her collect her nerves and bundle them together. There would be time to let them unravel later. “And what have you decided I’m guilty of?”
“Hell if I know.” Kell reached across the narrow space between the beds and wrapped his fingers around hers. “Look, you’re in trouble. You know a hell of a lot more about this whole bombing — and maybe the threat of a repeat in New Orleans — than you’re saying. It’s eating you alive from the inside out. Talk to me. Let me help.”
Damned tears. She pulled her hand away. “You can’t help. I’ll only get you killed.” She met his gaze, and the worry in his eyes almost unraveled her again. “I don’t know what last night meant to you, but it meant a lot to me. Everything. I won’t let you be another sacrifice made in the name of my bad choices.”
Mori waited for his response, for words to form from the unreadable set of his mouth and clench of his jaw. But a persistent barking from his phone silenced whatever he might have said. He pulled it from his pocket, glanced at the screen, and answered.
“Kell.” He looked at his watch. “Got it.”
Apparently, he was talking to one of his “team” since he was back to barking himself.
“How many know the situation?” He swiveled to look at his duffel, then the tiny dressing area behind them. “As soon as possible.”
He ended the call and turned back to her. “A couple of my team members are on their way. I’d like a shower before they get here.”
Well, she’d like a piña colada, but that wasn’t happening. “So, take a shower.”
“You’ll run.”
If she any common sense whatsoever, yes, she certainly would. So far today, common sense had been in short supply. “No, I won’t run. I’ll stay right here.”
Damn, but the man could move fast, and where the hell had those cuffs come from? She could have sworn he’d left them in the granny mobile, but there they were, already snapped onto one of her wrists. Her reflexes had gone on vacation.
“Stop. I will not be cuffed to the bed while you shower. Seriously, Kell.” She tugged on the wrist he had already imprisoned, and wondered if now wasn’t the time to show him a thing or two about what she really was and how strong she could be.
“Nope.” He stood up and pulled her behind him through the barely there dressing room and into the even smaller bathroom. “Sit.” He pointed toward the toilet.
Was he insane? “No way. I will not—”
“Suit yourself.” With a grunt, he jerked her arm toward the tiny sink and clinked the other cuff around the cold-water faucet handle. It was just big enough that the cuff wouldn’t slip off.
“Kell, I mean it. You…” Mori trailed off as Kell grabbed the neck of his T-shirt and tugged it over his head. Heat rushed through her at the memory of that body and how it had felt under her hands — inside her. He unzipped his jeans and reached over the tub, turned on the hot water, and pulled the lever to send the water cascading from the shower in an uneven stream.
“Tell me you’re not going to leave me cuffed here to watch you take a shower.”
He had to be joking. Surely—
Shucking his jeans and boxers and kicking them aside, he arched an eyebrow, which she barely saw because she was fighting to keep her eyes on his face. “I need heat on my back, and you can watch or not. I don’t care.”
CHAPTER 15
Kell reached over and twisted the water control farther into the cold range. He needed the hot spray pounding his lower back, but the rest of his body could feel Mori watching him through the clear plastic shower curtain, and apparently, on some caveman level, he thought it was a real turn-on. How fucked up was that?
“Need help?” Mori sounded like she was laughing again, and he deserved it. He turned to face her, heat running through him as her gaze dropped slowly from his face downward. She even leaned over to get a better view, her face inches from the sheet of clear vinyl. “Looks like you have a problem there, Ranger.”
Shit. He turned his back on her, and sure enough, she was laughing — loud. Served him right. He’d gone all macho on her, and she ended up with the last laugh. He hated when that happened.
Why had he dragged her in here and gotten naked? He could have at least cuffed her to the nightstand, or put off his damned shower and popped more ibuprofen.
Except, he couldn’t leave her out there alone, for a couple of reasons.
She would run, even if it took chopping off her hand or, more likely, breaking whatever piece of furniture he cuffed her to. She’d find a way. He’d seen it in her eyes and recognized the desperation. He’d seen that same look in the eyes of men he’d led in the sandbox. Men who’d seen so much war and horror, without an end in sight, that they just wanted to run. Didn’t even matter where, as long as they were moving.
Whatever shit she was messed up in, whatever he’d stumbled into, it was bad. And hearing the truth from him tonight had pushed her closer to the brink of desperation.
She wanted to trust him; he could see that in her eyes, too. But the fear outweighed it, and he didn’t have the time to earn back the trust he’d lost tonight.
The other reason he couldn’t leave her locked in the room was he wanted to be there when Nik and Robin met her. If they got here earlier than expected and found her alone, Nik would be curt but civil, but Razorblade Robin was a wild card. She was volatile; she was strong. And she had a wide predatory streak. Mori would bolt for sure, and someone might get hurt.
Kell was turning into a prune, so he had to face the inevitable. At least the thought of Robin had cooled his hard-on. He reached over, turned off the water, and stuck his arm outside the curtain. “Hand me a towel?”
Through the plastic, he saw a fuzzy Mori cross her arms and cock her head. “Sorry, can’t reach it.”
Fine, let her look. He jerked the curtain back and exchanged glares as he stepped past her and ripped a towel off the rack over the toilet, knocking another off on her head. “Oops. Sorry.”
The cuff jingled as she slapped the towel to the floor, turning to watch him knot the thin white terrycloth around his hips. “I need to pee. And take a shower. Alone.”
Kell walked into the bedroom and retrieved the handcuff keys. Unlocking them, he pulled the cuff from Mori’s wrist and rubbed where it had left a red mark. Man, he hated what he was about to say. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry is when you do it once. Doesn’t work the second time.” She stood up. With her in shoes and him in bare feet, they were almost the same height, and he was suddenly aware of how close their bodies were. Two inches to full body contact, and his towel wasn’t much camouflage for what that thought was doing to him. Again.
The same awareness flickered across her face, and Kell’s gaze dropped to her mouth. Her lips parted on an exhale, and his heart took off at a gallop.
“We can’t do this.”
“I know.” Her voice was almost as rough as his.
Kell took a step back. “I’ll give you some privacy.” Someone should give him a medal for restraint. “I have an extra T-shirt you can put on after you shower.”
Mori nodded, and Kell walked out of the bathroom, not turning as the door shut softly behind him
and the lock clicked.
He tossed the handcuffs on the dresser, hung the clean T-shirt on the bathroom door handle, and dressed quickly in his camo shorts and black tee. He couldn’t find any clean socks in the duffel, so he sniffed out the ones he’d taken off and decided they could live a while longer.
He heard the water turn on and relaxed on the bed nearest the bathroom. How was he going to get Mori to open up and tell him the truth? He knew how to conduct an interrogation, but he cared too much to push her until she was too exhausted or frightened to remain silent. He was way too involved.
He pulled the pillow from beneath his head and doubled it beneath his knees to help relax his back muscles. The shower had been anything but relaxing, but the ibuprofen had finally kicked in, so the spasms had calmed to a twitch. Of course, he might as well not worry about getting called back into active duty. The colonel was going to have his balls for dinner. The man would probably have him castrated and shipped off to Morocco just on principle.
Maybe the whole case wasn’t in the crapper yet, though. Kell would try to talk to Mori first, if he had a chance before the others arrived. If she wouldn’t talk to him, he’d have to turn her over to Nik and keep his mouth shut if it got uncomfortable for her. Maybe he’d wait outside or pick up something to eat from one of the dozen fast-food chains near the motel. They had to find out the truth now, before this went any further.
Besides, Nik was really good at interrogation, with more patience than Kell and better people skills than Robin. He also could often touch the person being questioned and get mental images that would help him ask such perceptive questions the freaked-out suspect usually answered without thinking.
Labor Day would be here in a week, and they still weren’t sure if New Orleans was even a credible threat. He’d talked to Gadget this morning, and he’d been developing threat assessments and floor plans of the convention center and nearby hotels. He’d also found three visiting groups related to energy or industrial expansion. Adam and Archer had been swapping shifts, watching Tex-La’s downtown New Orleans headquarters and the company’s wharf area along the riverfront. Not much more the NOLA team could do until something broke in Houston.
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