LITMIR.BIZ

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get my...father to meet your demands.” Such a lie. “But, please, don’t hurt him.”

      Carl had dragged himself off the ground. Blood dripped from his busted lower lip. “T-told you,” he stuttered to Lee. “Stone here got sweet on the girl during his night duty.”

      “I think it’s more than that,” Lee said. A shrewd understanding filled his eyes. “Get some cuffs. Snap ’em on him.” His head cocked to the right. “Cuffs will hold him better than rope.” Then his lips lifted into a cold grin. “Even better, cuff him to her.”

      * * *

      SOMUCHFORkeeping his cover in place. He’d sure blown that fast enough.

      As soon as that knife had come close to her fingers, he’d attacked.

      Where was the ice? When the knife had hovered over her delicate hand, rage had ignited within him, driving right past his control.

      The cuffs bit into his wrists. He wasn’t surprised they’d used cuffs on him instead of rope. But when it came to thinking that the cuffs would be more secure than the rope, Lee was dead wrong.

      They’d taken him and Tina into another room, a smaller room, with no window and sealed with a heavy, metal door. They’d cuffed one of his hands to hers, and his other hand—they’d cuffed it to a metal pole that came straight out of the floor.

      Carl smirked at him. “That will hold you until it’s time for us to play.”

      Play. Right. Wonderful.

      Lee stood in the doorway behind Carl. “You know, Stone, there was something about you that I never liked.”

      Carl drove his fist into Drew’s gut. He grunted. The jerk sure knew how to deliver some pain with a hard punch.

      Lee sauntered into the room. He pushed Carl back and glared at Drew. They’d taken Drew’s weapons. They’d also given him plenty of punches in the other room, despite Tina’s pleas for them to stop.

      They weren’t exactly the type to show mercy. He didn’t expect any.

      “You’ve got secrets, don’t you, Stone?” Lee said. His left brow rose. “If that’s even your name.”

      Drew smiled. “You know you’re a dead man.”

      Lee’s lashes flickered. The flash of fear was obvious as the guy stepped back.

      “I’m sending the video to Mercer. The video of his daughter...and the video of you, getting your butt beat.”

      Drew shrugged. “I don’t think Mercer will care that some jerk he doesn’t know was attacked.”

      “Maybe. Or maybe...just maybe...he does know you.” Lee’s gaze cut to Tina. “You made a mistake.”

      Saving her? No, it hadn’t been a mistake. Saving her had been worth every second of pain.

      “You looked at her with a lover’s eyes, and you’ve never looked at anyone like that before.”

      Every muscle in Drew’s body stiffened. Lee wasn’t as dumb as he looked. He’s too observant.

      “I’ve seen you with plenty of women. You play around, you drink, and you don’t care what they do when you’re done.” Half of Lee’s mouth hitched up in a taunting smile. “But when you looked at her, when you burst into that room and saw me cutting her, your eyes were different. I saw you.”

      This was bad.

      “And you went crazy when I let old Carl loose on her.”

      He forced his back teeth to unclench. “Carl shouldn’t be turned loose on any woman.”

      “She’s not just any woman, is she? You know her.”

      Tina wasn’t speaking beside him. But he could hear the sounds of her breaths, coming far too fast.

      Then Lee advanced toward her. He grabbed Tina’s chin. “And you know him, don’t you?”

      “No!” Tina cried.

      Drew could almost believe her denial.

      Almost.

      “Well, I’ll find out. I’ll send this message to Mercer, and then I’ll be back to see just what secrets you have...you and Stone here. When I let Carl begin to cut him, I’m betting either he’ll talk—” Lee’s fingers tightened on her chin “—or you will.”

      “Leave her alone,” Drew ordered.

      Lee shook his head. “See, that’s what I’m sayin’. You get too protective for a man who doesn’t know her, and that makes me wonder... Just how do you know her? How would a man like you know Bruce Mercer’s daughter?” Menace layered his voice. “Want to know what I’m suspecting?”

      “Not really. I don’t give a damn,” Drew retorted. He just needed Lee and Carl to get out of there so he could escape and get Tina to safety.

      “I think one of Mercer’s agents would know her. I think you’re a man with a certain set of skills, skills a guy like Bruce Mercer would appreciate.”

      “You’re thinking way too hard,” Drew told him. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

      Lee’s eyelids flickered. “Getting an agent in here, monitoring us...that would be a Mercer move,” Lee continued as he stepped away from Tina. With a nod, he said, “Maybe you are the killer I thought you were—only you’re killing for the U.S. government. Not for HAVOC.”

      Drew made himself smile. The bullet was still in his shoulder, and it hurt, throbbing and burning constantly. But he was used to ignoring pain, so he shoved that burn deep into the back of his mind. “If I am EOD, then you need to be watching your back. ’Cause maybe—” he deliberately tossed the word back at Lee “—I got a team here, backing me up. Maybe this little place of yours is about to explode around you.”

      No, it wasn’t. Drew’s team wasn’t close enough for that fast of an attack. They wouldn’t even realize he’d been compromised at this point.

      But Lee didn’t know he was bluffing. And all of a sudden the guy started to sweat as worry sank in deep. “We need to sweep the perimeter!” Lee said as he spun toward Carl. “I have to make sure the place is secure.”

      With the big boss coming in, the guy wouldn’t want any screw-ups.

      Lee grabbed Carl’s shirt. “You get outside that door. You make sure that no one enters and no one leaves until I get back.” His hold tightened on Carl. “I trust you. You came up with me through the ranks.”

      How wonderful for them. Drew’s eyes narrowed as he filed that little piece of information away for later.

      “In case this jerk has any other teammates here undercover, I want you securing him. No one but me comes in here, got it?” Lee demanded.

      Carl nodded. “Got it.”

      After firing one last fuming glare at Drew, the two men marched from the room. The door slammed and Drew heard the distinct sound of the lock setting into place.

      “I’m sorry.” Tina’s voice was hoarse.

      He grunted and yanked against the pole. He didn’t have anything with him that he could use to pick the lock on the cuffs, so he had to find another means of escape. Yanking down the pole seemed like a fairly good option number two.

      “The bullet is still in you, isn’t it?”

      “That’s the least of our trouble.” As soon as Lee realized that EOD agents weren’t about to swarm the place, the guy would be back. He’d torture Drew then kill him, and Tina would get an up-close seat for that bloody show.

      The pipe began to groan.

      “What are you doing?”

      Drew figured there was no point in sugarcoating

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