LITMIR.BIZ

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to the outside world, and she hated it.

      She could at least make herself more comfortable. She pointed to the clothes that had been brought for her. “Please turn around so I can change.”

      He did as she asked, giving her his back. “Do I have to worry that you’ll attack me?”

      “Are you making fun of me?” she asked. How would she attack him?

      “Not in the least. I’m trying to understand you.”

      “You pretended to like me at my sister’s party,” she said, thinking of how he had approached her. “Were you trying to seduce me?”

      “I was trying to convince you to leave the party with me so I could take you somewhere safe.”

      It felt great to peel off the dress, but she didn’t want to return the hoodie. It smelled of him and that made her feel safe. She slipped on the military sweat pants and T-shirt. “How did that work out for you?” she asked, adjusting the drawstrings on her pants.

      “You’re alive, aren’t you?” he asked.

      “That’s one way to look at it,” she said.

      “Any day I wake up is a blessing,” Brute said.

      An odd statement, but perhaps coming from a West Company operative who had spent hours in dangerous locations, it was his truth. “What exactly do you do for the West Company?” she asked.

      “Retrieval specialist,” he replied.

      Deciding she could do what she wanted, she pulled on the hoodie. When someone gave her a computer, she would give up the hoodie. Maybe.

      “How did they pick you?” she asked.

      “Excuse me?”

      “How did they know I would find you attractive? Was there an assessment done on me, a written profile?” Having worked for the government, she knew that complex plans were thought through on many levels—psychological, emotional and physical. The government had her profile, and they knew what made her tick. That knowledge made her suspicious of everything they said and did to her. Was Brute playing a role? How much of his behavior was him and how much an act to manipulate her?

      “Do you always say what’s on your mind?” he asked.

      Kit refused to be cowed. “I’m trying to assess my situation so I can understand how to get out of this.”

      “You can’t get out of it unless you want to be taken prisoner by Incognito and then killed,” Brute said.

      “Don’t try to scare me,” she said. “I might be weak now, but if I can get my hands on a computer, I will rain missiles down on you.”

      He faced her and smiled again. She had to get over that smile. It shouldn’t have rattled her.

      “If you rain missiles down on me, then you’ll be raining missiles down on you, because we’re attached at the hip.”

      That knowledge surprised her. “I thought you were handing me off at the first opportunity,” she said.

      “I’ll release you when I know you are safe,” he said.

      His words touched her. “Why does it matter what happens to me?”

      Confusion darted across his face. “I swore to do a job. I will do that job.”

      She had known him for less than a day and he felt responsible for her. “You have integrity. Do you also have a name you’re willing to share with me?”

      “Griffin.”

      She hadn’t expected a full name, but at least she could think of him as something other than brute. The longer they were together, the less she thought of him as a bully or a kidnapper. “Wings of an eagle and body of a lion.”

      “That’s the one,” he said.

      “Is that your name, or is it another ploy to manipulate me psychologically?”

      Griffin appeared flabbergasted. “Though it may seem otherwise to you, this was a well-thought-out operation with considerably less time spent analyzing you and more time spent countering the threats against you. I was not selected to seduce you or manipulate you.”

      Her cheeks grew hot. “That’s good, because I am not easily seduced.” Most men didn’t try. She didn’t exude sex appeal and confidence the way her sister did.

      “That red dress was made for a woman who was looking for sex.”

      She blinked at him. Maybe Marissa had been right and that dress had looked good on her. She hadn’t felt sexy in it. “I wasn’t looking for anything. My sister wanted me to wear the dress and it was her birthday, so I indulged her.” But she didn’t want to discuss her insecurities or Marissa’s beauty. “What now?”

      Griffin pulled his cot across the door. “We sleep while we can.”

       Chapter 3

      The squeaks of the cot springs gave away that Kit wasn’t asleep. She was tossing and turning.

      “Why aren’t you sleeping?” Griffin asked. His cot wasn’t the most comfortable, but he had slept on worse. At least he was dry and no one was shooting at him.

      Kit shifted in her bed. She was the most restless sleeper he had ever been in the same room with. “How do you know I’m not?”

      “For one, you answered me. For two, your breathing is irregular and the noises of your cot indicate movement.”

      She blew out her breath. “I’m upset. It’s been an upsetting day. I’m worried about my family.”

      The West Company would ensure their safety. She had nothing to worry about in that regard. “They are being guarded.”

      She let out a harrumph. He should have stayed quiet, but he hadn’t been sleeping, either. He wouldn’t give in to the exhaustion that pulled at the corners of his brain until he was sure she was asleep.

      “Let me call my mom.”

      A security breach to allow direct contact. “Can’t happen. People are looking for you. We can’t risk someone tracing the call or your mom alerting anyone to your status.”

      He could envision Kit glaring at him in the dark.

      “Do you think I don’t understand how to mask where a call is coming from? I know to think before I speak. I have not questioned how well you do your job, snatching people and punching people, and I’m asking you to trust me to do this.”

      She didn’t strike him as an overconfident woman, and he guessed she could back up her statement. “I don’t have permission to give you a phone.” They were working on obtaining a secure computer and phone for her.

      “I am not a prisoner. I am a person,” Kit said.

      Griffin turned on the overhead light to look at her. “I know you are a person. A person I am trying to keep safe.” He was having enough trouble wrapping his mind around the idea that he was responsible for protecting her. His complex about that was a twisted mess. He had accepted the assignment to retrieve her and deliver her to a safe house. This added complexity caused uncertainties to surface.

      “Give me your phone,” she said.

      “You can’t call your family and check in. We want your whereabouts to remain unknown to Incognito.” Since that wasn’t dissuading her, he decided to tell her the brutal truth. “If anyone knows that you contacted your family, that family member will be tortured for information. Do you understand what torture is?”

      She glared at him. “I am aware of what it is.”

      “Have you ever been tortured?” He hated pressing her, but he needed her to understand the severity of what was playing out.

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