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Her eyes widened. “What are you doing?”
He ignored her, managing to slap one cuff around her wrist before she started fighting like a hellcat. But she was too late. He’d already looped the chain around the rungs of the chair and grabbed her free hand.
“You cannot do this.”
He clicked the second cuff into place. “I just did. Now we’re going to talk. Want a blanket?”
He hoped like fuck she said yes because he was getting a full frontal of her under the kitchen lights, and it was impossible to miss her thick, beaded nipples.
Fuck, her body was his weakness.
“What will I owe you for it?”
This again? “Nothing. You’re only borrowing it, not taking it.”
She hesitated. “Fine. Then yes. Please.”
He nodded as he grabbed a quilt from the corner of his bed. When he draped it over her, they both breathed a sigh of relief.
Then Trees turned the nearest chair backward and straddled it, resting his arms over the top. “Let’s start over. Tell me why—exactly—you were meeting Edgington tonight. Have they figured out where Geraldo Montilla is holed up? Or contacted the person who sent the colonel the ransom note to set up this supposed hostage swap?”
Laila proved once again she was as strong-willed as she was beautiful when she looked away and refused to answer. He took her chin in his grip and forced her to look at him. As always, her soft hazel eyes undid him—not to mention that pouty, fuck-me mouth he remembered kissing feverishly in the dark.
“Or are they past that? Do they have a plan? A date? A location?”
Predictably, since he’d told all of his bosses to fuck off nearly forty-eight hours ago, they hadn’t looped him in on their strategies to rescue Kimber from Geraldo Montilla—using Laila as bait.
Her white teeth bit into that pillowy lower lip, and Trees stifled a groan. She had no idea what she was doing to him, and he couldn’t let on. She knew how to use his desire against him. He couldn’t let it happen again.
Since she still stubbornly refused to say a word, he’d have to puzzle the answer out himself.
Laila glared at him and yanked her chin from his grasp. “Do not touch me.”
He backed away. “Then answer me.”
“I am going. And you cannot stop me.”
That’s what she thought. “I’m not going to let you put yourself in needless danger, Laila.”
“But my sister and my nephew—”
“There’s another way to neutralize this threat, and we’ll find it.”
She shook her head. “Geraldo is a dangerous man. He will keep coming. He will never stop until they kill her and take her son. He and all his men are animals. They will never give up.”
“Then neither will I. I can be an animal, too. And I’ll prove it.”
That clearly worried her. “What will you do?”
“Tell me what’s going on first. Have they come up with a plan?”
Laila pressed her lips together, saying nothing for a long moment. But she was thinking, so Trees let her. “I do not know.”
“Seriously?” He laughed bitterly. “Who do you trust more, them or me?”
She didn’t hesitate. “You.”
Her answer poured relief through his system, but it also pissed him off. “When we met, you didn’t trust them at all, but now you’re willing to run off in the middle of the night to jump into danger for them when they don’t even have a fucking plan?”
“They will have one. I was going to help. So was Valeria.”
What the fuck? “Neither of you are trained operatives.”
“Perhaps not, but we are the only ones who have met Geraldo Montilla. Together, we may be able to figure out where he is hiding and even identify any weaknesses he may have.”
That was a fair point. He didn’t know how useful her and her sister’s information would be, but it was a tactic they hadn’t tried before. And his bosses had never cut him in on their progress. Because they had their hands full? Because they’d believed he was their mole? Probably both.
Trees turned the situation over in his head. Bottom line? Everything needed to change.
He swiped through Laila’s phone again and found Hunter’s contact, then hit the button to call.
His boss answered quickly. “Where are you, Laila? I’m at the meet point, but I don’t see you.”
“She’s in my kitchen and she’s not going anywhere, asshole. Did you honestly think she could just sneak out my window and I wouldn’t know?”
“Listen, I get that you want to protect her. I know damn well you’ve been fucking her, which is against the rules, and we’ll be discussing that later. But goddamn it, she wants to save her sister and I want to save mine. Who the fuck are you to get in the middle of that?”
“Who the fuck are you to dangle Laila out as bait? Montilla wants Valeria, but you’re holding back the queen and sending the pawn instead. It’s bullshit, and I won’t let you do it.”
