AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 8
Samantha
I wokeup alone in the middle of the night. I’d felt the mattress shift, and now heard water running in the bathroom. I smiled. Not alone, after all. And not dreaming. Evan and I still had a few more magical, peaceful hours together.
When he didn’t immediately return and I heard him in the kitchen, I sat up in bed. I assessed my physical state. Mild headache. No dizziness. Full memory of the evening from the time we’d arrived at the cabin. Satisfied with my recovery, I slid from the bed, pulled on Evan’s sleeveless undershirt I’d worn earlier, and tried to no avail to find his borrowed sweatpants in the dark. With a shrug, I gave up and sauntered into the kitchen half naked. If all went according to my plan, he’d have me fully naked in less than a minute anyway.
I found Evan standing by the kitchen sink wearing only his boxer briefs and drinking a glass of water. A small light over the stove provided just enough glow for me to appreciate his chiseled body and golden skin. From the way his hooded eyes raked over my body, it was clear he reciprocated my interest. I revised my time-to-get-naked assessment to under thirty seconds.
I closed the distance between us and kissed his neck as he set the empty glass on the counter, then skimmed my hand down over his naked torso and stroked his erection through his underwear. “You look happy to see me,” I said.
He closed his eyes. “At this rate, we’ll use those last two condoms before sunrise.” He traced his finger along the side of my throat, over my collarbone, and down further to cup one of my breasts and stroke the taut nipple.
A spark of pleasure ignited need low in my belly. I gripped him harder and debated whether I’d climb him like a tree or jump onto the countertop. Then again, why not both? The thought made me wet.
“And I am so looking forward to fucking you in the first light of dawn,” he said, finishing his previous thought.
I bit my lower lip as he ran his hand down over my belly. I tilted my pelvis, desperate for the hard, deep invasion of his fingers. Then something flickered. A tiny red light. It landed on his bare chest, then shifted up to the side of his neck.
Adrenaline rushed through my system and I snapped out of my lustful trance.
Shit, the tracker. Between my muddled memory and our near-death escape, I’d forgotten Jensen was hunting us using the device I’d attached to the bottom of Evan’s laptop.
Evan spotted the reflection of the red dot on his water glass, then looked at me with confusion tinged with fear. He didn’t know it was my team. He might think it was Carbonados, here to end his life and possibly mine. I shook my head, trying to allay his worry, yet unable to speak. Then one of the rear windows shattered and a microsecond later, a tranquilizer dart thwacked into the side of Evan’s neck.
He clung to me as he slid to his knees, a mixture of shock, anger, and dread etched on his face, and just like that, the rest of our night, our secret moment in time, was snatched away from us.
“Evan, I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I told them not to tranquilize you.”
Goddammit, I would have someone’s head for this. Or not, since it was probably my boss’s call, but I’d make his life hell with my complaining. I laid Evan on his back, dashed into the bedroom to pull on a robe and grab a pillow, and returned to place it under his head.
One operative in all black broke the remaining glass in the back window and climbed over the sill. At the same time, a ramrod banged against the front door and slammed it open. From her height, I knew the window climber was our sharpshooter Li, who would have been the one assigned to fire the dart into Evan’s neck. The first one through the front door pulled off her black cap to reveal her blonde hair, but I didn’t need to see her to know that it was Kessler. They did a swift sweep of the cabin and gave the all-clear through their comms unit.
Li dropped to her knees beside me and opened her arms to embrace me.
“How much?” I snarled at her.
She jerked back and widened her eyes.
“The tranq dose, how much?” I repeated.
“A half-dose,” Li answered, “which won’t keep him down for long.”
Kessler took a step toward us, holding black zip-ties out in front of her. “TJ wants him restrained.”
“Give your comms,” I told her. When she didn’t respond immediately, I raised my voice. “That’s an order!”
Kessler pulled out one of her earpieces and handed it to me. I positioned it in my ear and clicked it to engage the mic. “TJ, stop being an ass. The man saved my life. Now get a gurney in here, stat.”
I clicked off the earpiece so I wouldn’t have to listen to the blowback. It didn’t matter, though, since TJ, followed by Penn and Sparks who were the logistical crew, and Jensen, along with Alder, who completed our IT crew, filed through the door.
Evan’s eyes were still open and watching me, and a small smile played at his lips. That told me he realized it was my team invading and not my enemies, but I reassured him anyway. “Don’t worry, it’s HEAT. They told me the sedative dosage they used. It’s very low. It will be a minute until you’re completely out, and it won’t last long. Can you hear me?”
He blinked once. I took that as a yes.
“HEAT?” he said quietly. “How...”
I grimaced. “I put a tracker on your computer, then we went on the run and you got shot, and with my mild cognitive impairment, I forgot about it. And you said Bennet would come tomorrow, so I wasn’t worried—”
