He turned toward her.
Another bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the area just beyond the window.
The thunder rumbled a moment later.
“You blew your cover to save me.” No, more than that. Tina’s gaze held his. “You risked your life.” He’d taken a bullet for her. How was she supposed to repay that kind of sacrifice?
He took a step toward her.
“I didn’t ask who those men were.” Because she knew the way the system worked. Need-to-know info.
She wasn’t an agent. That meant, according to Mercer, the less she knew, the better. Even if her life had been put on the line.
“You’re better off not knowing,” Drew said, sounding way too much like Mercer for her peace of mind right then. His jaw tightened. “They’re some of the most dangerous SOBs that I’ve crossed.”
“You could have died saving me.”
He took another slow, gliding step toward her. Then one more. She tilted her head back. Trembled as the rain water began to dry on her skin.
“Doc, I wasn’t leaving you behind.” His eyes raked her. “And I wasn’t going to let them hurt you anymore. Carl wasn’t using that knife on you.”
She was so out of her league. Not just in the middle of this blood fest, but with Drew.
The guys she dated were nice, safe. They didn’t know how to take down enemies in hand-to-hand combat. They didn’t know how to pick the locks on handcuffs.
And those men didn’t make her feel the way Drew did.
When the cavalry did come through that door, she’d leave the motel. Drew would go back to his missions, and she’d see him when he came in for his checkups at the EOD.
They’d go back to business as usual.
She didn’t want that.
What she wanted—was him.
Unfortunately she was a sopping-wet mess at that moment. No doubt, she appeared like a drowned rat.
A seduction routine wasn’t going to work right then.
Tina nodded and tried to pull herself together again. “I’m glad you were the agent who was there, Drew.” Then she swept around him before she did something crazy—such as throw her arms around the guy and hold on tight.
Or point out the fact that the bed behind them appeared very, very clean.
She opened the bathroom door and rushed gratefully inside. Before she shut the door, she heard him mutter, “I’m glad, too, Doc.”
* * *
THEY’D ESCAPED. Not just escaped, but seemingly vanished. Lee stormed away from the helicopter. He had to tell the boss that the search hadn’t turned up the missing woman. This wasn’t the way he wanted things to go down.
He hurried by the base’s parking area. More of the search teams had come back in, but they’d turned up nothing.
“You didn’t find them.” Thud. Thud. Thud.
Lee froze. The boss wasn’t inside the compound. He was right there waiting to attack. “I’m going back out. They must have gotten to a town. Got shelter. We’ll get them—”
Thud. Thud. “No, if they made it to a town, then the agent will be calling for backup. He’ll be bringing in men to take the woman away.”
“Boss, look—”