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“How far?” he finally asked.

“Not far. Maybe five miles. I don’t know if they take dogs.”

“Oh, they will.” His utter arrogant confidence might have been a distinct turn-on in my former life. But as a prisoner in some unknown war, I had no such thoughts.

“Are you always so sure of yourself?”

“Are you always such a pain in the ass to people trying to help you?”

His rudeness caught me off guard. “As you might imagine, I’m not used to being kidnapped.”

“Oh, yeah?” He slowed down, throwing me another look.

At least I could laugh even if doing so hurt. I folded my arms across my stomach, nausea settling in. My hands shaking, I found the bottle of water I’d tossed, finding it more difficult to twist the cap than before. I was losing strength. When I finally did, the bottle almost slipped through my hand. The commotion forced the lieutenant to glare into the rearview mirror.

I closed my eyes, touching the side of my face where I’d been hit.

“Does your head hurt?” Kage asked.

“A little.” I took several swallows of water, trying to take it slow, but sucking down almost half. With Tank breathing on me, I realized he must be thirsty. I poured a little in my hand, stillfearful, but worried the pup was thirsty. When he lapped the water, his actions brought a smile to my face. “Good boy.”

Eyes burned into me. Why did this man hate me so much?

“Where is this place?” he asked.

I sat up, woozier than before. When I threw my arm across my stomach, he cursed under his breath. “I’m going to throw up.”

“Fuck me. Open the damn door.”

He would never be awarded a nice guy medal. That was for certain. I threw open the door, barely hanging my head out. There was nothing in my system but water and bit of granola, a sick reminder I’d been kidnapped. My head remained fuzzy and I moaned as soon as I sat back in the seat, barely managing to close the door.

“I told you about the water. Your system isn’t used to an overload. You’ll need to take it easy for a couple days. Now, do you know where we’re going?”

With blurry eyes, I looked around. “Go two streets up and take a right. You’ll see it on your left.” I wiped my mouth, fighting tears for the second time since being rescued. He wouldn’t be taking me to a motel if he planned on killing me. Right?

A strange laugh bubbled up from my throat and I leaned my head to the side, tears running down my face as I cackled.

His exhale was exaggerated, but he remained quiet as he pulled into the small parking lot around to the side. He eased it forward until the Jeep was partially hidden by a group of Chinese fan palms cradled with hibiscus. When he cut the engine, he immediately ripped the keys from the ignition and leaned over to peer at me.

“You need to listen to me very carefully,” he said with his extraordinarily deep and husky voice. “I’m going to get us a room. You will stay right here. If I need to chase after you, you will be punished. I’m not kidding about this. We are still in significant danger. The next twenty-four hours will be extremely dicey so you will do every single thing I command you to do.”

While he had a voice that could make any girl’s toes curl, including mine, his gruff demeanor and permanent scowl were decent reminders I still didn’t know him. And I certainly couldn’t trust him.

“I’m the victim. Remember?”

“Yeah? And I’m the only man who can save your life.”

CHAPTER 8

Kage

Why in the fuck was I drawn to the chaos and the woman’s unpredictability?

Sure, she was beautiful even with grime covering a good portion of her body, and cuts and bruises marring her fragile porcelain skin. And the way the sunlight had filtered in through the window had created a shimmer of gold in her long, tangled strands of copper hair.

And yeah, her eyes were the color of cornflowers, which happened to be my mother’s favorites. That shouldn’t mean shit. She was also the subject of my mission and her attitude stunk.

I’d left Tank to watch her, confident he’d let me know if there was an issue.