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“Okay now?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Good, I’m going to lower you down. I promise I won’t let go of you until it’s safe. Your job is to hold onto me. You ready?”

As I’m ever going to get!

She nodded again but couldn’t make herself speak. He slowly lowered her, bending out of the window until he was balancing on his hips.

“I’m going to let you go. It’s not far. I promise you, it’s going to be okay. Remember what I told you. Legs together, knees bent, roll. Got it? Okay, drop!”

He let go of her wrists. She didn’t let go of him, but it didn’t matter because even in the cold, her hands were wet and slippery with sweat. Yuck.

Before she could cry out, her feet hit the ground. He was right. It wasn’t all that far. She tucked and rolled, safe on the grass.

“You good?” he called down.

She nodded again, afraid to yell in case guards were near.

“I’m dropping you the gun. Do not try to catch it. When it lands, you can go pick it up, understood?” He tossed the pistol down, and she retrieved it.

“Should I still shoot whatever moves?”

“No. Wait right there, I’ll be back in a second,” he said before disappearing back into the room.

CHAPTER 5

Holding the handgun like she’d seen in the movies, Tildi stared up at the window, waiting for Boone to reappear. Her adrenaline spiked even higher when he climbed out onto the windowsill, sitting bent practically in half. It was so small. She whispered yet another prayer to the universe that he didn’t slip and break his neck.

Looking down at her, Boone scowled and motioned for her to point the gun at the ground. “You need a keeper. We’re definitely doing some training when I get you home.”

Her stomach tightened and her lady bits clenched at his words. Not that he thought she needed a keeper. That was silly. She had functioned just fine on her own. Sort of.

No, it was the when he got her home part that tickled her nether regions. Did that mean he thought they would have time together when this was all over?

She really hoped that was what he meant. How crazy was that? She didn’t even know where the place he called home was. It was a ranch. That was all she knew.

“Focus, Bluebell,” he called down to her. How could the man shout and whisper at the same time?

The sternness in his tone warmed her tummy. That shouldn’t turn her on, right? Nothing should turn her on like that, not now, anyway.

She’d thought nothing would ever turn her on again after the past year. But then Boone came along, and there she was with her princess parts all a’tingling.

“Tildi! Are you listening to me?” he demanded from the window.

Yeah, she should probably think about her princess parts later.

“Do you see what looks like the rusty top part of a buried tank over to your left? You’re going to want to start running toward it now.”

What in the world? Turning to her left, she spied what he was talking about. Who would take the time to bury a tank? And why would she run toward it?

“What about the guards?” she asked. “Won’t they spot me if I’m running out in the open?”

“Maybe, but I’m counting on the explosion distracting them,” he yelled down to her.

Explosion? What explosion? He couldn’t mean the C4 he’d attached to the door. She was no rocket scientist, but she had been good at physics. If he triggered an explosion while he was blocking the window like that, the force would shoot him across the yard like a bullet out of a gun.

“Um, Boone?”