Page 9 of Dangerous Affair (The Phoenix Three #2)

J asper didn’t return until the next night.

Friday? She was pretty sure it was. He walked in the door and threw a white bag at her.

Inside was one measly hamburger. Just a burger, bun, and ketchup.

Thanks for nothing, jerk. But she was starving, and it was better than nothing.

She had to force herself to slow down and chew.

When she finished, her stomach didn’t understand why there wasn’t more.

Strangely, he didn’t grill her about his stupid thumb drive.

After she scarfed down the hamburger, he closed all the curtains, then ordered her to go to sleep.

That was all she’d done for the past two days, but she didn’t have the energy to argue with him.

She rolled over, turning her back to him.

He was in a foul mood, and she wondered where he’d been and what had happened.

“Oh, no,” she said when he crawled in bed with her. “I’m not sleeping with you.”

“Shut up, Quinn.”

You shut up. He didn’t touch her, and after a few minutes his breathing evened out. An hour later, she realized there was no way she could fall asleep in the same bed with him. That, and she was thirsty. He hadn’t given her anything to drink with the burger.

When Jasper started snoring, she eased out of the bed inch by slow inch. Fortunately, she was on the side closest to the bathroom, so she didn’t have to work her way around the bed. Careful to keep the chains tight so they didn’t scrape on the floor, she made her way to the bathroom.

She cringed when the pump squeaked, but she needed water.

After satisfying her thirst, she braced her hands on the sink, cringing again when the chains scraped across the porcelain.

Exhausted, she lowered her body to the floor.

It was probably dirty, but she didn’t have the energy to care.

She couldn’t get back in that bed with Jasper, she just couldn’t.

She was so hungry, her stomach felt like it was eating itself, and she was feeling sorry for herself.

For the first time, she cried. And as she quietly cried, her eyes grew heavy, and she closed them.

She shot up from the bathroom floor gasping for air. The nightmare was horrible. Jasper had wrapped the chain holding her prisoner around her neck and was demanding that she give him the thumb drive. When she refused, he twisted the chain so tight that she knew she was going to die.

She breathed in and out until she wasn’t gasping. How long had she been asleep? How had she even fallen asleep on the hard floor? She lifted her hands, feeling the weight of the heavy chain. How was she supposed to escape?

The chains moved as the bathroom door opened.

Okay. Okay. This was it. Jasper was coming in, and he was going to demand answers.

Time to…what? If not for being chained to the wall, she would fight him.

Even if she could somehow wrap the chains around his neck, see how he liked it, then what? She’d still be a prisoner.

Except the man dressed all in black wasn’t Jasper. Her heart shot up, landing in her throat, and she opened her mouth to scream. The man was unhumanly fast as he reached her and clamped his hand over her mouth.

This was the day she was going to die.

“Shhhh,” the man whispered. “Don’t scream. Your father sent me. I’m here to rescue you.”

She was being rescued?

“You’ll be quiet?”

When she nodded, he removed his hand from her mouth.

She’d be quieter than a mouse if it meant she was getting out of here.

He held a penlight, and he shined it on his face, letting her see him.

Jet-black hair, a face sculptured by the gods, and eyes the color of a deep blue ocean stared back at her. Mother Mary, he was beautiful.

“I’m Liam O’Rourke,” he whispered after he closed the door behind him. “Nice to meet you, Quinn Sullivan.”

A fellow Irishman. Did he believe in love at first sight? Because she suddenly did. “Ah, you, too.” But Jasper had taught her to be wary. “What’s my father’s name?”

“Robert Sullivan. He knew something was wrong when you missed your Wednesday check-in, so he asked me to come find you.”

He wouldn’t know any of that if he hadn’t been sent by her father, and the relief would have brought her down to the floor if she wasn’t already on it.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m okay. Just hungry. You got a steak on you?”

He chuckled. “Sadly, no.”

“Drat. Can we go now?” She wanted to be as far away from Jasper as she could possibly get.

“That’s the plan, but first, we have to get you out of these cuffs.” He reached into a pocket of his cargo pants and pulled out a small pouch.

“What’s that?”

“My breaking-and-entering kit.”

They were still whispering, which made this strange encounter feel intimate, like they were the only two people in the world.

“Are you a criminal?” Figured her father would find a man talented in getting in and out of places without getting caught.

And even if he was a thief, her instincts, honed over her years in war-torn countries, said she could trust this man she’d just met.

“No, ma’am. Just a man helping a lady in distress.” He put the penlight between his teeth, aiming it to light up her hands. “Hold still.”

“You need to know that Jasper has a gun. He’ll use it on you if he wakes up.”

“Then let’s be gone before he does. Do you know him?”

“Unfortunately.” She was too embarrassed to admit she’d had a fling with the bastard.

“Not a stranger then. There, one down.”

She blinked at seeing him remove the handcuff from her left wrist. Her arm felt almost weightless without the heavy chain.

He wrapped his fingers around her wrists and lifted her hands so she could see them. “Voilà! All gone.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now let’s blow this joint.”

She was all for that.

“We need to be very quiet. Walk right behind me.”

“Consider me your shadow.” He eased the door open, and she slipped her fingers around the back of his belt. No way was he going to leave without her. They were halfway across the room when she tugged him to a stop.

He turned and put his mouth to her ear. “What?”

“My camera bag,” she whispered. “I need it.” She had thousands of dollars of cameras and equipment that she wasn’t going to leave behind.

She expected him to argue that they needed to get out of the cabin, and they did, but not without the only things that mattered to her.

Instead, he surprised her by putting his finger to her lips to hush her, and then he shined the penlight around the room.

When he paused the light on the bag that held her cameras, she nodded.

Without making a sound, he went to the bag, eased the strap over his shoulder, and returned to her.

She slipped her fingers back around his belt, and they started off again.

Where was he going? The door was the other way.

She followed him into what she’d assumed was a pantry, but since her chain wouldn’t reach that far, she hadn’t checked it out.

It wasn’t a pantry, but a small cellar. He went down first, then shined the light on the steps for her.

After she reached the bottom, he went back up and eased the door shut.

He led her to another set of stairs, and through the opening, she saw the sky. She saw freedom.

“Stand by a sec,” he said after they exited the cellar.

“Okay.” Although, it was almost impossible to stand by when she wanted to run away as fast as her legs could carry her.

He closed the outside doors to the cellar, then he took her hand. “Let’s go.”

They fast walked around the cabin and passed Jasper’s car. “Ouch.”

He stopped, and she bumped into him. “What’s wrong?”

She lifted her foot and brushed away the pebbles sticking to it.

“Sorry. I stepped on a rock. I’m okay.” Fortunately, she had refused to undress in front of Jasper, so she had on the jeans and T-shirt she was wearing when he’d taken her.

Unfortunately, she had taken her shoes off, not wanting to wear them in bed.

He took his penlight out and shined it on her feet. “I should have gotten your shoes.”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“We have a ways to go.” He turned his back to her and crouched. “Get on.”

“Your back?” At five-seven, she wasn’t a small girl.

He glanced over his shoulder. “Yes. You can’t walk to my car without shoes. Get on my back, Quinn.”

At the commanding tone in his voice, she almost saluted him.

She settled for, “Yes, sir.” She climbed onto his back, and he slipped his arms under her legs.

When he took off at a jog, she expected him to struggle with the awkwardness of her camera bag bumping against his side and her bouncing against his back, not to mention the strain of her weight.

There was no struggle. He wasn’t even breathing heavily.

“Are you Superman?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” he said, still breathing normally.

She almost wouldn’t be surprised if he jogged them to a phone booth where he could change into his Superman costume.

The driveway was long, and she guessed he’d been running for three or four minutes when they came to a car.

She was happy to see it, because it was going to get her far, far away from Jasper.

Liam stopped next to the passenger door and dropped his arms from under her legs. She slid down his body, and boy oh boy, what a body. She doubted he had an ounce of fat on him. She sure hadn’t felt any while wrapped around him like a spider monkey.

“Thanks for the ride,” she said.

“My pleasure.” He opened the door.

No, it was very much her pleasure. She got into the car, and he closed the door. After putting her camera bag into the back seat, he jogged around the hood. When he was seated behind the wheel, he shifted to face her.

“I have to make a decision, and for that, I need intel.”

“What decision? Can’t we just go?”

“Do we just go, or do I need to take care of the man in the cabin?”

Her jaw dropped. “You mean like, kill him?”

“I guess that’s an option, but I’d prefer to hand him over to the police. He did kidnap you. Why, and who is he?”

“His name’s Jasper Garrison. And I honestly don’t know exactly what’s going on. He seems to think I have something of his.”

“What’s that, and do you?”

“A thumb drive. I might or might not have it. I don’t know.”

“What’s on it?”

“Don’t know that either, but whatever’s on it, Jasper’s planning to trade it to someone for a million dollars.”

He whistled. “Okay. I think I need to have a little chat with your friend in there.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I told you, he has a gun. Let’s just go.”

“And then what? If what you have—”

“Might have.”

“He seems to think you do, and for that kind of money, he’ll come after you.”

She knew that. Of course she did. But she didn’t want to be here a minute longer. When she got home, she’d look for the thumb drive, see what was on it if she did have it, then decide what to do with it.

“I just want to go,” she said. “Please.”