Page 10

She kicked backward, aiming for his legs, but missed. She twisted in every direction, but his thickly muscled arms were tighter than steel vise grips. Extricating herself from a locked bank vault would have been easier. She tried to scream when a hand clamped over her mouth.

“ Stop fighting me, you little witch,” he growled in her ear. “ I don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t quit struggling you will get hurt.”

Dead is what I’ll get. No thanks, asshole.

Even with only one of his arms around her now, she was still completely immobilized. She could only flap her hands at her sides like a trained seal. Under the circumstances, all her martial arts training was completely useless.

Something hard and rough dug into her arm as he held her tightly against his body. Her heart continued to race as she racked her brain for a way out.

What other weapons do I have? None , and even if she had any, she wouldn’t be able to reach them.

Rough calluses dug into her lips. Time to get in touch with my inner vampire.

Gina maneuvered her mouth until she could get her teeth around two of his fingers. She bit down and the metallic taste of blood trickled into her mouth.

The guy grunted, but his hand didn’t budge. With her luck, he probably had some communicable disease. It was either that or die a worse death in far less time.

She clamped her teeth down harder, putting everything she had into it, and was rewarded with a half growl, half grunt of pain, followed by a string of muttered curses.

More blood streamed into her mouth and she nearly gagged.

Yuck .

“ Jesus , lady.” Uttering more colorful curses, he wrenched his hand from her teeth and wrapped that arm around her chest too. “ You already broke my wrist, the least you can do is leave my other arm intact.”

She continued squirming, flapping her hands uselessly at her sides. Then his words filtered through to her brain. She stopped struggling and hung there, legs dangling a foot above the floor.

Annabelle’s favorite phrase came to mind.

Oh . My . God .

She widened her eyes. Now her heart galloped faster than when she’d thought he was a rapist. It can’t be. Then again, there had been something familiar about his face right before she’d lunged for her knife.

The same leather bomber jacket. And that voice—pissed off but still smooth and rich like melted chocolate. How could she have been so stupid?

The white on his jacket cuff and that rock-hard feeling against her arm made sense now. His cast, you dope. The one on the wrist that she and her friends were responsible for breaking. She closed her eyes and groaned.

It was him . FBI Special Agent Jack Gates .

Her muscles went limp. If Gates hadn’t been holding her, she would have slipped to the floor like warm jelly.

I’m so screwed.

Of all the sticky situations she’d gotten herself into over the years, this was one she couldn’t run from or pick her way out of.

Looked like her future really would be filled with stinky prison latrines.

Meals that looked and tasted like puke. Chain gangs and collecting garbage on highway shoulders.

Orange jumpsuit, here I come.

Gates’s breath might have been warm against her ear, but his granite-hard tone held a clear warning. “ I’ll let you go, but if you try to bite me, kick me, knife me, or break any more of my bones, I’ll cuff you and hang you by your ankles from the chandelier.”

Gina didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Crap . She’d lost her voice. Again . Twice in one night.

“ Do you understand me?”

“ Y -yes,” she finally whispered, nodding.

Her feet met the floor and his arms dropped away as he let her go. Something brushed her ankle, and before she knew what was happening, he’d whipped up her pants leg and slid her stiletto from its leather sheath.

Adrenaline that had been storming through her veins drained away as if someone had pulled the plug in a bathtub.

It was over. Everything they’d worked so hard for. What would happen to all those other women who needed cash to help them escape? For that matter, what would happen to her? To Margo , Kinsey , and Annabelle ?

Nothing . She’d take the blame for all of them. Stealing from the Falzones had been her hair-brained idea from the beginning. Charity and revenge all rolled into one. She was responsible for masterminding every rip.

She held back a laugh of disgust at how similar her mantra was to the Mafia code of silence. Omerta . Never dime out your friends.

No matter how much she tried to deny it, she really did have Mafia blood flowing through her veins. It was ensconced in her DNA . Much as she wished it, even leeches couldn’t suck that out of her.

She turned to see Gates standing a good three feet from her, palming the stiletto.

“ This is what you were planning to gut me with the other night?” He shot an annoyed look at the knife. “ Looks more like it’s made for scaling fish.”

“ Or a snake.” She sucked in her lower lip. The last thing she should be doing was taking potshots at Gates . He’d only add “mouthing off to an FBI agent” to the lengthy list of charges she was about to be arrested for.

What was it about this guy that punched all her buttons? She didn’t have to think hard to drum up the answer to that question. Being an FBI agent was reason enough.

One corner of Gates’s mouth lifted, not quite reaching what she would ever call a smile. Adding to her annoyance was the undeniable fact that he looked as cool and in total control as one of those arrogant feds on TV . Figures .

“ For someone about to go to jail, you’re pretty cocky.” Carefully , he stowed her stiletto in the rear pocket of his jeans. Those hard eyes locked onto hers, reminding her of smoky quartz crystals she’d seen in a mineral exhibit. “ Hiding anything else under that sweat suit?”

“ No .” She willed herself not to look at the black duffel bag near Gates’s feet.

Please , please don’t look at the duffel. As long as he didn’t look in the bag, there was still a chance Margo could get the cash to Marilyn . Margo would have to be Gina’s “one call” when she got to jail.

“ Take it off,” Gates ordered.

She narrowed her eyes. “ Take what off?”

“ The sweat suit. Forgive me if I don’t take your word for it that you’re not hiding a machete under there.”

“ Oh , no.” She began shaking her head. “ I’m not taking anything off.”

“ Either you take it off, or I will.”

This cannot be happening. It was and she had no choice. Besides , they’d search her in jail anyway.

Exhaling a quick breath, she tipped her head to the ceiling and rolled her eyes. She pulled down the zipper on her sweat suit jacket and slipped it off her shoulders. As she flung it against the wall behind her, Gates’s eyes dipped to her breasts.

“ Now the pants.”

Gina gritted her teeth, then stepped out of her sweatpants and dropped them to the floor. Aside from her face, hands, and neck, the skintight black suit covered nearly every inch of her body, but beneath Gates’s head-to-toe perusal she felt completely naked.

The muscles in his square jaw flexed. His next movement was so quick she didn’t have time to react.

He grabbed her arm, spinning her and shoving her against the wall between the foyer and the living room. Jeez , the man had this move down to an art form, and his strength was off the charts.

In no time, he had her feet spread apart and her hands splayed on the plaster above her head. With one hand pressed securely against her back, he reached around and with quick, efficient movements patted her down. Starting with her breasts.

“ Hey !” She tried pushing from the wall, but he pushed back, gently but firmly, immobilizing her again.

“ Stand still or you’ll only drag this out longer.

” The hard ridge of his cast dug into her back where he held her in place.

His other hand was everywhere, roaming her breasts and belly, then her waist, crotch, and legs.

“ You might look like a cover model for Burglars R Us ,” Gates said, “but I won’t underestimate you a second time. ”

The material of her suit was so thin she felt every touch, every squeeze, and every skim of his hand over her body clear to her bones. To the cellular level, even.

Humiliation at being groped again by this muscle-bound Neanderthal turned to anger, and she balled her hands against the wall. It was all she could do not to kick backward and permanently sterilize one of the FBI’s finest.

He must have sensed her thoughts, because the next thing he said was, “ Don’t even think it.

Your attorney’s going to have his or her hands full as it is.

” The last part of her body he patted down was her ass.

He cupped first one cheek then the other, squeezing lightly.

“ My professional recommendation is not to add more assault charges to the list.”

She growled under her breath.

“ Don’t take this personally,” he said as he completed his pat down. “ I search all my prisoners before cuffing them.”

She whipped around and slammed into a wall of muscle.

More specifically, Gates’s hard, pectorally perfect chest. He gripped her upper arms until she regained her balance.

She pushed at him, spreading her fingers wide, but he held fast. God , but the man really did have the most incredible body. All those rippling, flexing muscles.

He gave her that half-assed smile again. “ Now who’s copping a feel?”

“ Oooh ,” she gritted out and shoved again at his chest.

“ Knock yourself out, honey.”

“ Let me go,” she snapped.

He did. Abruptly .

The back of her head whacked against the wall as she stumbled. A jolt of pain exploded in her skull. For a second, she saw stars, but no way would she go down, not in front of the most overbearing, pig-headed?—

Regaining her balance, she planted her hands on her hips and faced him head-on, though she had to crane her neck to accomplish that.

The corners of his mouth lifted again. “ When I said ‘knock yourself out’ I didn’t mean literally.”