Page 12 of Extracted

Something flashed in his eyes, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. He took two paces toward her. Five feet still separated them.

Goodness, he was tall. She was five foot four and he stood darn near a foot taller. The proximity of his body made her loins tingle. Memories of his touch and kiss swarmed her from the belly up.

Usually when he stood this close, it wasn’t because of an altercation—it was because he was going to get down and dirty. The contrast made her brain hurt.

“I’ve told you enough,” he said.

Cooling the unreciprocated fire that burned inside her, she jutted her chin forward. “You’ve mentioned your work is dangerous. You said you travel.” She ticked off the statements on her fingers. “You couldn’t tell me anything else. I’m going to bet what you do is illegal.”

She gave herself a mental round of applause for not just parting her robe and dropping it at her feet. Maybe she should. That’d sure end this exchange.

He lifted a shoulder, his mouth tight. “I never pretended to be a saint.” His words came out as though on a cracking whip. “The fact is, Gemma, you’ve run off every time we’ve been together, and had I not had my brother track you down, today wouldn’t have been any different.”

She folded her arms in front of her, tucking them under her breasts. He wasn’t wrong. She’d wanted—no, needed—confirmation that he’d survived, though. She would’ve found a way to see if he’d lived. Of course, it would have taken days, or weeks.

“When I woke up, all I could think about was that you’d died in the explosion.” He thumped his fist against his chest, making her wince. “That fucking killed me,” he spat. “A little heads-up would’ve been nice.”

His words chewed through the wall of armor she clung to. Guilt swarmed her. “It’s not like I had a whole lot of time to plan out what to say. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see you at the hotel.” Her breath slowed as realization dawned. “Oh, my god.”

He jerked his chin, questions written on his face.

She tunneled her hands into the hair at her scalp. No, no, no.

“What?” he asked.

She pressed her knuckles to her teeth. “If you were meeting Silas, then the CIA knows about you.”

* * *

Dallas opened and closed his fists at his sides.

He needed a walk. To wrap his head around the breakneck pace he was heading to hell at. A war had been waged inside him. Part of him wanted to walk out of Gemma’s hotel room and never look back, but another, hornier, part wanted to fuck her against the wall.

There were a million little piles of shit between Gemma and him that he needed to tiptoe around—or deal with—but not now. One catastrophe at a time.

First things first. He had to get out of Colombia. She had hit the nail on the head. If he hadn’t already been a person of interest, he sure as hell was now.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, he brought the screen to life then froze. He lifted his gaze to Gemma. She had the knuckle of her index finger pressed to the corner of her lip, her teeth nibbling at the flesh.

“If I can get us out of here tonight, will you come?”

Her eyes widened to saucers. “I—no. I mean. I don’t know.”

He made a sound of impatience. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

She lowered her arm to her midsection and paced the short distance from the bed to the window and turned back to face him. “Charlene told me to wait for my flight confirmation, but . . .”

“But what?”

She wore a familiar reticent look. The one she always wore whenever the topic of her work came up.

She closed her eyes and opened them slowly on a breath. “I don’t know if I can trust her. She lied to me about the mission . . . oh god. She set me up in this hotel.” She pushed her fingertips against her temple. “I’m so screwed.” Her voice rose an octave. “They’re going to know you came here. Surely they already know about your connection to Silas. They’ll think—”

He strode forward and caught her elbow, stopping her from spinning in a wild circle. “Hold on a minute.” Her eyes were glazed over with fear. “The CIA has no reason to follow you. Not yet anyway.”

She nodded, and her shoulders dropped an inch. “You’re right. But they’re always one step ahead.”

“I need to know, Gemma. Are you done working for them?”

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