Page 44 of Poison Evidence

Proof he wanted out of this tangle too. Proof he wasn’t doing this for some anti-American ideological purpose. He wasn’t serving his government in the belief some greater good would come of abducting her. He wasn’t doing it for money or power.

To want money or power meant wanting to live to spend or wield. Working to achieve an ideological goal meant passion and drive, and when staring into the face of failure, frustration, and devastation floated to the top of the emotional cesspool.

Dimitri showed her in that moment he had no desire to live. No devastation. No anger. No passion. No drive.

He was well and truly hopeless.

She finally had the variables she needed to triangulate Dimitri Veselov’s position. He wasn’t doing this for himself. Someone was forcing him to play pawn. Alpha Dimitri would chafe at being someone else’s tool.

So she’d lowered the gun.

Now she stood on the deck with him, at a loss for what to say. She wanted to cover her ears and close her eyes against the sound of breakfasting sharks, but hiding from the situation wouldn’t help anyone. “What do we do now?”

“Their Zodiac is tied to the stern. They probably have a bigger boat nearby, with more of them.” Dimitri ran a hand over his face. “I need to get us out of here, before they come searching.”

She nodded and met his gaze without flinching. “And I need to turn off the locational beacon on CAM.”

Chapter Fifteen

Turning off the beacon was easy, but she had to call Mara or her boss would freak out. She needed to update Curt on what happened anyway. Emails and texts wouldn’t do. She had to speak with them both.

She could set up the satellite uplink and hook up her phone, but it would be faster and easier if Dimitri let her use his satellite phone—because she didn’t doubt for a second that he had one. The boat had to be riddled with hiding places. She’d never find it on her own.

She climbed the ladder, bracing herself for the confrontation. At least this way, her backdoor communication with Mara and Curt would remain secret. She stepped behind him, making noise that would carry over the loud engine. She didn’t want to startle him. Not now, when they were both coming down from adrenaline and knowing the man had lethal reflexes.

“If you’re here for the sat phone, it’s in the storage compartment under the captain’s chair.”

He stood at the helm, the deck-mounted chair pushed back on its track so it wasn’t in his way.

“You’re giving it up that easy?” She lifted the cushion and found the compartment.

He shrugged. “Saves time.”

Not surprisingly, she found three more handguns in the compartment along with the phone. She frowned. The phone was locked. “Pass code?” she asked.

He was silent for a moment, then said, “Tell me why you didn’t shoot me.”

She couldn’t begin to name the emotion that flooded her in that moment. All she knew was she wasn’t ready to tell him why. She studied the phone in her hands instead of meeting his gaze. She could probably get past the security feature if she hooked it to her computer.

“You had the perfect opportunity, and you let it go,” he continued. “Why?”

Only a lunatic would admit to believing him. Only the delusional would believe there was a way out of this that would save them both. And only a fool would want him to have hope and a reason to live.

She was none of those things.

She met his intense gaze. His jaw was tight. There wasn’t a laugh or smile line to be seen. It made her sad that in his thirty-four years, he had no creases on his face put there by joy.

She offered only a slight shake of her head.

His eyes lit with a different kind of shine. Calculating but not cold. “Fine, then. Kiss me, and I’ll tell you the code.”

She debated for a moment, then decided to give him a win. She’d bet he expected her to cheap out and give him a simple peck, but she enjoyed surprising Death Valley. Plus, even in giving him this small victory, she’d have him off-balance. Yet another test of her power.

She set the phone on the seat and stepped closer to him, then reached up slowly with both hands and cupped his cheeks. It had been a day and a half since he’d shaved. She stroked his cheeks, enjoying the feel of stubble against her palms as she held his gaze. Then she gave him a soft smile and pulled his head down. She started slow, brushing her lips across his, then settled in and deepened the kiss, opening her mouth and slipping her tongue between his lips.

His hands found her hips. He pulled her body flush with his, his arms crossed her back and hugged her to him as his mouth slanted, taking the kiss to the next level as his tongue delved deep.

The kiss was intense, hot, a slice of pleasure in a world gone haywire. She threaded her fingers in his hair and lost herself in the hot bliss of his mouth.

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