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She detected the teasing note in his voice. “Behave.” She nudged his shoulder with hers before resting her cheek on him. “I want us to stay friends, Mark.”

His lips pressed against her hair. “We will always be friends, Tally. I’m just sorry we can’t be more.”

In that, she agreed. “Me too.”

“So, um, have you ever heard of breakup sex?”

Tally sat up, pushing him away as she laughed. “You rascal! I am not having sex with you!” And not just because she suspected they were not alone.

Simone might have a point about her not thinking clearly, because she really should find that fact disturbing. What was wrong with her?

Mark chuckled. “At the very least, will you stay for a bit so we can catch up on things and talk like we used to?”

“Absolutely.” Tally stood up. “But first, I need to use the bathroom.”

“Oh, um, I might have left my bath towel on the floor. Let me go?—”

“I got it,” she assured him. If what she suspected was true, that bath towel would not be on the floor. But then, why would Mark think that someone else had cleaned his apartment? Only an insane person would.

Which led Tally back to her possible insanity.

However, she planned on testing her theory. From the other times she’d been in Mark’s apartment, she knew that there was a table in a small alcove in the hallway with some picture frames on it. Sheaccidentallybumped into it on her way to the bathroom.

A picture frame fell to the floor; itsplopwas muffled by the carpet.

Since Tally was never one to pass up an opportunity to pee, she did use the bathroom facilities. Sure enough, there was no towel on the floor as Mark thought there might be. She was careful when stepping on the bathroom rugs around the toilet and by the vanity.

Upon exiting, she used her hand on the wall to guide her back to the alcove. The picture frame she’d knocked on the floor was no longer there.

“Mark, did you come back here?”

His voice carried down the hall from the living room. “No. Did you need me to?”

“No,” she answered hastily. “Just thought I heard something.” She turned in a circle, trying to find him. Her nostrils flared slightly. In a low voice, she said, “You’re there. I know you are. I always dread coming over here because it never fails that I trip on something. As odd as it is for me to say, thank you for breaking in here and cleaning up.”

It was slight, but she felt a shift in the hallway. Almost like a confirmation that he really was there.

Turning around, she headed back into the living room.

CHAPTER9

ELEVEN YEARS AGO

Pain. It was all he knew. All he remembered. There was no time, no date.

The bodies of his teammates, his brothers, were left where they’d fallen. They were not immortalized in time, frozen as the men they once were. The increased humidity and heat within the cave sped up the decomposition process or the four remaining members of the Delta Force team were in that cave a lot longer than any of them fathomed.

The smells were beyond his comprehension. The bodies of their friends had almost immediately started to expel wastes and gases, bloating within the shell of their skin. No bathroom facilities were provided or offered for the surviving prisoners. Though starved and dehydrated, stagnant water and moldy bread were still shoved down their throats every so often. The men had no choice but to allow their bodies’ biological needs to occur where they stood.

Flies, moths, maggots, mites, rats, mice, and a number of other creatures ventured into the cave to feast on both the living and the dead.

Farmboy, Cajun, Little Tyke, and Julian were not simply left to hang by their wrists. Every few hours, one or two were taken down and beaten. Teeth, nails, and patches of skin were removed. After Farmboy made one too many snarky remarks, they cut out his tongue. Little Tyke was down to seven fingers and five toes. Cajun had been drowned and resuscitated several times.

Julian watched it all, his jaw clamped shut. He played a mental game where he purposefully messed up the code inside his head. If he broke… He might be desperate enough to give the real code, so he tried his damndest to forget or misremember.

They did not merely make Julian watch as his teammates and brothers were made to suffer. After what Julian could only assume to be several days, the leader with the bandolier ordered his men to start in on Julian.

He took it all in silence. He never spoke, never screamed. The only time his mouth was open was when they pried his jaws apart to shove water down his throat. After the second time of doing that, a piece of bark was wedged between his teeth like a horse’s bit. Julian chewed through it within a matter of hours, his jaw once again clamping shut.

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