Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

January 24 th

10:13 A.M.

"What did you just say?" Lucy demanded as she abruptly stopped struggling.

"Blessings," Zander repeated.

Did he mean …?

No.

That was impossible.

But …

His blue eyes met her gaze and held it, and although it was hard not to get distracted by the color she knew wasn't real, she could see him willing her to understand.

Unless she was reading him wrong.

A distinct possibility given that it was hard to focus on anything with this clawing need still raging inside her.

Only … he didn't look like he was trying to play her.

The hand around her neck was gentle, his fingertips lightly caressing her skin, and he'd lifted a knee, bracing it between her legs so that she was mostly balanced on his knee rather than hanging by her throat. He was making no effort to cut off her air supply or even impede it in any way, and he had said the code word.

A code word that everyone connected to Prey was aware of. It was a play on words of sorts, substituting the word prey for its homophone pray, and then using a word that went with the homophone. All Prey employees were aware of it, and it was meant to be used in case you were ever approached in the field by someone, you could then easily identify them as an ally instead of an enemy.

But why did Zander Madden—who had never worked for Prey—know the code word?

"Look, I know you have no reason to believe anything I say, but I need you to hear me out, both our lives depend on it," Zander said.

As much as she wanted to hear his explanation for why he was walking around alive and well when his sister had buried him, and why he was buddies with a notorious weapons trafficker, it was hard to think of anything else but the desire inside her that only got worse with him so close to her. The feel of his massive thigh between her legs, pressed right up against her wet and aching center was too good, and she rocked her hips, creating the tiniest amount of friction that made her moan in delight.

Gritting his teeth he lowered her to the floor. "Don't do that, sassy girl."

Crying out at the loss of minimal contact, Lucy threw caution to the wind and thrust her hips forward in a silent plea, wishing her hands weren't bound so she could grab his wrist and force his hand to soothe her suffering. Maybe it wasn't fair of her, they didn't know each other well, but at least they did know each other, and she'd wondered if he was undercover somehow, so learning that he was—which was the only explanation for him knowing the Prey code word—meant he was a good guy.

If a good guy brought her relief, she wouldn't have to hate herself as much.

"I can't, baby," he murmured although he looked torn.

"I need you to." Begging was absolutely not beneath her at the moment, not with Zander.

"You can't consent," he reminded her. "And I won't be the guy who assaults you while you're vulnerable."

"You'd be the guy saving me." Letting her forehead drop forward to rest against his chest, she whimpered and rode out another wave of excruciating arousal. "It's awful, Zander. So bad. I hate those men so much, but I was so close to pleading with them to touch me. Anything to relieve this pressure. I feel like I'm about to explode and not in a good way. Please. Help me."

"Baby," he said, voice tortured. "You don't even know why I'm here, and you hate me."

"Not hate," she clarified. "I know that you know the Prey codeword which means Eagle knows what you're doing. You're undercover, and while I'm not going to lie and say I'm not furious with you for hurting your sister, who I love like a sister, I know you have a reason for it. Please, I'm … begging … I'm literally begging. I can't stand this any longer, I'm going to lose my mind."

Shame filled her and she kept her head down as tears leaked out.

The promises she'd made to herself to never beg for relief were broken now.

Just because it was with a man she trusted—well mostly trusted—only made it a little bit better. It still hurt to know she wasn't as strong as she believed herself to be.

"Oh, baby." A finger hooked under her chin and Zander took a step back and nudged until she was forced to meet his eye. "I can't touch you, not when you're like this, but I have an idea."

An idea?

Hope sparked inside her.

She'd take anything she could get right now.

Grabbing her arm, he guided her over to the other door. This one she knew led to a bathroom, but it was kept locked unless one of the guards came in and allowed her to use the toilet. With the same key he'd used to enter her room, Zander unlocked the bathroom door and led her inside.

As soon as he'd closed the door behind them, he pulled out a knife and cut the zip ties binding her wrists. Pain immediately blossomed in her broken arm, and up through her shoulders as blood flow was allowed to return.

So very gently, Zander took her bad arm and carefully eased it forward and then began to massage it, helping with the horrendous pins and needles sensation. Once he was done, he repeated the process with her good arm, and Lucy felt her body relax under his ministrations. He might not be touching her where she needed him, but he was touching her, and the human contact felt so nice.

"Do you need help getting your clothes off?" he asked as he finally released her.

Eyes snapping open, she looked up at him. "Clothes off?" Was he going to ease the ache of arousal that lived inside her?

"Shower massager," he said, nodding at the shower behind them. "My bathroom has one, I was hoping yours would, too. I can't touch you, Lucy. Not because I don't think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on, not because I haven't craved you since we first met, it's because I've done enough things that weigh on my conscience and this can't be one of them. But I can't watch you suffer either. I thought it would be a good compromise."

It was perfect. "I think I love you," she murmured.

Zander laughed and he looked so wonderful, all relaxed like that, that her heart swelled in her chest. Before her stood a man who she somehow knew instinctively was broken in a lot of ways. Whatever he was doing here clearly wasn't easy for him, but she knew without him having to say it that he was risking a lot by helping her in any way.

While Zander turned the shower on and adjusted the temperature, Lucy tried her best to get out of the jeans and sweater she'd been stuck in for the last several days. Seeing her struggling, Zander came back to her and helped her ease the sweater off, being so careful of her broken arm that tears stung her eyes.

When he knelt in front of her to slide the jeans down her legs, he looked up at her. "I need you to play along with me, Lucy, can you do that? I will get you out of here alive, I swear it to you, I won't lose anyone else, but to do it I need your help."

The way he mentioned not being able to lose anyone else made those tears stinging her eyes begin to roll down her cheeks. There was such raw pain in those few words. Whoever he'd lost it had been devastating to him, and there was a big part of her that wanted to soothe his pain despite her lingering anger toward him for his lies.

"I'll do whatever you need me to do," she assured him. It was a promise that was hard to make in some ways because she didn't know what he needed her to do, but easy in others because Zander was her only hope of living through this ordeal.

"I'm going to need you to pretend that you're giving me the formula," he warned as his large hands splayed her hips and he picked her up and placed her in the shower.

"I can make up something that sounds like it could be real to buy time." Lucy took the shower massager when Zander handed it to her, and was half relieved, half disappointed when he turned his back to give her privacy. She'd just stripped naked in front of him without embarrassment or inhibition, would have let him have sex with her if he wanted, and throughout everything, she'd always felt a connection to this man.

Your friend's brother.

Who's currently undercover.

Who you have no idea if he intends to reveal himself as being alive when this is over.

The reminders ran through her mind as she adjusted the setting on the shower head and moved it between her legs, no longer able to wait to get some relief from her drug-induced arousal.

As soon as the spray hit her throbbing bud, everything else fled from her mind. After so many hours hovering so close to the edge, every muscle in her body went taut then a powerful orgasm ripped through her almost immediately, leaving her crying and shaking in relief as she sunk back to rest against the wall in exhaustion.

But at the back of her mind was a soft whisper that she still wished it had been Zander who had made her orgasm.

January 24 th

7:38 P.M.

Never had the hours ticked by so slowly.

It felt like time was moving backward, if it was moving at all.

Zander was on edge and was surprised he was doing as good a job at hiding it as he was.

So far, nobody seemed to guess that he was planning on busting the new toy out of there in a couple of hours at the most. In fact, he was currently the most popular guy there because he'd gotten "intel" out of their toy.

The fact that it came at a huge cost to him and Lucy didn't matter to anyone else. They didn't even know that the intel he'd passed along to Raul was fake. It would take time for them to figure it out. Raul had scientists of his own that he intended to take the formula Athena Team had created and make the drug for him. Those men or women would realize as soon as they started working on the drug that the formula was nonsense. Close enough to fool anyone on a quick readover Lucy had assured him, but not once they started actually making it.

Which was fine.

All he needed was to buy them time until nightfall.

As soon as it was dark, he was going to make his move.

Unfortunately, that meant they had to last the remainder of the day playing things up as though Zander was still helping Raul, and Lucy was a terrified prisoner awaiting her death. Which would likely come as soon as his scientists verified the drug, but by then they'd be long gone.

Although she had agreed to the plan, Zander knew Lucy was indeed a terrified prisoner. There was little to no acting required on her part to pull this off. But as scared as he knew she was, she was so brave. Not once had she complained, she'd listened to what he told her he needed her to do and done it. The questions she'd asked had been insightful, and while she had deferred to him as the expert there, she had offered her own input, but in the end, agreed with whatever he thought best.

There wasn't anything more he could have asked of her, she'd given him everything, and it killed him that she still had to suffer.

Casting a glance at where she was standing in the corner. Dressed once again in the clothes she'd been wearing when they crashed, no one would be able to tell that she'd spent close to two hours in the shower earlier getting herself off until the drug was basically out of her system. Her hair was still a mess, her face was still dirty, and her cheeks still flushed.

More fear and embarrassment than arousal this time, though, since he'd given her a minimal shot of the drug. Raul had had his men administer it every four hours so she'd had two doses since this morning in her room. But he'd been the one to inject her, and he'd squirted out most of the drug before it hit her system, so whatever was in her bloodstream was nothing compared to what had been there before.

"You want another beer?" one of Raul's men asked.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed, although he had no intention of drinking it, just like he hadn't drunk any of the others he'd been holding in his hand the last hour or so.

When the other man stood, Zander had no choice but to stand as well. All afternoon he'd done his best to keep Lucy in his line of sight so he could monitor her safety. There was still a no-touch rule in place, but that didn't mean someone wouldn't decide to test his luck and play with Raul's new toy a little early.

But he couldn't outright refuse to go to the kitchen with the man without looking suspicious.

So even though he could feel her scared eyes on his back as he left the room, he didn't look back. It killed him because her fear was a tangible thing that seemed to fill the room, but keeping them both alive until he got her out took precedence over offering her a molecule of reassurance in this moment.

"Heard you got to play," the man said as they strolled through the hall to the kitchen.

Swallowing down the bile that threatened to burn his throat, Zander pasted on a smarmy smile. "We had a thing going in the jungle, used it to my advantage. This works magic," he added, grabbing his crotch.

The man laughed like assaulting Lucy was hilarious instead of a sadistic crime. But keeping cover often required you to do things that repulsed you. No stranger to undercover work from his years in Delta and the almost twelve months he'd been playing this role, Zander was able to force a natural-sounding laugh past his lips.

"Women all the same, yes? They are weak, let their bodies control them. Their words may say no, but their body always say yes. I cannot wait for my turn. She as hot in bed as she looks?"

Already, the other man was growing hard, and Zander quickly shoved open the fridge and pulled out a beer. It was either that or grab the man around the throat and squeeze the life out of him.

"Hottest I ever had," he replied, knowing that was the absolute truth even though he'd never touched her. Keeping his back to her while she was in the shower, moaning and crying out her release, had been hard. But Lucy deserved her privacy and his respect, she'd been through enough and he wasn't going to add to it by ogling her as she orgasmed over and over again.

If he ever got the chance to have a willing and consenting Lucy in his bed, he would consider himself the luckiest man in the world.

But it was more than he had a right to hope for.

After everything he'd done, he didn't deserve even a drop of happiness or a moments peace from the guilt that plagued him.

The other man was laughing and talking about all the things he wanted to do to Lucy when it was his turn with her, and Zander was doing his best not to snap the man's neck as they walked back into the living room.

Immediately, his gaze swept to the corner where Lucy was standing, on display for the men to look at, or get off to, or whatever they wanted.

Only the corner was empty.

"Take this, man, gotta go," he mumbled, no longer caring about his cover as he shoved his beer into the hand of the man beside him and hurried back into the hall.

Lucy was gone.

Had Raul come for her?

Did he already know that she'd lied about the formula and that it wouldn't make the Reactivator for him?

Surely they needed more time than that. Lucy had assured him it should take at least a couple of days before Raul's scientists knew they'd been conned, and it had only been hours since he'd strolled into Raul's office like he was top dog and handed over the fake formula.

Just like Lucy had trusted him and his expertise, he trusted hers. If she said it would take a few days, then he believed her, so if it wasn't Raul who had taken her then who?

She knew the plan, and it was to keep pretending he was who he was pretending to be and she wouldn't do anything to mess it up by trying to escape on her own, that he was certain of.

Which meant the only other explanation was that one of the men had decided he was done waiting.

If one of Raul's men had violated Lucy, all bets were off.

Already, he was prepared to throw his undercover gig under the bus to get Lucy out of there alive, to hell with the consequences.

Nothing would make him happier than to kill one of these men.

There was already so much anger raging inside him, and Lucy being assaulted would be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, setting him off, unscrewing the lid, and letting all that fury explode out.

"Don't, please. Stop!" Lucy's voice echoed through the hall as he approached French doors leading to a paved patio area.

The unbridled terror in her voice was the match that lit the fuse.

For eighteen months, he'd been living with anger that had no outlet. The helplessness he'd felt as he was forced to watch the slow, agonizing executions of the men on his team had filled him with something dark and ugly, something that was slowly consuming him.

If he didn't let it out somehow it would destroy him.

Lucy was a speck of light in that darkness calling out to him. An anchor that was keeping him from being completely swept away.

Now someone wanted to touch a woman he felt down to his bones was his even though he knew, in reality, he could never have her.

Nobody touched what was his.

Without conscious thought, Zander ran down the hall and threw open the doors.

The sight before him unleashed that dark beast of rage and he made no attempt to rein it in as he launched himself at the man with his hand down Lucy's pants.