Chapter 5

January 12th

7:24 P.M.

Honestly,Scarlett couldn't care how badly it hurt stitching up the gunshot wound that had been poked and prodded so many times while Raul was holding her prisoner that she was surprised there wasn't a huge hole going all the way through from the entry wound to the exit one.

Pain she could handle.

Pain was nothing.

Pain was easy in comparison to …

Nope.

Not going there yet. Or ever.

Because she had zero plans to include Raul drugging her in her report when they got home. It didn"t serve any purpose. While she had begged and pleaded just as Raul told her she would, she hadn"t given up any intel.

Nobody needed to know about it.

Although, when Tate had pulled out that syringe for a second there, her mind had thrown her back into that dungeon torture chamber. Chained up, drugged, and afraid, the arousal that had coursed through her body was unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

Desire was normal, and being turned on was normal. She'd dated before, been engaged twice, and thought she was in love more times than that. There had been plenty of times in bed she had thought she would die if she wasn't given an orgasm immediately, but it had been nothing close to what that drug had induced.

It was like being set on fire. The throbbing between her legs had been so strong it was painful. The need to orgasm was like a physical being low in her belly trying to claw its way out.

Only there had been nothing to quench the fire raging inside her.

No matter how much she begged and pleaded for release, no one had touched her. They'd just stood around and laughed at her torment, a few of them had gotten themselves off to the sounds of her breathy moans, the thrusting of her hips seeking relief that wasn't there. A few had squirted the evidence of their own orgasms onto her naked body.

Hours.

Her torment had lasted for hours.

Scarlett had no idea how she hadn"t blurted out the formula for the Reactivator for an orgasm that might bring her a little relief.

"Why are you still hyperventilating? It's done," Tate snapped.

Blinking, she looked down at her arm where a small, ragged row of black stitches closed the entry wound. Since Tate had a roll of bandages in his hand, she assumed he had likewise stitched the exit wound.

Trapped in her memories, Scarlett didn"t remember a single thing about him stitching up the wound.

"You didn"t flinch once. You were too lost in thought," Tate accused like he had the ability to read her mind. "What were you thinking about hard enough that you didn"t even notice your wounds being stitched?"

"Nothing," she lied, praying he believed her. People knowing she had been tortured was one thing, but she didn"t want them to know how she had begged Raul Castillo's dirty, despicable men for orgasms her brain hadn"t even wanted, only her body had craved them.

From the look on his face, he did not believe her.

Nothing she could do about that.

There was no way he could possibly know all the things Raul had done to her. As long as he believed she had just been physically tortured then neither he nor anyone else would have cause to think there had been more to it.

His eyes narrowed, and he looked angry all over again. How could he be so angry with her and yet touch her so gently? Maybe it wasn't her he was angry with? Maybe just at the whole situation?

Too tired to attempt to figure it out, between being tortured and in pain and half-starved, she'd had little sleep since being kidnapped. A hot shower, a hot cup of tea, and a long sleep in a nice comfortable bed. That was what she craved right now.

"What time is the exfil?" she asked.

Something danced through Tate's eyes that she couldn't interpret. "Oh two hundred."

"What location?" If the worst happened and they were split up, Scarlett wanted to make sure she knew the coordinates of the exfil, or at least the general direction, since she didn"t have anything on her that would help her find it. Which reminded her she was still naked. Just because Tate had seen her naked the night they spent together, it didn"t mean she was comfortable with him seeing her body now. They weren"t together, he'd been rude and cruel to her after their time together, and he didn"t seem to want to be here now. The imbalance of power with him fully clothed and her completely bare was making her uncomfortable. "Umm, do you have something I could wear, please?"

A grunt was the only response she got, but thankfully, he packed away his med kit and pulled a long-sleeve black T-shirt and a pair of pants from his pack.

When he handed them to her, she snatched them up greedily and quickly pulled the T-shirt over her head. It was several sizes too big, but she didn"t care, it covered her body and gave her back a little of her sense of control over herself and her surroundings. Likewise, the pants were way too big, so she rolled them up several times, both at the cuffs and the waistband. Not perfect, especially if they had to run, but better than nothing.

Muchbetter than nothing.

With clothing taken care of, that brought her to her next pressing need.

Embarrassment made her cheeks turn red. "Umm, I"m just going to go over there and …" Scarlett trailed off, not wanting to say out loud that she had to go pee.

With eyes narrowing, the look he threw her was close to a glare, and she had no idea why he was being such an angry, callous jerk.

Did he have no compassion for what she'd just been through?

Even if he hated her, she was a human being who had been abducted and tortured. Surely, he could keep his personal feelings out of it long enough to get her home. Then, if he chose, he could go right on back to hating her.

"I'll go with you," he said, already hefting his pack onto his back.

What did he need that for?

She was only going to go behind a tree to get a little privacy. After being paraded around the basement naked for days, then out through the house to the pool so Raul could threaten to have her drowned if she didn"t tell him what he wanted to know, a little privacy didn"t seem like a big deal.

Too exhausted to argue, she merely nodded and headed for the trees.

Maybe she was being too hard on Tate. She only knew bedroom Tate, not in the field Tate. Maybe he was always this aggressive on an op. Other than assuming they were in Mexico because that's where Raul was rumored to reside, she knew nothing about their location, the number of men here, or anything else pertaining to the op.

"Could you umm … close your eyes?" she asked when she reached for the waistband of her borrowed pants. Tate might be just trying to be vigilant since she was injured and unarmed and his responsibility right now, but she didn"t want him watching her pee.

For a moment, she thought he was going to refuse, but then his eyes closed, and she quickly shoved her pants down and squatted awkwardly to do her business.

It wasn't until she was yanking the pants back up that she realized she had never asked. "Raul? Did your team get him?" If he was in the SEAL's custody, she wouldn't have to worry about him coming after her again, and maybe she could survive this whole ordeal with her sanity intact.

"Nope. He bailed in a helo," Tate answered, opening his eyes and pinning her with a harsh stare she didn"t understand.

"Left?" Now that she thought about it, she remembered being out by the pool and everyone, Raul included, suddenly running off, leaving her standing there. Not long after that, Tate showed up and saved her life. Somehow, Raul had known the SEALs were coming before they had arrived and fled so he wouldn't be captured.

"Yeah, left you behind."

Thankfully. Because if he'd taken her with him, she might never have been heard from again.

Fighting a yawn, Scarlett did her best to push away her hurt that a man she'd felt such a strong connection to was treating her so poorly, especially when she needed a little coddling right now. "So, what next?"

Giving her a long, hard, assessing look, Tate finally hooked a thumb behind him. "There's a cave just back there. We're going to wait in there for a few hours. You can get some sleep and then we'll head to the extraction point."

"Then we can go home," she said with a happy sigh. She couldn't wait. All Scarlett wanted to do was put this whole nightmare behind her.

Tate gave her a weird look. "Yeah. Home."

"I can"t wait."

A grunt was the only response she got.

"Lead the way to our cave, a nap sounds perfect."

"You go first," he said quickly, and she could have sworn his hands tightened on his weapon like he was almost afraid to let her out of his sight, even for a second.

Which made zero sense.

Not that any of this made sense.

How did Raul even find out about the Reactivator? No one outside a few people at Prey knew anything about it. Why would any of them pass that intel along to a known weapons trafficker?

Right now, she didn"t have the energy to figure it out. Once she got home and got some rest, she, her team, and Prey would figure it all out.

January 13th

1:02 A.M.

This woman was makinghim question everything.

Tate knew the facts and had read the email for himself. In it, Scarlett offered the sale of the Reactivator for five million dollars.

Those facts were not in question.

Yet everything about Scarlett and her demeanor screamed that she was innocent and had no idea what was going on.

The problem was, for every benefit of the doubt he wanted to give her and prove her innocence, there was a counterargument.

She'd blanked out while he was stitching up her gunshot wound—medical treatment wouldn't be high on the priority list once she was taken into custody, and he didn"t want the wound getting infected—which could have indicated she was reliving her trauma. Or she could have been figuring out a plan on how she was going to handle the fallout of her decisions.

When she had learned Raul Castillo was not in custody, she had seemed relieved. But was it because she thought she was safe now or because no one was around to contradict whatever story she was going to weave?

She was obviously confused by his anger toward her, although she was yet to confront him on it, but even that wasn't proof of her innocence. Scarlett had no idea the email had been found, she probably thought she had wiped her trail clean.

Even the fact she had immediately curled into him the second she fell asleep could show that she had nothing to hide, or she could be attempting to play him, hoping she could manipulate him into being on her side.

Not going to work, little traitor.

What was working was her making him doubt himself and his abilities. Tate had never had this problem before, doubted the intel, or doubted a target he was sent in to retrieve or neutralize.

But Scarlett made him doubt everything.

To the point where he was considering if it was time for him to get out of the game. Maybe he'd been in too long and was starting to lose what had made him a good SEAL.

Because every atom in his body screamed at him that Scarlett was innocent.

Only she wasn't.

What good was he going to be as a SEAL if he could no longer trust his instincts?

Instincts kept you alive, kept your team alive, and brought you home safe after completing a successful mission.

Without them he was useless.

One night of sex with this woman and everything he had always believed he was good at had been thrown out the window.

Frustration at himself only stoked the fires of his anger at Scarlett. And then again at himself because he had done absolutely nothing to move her when she had snuggled into his side, draping herself across his chest just as she'd done that night.

He hadn"t pushed her away then and he didn"t now.

Stupid.

Did he need to be beaten over the head with it?

Scarlett Madden had sold out her team, employer, and country. She'd been lying to him from the beginning, and he had no doubts that her attempts to reach out were because she thought it would be helpful to have a SEAL on her side.

I"m not on your side, little traitor. Not ever.

It was time to wake Scarlett if they wanted to get to the exfil point. Actually, he should have woken her fifteen minutes ago, but for some reason, he'd been unable to disturb her sleep when she so obviously needed the rest.

Now they were out of time, Scarlett could sleep on the plane. She would if she knew what was good for her because once she got back Stateside and was taken into custody she wouldn't be getting much rest.

"Wake up, Scarlett," he ordered as he shook her a little rougher than was necessary.

"Tate?" she mumbled as she blinked sleepily and stretched.

Damn. Why did she have to look so good in his clothes? Why did she have to look so good, period? Even exhausted with dark smudges under her eyes, dirty with tangled hair, and cuts and bruises littering her body, she looked gorgeous.

Too gorgeous.

Was she used to using her body to get what she wanted?

He had a feeling she'd grown up every bit as lonely as he had, but what was she prepared to do to gain a little companionship?

"Time to leave," he snapped, annoyed that no matter how many times he reminded himself that this woman was the enemy, that she had betrayed him and their country, his body couldn't seem to get the memo.

Too many months spent lusting after her.

That was the problem.

"Okay," she agreed. "Can I pee first?"

Before he'd let her go to sleep, he'd made sure she was hydrated. He was surprised she'd managed to sleep for a few hours without having to get up given how much water she'd drunk.

Watching her guzzle down that water from his bottle, then lick the last drop off her plump bottom lip had thrown his system into a frenzy. His body had gone haywire, and all the blood had dropped south as he remembered those lips and what they felt like worshipping his body.

"Umm, you can stay close if you"re worried about someone finding us," Scarlett continued when he didn"t answer.

It's not Raul's men I"m worried about, little traitor, it's you doing a runner.

"Make it quick," he snapped. When she didn"t move, he growled, "Hurry up."

Turned out it was only his common sense that was worried about her running because while he did stand, he didn"t follow her as she scrambled to her feet and scurried off behind a tree.

Scarlett wasn't going to run.

For all his talk of no longer trusting his instincts, he knew for certain she wasn't going anywhere.

Maybe she honestly thought she was going to get away with this.

Less than a minute later, she popped back around the tree and stood there waiting for him. In his much too big for her small frame clothes, she should have looked ridiculous, but she didn"t. She looked far too sexy for her own good.

It was a mile to the extraction point, and he'd already let her sleep later than he should. With the near-pitch darkness of the thick jungle, Scarlett was going to struggle to see where he was going without the benefit of the night vision goggles he was snapping on as he turned off the flashlight.

"I don't have spare shoes, but you need something to cover your feet," he muttered, irked that he cared about her comfort after what she'd done.

"It's okay, I'll be fine," Scarlett assured him, but he ignored her and dug through his pack to find a spare pair of socks. Again, they'd be too big and wouldn't offer much protection from the terrain, but they were better than nothing.

Once his pack was on his back and his weapon slung across his shoulder, he went to her and knelt at her feet.

She sucked in a breath as his hands swept across her ankle as he pulled a sock onto one of her feet. When he looked up at her, she was chewing on her bottom lip again, looking near angelic in the green glow of his NVGs.

Why did she have to act all sweet and innocent when he knew it was just that? An act.

Quickly, he slipped on the other sock and then stood. It would be hard walking side by side through the jungle, but he didn"t want her behind him, and he was the one who knew where they were going so he had to lead.

With a sigh, he knew there was only one way they could do this even if he didn"t want to.

"Hold onto my waistband," he ordered, stepping in front of her. "And don't let go." Despite what he knew about her, he didn"t want to shoot her if she tried anything stupid.

Not that it seemed she wanted to.

Scarlett quickly looped her fingers through his waistband and clung to him with such trust he once again was swamped by the feeling that this woman had no clue what she was in the middle of.

Not wanting to go over the same thoughts he'd had for hours as he watched Scarlett sleep, Tate set a punishing pace as they headed for the exfil location.

To her credit, Scarlett kept up despite the exhaustion that had only been kept at bay by her nap. She didn"t complain or waste energy she didn"t have peppering him with questions. Just trusted that he knew where he was going and would get her safely home.

Your trust is misplaced, sweetheart.

While he would get her home, she was hardly going to be safe once she got there. Given the charges she'd face, she would be held indefinitely without access to the usual safeguards for suspects. Scarlett would be living out the rest of her life behind bars in a maximum-security prison. If she was that lucky. Otherwise, she would be squirreled away at some black site hardly anybody knew about.

Feeling sorry for her was stupid. Nobody had forced her to make these choices, she'd known the risks and gone ahead anyway. There was not a single person Scarlett could blame for her predicament other than herself.

So why, when they reached a small clearing and he saw the helo sitting waiting for them, did he feel a rush of protectiveness?

Of pity for this woman's fate?

Once they were onboard, all eyes swung in their direction, a litany of non-verbalized questions filling his teammates' eyes.

Obviously sensing the hostility directed squarely at her from the rest of his team, Scarlett inched closer as though he were her only form of protection.

I"m not going to save you, little traitor. You"re on your own in this mess you created.