Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

“Why?”

“Can you run in them?”

“No.”

“Then take off the damn shoes and do what I tell you from now on without wasting time asking stupid-ass questions.”

With a glare, she curled her fingers around his arm to steady herself as she bent to take off her shoes. With shoes in her hand, she glared up at him. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Fantastic.” He snatched the shoes from her and tossed them into the bath. Which earned him another strangled scream. Whatever. He inched the door open and listened. They were clear. “We’re going up. Stay at my side. Keep quiet.”

“Why are we going up?” she whispered back.

Mace closed his eyes and counted to ten. “Don’t. Talk. Don’t. Question.”

“I don’t understand. The security base is down, not up.”

Leaving her in the bathroom seemed like a better idea by the minute. “There’s an elevator that runs from the penthouse straight to the ground floor.”

“Oh. Okay.” She nodded. “Good idea.”

“I’m thrilled you think so. Now can we go? Or do you want to hang around and chat some more?”

“This is the world’s worst rescue. And, yes, we can go.”

“Well, thank fuck for that.” He grabbed her hand and yanked her out of the bathroom.

“Don’t curse,” she snapped.

Mace strangled a groan. “I’m fucking thrilled you agreed to accompany me. Now shut the fuck up.”

She muttered something about kicking him properly when she got out of her dress but then fell silent. Mace bit back a smile. She was a violent little thing, and he kind of liked it.

Chapter Eleven

All Keiko had to do was stay alive until Enforcement rescued her. And if that meant sticking with the man who’d betrayed her, then she could do it. She would remain detached and professional. Which would have been a whole lot easier to do if his body wasn’t driving her insane. Why, oh why hadn’t she gotten him naked before he blew everything? Now she would never know what he looked like without his clothes, and even though he was a liar and a traitor, she was betting he would have looked very fine indeed.

As she tiptoed, barefoot, behind him, she noted her eyes were level with the bottom curve of his shoulder blades. His size should have intimidated her, but instead it fascinated her. Her eyes rested on his hands, which hung loosely at his sides. They were massive, at least twice as big as hers. Her last lover had been only two inches taller than her, and he had delicate hands with long, artistic fingers. She’d always thought his hands were feminine. You couldn’t say that about Mace’s hands. Not only were they huge, they could be firm or delicate in their touch. She shivered as she remembered exactly how they’d felt on her body. He might be an asshole, but he had gorgeous hands.

Her forehead suddenly smacked into his back, and she realized he’d stopped walking. He cast her a look of disgust over his shoulder. What could she say? It was merited.

“Concentrate,” he hissed.

“My mind wanders when I’m anxious.”

He rolled his eyes at her. Disgusted with her lack of professionalism, no doubt. But how was she supposed to know how to behave? It wasn’t like she was blackmailed and kidnapped every day of the week. She was just doing what she could to cope. It was either let her mind wander or run screaming through the building until someone put a bullet in her head.

“Cameras,” he whispered as he pointed to the motion detector at the top of the corridor. “These ones are on the closed circuit.”

Keiko stilled. Anyone watching the wired-in feed from these cameras would see them. A signal jammer would only affect waves in the air, not images sent through a closed system. In other words, they were in trouble.

“Can we sneak past them? Do you know how much of the corridor they cover?” She half expected him to make some smart comment about her assumption he’d know something like that.

He didn’t. “They cover the whole corridor. There’s no sneaking past.” He pointed to the other end of the wall. “Two of them.” He gestured to th

e door leading to the staircase up to the residence. “The door is alarmed and locked with a biometric panel. Are you cleared to open it? Assuming we could make it past the cameras.”

“Only Miriam, her head of security, and the lead on the security team here would be programmed to open that door.”