Embry swallowed. “When you touched me there was an explosion. It threw you across the dojo, into the wall. You just… lay there. And then Matthias said… ”
“What did Matthias say?” Gage’s voice was soft, but beneath her, his body was rigid.
“He said that I’d completed their mission for them.”
His rage was its own kind of heat. “That son of a bitch let you go all these years thinking—”
“Yes.”
“I’ll kill him.” The words were short, sharp, as if they were bones snapping in his hands.
Embry propped herself up and stroked the hard lines of his face. “It won’t change anything.”
“He deserves to pay for what he did to you,” he growled.
“Maybe so. But I’ve thought about this a lot the last week. Matthias is senior. If he said you were dead, his men had no reason to question it. It’s probably the only way he was able to get away with wiping your memory and dumping you in Vegas. If that’s the price I had to pay for you to live, so be it. I’d pay it again in a heartbeat.”
Some of the tension leeched out of his face. “You deserve some happily ever after to make up for all this shit.”
And you deserve honesty that I just can’t give you, she thought. Lowering her lips to his, she murmured, “We have right now. Tonight. I suggest we make the most of it.”
Chapter 8
Sergeant Mackey was waiting on the other side of the soaring fence when they pulled up. At his order, the gate swung open, and Gage drove through. Mackey leaned over as he rolled down the driver’s side window of the Charger.
“Hope you brought your chops. The men are looking forward to watching our guy wipe the floor with your ass, but I hope you’ll be able to last a few rounds, at least.”
“I’m ready,” said Gage. The message was clear: I want a good fight, so don’t drop our guy in the first round. Gage almost smiled. The guy was giving him permission to draw this thing out. He nodded, feeling understanding pass between them. “I’ll try to hold out,” he said dryly.
With a smirk and a quick double tap on the car door, the sergeant waved them on.
“Cocky bastard,” Gage muttered. As the gates closed behind them, he said a fleeting prayer that they would make it out alive, preferably with his car intact and Adan in tow.
They entered the big, concrete tunnel leading into the mountain. It looked like any other tunnel, lit at regular intervals by fluorescent bulbs. Except that instead of open air, this tunnel let out into a cavernous underground parking lot that was lit brighter than an NFL field. Guards were posted every fifty yards. Embry raised an eyebrow at the sight of them. “You could take any of these meatheads in your sleep. But for the sake of the recon, you think you can drag it out a while?”
“Baby, I can take this fight anywhere it needs to go. I’ll give you as long as I can. But you be careful. If you get caught—”
“If I get caught, I’ll just say I got lost on the way back from the bathroom.”
Her flip response put him on edge. “Embry… ”
“I’ll be careful, Gage.”
“I don’t like this,” he ground out as he whipped the car into a space at the far end of a row of Humvees. “I can’t back you up from the ring.”
“You won’t have to back me up. You just have to distract them. I’ll find out the lay of the land. In and out. Just like we talked about.” She looked perfectly reasonable and calm. So why did he feel like cats were clawing their way up his bare back?
He shut off the engine and reached across to cradle her face. “Ember, I love you. Don’t do anything risky.”
She leaned forward and laid her lips over his. The thrill of it, the heat of it shot through
him, juicing him well beyond the adrenaline that preceded a fight. Beneath his fingers, he could feel the flame just under her skin. Vital, addictive. Alive.
He exhaled unsteadily as she pulled back. “When we get out of this, we’ve got some serious catching up to do,” he said.
Someone knocked on the window. Gage shifted back to see a BDU clad soldier with an MP-5 slung over his shoulder. He gestured for them to get out of the car. “Showtime,” Gage muttered. There was no time to issue further cautions or rehash their sketchy plan. Fixing an arrogant smile in place, he opened the door. “Evenin’, Private.”
Face expressionless, the guard escorted them to a bank of elevators, where Mackey was waiting for them with three other soldiers. The sergeant leaned forward for a retinal scan. Once the system had verified his identity, the doors slid open. He motioned for them to enter.