“Let’s go over what we do have.”
“As I said, both groups are in their infancy, but looking to make a statement. The one we believe sprouted out of Rubistan has yet to lash out.” He scratched a hand over his five o’clock shadow. By the bed, the digital clock’s glowing little red numbers silently shouted out a reminder of the lateness of the hour—12: 13 a. m. “They’re still training and posturing.”
“Unless today was their opening act.” Her eyes slid from the masculine cut of his jaw to his salt-and-pepper hair, trimmed short to military specs. The sprinkles of gray spoke of experience and wisdom. Strength. All of those things made him more appealing, especially on a day when she desperately needed a strong protector at her side.
Damn it, she didn’t want the heartache of another serious relationship. Why couldn’t he do something totally obnoxious? She forced her mind to stay on the task at hand. “And the other group?”
“Has risen from the ashes of the suppressed People’s Revolutionary Council in Cantou. They like to dabble in nuclear weaponry. They’ve already tried to park a bomb in a duffel bag at a German train station. Luckily, the bomb was defused.”
“Then they’re equal opportunity offenders.”
“Apparently so.” He cricked his neck from side to side, the white uniform shirt open and displaying a tempting hint of chest. “We have our normal assortment of call-in and write-in threats that come with every event. I wish I had the stack in front of me so I could review—”
“Hank, you know it takes weeks, sometimes months to trace through all of those reports. It would be a duck shoot, hoping we lucked into the right one in time for it to make a difference tonight.”
“Instincts count for something when you go duck hunting.”
“Do you still think they haven’t told the kids about us being missing?”
“Honestly? I don’t know.”
She stretched her legs in front of her, cracked her toes, then felt the weight of Hank’s gaze on her calves again. The logs in the fireplace snapped and popped.
Hank’s chest expanded in his uniform shirt. “We’ll need to get back on the road the minute the weather breaks.”
“Of course.”
“You should turn in now and nab as much rest as possible.”
Go to bed? Did he intend to get off the mattress before she stretched out? Or was he going to sleep, too?
She couldn’t imagine he would give up his watch even though he should snag a couple of hours of shut-eye.
“Uh, I’m going to put my clothes back on first, in case we need to leave quickly.” She would simply suffer through damp underwear.
She sprinted for the bathroom and slid back into her clothes, minus the panty hose and high heels. If she’d been alone, she could have slept in the camisole and tap pants…She couldn’t resist the grin that thinking of how that would surely make Hank stop in his tracks brought to her face.
“Ginger,” his voice called through the wall. “We’ve got an e-mail.”
Chapter 4
Hank jostled the weight of the BlackBerry in his hands as well as the weight of the message in his mind. Could he trust the simple text on a day when shots appeared to have come at him and Ginger from allies? Maybe even from within their own camp?
Ginger sat beside him on the edge of the bed, her fresh-washed hair damp and tousled and tempting right beneath his nose. “Do we trust the all clear to come in?”
“It’s not as if we can leave yet with the snowstorm. Once the weather does cooperate, we really don’t have a choice but to take this one cautious step at a time.”
“Basically, then, the e-mail changes nothing tonight.” Her bare toes curled into the carpet, a sexy temptation, a woman’s bare feet and a stretch of n**ed leg leading into the red skirt.
“Afraid not.” He pulled his attention back onto the BlackBerry, a much safer place to look at the moment. “We’re still captives of the weather.”
She scratched the top of one n**ed foot with the toes of her other foot. Damn, he was developing a foot fetish.
Hank rose from the edge of the bed, dimming the lights one after the other on his way. “I’ll sit over here and see what other information I can milk out of this BlackBerry. You should try to sleep while you can.”
“All right. I know it’s senseless to insist you need sleep as well.”
“I’ll rest, catch catnaps. I’m used to pulling long shifts.”