Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel 2)

“I had a meeting,” she admitted.

“At three in the morning at a park?” Chris asked.

“Didn’t I just say that?” she said before she could stop herself and was rewarded by a sudden two foot drop.

“Bastard,” she gasped when her stomach stopped rolling.

“Ooops, sorry. It slipped,” he said not sounding sorry at all, she noted.

She closed her eyes tightly as she was pulled back up.

When she opened her eyes she found herself face to face with the big jerk.

“Now,” he said, resting his hands on the banister as he leaned forward until their faces were less than a half foot apart, “what was the meeting about and most importantly did they get what they were after?”

Since she now had a very good idea what those men that met her in the park were, not that Chris or anyone else for that matter had explained all that to her yet, everything made a little more sense. She was also glad that she hadn’t given them the program, not that they had much chance of getting it once she realized how monumentally stupid it would have been to hand over her program to someone who needed to meet at an abandon park late at night.

“If I answer all of your questions will you let me go home?” she asked, already knowing there was no way she was going to avoid answering their questions for much longer. She really wasn’t sure how much longer she could tolerate hanging upside down like this, plus she wasn’t a complete idiot.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that these guys were working against the men who’d attacked her.

Okay, so a few hours ago she may have thought they were all working together and that she was drugged, but she’d long given up hope that drugs were responsible for her current situation. Her only chance was to tell them what they wanted to know and hope that was enough so she could go home and pretend that none of this ever happened. It was a good plan, a solid plan, and one she desperately hoped they were on board with.

“No,” he said without any hesitation. “Once you’re done answering our questions you will be transported to one of our compounds where you will be further interrogated. The council will find a purpose for you after that.”

She licked her lips nervously as his words sank in. “Bbut I have a life! I have a job a-a-and other things, very important things that need my attention!” she stammered on when she realized she really didn’t have much to go home to, besides her work and since her work was very important to her and she really didn’t like the sounds of what they had planned for her she was going to do her best to get out of this.

“That life is over now,” he said, giving her a sympathetic shake of his head, one that pissed her off.

How dare he?

“Do I at least get to tell me boyfriend goodbye?” she demanded, at least having enough sense not to lie hugely and say her family would miss her or that she was married, two things they could easily look into.

“Boyfriend?” Chris repeated, looking truly taken back, which shouldn’t please her, but it did. Right now she’d take what she could get and hope that it would somehow work in her favor. “Why the hell would you have a boyfriend?” he demanded as if the very idea of her having a boyfriend was unheard of, which just went to piss her off even more.

“For sex, what else?” she demanded, quite pleased with the stunned expression on his face even as the pressure from being hung upside down for so long was starting to making her stomach flip over again.

“Chris, perhaps you should go and let me-“

“Dad, why don’t you go make sure that Madison is okay?” Chris suggested in an obviously forced tone as he kept his eyes on her and that little muscle below his eye ticked double time.

She swallowed nervously as his intent gaze never wavered from her face. “I’d love to go and check on Madison. So, if you let me down we can all go make sure that Madison is okay and then maybe we can all talk about this like calm rational adults?” she asked, sounding too damn hopeful even to her own ears.

“No, I think you and I will stay right here and have a little talk of our own,” Chris said softly as he reached over, she may have flinched a little, and gently pushed a few errant strands of hair off her face to join the rest of the mess hanging upside down.

“Oh, I don’t mind making this a group thing,” she said, shooting Ephraim a pleading look.

“Chris?”

“We’re more than fine, dad. Izzy and I are just going to have ourselves a little talk and then we’ll make that call to Eric and figure out where she’s going,” Chris explained. Even Isabella, who just barely stopped herself from reminding him that her name was not Izzy, wasn’t buying his little calm facade. The man looked ready to kill something and thankfully Ephraim seemed reasonable and probably wouldn’t leave so”Call me if you need me,” Ephraim said, sighing as he left faster than her eyes could follow.

“What? I need you!” she called out. “Get back here!

Don’t leave me alone with him!”

“If I didn’t know better I’d think that you didn’t want to be alone with me,” Chris said, drawing her attention as he gave one of her long strands of hair a slight tug to turn her so that she was once again facing him.

She blinked. “Because I don’t?”

He simply shook his head slowly as he sighed long and heavy. “I’m just going to pretend that you didn’t say that because I know you didn’t mean it.”

“Oh no, I meant it,” she admitted as she tried to look around for a way down or help. At the moment she wasn’t choosy as long as either option helped her get back to solid ground.

Chris chuckled softly as he leaned in until he was cheek to cheek with her, further unnerving her since she couldn’t really tell if he was angry when he spoke. She needed to keep an eye out for that angry tick beneath his eye so she knew when to shut the hell up.

“Now,” he said, sending a delicious wave of his warm breath over her neck, “why don’t you tell me about this little meeting and what they wanted?”

She opened her mouth to answer him when she felt the first brush of his lips against her neck. “Oh god,” she muttered, gasping when he pressed another kiss against her neck, careful of the shallow cuts that marred her skin.

“Izzy?”

“Hmmm?” she asked as her eyes threatened to close from pleasure. Who would have guessed that such simple chaste kisses could set her body on fire? She certainly hadn’t. She could almost forget that she was livid with him for everything he’d put her through, including scaring the hell out of her tonight.