I didn’t ask her anything when I brought her water and food. Or when I untied her so she could use the bathroom.
Without the air conditioning, she was down to her bra and shorts while I stuck with only my shorts, too. She might have started that little strip as a tease, but it was necessary for both of us to refrain from too much clothing.
I checked the unit, finding the power fried. Fans blew hot, muggy air, but it was the dwindling stock of food that bothered me more. I’d need to get more.
Or you can give this up, let her go, and head home.
I cringed at the idea of releasing her. It was too soon.
Maybe she’d never cave and tell me anything. But I had to try.
“Come on. Hasn’t this gone on long enough?” she asked the next morning. “I’m not going to talk. You’re not going to talk. We can call this a stalemate and go our separate ways.”
I set her breakfast down then sat across from her. “Sure, like you wouldn’t try to have me arrested for kidnapping a federal agent.”
She opened and closed her mouth before reaching for her food, as if she rethought saying anything at all.
“Once more, can’t we move past the basics? You’re not weak to admit we’ve reached a mutual understanding here, all right? You’re an agent and I’m a monster Mafia killer. There. That’s settled.”
She arched one brow as if she thought nothing was settled at all. “Then if the basics are settled, why not let me go?”
“What are you so scared of?” I uncrossed my arms, loving how she couldn’t help but check me out. I’d never put another shirt on again if it meant she’d stare at me with barely masked longing like that.
“Scared?” She smiled, a sassy, stubborn mockery. “Of you?”
“You do know I could’ve killed you any time I wanted to, correct?”
“And you do know that I realized that the instant you grabbed me, correct?” She sipped water, taunting me to watch her lips around the opening of the bottle. “If you haven’t killed me yet, there’s a low chance of it happening at all.”
“Don’t be too sure of that, little agent.”
“With how fucking hot it is in here, I’m not sure of anything. I’m going insane, Emil. Aren’t you miserable, too?”
“Want me to take off the rest of my clothes?” I offered.
She dropped her head back and groaned, then sat back up. “I just fail to see what you’re accomplishing here.”
“I’m waiting for you to tell me why you were after me in the first place.”
She furrowed her brow. “That’s insulting.”
“What is?”
“That you think I would be so stupid as to give you potentially confidential and threatening intel when I’m unarmed, in a remote location, with no protection or backup.”
I smiled slightly. “I don’t think you’re stupid.”
She smirked.
“Just stubborn.”
“Thanks. I’ll take that as an accomplishment. Now, can you let me go?”
“Who do you work for?” I had no interest in letting her go. But maybe she’d talk now.
She shook her head.
“Why are you scared to tell me?”
