Then I slam the trunk closed and hop behind the wheel as Charlie rides shotgun and the other two climb in the back.
“Was that really necessary?” Anderson asks.
“Yes,” Charlie and I say in unison.
I eyeball Kai through the mirror. “We have a thirty-minute drive to the border, and we can’t risk being stopped on the way because we have a woman prisoner in the back.”
“You think rocking up to border control with a woman tied up in the trunk is better?” Disbelief underscores Kai’s tone.
“Our contact at the border has been handsomely remunerated to turn a blind eye to everything.”
“Let’s hope that’s true because you look like a reject from a horror movie,” Hunt says.
Thankfully we make it through border control with the rest of our men without incident, and I’ve had confirmation from the men in the city they got away with no casualties. They’re all Bulgarian nationals, and they’ll lie low until the heat dies down.
“I’d love to be a fly on the wall when Petrov realizes we kidnapped his only son and heir,” Hunt says.
“Let’s not gloat yet,” Charlie says, looking out the window at the mountains as we speed along the border highway. “We still have a two-hour drive to the airfield at Nis.”
Kai clears his throat when we’re an hour away from the airport. “She could be choking back there. You should at least check on her.”
“I’m not stopping. It’s too risky.”
“You could stop over there,” Hunt says, pointing at a little side road up ahead bordered with dense trees.
“No.”
Tension is thick in the air as I put the pedal to the metal and try to focus on getting us to the airfield before the authorities or Petrov get to us. But it’s difficult not to think about the woman tied up in the trunk.
I’d had an instinct about her from the start, and I was right. Except I don’t know whose side she’s on. Athena helped us back there, and I’m conflicted. Is she an enemy or an ally?
She was planted in my business as a spy, and it’s obvious she is the one we caught sneaking around the hotel. Fuck, I’m pretty sure I shot her. Acid crawls up my throat, and knots form in my stomach at the thought of hurting her. I grip the wheel tighter, fighting the urge to stop and check on her.
Athena is clearly skilled, yet she’s taken silly risks. Why? It doesn’t make sense.
But at least I have her where I want her now, and she’s damn well going to give me answers.
Provided she’s not dead in the trunk, the devil on my shoulder whispers in my ear.
I punt the asshole away, but I seem to have developed a conscience from somewhere because fear crawls up my spine, and I don’t stop to second-guess myself as I pull off the side of the road into an old, abandoned gas station, driving into the covered side area so we’re hidden.
No one says a word as I grab a bottle of lukewarm water from the console and climb out. I round the car and pop the trunk. Relief slams into me when a pair of stunning blue eyes glare out at me. I lean in and rip the tape from her mouth.
“Motherfucker,” she hisses in a throaty voice.
“Open your mouth.”
She narrows her eyes before her gaze lowers briefly to my crotch.
I smother a snort of laughter. “Mind out of the gutter, Athena.” I lift the bottle and wave it at her. “I’m guessing you’re thirsty.”
Beads of sweat dot her brow, and the fine hairs around her face are damp and curly where they’ve come loose from her ponytail.
“How do I know it’s not poisoned?”
“Guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
“That’d be a big fat no,” she scoffs.
