She blinked. Her mouth dropped open, and she shut it quickly. The man she thought she’d loved, the one who’d broken her heart, stood in the darkness, his face all but hidden by shadow. Wait a minute. He’d released her. She opened her mouth to scream.
He planted his hand over her lips again. “I’ll gag you.” Leaning in, he got close enough that she could see the different colors of green in his eyes, despite the darkness. “I don’t want to, but you make one peep and I’ll shove a rag in that pretty mouth until we’re out of earshot. Got me?” He kept his hand in place until she slowly nodded.
“Good.” He secured her seat belt over her arms and then searched her, taking her gun, knife, and the phone. Then he quietly shut the door. In seconds, he stretched into the driver’s seat and started the engine, driving the van onto the road toward town.
So many feelings bombarded Pippa that it was impossible to grasp a single thought. She tested the ties on her wrists. Like everything Malcolm seemed to do, they were perfectly secured. “I hate you.”
“Probably,” he said pleasantly, the lights from the dash caressing the hard angles of his handsome face. “I’m not so happy with you right now either.” He flicked on the windshield wipers as the rain increased in strength. “But I’m going to save you, so I suggest you help me out.”
She hated that reasonable voice of his. The bossy, arrogant, deep voice he used. “Fuck you.”
The look he gave her shot alarming tingles through her abdomen. It wasn’t just fear either. Desire, a reaction she really didn’t appreciate, pumped through her blood.
He turned back to the road. “I’d be more than amenable to that, blue eyes. But first, we have some talking to do. This drive will take two hours, and by the time we arrive at our destination, I need all the info you have. Believe me. You want to talk to me and not a guy named Wolfe.”
Was he threatening her? Even after everything that had occurred, she felt, deep down, that Malcolm wouldn’t hurt her.
Yeah, she was a complete moron.
“I don’t think you’d hurt me.” Might as well throw it out there.
“You’re right. And while Wolfe might scare you just by being Wolfe, I wouldn’t let him hurt you either.” Mal glanced sideways, his expression implacable. “You’re safe.”
What the heck was she supposed to do with that? She looked down at her bound hands. “Doesn’t feel like it.”
“Fair enough. But if you were unbound, you’d jump out of the van, and then I’d have to chase you. One of us could trip or fall, and we can’t have that.” He turned up the defrost. “Plus, my temper is very close to blowing, andyoudon’t want that.”
How could he make a threat, a genuine threat, in such a reasonable tone of voice?
She had to get free. Trixie’s life depended on it. “I’ll make you a deal. Stop the van and I’ll answer any question you want. Then you let me go.”
The muscle visibly ticking at the base of his neck only added to his bad-boy sexy looks. “Baby, I ain’t ever letting you go.”
* * *
Malcolm wanted to suck those words back into his mouth, but they’d already hit air. Until that very second, he hadn’t realized his full intentions. Sure, he planned to protect Pippa from both the government and the cult, but he wanted more than that.
He wantedher.
Force would tell him he was thinking with his dick, like a teenager. Was he? Maybe. Even so, it didn’t change his feelings. More importantly, it didn’t change the fact that the woman needed cover. If she was brainwashed, she’d require help. If not, if she was being hunted, she needed a shield.
He could be that.
But first, no matter how much of an asshole he needed to be, he’d get the truth from her. “Why were you walking to the mansion instead of driving your car?” he asked.
She kind of huffed and looked straight ahead.
All right. New question. “What does Isaac have planned for Friday?”
Her shoulders hunched. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me, Pippa.” Mal’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I’ll get the truth out of you. The sooner you believe that, the easier this is going to go.”
She partially turned toward him. “If you have any feelings for me whatsoever, you’ll let me go back to the mansion. Right now.”
“I have feelings for you,” he said quietly. “A shitload of them.”
She shook her head, and that gorgeous mass flew around her shoulders. “Let me go.”
