Stahl shrugged and strolled around the small room, but Cole didn’t move an inch. He couldn’t. He might just put a fist in Stahl’s conniving face if he did. Tomi was injured and scared and traumatized, and now his agent wanted him to use her evenmore.
“I want your help, I think it’s the most efficient way. I’ve got your contract right here.” Stahl pulled out a piece of white paper and laid it on the desk. “You sign the NDA, Fury and agree to my terms, I’ll let you keep working thecase.”
“And if I don’t?” Cole arched abrow.
“You’re gone. I’ll handle Tomi the way I seefit.”
Shit. Stahl had him in between a rock and a goddamned granite mountain. He couldn’t abandon Tomi to this asshole. He’d chew her up and spit her out, what was left of her anyway. “Fine.”
“You can’t disclose any information about our case.” Stahl rolled a pen across the table and Cole caught it before it fell. “And just in case you need a reminder as to what will happen if you do, I’ll have your little private security firm blacklisted. You’ll lose every license to operate within the United Statesborders.”
“You son of abitch.”
Stahl shrugged. “Been called worse. Thing is, I don’t care what you think, all I care about is finding the rest of those women, including retired agent Wise’s girl, who is still missing and might be severely compromised after your last-minute change in plans tonight. You owe it to Wise and to me. If we gather enough intel from the girls, we can go after the little fish and make them lead us to ElOscuro.”
“I don’t like being used, Stahl. Don’t push me.” Cole closed the inches between them, letting Stahl feel his heat. “I won’t hurther.”
“Even if she’s working forLuis?”
“She’snot.”
“Can you prove it?” Stahlcountered.
Fuck it all to hell. Cole roughly scrubbed a hand through his hair and paced away, needing to put some distance between them. Tomi had always pushed his buttons—hot and hotter. Was he still blinded by her? Could his desire for the one who got away be blinding him to thetruth?
Did itmatter?
He didn’t have a choice. If he didn’t do what Stahl said, he’d be putting his brothers’ careers at risk. “Fine,” Cole finally spat out. “But we do it my way. Just me and her. I take her off the radar. You don’t know where—your team doesn’t know where. I’m incontrol.”
“No can do. I have to know where she is at all times until she’scleared.”
“You, and just you, Stahl. I don’t know your team, and I don’t trust them.” Cole knew he was pushing the agent’s rigid boundaries, but he wouldn’t risk Tomi’s life. If she wasn’t working for Luis, she was his target. A man like that would have every murdering mercenary out for her blood. Tomi wasn’t safeanywhere.
Except withCole.
“Deal. You’ve got three days. After that I get the intel fromher.”
Cole signed the contract. Great, three days to make her trust him. Three days to convince her that he wasn’t a bad guy…even though he couldn’t tell her why he was at the auction. He’d had harder missions thanthat.
He just couldn’t think of one rightnow.
9
Tomi’s fingershugged the leather-encased handle of Cole’s truck door, itching to pull the latch so she could take a dive tofreedom.
“Tomi, don’t do it. Skin and gravel don’t mix well at fifty miles an hour.” Cole sat in the driver’s side, as casual as if they were on their way to Sunday icecream.
Tomi felt like she’d explode any minute. “Shouldn’t you cuff me and blindfold me, so I can’t tell the cops where you are? That’s what kidnappersdo.”
Even more frustrating, Cole’s sensual lips quirked up in a sideways smile that would at any other moment have made her heart skip a beat. “You’ve still got a wildimagination.”
“Wild? Imagination? I’m pretty sure you forcing me into your vehicle and taking me to an unknown location without any way to contact the outside world is the definition of kidnapping.” Maybe he’d had one too many bombs go off next to his pretty littlehead.
“Depends. Far as I can tell, you decided to get in the car with me and decided not to jump out. Kind of makes it your choice then, doesn’t it?” Cole drew out his words with a slow drawl, the same way he used to when he was trying to convince her ofsomething.
“Don’t use that playboy tone with me, Cole Fury. We both know I’m not here because I ‘decided to.’” She made air quotes with her fingers and then crossed her arms, staring straight ahead. The man was just as stubborn as he used tobe.
“I can’t remember a time when you did anything unless you wantedto.”
