Melissa blew out a breath, her hair standing in the air in front of her face. “He’smad.”
King directed his attention to the ceiling overhead. “He’ll get overit.”
“King—” Melissa began hesitantly. She’d been with the team long enough now King knew that she was fixing to start a lecture, and he’d already had enough of those fortonight.
“Did you check on them? Laura and Faith? Are theyokay?”
He was almost 100 percent positive neither of the girls had been injured in the blast, but he’d been so out of it from blood loss on the way home it’d been all he could do to remain conscious in thetruck.
She sighed and finished cutting through the bandages. “Yes, Faith scared us a little, but they’re bothfine.”
King shot her an inquisitive look, lifting his shoulders off the bed so that she could pull the strips of material for replacement. “Howso?”
Melissa strode across the room and looked through some cabinets, quickly extracting a couple of new rolls of bandages. “Apparently when you fainted, she thought it was a game and decided to do the samething.”
King grunted. “I didn’tfaint.”
“Fine, passed out from blood loss.” Melissa put the bandages on a small rolling table, grabbed some fresh shears and tape and a bottle of disinfectant. “Now, I can’t promise this is going to feel good; you’re just going to have to deal withit.”
She grabbed up a jar of cotton balls, stabbed them in disinfectant and quickly blotted them across the freshly open wounds on his chest. “Since you didn’t care when you ripped open your cuts, you’re just going to have to deal withit.”
King hissed in a breath at the pain searing the raw wounds. “Barely feltit.”
Melissa focused her attention on the bandage and his chest and King let his mind drift back to Laura. The instant awareness he’d felt for her had shocked him, and he had been prepared. He must’ve been so distracted thinking about his mission…But he wouldn’t be distractedagain.
Laura was a means to an end, a very bloody end. And once he had her brother, he wouldn’t think of heragain.
Chapter 8
“I’m hungry,”Faith signed for the tenth time in the pasthour.
Laura fought the rising tide of frustration threatening to push the bounds of pretentious and plastered a smile on her face when inside she seethed with anger. They stuck them in this room hours ago, basically forgetting them. Did no one in this place realize she had a child to take care of? A hungry, tired and dirty child who needed to eat, take a bath, and go to sleep before she threw atantrum.
But as the minutes turned to hours, Laura realized they’d been forgotten in the melee that ended downstairs after rushing King off to whatever hospital they had in this mansion. No—not mansion as she’d come to realize—secure compound where prisoners could be kept for an indeterminate amount of time against theirwill.
“Laura?” Faith held up her hand in front of her face and Laura realized she’d zoned out into her own thoughts. She captured Faith’s hand in hers and pressed a quick gentle kiss on her fingers before releasing them. “I’m sure it will be just a little bitlonger.”
Although she knew it was useless, Laura rose from her perch on the massive four-poster king-size bed in an equally massive and regal room and crossed to the door, trying the knob for the fifth time. And just like it had been 30 minutes ago it remained locked. Without thinking she kicked the door, bruising her toe in the process. As if on cue the doorknob rattled, followed by the distinct sound of a lockturning.
She hurried back to the bed, placing herself between Faith and whoever was coming to thedoor.
Silently she prayed it wasn’t Reaper. The man scared her to death. She’d rather deal with anyone buthim.
The door swung open, and King, shirtless, filled up the doorway. Her mouth went dry. With a shirt on he’d been striking. With half his bare torso peeping out over tightly wound bandages around his chest, he wasbreathtaking.
Laura dropped her face into her hand, scrubbing it down her cheeks as she attempted to knock some semblance of sanity back into her mind. She was not attracted to her kidnapper. Not.Attracted.
While she stood there trying to get her mouth to work and say something, King just stared, his massive frame filling up the doorway. Her mindfrizzled.
Seconds passed. Neither of them spoke. Was he just going to stand there all day staring at them? Why wasn’t he sayingsomething?
Why wasn’t she sayingsomething?
The silence stretched out to the point of breaking and Laura blurted out, “Are we allowed to eat in our prison? Faith is starving.” As if managing to get those few words past her lips, the dam that had held her silence broke open. “We’ve been locked in here for hours without anyone telling us what’s going on. And I’ve got a hungry and tired child to take care of. What are you going to do aboutit?”
Laura crossed her arms angrily across herchest.
King glanced from her to Faith and then back to Laura. Instead of talking he crossed the threshold into the room and quietly turned and shut the door behindhim.
