That was why I had no defense against the desire building in me despite my annoyance with him.
“I can understand that,” he said softly. “Get some sleep, and then you can get right back at it.”
Part of me wanted to stay glued to the chair and prove him wrong, but a larger part of me knew he might be right. When I stood, he backed away.
“Wake me up in an hour,” I said. By that time, Derrick would be back and I wouldn’t be alone with the dangerous yet appealing Jason Dunn. But that made me worry. “Is it safe here?”
“This is the safest place you can be right now.”
“I meant with Derrick out.”
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re safe here with me.”
On the outside, I hoped I looked indifferent, because his words sent an unwanted rush of heat coursing through me. I believed him, that he had the safe house secure. But who, exactly, was going to keep me safe from him?
Jason didn’t wake me like I’d asked him to, increasing my irritation, and I could tell it had been longer than an hour because the sun was low in the sky when I crawled out of the uncomfortable bed. I made my way down the hall into the living room to give him a piece of my mind—but he wasn’t there. Instead, Derrick sat at the table, working on his own computer.
“Feeling better?” he asked, not lifting his gaze from his screen.
“Jason was supposed to wake me up.” I sat down in front of the computer I’d used earlier. “Where is he?”
“He went to get dinner.”
Dinner?“How long have I been asleep?”
“Five hours?”
I slapped the spacebar and watched the computer wake from sleep mode as I seethed. I had newfound motivation to help identify Seth, to be done with the irritation named Jason Dunn.
When the slideshow finished, Derrick loaded a third for me. My aggravation fueled my search for the pair of intense blue eyes that had landed me in this situation.
For the next half hour, my stomach growled, and it grew loud enough that he noticed. He gave me a remorseful smile, said the lunch he had brought back for me had gotten cold and he’d tossed it a few hours ago. But he expected his partner to be back soon.
A few minutes later, a pair of headlights darted through the front window and he rose, putting a hand on the gun holstered at his hip.
The simple action knocked the air from my lungs.
I glanced out the bay window to see Jason climb out of the SUV toting a sack of fast food and a cardboard tray of drinks. He wouldn’t meet my eyes when he came in. He pulled a hamburger out of the bag, set it on the table, and announced it was mine. Then he took the empty chair between me and Derrick and dug his own dinner out of the sack.
He was oblivious to the irritation seeping out of me.
He unfolded his burger’s wrapper, lifted the bun, and pulled off the tomato slice. It was discarded on the wrapper, the bun was reseated, and then he devoured a third of the sandwich in a single bite.
I simply watched him with disbelief.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked, finally setting his gaze on me.
I didn’t care if I sounded judgmental. “I can’t really afford to put garbage in my body.”
He stilled, not liking my ‘garbage’ comment, but then must have decided he didn’t care. His shoulders rose with a shrug. “You might starve, then, because this is the majority of our meals.”
I stared down at the table, skeptical of the food inside the wrapper.
“Shit,” he joked. “It’s not like it’s illegal.”
I clenched my jaw and bit back what I’d like to say. Everything about this man touched a nerve. The wrapper tore a little under my hands as I hurried to open it. Inside, the squished, brown circle looked completely unappetizing, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. It’d be a victory for him, and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
Then, an even better idea took hold.
