“Then let’s go find her.”
Chapter 20
Her head hurt. So did her chest. And her leg.
Where the hell am I? What happened?
Kaitlin lay unmoving while her sluggish brain tried to come up with answers.
The bad guys from the future had taken her. She’d been careless and had paid the price.
She just hoped Steve and Josie hadn’t paid a higher price for her carelessness. Forcing her eyes open, she winced, then glanced around.
She was lying on a bed. Straight across from her was a second bed, and on it lay Josie. Thank Christ. Her eyes were closed, andshe wasn’t moving. But they would hardly have bothered putting her on a bed if she was dead. Would they?
She stared harder and made out the steady rise and fall of Josie’s chest. She was unconscious, and a little of the tension eased from Kaitlin’s mind.
There was no sign of Steve, and she prayed that they hadn’t killed him. Josie would be devastated.
She pushed herself up, so she was sitting, her back against the wall, and rubbed at her thigh. They’d injected her with something. She could still sense it in her bloodstream, making her sluggish. She reached into her pocket, but the tracker was gone. So was the panic button.
Damn.
Holding herself very still, she concentrated on breathing, trying to calm the anxiety rising inside her. She tried closing her eyes and reaching out but whatever drug they had given her was affecting her mind as well as her body. She had to wait, give herself some time.
Don’t panic!
Every minute that passed, she felt stronger. Kane would be looking for her. He would find her. He might be really angry with her, not to mention disappointed. Hell, she was disappointed—she’d totally underestimated her enemy. She’d been so sure they would send more hired thugs after her. She should have guessed they would learn from their mistakes.
But even if she had known they would come after her personally, likely it wouldn’t have stopped her. They needed the information, and this had been their only hope of getting it.
What did they want from her?
At a guess, the same thing she wanted. Information. Or maybe they wanted the time machine. Could they know of its existence? If they came from the future, then they probably knew everything.
No doubt she would find out in good time.
She tried reaching out again but still wasn’t fully functional. Closing her eyes, she brought up an image of Kane, and something twisted inside her. She might never see him again. And suddenly, she wanted him with a need she hadn’t even known existed.
She wanted the chance to...what?
Call him an asshole one more time? Tell him his mission was stupid? No, she knew what she wanted. She wanted to kiss him again. And do a whole lot more. She couldn’t stand the idea that she might die, and she had never made love. Because that’s what it would be. She’d had sex in the past, but she had never made love. But Kane loved her, and while she wasn’t quite ready to admit she loved him in return—hell, she was no longer even sure she would recognize the emotion if she did feel it—she knew his love was real.
And he’d come back for her. He’d put her before his mission, and she knew how huge that was. So yes, if she got out of here, she was dragging him to the nearest bed—whether he liked it or not. But somehow, she didn’t think he would put up that much of a fight.
So, all she had to do was stay alive long enough for Kane to find her.
A groan came from the other bed, and Kaitlin opened her eyes and glanced across. Josie was coming around. She groaned again, and her eyes blinked open, slightly unfocused.
“Josie, are you okay?”
She blinked a couple more times and then licked her lips. “I think so.” She sat up and rubbed her head. “I think I was drugged.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Josie peered around the small room and panic flared in her eyes. “Where’s Steve?”
“Not here.”
