Page 10 of Hunted

He would have laughed, if the situation wasn’t so totally fucked. Apparently, she hadn’t changed that much. “You didn’t even know I was here.”

“I knew Harrelson could lead me to you.” She gestured with her chin toward the table where her gear was spread out. In the middle was a creased “Wanted” flyer with Dobe’s face on it. Old school, like it should be pinned up in an 1890s post office.

Gunn picked it up and glanced over it. There he was, on the list of Known Associates with Rex and Switch, another friend who worked with him now and again. He’d have to call and warn him.

He said to Michelangela, “I guess that ‘death to Gunn’ thing didn’t work out the way you hoped.”

“The day’s not over.”

He felt a smile twitch the corner of his lip. His Mikey was still in there.

He went over and knelt by her chair, eye to eye with her, pulling his knife to cut her bonds.

He sensed rather than saw her flinch. She covered it well, but her heartrate skyrocketed. He could actually hear it.

“Taking over the interrogation?” she snapped. “At least you have the guts to do the dirty work yourself. Or maybe you enjoy it, like your friend Sanchez?” She actually spat at him.

Gunn froze. She thought he was going to torture her? After everything they’d been to each other? Had he broken her that badly?

Pain lashed through him. He’d always imagined her out there with some other guy, a random lucky fucker that he’d have to refrain from killing if he ever met him, because he made her happy in a way Gunn couldn’t.

He’d never imagined her like this.

“Just tell me where the antidote is,” he said. “I’ll figure out some way to help you.”

“Oh, just tell you where the antidote is,” she said. “Is that the best you’ve got? You really think I’m going to save your kidnapper friend and let him give you what you need to go back and abduct that little girl? Are you high, or just delusional?”

Fuck. Of course she didn’t know what Dobe had really been doing. And he couldn’t tell her, he realized, his stomach sinking. She already knew too much.

Gunn stood up, pacing back and forth, his mind racing.

She’d been unconscious when they brought her in, so she didn’t know exactly where the compound was, but she’d gotten way too close before they picked her up. She could probably find it again, not to mention the fact that she could now ID at least half a dozen of his guys.

Thanatos would never let her leave here with that knowledge. Gunn’s only chance—her only chance—was for him to get the antidote and somehow get her out of here before Thanatos found out who she was.

His gut twisted again, and Gunn closed his eyes. This was a freakin’ cluster fuck.

“How’s your kidnapper friend doing, by the way?” Her voice brought him back to the present, and sent a surge of anger through him at the thought of what might happen to that little girl if they didn’t get to her in time.

“My team member is at death’s door, thanks to whatever that fucking toxin was you shot him up with,” he snarled.” Shit. He had to dial it down. He took a breath and tried again. “Mikey, we really need that antidote. There’s too much at stake… just please tell me where it is, and I’ll do everything I can to protect you.”

“Dude. For real? You need a major refresher on interrogation tactics,” she said. “Because I’m not even a little bit impressed. The antidote is where you’ll never find it, so you might as well start the torture. Isn’t that why you sent your boys out of the room?”

She couldn’t mean it. She couldn’t mean for Dobe to die, while she sat right here with a way to save him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he exploded. “You used to be one of the good guys. Now you’re some kind of renegade bounty hunter? And if you think that toxin you shot Dobe up with isn’t torture, think again. He’s hallucinating, and he’s in constant pain. He doesn’t even know he’s home, among friends. He has mission-critical intel, and he won’t give it up.”

“And that’s what you care about, right? The mission? This must be a big damn payday. What are you willing to do to get it?” She looked contemptuously at him.

This was getting them nowhere. He had to figure out how much he could confide in her, win a tiny bit of her trust back before it was too late. The woman he used to know was warm and compassionate, and believed in doing the right thing.

She was just angry at him—for good reason. And she didn’t trust him. Also for good reason. But the Mikey he knew had to still be in there. If only he could reach her without giving away too much.

And without hurting her any more. He didn’t know if that was his wolf talking, or his conscience. Or his heart—what was left of it. But couldn’t bear to see her like this, bound and bleeding.

Lick her wounds, his wolf said. Make her better.

Yeah, no. It was gonna take a lot more than that to make her better. And if he was going to lick anything, it sure as fuck wouldn’t be her wounds.