Page 11 of Hunted

Gunn raised his knife again. He saw her eyes widen a fraction, but she still refused to show fear. “It doesn’t matter what you do to me. I’m not going to help you go after that little girl again.”

Damn it all. He’d loved her like he’d loved nobody else in his life. Just the idea that she thought he’d ever deliberately hurt her cut into him like he’d used the knife on himself.

Gunn shook his head. He knelt down beside her chair and cut her ankles loose, then her wrists. He took one of her hands in his to make sure the circulation was coming back, feeling the delicate bones in her wrist that belied the strength he knew was in there.

So he was ready for her when she went for him, blocking her kick and snaking his arm around the chair legs to keep her from pushing backwards and rolling over the back of the chair to free herself. Instead, he rose and jerked her to her feet, twisting her arm up behind her back almost to the point of pain, and pulled her against him.

Damn, she felt good, even if she was all bones and angles. All except for her perfect ass, which brought back memories he needed to shove out of his mind right the hell now.

“Nice try,” he said. “I know your moves. Did you forget we used to spar?”

And more often than not they’d ended up in bed together, if they hadn’t just gone for it right there on the practice mat.

She growled, all her muscles taut. Gunn reached over to the table and snagged her handcuffs, lying there with the rest of her stuff. With two quick snaps of the cuffs, her arms were trapped behind her.

“Come on.”

He led her to the door and opened it. All the guys were lurking in the outer room, trying to look as if they hadn’t been straining their wolf ears to hear everything going on inside the interrogation chamber.

He said, “I’m taking the prisoner to my quarters. Somebody pack up her stuff and bring it over ASAP. All of it. And radio out to whoever’s on standby. I need guards posted at the front and back door.” He glanced at Michelangela. “And on the med center, for good measure.”

All he got from the men in response was an almost inaudible, “What’s he going to do, fuck the antidote out of her?”

Gunn swung around and faced the speaker dead on. “What was that, Sanchez?”

Sanchez’s dark, hooded eyes fastened on him insolently. “I said, ‘Fuck yes, Commander.’”

Gunn shook his head. Sanchez was and always had been problem. And probably always would be. If it weren’t for his tracking skills, somebody would already have taken him out, from sheer aggravation. Gunn said, “Give me your cuffs.”

Sanchez smirked. “Aren’t you going to ask me for my safe word first?”

Gunn growled at him. He was in no fucking mood for his shit. Sanchez shrugged, fished out his cuffs and tossed them over.

Gunn put one of the bracelets around his own wrist, and the other around one of Michelangela’s, despite the fact that she was already cuffed. She had Houdini-like escape skills, and he couldn’t afford to lose her now. Both for Dobe’s sake, and his own reputation.

“Now,” he said to her. “You and I are going to take a little walk. If you try to escape, I’ll knock you the fuck out. And if you won’t walk, I’ll drag you.”

He felt her tense slightly and added, “And if you go wolf and make a run for it, my men will hunt you down. Trust me when I tell you, this time they’ll kill you.”

Chapter 6

Gunn led Michelangela up a short stone stairway and out into the night. She took a deep breath of the fresh air, laced heavily with the scent of pine and damp earth.

Perfect wolf territory. Overhead the sky was clear and bright with stars, with no light pollution from any nearby cities, which meant they were still deep in the Adirondack wilderness.

They started down a grassy slope into a shallow, bowl-shaped valley surrounded by forest. She could see the dark shapes of cabins scattered among the trees—obviously living quarters.

Behind her the ground rose sharply, up a forested mountainside that seemed to fill the sky.

In front of them, in the lowest part of the valley, was a cluster of buildings. Two larger ones had lights on, inside and out, even though it was the middle of the night. A smaller one had dark windows but bright outside lights, and she could see men posted at the front and back.

Probably Gunn’s quarters. Why the hell was he taking her there? There was no way he could believe he could seduce the antidote out of her. But then, he was a man, and a pretty damn cocky one. So… he probably did believe it.

Asshole.

She glanced sideways at him, but his face was impassive as they walked. She could feel simmering fury radiating off him like heat, and she instinctively moved away from him.

Not that she could get far, with them handcuffed together.