“Stop moving,” she bit out between clenched teeth, tightening her grip on the knife until her knuckles turned white.

Stay the hell away from her, Ken. Don’t you damn well get between us. I’ll kill her right now, Jack warned.

There’s no need for this; she can’t go anywhere.

“I f**kin’ mean it, Ken. I’ll take her out.”

“Just be calm and think about this,” Ken said. He didn’t look at his brother or acknowledge the warning, and he didn’t stop moving. “You still have a catheter in. How far do you think you’re going to get with that?”

“The doctor is going to tell you how to take it out. I mean it, Doc, rip the IV out and do it now.”

“Jack isn’t a nice man, sweetheart,” Ken said. “He looks handsome and talks soft, so people sometimes get the wrong impression about him. Remember when I was telling you how he pulled me out of Ekabela’s camp? He was captured and escaped. Now, anyone in their right mind just keeps running, especially when they’re in the middle of rebel territory, but not Jack.” His voice was low and conversational, as if they were sitting across a table from each other, not staring down death.

He kept coming, a silent stalker, making her feel small and vulnerable. Was he within striking distance? He didn’t appear to have a weapon, yet she was suddenly terrified. Not of the fact that she might cut a man’s throat, or that Jack would shoot her, but of those glittering eyes that never left hers, eyes so cold she shivered.

“Stay away from me,” she said, her voice choking.

“Jack went back into that camp and rigged everything to blow. He stole weapons and sat up in the trees and picked them off one by one. He killed over—” Ken exploded into action, moving so fast he was a blur, his elbow slamming into her head as his hands locked hers around the knife, jerking it down and away from the doctor, his enormous strength pinning her wrist to the gurney. For a moment everything went black and a million stars danced in front of her eyes. His thumb jabbed hard into her pressure point and her fingers jerked open in reflex.

Ken removed the knife and tossed it to Eric, but retained possession of her wrist. “Stay the hell away from her.”

Jack swore aloud, a long and creative curse that was anatomically impossible. Ken glanced at him. “Watch your mouth.”

“Don’t you f**kin’ tell me to watch my mouth. What the hell were you thinking? You walked right in front of my gun and you did it on purpose, you son of a bitch.”

“I was thinking I’d defuse the situation,” Ken replied, his tone as mild as ever. “She’s supposed to escape, Jack. That’s what we do when we’re captured. I figured she’d try it eventually. I just didn’t think it would be this soon.” He glanced at Eric, who was still rubbing his throat and looking horrified. “There’s no doubt she can push drugs through her system with remarkable speed, is there? You got your answer without taking more blood.”

Ken was touching her, his fingers a vise around her wrist, so she felt the anger in him, a river of it running deep and fierce, when on the outside he appeared as cool—as cold—as ice.

Chapter 4

Ken leaned toward Mari, creating an intimacy between them, as if they were the only two people in the helicopter. “Are you all right?”

Mari closed her eyes against the sound of his voice. So concerned. So incredibly gentle. He wasn’t gentle. There was nothing gentle about him. His hands still clamped her wrist to the gurney and her head felt like a bomb had gone off inside of it. She turned her face away from his, determined not to be taken in by his false concern.

He shifted even closer; she could tell by his scent. It was suddenly everywhere, all around her, inside of her. She felt the warmth of his breath on her temple, the feather-light touch of his lips. His lips were soft except for one slight rasp over her skin, making her aware of the knife scar running across his mouth. That light rasp sent heat curling through her body. Her womb actually spasmed. She didn’t want to respond to him. She didn’t want to feel anything at all other than the need to escape. She didn’t want to feel guilty for having used a razor-sharp blade, reminding him of the way his body had been so mutilated.

“It’s all right, Mari. No one blames you for making a try. It’s what we all do, what we’re trained to do. At least wait until you’re a little stronger and we sort this entire mess out. You wouldn’t get very far the way you are right now.”

If she waited until she was stronger, they’d have the time to make certain there was no chance of escape. As for being stronger, her body was repairing itself faster than they guessed. The leg was bad—she might not be able to use it—but there were ways . . .

His lips brushed her ear this time. “I’m reading your mind, you know.”

She jerked her hand in reaction. Ivy, before Whitney had killed her, had been able to read people as well as objects, simply by touching them. It was more than possible that Ken had that talent. And then he would know how she felt when he touched her.

Humiliation rose and mixed with anger. She whipped up her broken hand without thinking, aiming for his nose, wanting to smash it into his skull. He was her enemy and she would not buy into the attraction between them again. Or maybe she was just mortified because there was no mutual attraction between them; it was entirely one-sided.

He caught her wrist with almost casual strength, slamming both arms above her head and pinning them there, bringing his body nearly over the top of hers in a much more dominant position. It made her seethe with anger. She had to fight back the impulse to lunge forward and bite him like a rabid animal—or maybe claw the clothes from his chest to see if the web of scars she was certain covered his chest and belly disappeared lower into the narrow h*ps and across his groin.

“Stop struggling.”

“Get off of me.”

“Calm down first. I just saved your life, you ungrateful little wretch.”

He was laughing at her. Damn him to hell, he was laughing at her. She could see a glint of humor in his eyes. He didn’t smile or change expression, but she felt his laughter, and it made her want to explode—or maybe press her mouth to the softness of his, just to feel the caress of that heated rasp once more.

Furious with herself, she nearly came up off the bed, adrenaline pouring through her body, but there was no give in him. She remained pressed against the gurney as if he didn’t notice her struggles. “You. Get. Off. Me.” She bit out each word from between clenched teeth. “I swear I’ll tear out your heart with my bare hands.”

His brilliant gaze drifted slowly, almost possessively over her face. “You don’t want to be talking to me that way; you’re turning me on.”

Her heart accelerated and her br**sts tingled with anticipation. His chest was so close. A breath away from her aching ni**les. It was perverted to feel like this, to be a man’s captive, to have him slam his elbow into her head and still have her body react like a cat’s in heat. In that moment she hated herself, hated the way she despised Brett and the other men. She understood now, understood how desire could take over every sense and push aside discipline and training, until all one could think about was assuaging a chemical need.

Did he know? Was he feeding the addiction deliberately with his nearness? If so, he was playing a very deadly game. She forced her body to relax and looked up at him, frowning, hoping she looked intimidating. “Black widows eat their lovers.”

He released her wrists and drew a finger down her cheek, the pad of his finger sliding over her lips, lingering as if he belonged there. When she looked at him, when he touched her, she felt the anger slide away before she could catch and hold on to it. He did something to her, made her feel whole and at peace. Maybe it was a psychic talent peculiar to him. Could Whitney do that to a person? Could he make it so that she trembled with need and yet felt whole inside just by touching this one man?

“I don’t think I’d mind all that much if you ate me,” he returned, his voice almost a purr.

Once more she felt the electric current running between them, sparking along her skin and heating her blood into a thick, molten stream. A shiver of need went down her spine. She could only stare at him, feeling vulnerable and feminine instead of like the soldier she knew herself to be. She’d never felt like this, so female she couldn’t relate in any other way to him then seeing him wholly as a man. She didn’t dare speak, afraid he would realize she was trembling from his touch, not from fear or anger.

He caught her chin in his hand and tipped her head to one side to examine her temple. “You’re going to have a bruise. I’d let the doc look at it, but I think we can manage without him. Do you need more pain medication?” His fingers moved over her throbbing temple, taking some of the sting away.

“No.” It was a blatant lie, but she looked him right in the eye, because she couldn’t handle this man when she was on drugs. She needed her wits about her if she was going to survive.

“We’re going to move you, Mari, and it’s going to hurt.”

“I’ve been hurt before.”

A flash of something crossed his expressionless face, a quick glimpse of an emotion she knew was important, but she didn’t get a good enough look to identify it. But he wasn’t made of stone—that was for certain. “Are you ready?”

Mari noticed that it was the doctor, not Jack, who took up the position at the foot of the gurney. Jack looked grim and held a gun in his hand. There was no question in her mind that he intended to use it on her if she made one wrong move toward his brother. A part of her admired that; another part filed the information away for future use. She was a solider and it was her duty to escape. She no longer had loyalty to her job, but she did to her unit, and she was determined that Whitney wouldn’t catch her in a trap, no matter how addicting the bait—because this had to be another Whitney sadistic setup.

Mari nodded and touched her tongue to her dry lips. She’d rather be tortured than feel this way, confused and helpless and so feminine she ached with need. She understood torture and duty and discipline. There was no way to understand the heat in her body or the blood pounding in her veins. Her awareness of Ken was incredible, as if her every sense—every cell in her body—were tuned to him.

She tried to steel herself as they lifted her, but nothing could prepare her for the pain ripping through her, driving out everything else, robbing her of breath and thought and for one moment clearing her head so she could be who she was—strong and stoic and in control. She was the one the other women looked up to, the rebel refusing to give in to Whitney’s latest demands. She was the one encouraging the idea of escape—if that was all that was left to them—and she was the one who promised that if they all helped her get a chance to see the senator, she’d convince him to free them.

The other women believed in her and she had let them down by being captured. It was possible Whitney had already killed one of them, but he’d been away from the compound, and as long as no one told him she was gone, they would all be safe. The men would be frantically looking for her—not wanting Whitney’s wrath to fall on one of them. His punishments were sometimes lethal.

Now that she knew what it was like to be so absorbed in another human being, to need to feel his touch, hear his voice, while he seemed to be indifferent to her other than as a prisoner, she wanted to take back everything she’d said and done the past couple of years regarding the men helping Whitney with his breeding program.

The men were prisoners as much as the women, they just didn’t realize it—but Whitney’s experiment couldn’t continue. She knew it with a certainty. It wasn’t natural and it was fundamentally wrong to take away choice. Even if she fell in love—and she wasn’t certain that was possible with the way she felt about men—she would never get over wanting Ken. It gave her understanding and compassion that she’d never had before for the men unnaturally paired with the women. How could any of them find happiness?