A Game of Chance Read online

  When she did, he caught her feet and guided them to the next gouges. “Thanks,” she panted, and worked her way down another foot.

  That was enough. He caught her around the knees and scooped her off the rock. She shrieked, fighting for her balance, but now that he had her in his grip he wasn’t about to let her go. Before she could catch her breath, he turned her and tossed her face down over his shoulder.

  “Hey!” The indignant protest was muffled against his back.

  “Just shut up,” he said between his teeth as he dipped down to pick up her knife, then set off for the camp. “You scared the hell out of me.”

  “Good. You had too much hell in you, anyway.” She clutched him around the waist to steady herself. He just hoped she didn’t grab the pistol out of his waistband and shoot him, since it was so close to hand.

  “Damn it, don’t you dare joke about it!” Her upturned bottom was very close to his hand. Temptation gnawed at him. Now that he had her down, he was shaking, and he wanted some retribution for having been put through that kind of anxiety. He put his hand on her butt and indulged in a few moments of fantasy, which involved her jeans around her knees and her bent over his lap.

  He realized he was stroking his palm over the round curves of her buttocks and regretfully gave up on his fantasy. Some things weren’t going to happen. After he tended her hands and got through raising hell with her for taking such a risk, he fully intended to burn off his fright and anger with an hour or two on the blanket with her.

  How could he still want her so much? This wasn’t part of the job; he could live with it, if it had been. This was obsession, deep and burning and gut-twisting. He had tried to put a light face on it, for her benefit, but if she had been more experienced, she would have known a man didn’t make love to a woman five times during the night just because she was available. At this rate, those three dozen condoms wouldn’t last even a week. He had already used six, and it might take two or three more to get him settled down after the scare she had given him.

  The hard fact of it was, a man didn’t make love to a woman that often unless he was putting his brand on her.

  This wouldn’t work. Couldn’t work. He had to get himself under control, stay focused on the job.

  He heard her sniffing as they neared the camp. “Are you crying?” he demanded incredulously.

  She sniffed again. “Don’t be silly. What’s that smell?” She inhaled deeply. “It smells like…food.”

  Despite himself, a smile quirked the corners of his mouth. “I shot a rabbit.”

  There was a small disruption on his shoulder as she twisted around so she could see the fire. Her squeal of delight almost punctured his eardrums, and his smile grew. He couldn’t stop himself from enjoying her; he had never before met anyone who took such joy in life, who was so vibrantly alive herself. How she could be a part of a network devoted to taking lives was beyond his understanding.

  He dumped her on the ground under the overhang and squatted beside her, taking both her hands in his and turning them up for his inspection. He barely controlled a wince. Her fingers were not only scorched from the hot rock, they were scraped raw and bleeding.

  Fury erupted in him again, a flash fire of temper at seeing the damage she had done to herself. He surged to his feet. “Of all the stupid, lame-brained…! What in hell were you thinking? You weren’t thinking at all, from the looks of it! Damn it, Sunny, you risked your life pulling this stupid stunt—”

  “It wasn’t stupid,” she shouted, shooting to her feet to face him, her brilliant eyes narrowed. She clenched her bleeding hands into fists. “I know the risks. I also know it’s my only hope of getting out of this damn canyon before it’s too late!”

  “Too late for what?” he yelled back. “Do you have a date this weekend or something?” The words were heavy with sarcasm.

  “Yeah! It just so happens I do!” Breathing hard, she glared at him. “My sister is supposed to call.”

  Chapter 10

  A sister? Chance stared at her. His investigation hadn’t turned up any information about a sister. The Millers hadn’t had any children of their own, and he had found adoption papers only on Sunny. His mind raced. “You said you didn’t have any family.”

  She gave him a stony look. “Well, I have a sister.”

  Yeah, right. “You’d risk your life for a phone call?” Some terrorist act was being planned after all, he thought with a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. That was why she’d been lugging the tent around. He didn’t know how the tent fit into the scheme, but evidently she had been planning to drop out of sight.

  “I would for this one.” She wheeled away, every line of her body tense. “I have to try. Margreta calls my cell phone every week at the same time. It’s how we know the other is still alive.” She turned back to him and shouted, “If I don’t answer that call, she’ll think I’m dead!”

  Whoa. Once again, the pieces of the puzzle that was Sunny had been scattered. Margreta? Was that a code name? He searched his memory, which was extensive, but couldn’t find anything or anyone named Margreta. Sunny was so damned convincing….

  “Why would she think you’re dead?” he demanded. “You might just be in a place that doesn’t have a signal—like here. What is she, some kind of nutcase?”

  “I make certain I’m always somewhere that has a signal. And, no, she isn’t a nutcase!” She threw the words back at him like bullets, her mouth twisted with fury at him, at the situation, at her own helplessness. “Her problem is the same as mine—we’re our father’s daughters!”

  His pulse leaped. There it was, out in the open, just like that. He hadn’t needed seduction; anger had done the job. “Your father?” he asked carefully.

  Tears glittered in her eyes, dripped down her cheeks. She dashed them away with a furious gesture. “Our father,” she said bitterly. “We’ve been running from him all our lives.”

  The pieces of the puzzle jumped about a little more, as if a fist had slammed down and jarred them. Easy, he cautioned himself. Don’t seem too interested. Find out exactly what she means; she could be referring to his influence. “What do you mean, running?”

  “I mean running. Hiding.” She wiped away more tears. “Father dear is a terrorist. He’ll kill us if he ever finds us.”

  Chance gently cleaned her hands with the alcohol wipes from the first aid kit, soothed the red places with burn ointment and the raw spots with antibiotic cream. The gauze she’d wrapped around her hands had protected her palms, but her fingers were a mess. Sunny felt a little bewildered. One minute they had been yelling at each other, the next she had been locked against him, his arms like a vise around her. His heart had been pounding like a runaway horse.

  Since then he had been as tender as a mother with a child, rocking her in comfort, cuddling her, drying her tears. The emotional firestorm that had burned through her had left her feeling numb and disoriented; she let him do whatever he wanted without offering a protest, not that she had any reason to protest. It felt good to lean on him.

  Satisfied with the care he had given her hands, he left her sitting on the rock while he added some fuel to the fire and turned the rabbit on the spit. Coming back under the overhang, he spread the blanket against the wall, scooped her into his arms, and settled on the blanket with her cradled against him. He propped his back against the wall, arranged her so she was draped half across his lap and lifted her face for a light kiss.

  She managed a shaky smile. “What was that? A kiss to make it better?”

  He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip, his expression strangely intent as if studying her. “Something like that.”

  “I’m sorry for crying all over you. I usually handle things better than this.”

  “Tell me what’s going on,” he said quietly. “What’s this about your father?”

  She leaned her head on his shoulder, grateful for his strength. “Hard to believe, isn’t it? But he’s the leader of a terrorist group that has done some