Page 28 of When He Lies
“We are heading to a little cottage around the bend,” Ryan informed her as his worried gaze swept over her face.
How on earth did he know a little cottage waited around the bend?
“An extraction team will be arriving within the half hour,” he added as his hold tightened on her.
An extraction team sounded incredibly official. “How, exactly, does this team know where to go?”
“Because I texted them.”
“When?”
“When we were riding on the horse.”
A dull throbbing began at her right temple. “Bullshit.”
He kept walking while carrying her, as if it was the easiest thing to do in the world. Spoiler, it was not. No way it could be easy. Not with her and her soggy dress.
“Not bullshit,” he promised. “They’re coming.”
“Why would an extraction team be coming?”
He looked down at her. “Because I’m CIA.”
She wanted to laugh. Instead, she came pretty close to sobbing. “I am not in the mood for this.” Fear pumped through her. He had mentioned before…she distinctly remembered him saying…
She was under arrest.
“I am definitely feeling dizzy.” Simone closed her eyes. “So weak. Nauseous. It was all I could do to hold on to you when we were riding that horse.” Her body went limp.
“Oh, yeah, that grip of yours was helluva weak. It’s amazing you didn’t fall off the horse’s back during the ride. Don’t know how you managed to keep that death grip going.”
Not funny. She kept her eyes closed. CIA. CIA. Ryan was CIA, and this was going to be so bad for her. “Why couldn’t you just be a billionaire?” Would that have been too much to ask?
“Because a billionaire wouldn’t have been able to save your ass.”
Her eyes cracked open.
“But a CIA operative knew how to kill to protect you.”
Well, there was that.
Now, she just needed to figure out a way to escape from her CIA guy before his extraction team arrived, and they all proceeded to arrest her ass. Because maybe, okay, definitely…she was a wanted international criminal.
Ryan kicked the door shut and strode inside the old, abandoned cottage.
“Tell me how you even knew this place was here,” Simone said, suspicion heavy in her voice.
“I didn’t know it.” Not like he’d had some clue the place was out there when they’d been abducted and dragged off into the stormy night. “But one of my contacts told me it was a safe place to hide.”
“Your contacts.” A nod. “Someone you texted while riding the horse? How was there even service out here?”
“At first, there wasn’t any service. But when we rose up that first hill, I was able to get a signal.” Like texting and controlling the stallion—without a saddle—had been an easy feat to accomplish. Why did Simone not seem impressed? Just what did it take to impress the woman? “He pinged me the location.”
“So you weren’t just riding blindly on that horse? You were coming here?”
Yeah, he had been. He’d also learned an important lesson. Don’t ride a stallion and text. Ryan had feared they’d be flying off the horse at any moment. Especially since he’d quickly realized Simone had never ridden a horse before. Or, if she had ridden one, it had been a very, very long time ago.
“You can just put me down,” Simone instructed in her husky, sexy voice. “Anytime at all is good.”
