Page 40 of Red Zone Awakened
She stood and padded over to Mace on bare feet.“Here’s your datapad.”
Without looking at her, he took it and slipped it into his back pocket.He didn’t even check to make sure she hadn’t made a copy.Friday was right—he was useless with tech.
“I wiped it clean for you,” she said.
He grunted.
“Aren’t you going to ask if I copied the file proving Friday’s alive?”
His shoulders tensed as he realized the weapon he’d handed her.“Did you?”
She sighed.“I should have.”
His shoulders relaxed.But she wasn’t letting him off the hook yet.
“There’s still the issue of my parents,” she reminded him.“If you’d explained all of this instead of kidnapping them, I’d probably have helped you.”
He ran a hand through his hair, a sure sign he was uncomfortable with the conversation.“That wasn’t my decision, but you need to know that they were never in any danger.It was all a bluff.”
“What?”The word barely made it past her lips.
“My team would never hurt them.Striker arranged for them to be held while this mission took place, but even if you hadn’t agreed to help us, they would have walked away unharmed.”
She’d been conned?It was adding insult to injury, and she reacted without thinking, striking out and kicking him hard.Except, her feet were bare, and his leg was made of titanium.
“Argh!”She sat down hard to cradle her bruised toes.
“What the hell, Keiko?”Mace crouched beside her to check out the damage.“Isn’t it bad enough that other people are out to hurt you?Do you have to add to it yourself?You need to think before you do things, woman.”
This from the man who’d been trying to convince her he didn’t care.Keiko was fed up with lying and pretending.Whatever this weird attraction was between them, she wasn’t going to deny it anymore.And right now, she needed comfort.“I could seriously use a hug,” she told him.
He didn’t even hesitate to give her what she wanted.With a shake of his head, he pulled her into his arms.“You drive me nuts.Never met anybody who just goes after what they want the way you do.You just put it out there and make yourself vulnerable.Like in the cab, when you told me you wanted me.And now.I don’t understand anything about you.”
And she’d never met anyone who confused her as much as Mace.He said one thing but did another, trying to convince her that he was the bad guy while looking out for her at every turn.He’d even risked his team’s safety to give her the truth.And back in the hotel, he’d been furious at Striker for using her parents against her, yet he’d still taken the mission his team gave him.He was a bundle of contradictions that would take a lifetime to unravel.But right now, he felt like the only calm port in a storm, and she desperately needed to hold on to him.
Wrapping her arms around his strong body, she breathed in the scent that was uniquely Mace.A scent she could easily become addicted to.“How else are you supposed to get something if you don’t ask?”
His hand rubbed up and down her back, soothing her.“You’ve got me there.”
“It’s all true, isn’t it?Everything you told me about CommTECH.”The words hurt her heart, but they had to be said.
“Yeah, it’s all true.”His voice was soft, gentle.It was clear he didn’t take any joy in her realization.“I wish it wasn’t.I wish I could have left you in your perfect bubble, believing everything was rosy with the world.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He was quiet for a long minute.“I’d like to say it’s because I’m a contrary asshole, but the truth is, I couldn’t stand the thought of you walking back into CommTECH, believing everything they said, and putting yourself in harm’s way.Working for them isn’t safe.You aren’t safe.And I guess that matters to me.”
A warmth settled inside her at his words, one she would take out and examine later, when she had time to puzzle all that was Mace.“I don’t understand how I didn’t see any of it.”
“You weren’t meant to see anything.”
“You’ve completely upended my world,” she said against his shirt.
“I’m not sorry,” was his recalcitrant reply.
“I’m still mad that your team scared my parents.”
“I understand.”
