Linda Castillo - Operation - Midnight Guardian

He hadn’t expected to get caught up in the softness of her mouth. Sean Cutter didn’t get caught up in anything, especially when it came to his job. But that was exactly what happened when his mouth made contact with hers.

She tried to turn her head, but he caught her cheek with his palm and deepened the kiss. She opened her mouth—to protest no doubt—and he seized the opportunity to take the kiss deeper. Another mistake, he thought dazedly, but by then he’d stopped counting.

Her mouth was warm and wet against his. Her body was curvy and soft and fit perfectly beneath him. He could feel the warmth of her quickened breaths against his cheek. And despite the fact that they were seconds away from being discovered by four men who would not hesitate to execute them, he found his body responding to hers.

He struggled to control the hot rush of blood to his groin, reminding himself of all the terrible things that could happen next. But her mouth was incredibly soft, her body a promise of all the things he’d denied himself for what felt like a lifetime. And while Cutter was a whiz at improvisation, he hadn’t a clue how to stanch good-old-fashioned sexual arousal—no matter how dangerous.

But the kiss was working. Slowly her body relaxed against his, and her breathing slowed. Cutter broke the kiss and for several agonizing minutes neither of them moved while the four killers smoked cigarettes and spoke in a language he was all too familiar with. If the woman could feel his erection against her, she gave no indication. She was probably too terrified to notice. He should be, too, considering they were inches away from getting shot. But Cutter had already faced the worst thing a man could face. He didn’t have a death wish, but not much truly scared him anymore.

After what seemed like an eternity, the men moved on. Cutter lay on top of his prisoner for several more minutes, listening to the men’s retreat. Once he deemed it safe, he tossed the bush aside and rose.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Glaring at him, the woman sat up and with cuffed hands brushed at the leaves and dust on her clothes.

“Saving your life.”

A twig was sticking out of her hair. She was still wearing the slacks and jacket she’d worn to court. Both knees of her slacks were torn. The top button of her blouse had popped off at some point and he could see the lacy outline of her bra. Damn.

“You had no right to…to—”

“You were hyperventilating. If I hadn’t done something, you would have gotten both of us killed.”

Even in the semidarkness, he saw her pale. “Who are you?”

“I’m the man who’s going to take you back. For now, that’s all you need to know.”

“I don’t want to go back.”

He jabbed a thumb in the direction of where the four men had disappeared. “Maybe you’d rather take your chances with those cutthroats.”

“I’m innocent.”

Cutter couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Yeah, so am I.” Bending, he grasped her bicep to help her up.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said as she got to her feet.

“Here’s a newsflash for you, blondie. You don’t have a say in the matter.”

Of their own accord, his eyes did a quick sweep down the front of her. Even though her suit was rumpled and torn, he could see that she was slender and willowy and built just the way he liked. Her hands were cuffed, accentuating curves he had no right noticing at a time like this.

He removed the master key from his belt. “Give me your wrists.”

She blinked. “You’re uncuffing me?”

“We need to move quickly before those bozos realize they fell for the oldest trick in the book.” He glanced up at the sky. Storm clouds were billowing to the northwest. The weather had been an issue during his briefing in the Lear jet that had taken him from Chicago to a small airport in Kalispell, Montana. A cold front chock-full of nasty precipitation was barreling down from the Canadian border. Cutter figured they had another hour before the skies opened up. Hopefully, enough time to make it to the rendezvous point where the agency had a chopper waiting.

She offered her wrists. “Who were those men?”

“Old friends of yours, no doubt.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But a tremor went through her as he removed the cuffs. A shiver that didn’t have anything to do with the cold and told him she knew exactly what he was talking about. “Save it for your appeal,” he snapped, and shoved the cuffs into a compartment in his belt.

She turned to him, her eyes wide and beseeching. “I don’t know those men. And I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Another laugh squeezed from his throat, only this time it was bitter. “You sold out your country. As far as I’m concerned that puts you on the same level as those animals searching for you.”

As a man who had dedicated most of his adult life to protecting the country he loved, the thought of someone selling out for the likes of money disgusted him beyond words.

The problem was Mattie Logan didn’t look like a traitor. Blue eyed and blond haired, she looked wholesome and kind. But Cutter knew all too well that looks could be deceiving. Mattie Logan might look like the girl next door, but a traitor lay beneath the innocent facade. Remembering the way his body had reacted to her just a few short minutes earlier, he silently reprimanded himself for his weakness and vowed not to let himself be taken in again.

“I didn’t do any of what they accused me of,” she said.

“I don’t care.” And he didn’t. Not one iota. All he cared about at the moment was getting her to the chopper-pick-up location an hour to the south. “Let’s go.”

“Please,” she said. “You have to believe me.”

“I don’t have to do squat.”

“I would never compromise EDNA. That project was the greatest achievement of my career. I safeguarded it with my life.”

Cutter didn’t know the details of her case. All he knew was that she’d been found guilty of treason in a court of law. He trusted the justice system. It was his job to take her back. Black and white, just the way he liked it. Then he could move on to the most challenging phase of his mission: finding The Jaguar and bringing him to justice.

“Someone framed me,” she said. “It’s the only explanation.”

“If you don’t start walking, I’m going to put the cuffs back on and drag you down that trail.”

Rubbing her wrists where bruises had formed, she turned and started walking. “Don’t you care about justice?”

“Justice for whom?” Cutter usually didn’t indulge his prisoners in conversation, but her denials were beginning to annoy him. “The millions of people you endangered by selling EDNA? Did you happen to think about that?”

She started to turn and face him, but Cutter reached out and stopped her by grasping her arm. He wanted to believe he’d kept her moving because he was in a hurry to get to the rendezvous point. But deep inside he acknowledged that he did not want to look into those pretty blue eyes and know what she was. Beauty and evil just did not go together.

“I meant what I said about dragging you,” he warned.

“Please. I can’t go to prison for a crime I didn’t commit. You have to listen to me.”

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve heard that?”

“It’s the truth! I’m innocent!”

“Take it up with the courts, sweetheart. Right now you have a date with a chopper, and come hell or high water I’m going to make sure you don’t miss it.”

Dawn broke with a monochromatic sky and the tinkle of sleet against the ground. In the distance thunder rumbled menacingly. The hopelessness of her situation pressed down on Mattie like a lead weight as she made her way down the rugged trail. The last thing she wanted to do was get on that chopper and be transported to prison, but she knew if she tried to make a run for it, the man who’d apprehended her would stop her.