Slow Burn(102)

    “Good,” he said, and his fingers stroked my clitoris.

    I whimpered in delight. “Oh, Griffin.”

    He was fumbling at his zipper with his other hand, opening his pants.

    “Then we get out, right?” I said. “They’re all dead and we get out?”

    “Yes,” he said. “That’s right. Very good, doll.” And he entered me in one smooth stroke.

    I groaned into his mouth as he kissed me.

    “Very, very good,” he breathed.





Chapter Eighteen

    Knox checked our bound wrists again. We were standing along the side of the road. The car we were using was pulled over on the shoulder. The trunk was open.

    “Knox,” said Griffin. “We’re tied up.”

    “Right,” he said. His face was white. “You think they’re going to suspect me?”

    “They better not,’ said Griffin. “Our plan for French hinges on you being free.”

    Knox took a deep breath. “They’re going to believe me.”

     “Of course they will. You can pull this off,” said Griffin.

    Knox nodded, closing his eyes. He was quiet for a minute, and then he opened his eyes. When he did, he looked more confident, as if he’d somehow banished his nervousness. “Get in the trunk then.”

    I wasn’t looking forward to this part.

    “You go first,” said Griffin. “I can absorb the force of the door closing on us.”

    I climbed into the trunk and Griffin got in on top of me. He covered my body with his own. Knox slammed the trunk closed.

    It was dark inside. It smelled like gasoline. There wasn’t a lot of room. Both my weight and Griffin’s were settled on my bound hands, and that hurt quite a bit. Then the car started, and we were jostled around in the back for what felt like forever.

    Griffin asked me if I was okay a few times, and I said I was. That wasn’t strictly true, but if I said I wasn’t, then there wasn’t anything he could do for me, was there? I gritted my teeth and did my best to bear it.

    Eventually, the car pulled to a stop.

    The trunk opened, and Knox was standing over us, a gun trained on us.

    We had to get out of the trunk on our own, which wasn’t particularly easy with our hands tied behind our backs. Griffin managed to do it, but Knox had to help me out a little bit.

    I peered at our surroundings. We were in the middle of the woods. There was a clearing where several cars were parked, but other than that, nothing but trees. This was Op Wraith?

    I heard a whirring sound, and I looked up. There were cameras in the trees. I could see their red blinking lights. They swiveled back and forth. So. They were watching us already.

    Knox put his gun in my back. “Move,” he said.

    I took unsteady steps forward, unsure of where I was going.

    “Stop,” said Knox. I did, and he moved in front of me, picking up what appeared to be a random square of forest floor, covered in leaves. But when he moved it aside, I realized it was man made, and it had been put there to disguise a set of metal doors in the ground. Knox knelt down and entered a code on a keypad. The doors swung downwards, revealing a staircase into the ground.

    We descended down into the depths, underneath the forest. The doors closed above us, but it wasn’t dark down here. The walls were poured concrete, sturdy and industrial, and they gleamed under fluorescent light fixtures.

    At the end of a narrow hallway, we were greeted by a man with a gun. He was just as muscular as Knox and Griffin. He cocked his head to the side. “Knox? We figured you for dead.”

    “I’m alive, as you can see,” said Knox. “I’m completing my mission. You might want to radio Caldwell.”

    “Who’s this?” said the guard, reaching out to caress my cheek.

    I jerked my head back.

    Griffin clenched his teeth.

    “That’s classified,” said Knox. “Need to know.”

    “She’s pretty,” said the guard. “Hope you got yourself a taste.” Griffin surged at him, and the guard laughed as he sidestepped. “Well, if it isn’t Griffin. Why isn’t this asshole dead already?”