The Savior (Black Dagger Brotherhood #17) - J.R. Ward Page 0,63

case.

But goddamn it, she could physically hurt Kraiten.

And she did. Sarah Watkins—scientist, semi-nerd, all-around good girl who had colored inside the lines her entire life—threw an airborne right punch directly at Robert Kraiten’s face.

She’d been aiming for the nose.

She nailed him straight in the eye.

That was as far as it got. The next thing she knew, Kraiten was bent at the waist and cursing, and she was being drawn back with gentle, but firm hands.

Sarah knew who had taken hold of her without having to look. And Red-and-Black’s cologne was something else. Dark, sensual spices, the kind of thing she had never smelled before, got into her nose and didn’t stop at her sinuses. The scent somehow went through her entire body.

“We’ll take care of him,” the commando said into her ear. “Don’t you worry.”

She looked up over her shoulder. Way up.

His peach eyes were too bright, and not in the sense that he was high. More like they were backlit by an ethereal energy, the blue/green irises capable, it seemed, of glowing in the dark.

It was as she stared into that incredible color that the combination of words he had spoken caught up with the language center in her brain.

We’ll take care of him.

Everything about the man, from the Kevlar vest across his chest to the weapons on the rest of his body, suggested that whatever all that meant, going through proper legal channels was not going to be part of it. And the end result was bound to include a headstone and a deep hole into the earth.

And what do you know, that outcome was not something she was inclined to protest.

“Who are you?” she breathed.

“We came to rescue the boy,” the man said in a hoarse voice. “He’s been here too long.”

“Are you with the government?”

“We’re private actors. But we’ll keep him safe, I swear to it. No harm is ever going to fall upon him if I’m around. It was my vow to his mahmen.”

Her instincts told her to trust him. But what about those instincts? She’d been on the verge of marrying a man it turned out she didn’t know at all—and she’d worked here at BioMed for how long and they’d been hiding this horrific secret? How could she put any faith in her sense of anything—

Justlikethat, time snapped out of its stupor and started rolling again, the female commando speaking up.

“Where’s your fucking car?”

Sarah spoke up. “It’s out in the parking lot—”

“Not yours.” The female yanked Kraiten upright. As he sputtered through the blood that ran down his face, she gave him a shake. “His.”

Murhder was struggling to focus. The female he was holding so close to his body was taking up a tremendous amount of his mental bandwidth, in spite of the life-or-death situation at hand: With every breath he took, he was captivated by her fresh, clean scent. Between each blink of his eyes, he was registering new details about her, from her brown and blond hair, the high color on her cheeks, the curve of her face, the pale honey color of her eyes. She was wearing a loose blue bag of protective clothing, and he wondered what her body was like underneath. But whatever she looked like … he was going to want her.

Because he already did.

Except shit, he had to get with the program or this already chaotic situation was going to go nuclear.

“Answer her question,” he snapped at the suited man with the attitude and the now swollen eye.

Man, he’d loved the way that woman had swung her fist like that. Good follow-through. Excellent aim. And who could argue with the damage, given that blood flow? The bastard was going to have a helluva shiner in the morning—if they didn’t kill him outright after they got a vehicle.

Abruptly, Murhder wondered why in the hell he was wasting time with voluntary answers. Plunging his will into Kraiten’s gray matter, he popped the tops off all kinds of memories—and was horrified by what he found …

“You sick fuck,” Murhder whispered. “You motherfucker.”

As everyone looked at Kraiten, the man’s eyes peeled wide, like he knew his secrets had been revealed and he had no idea how. But enough of that.

“Take us where we need to go to get out of here,” Murhder commanded as he inserted the order into the man’s brain and put the gag back in his mouth.

Kraiten mentally fought the impulse, a sign of his intelligence. But he inevitably folded, bested by a higher power than he,