in poking an angry bear, and he really needed her to cooperate with him, but hell, he wanted to get a rise out of her. He wasn’t sure why.
He picked up her cell phone and snapped it in half.
Her mouth dropped open—oh, the thoughts that sight engendered—and she stared and the mangled device. “What…? Why…?”
He leveled her with a speaking glance. “You know. Everything else in here is probably bugged too.”
“I need my wallet.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I need my ID.”
“No. You don’t.” How could he explain to her that she’d never be Michelle Parsons again? “You need nothing. Just the file. Grab it and let’s go.” It had been less than two minutes since he arrived, but the man he’d pummeled had to have a partner somewhere, probably waiting in the parking garage or on the roof. He had no doubt they’d have company soon. When she hesitated, he gave his watch a meaningful glance.
She stared at him for a second. Her gaze flickered, as though she were contemplating…something. Then she grumbled, “Oh, all right,” and crossed to her briefcase, opened it and extracted a manila envelope marked CLASSIFIED—EYES ONLY.
Seriously? A classified document in an unlocked briefcase? What was the world coming to?
Benedict took the envelope from her and folded it, then tucked it into a pocket on the leg of his fatigues. He ignored her glare. It was getting easier. She glared a lot.
He picked up the other man’s Sig and tucked it into the back of his pants, then pocketed the KA-BAR too. “Ready?” he asked as he took her arm.
She yanked free. “Yes.”
“Let’s go. Stay behind me.”
He should have expected she would forge ahead.
He grabbed her arm again as she launched through the door, heading for the elevators, and turned her toward the stairs instead. An elevator was nothing more than a glorified cage. An ambush in the making. “This way,” he said. His tone was hardly even indomitable.
There was no need for her to glower as she did.
But she did.
* * *
Just who the hell did he think he was?
Michelle shot him a dark frown as they made their way down the hall toward the staircase, but he seemed impervious. In fact, he seemed impervious to everything. Despite the fact he’d been in a hellacious fight with a trained killer and had cuts and scratches—and maybe a cracked rib judging from the fall he’d taken, he just pushed on.
He eased open the door to the staircase and peered in, listening for movement. When he was satisfied, he gestured her through. She hesitated. “Who are you?” she asked.
He frowned at her. “Hush.”
She sent him a mutinous look. “I’m trusting you. I think I deserve to know.”
“I’m no one. I’m nothing. I’m a ghost.”
Something in his expression, something in his words hit her and hit her hard. She’d known men like him. Warriors who existed for no one and nothing but their cause. And while the realization of who and what he was made her heart twang in her chest with an incongruous regret, she knew this was the kind of man she needed to survive right now. If he wanted to kill her, she would be dead by now, wouldn’t she? So she nodded and followed his lead.
Moving as quickly and as quietly as they could, they whipped down the seventeen floors to street level. He didn’t stop there. He continued on to the garage.
Michelle glanced at him and annoyance pricked in her. “I hope you have a car,” she said, only wincing a little when her voice echoed through the stairwell. “Because you made me leave my keys upstairs.”
He glowered. “Hush.”
She lifted a shoulder. “Just sayin’.”
In a rush, he backed her against the cold cinderblock wall and plastered his body against hers, clapping his hand over her mouth. Shocking, the heat of him on one side and the coolness on the other.
“Shut. Up.” A hiss.
She hated being cornered, hated being covered. She wriggled against him in a fit of rebellion, arching her hips in an attempt to make him back away, but she only succeeded on noticing how hard he was…everywhere.
He lifted his head and stared into her eyes. His breath washed over her face. “There may be another one waiting in the garage. Please do shut the fuck up.”
He waited until his words sank in, waited until she nodded, before he moved. But he didn’t release her. Not right away. He gave her one more nudge with his rock hard pelvis, one designed to illustrate his