wasn’t the word so much as the way she said it, the underlying fervor in her tone, that sent skitters down his spine. “Why do you want to destroy Ming Kow?”
“You work for him. You should know.”
“Tell me.”
Because he works for the Russian gangster who killed my friends. Again with the fucking tears. He wished she would just stop digging. She was overturning anguish he’d buried deep long ago and he did not want to relive it. He clenched his teeth to hold back that truth at least.
But she had stopped probing. Her eyes had clouded and her chin went firm. Oh, and her voice changed again. Gone was the prissy British bitch. Now she spoke with a clipped, Russian accent. Heat, mortification and bone-deep regret sluiced through him. She was Russian. Fuck. “We’re running out of time. I need you to tell me. What are your plans for Ming Kow?”
Coop’s pulse thrummed as he tried to keep quiet. How had he let himself get into this situation? Seduced by a Russian spy. Drugged out of his head. Coerced to give up all his secrets. This was Agent Training 101. Titanium would rip him a new one when he found out.
But wait. He’d be dead, wouldn’t he?
Surely the smack-down wouldn’t be so bad then.
He tried to hold onto the moment, the implicit threat in it…but he couldn’t. It was too funny. He started to laugh, and just couldn’t stop.
“Well, hell,” she said with a thread of disgust.
“Da.” And yeah. Answering her in Russian was freaking hilarious. But for some reason, she didn’t seem to think so.
“Pay attention,” she snapped.
“I am paying attention.”
“What is it you need from Ming Kow?”
This question was harder to resist. “I need access to his server.”
She stood again and paced the room. “No one has access to his server. It’s in his private vault at his mansion in Deep Water Bay.”
Well, no wonder he hadn’t been able to find it in the city. “I’m very good at what I do,” he suggested.
“I’m sure you are. But Ming Kow is paranoid.”
“As well he should be.”
“Indeed. His success has made him many enemies. He has an army protecting him. His home is practically un-breachable.”
“I can breach anything. I breached you.”
She snorted and gave her ponytail a saucy flick. “You think too much of yourself. I seduced you.”
“Did you?” Why this made him grin was a mystery. Or not. He lifted his hips in the hope she would notice his bourgeoning cock and take pity on him and suck it or something, but she didn’t seem to be in the mood. She merely sniffed.
“I needed to know why you were following me,” she said.
“I told you. I wasn’t following you.”
“I know that now. But you have to realize how suspicious you look.”
“I don’t look suspicious in the least.”
“Of course you do, all big and muscular and…” She waved a hand at his person.
“It kind of sounds like you want me again,” he said, waggling his nether regions.
She didn’t take the bait. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m just trying to warn you. If I saw you coming, you’d better believe Ming Kow noticed you too.”
“Maybe I’m not his type.”
“Oh, brother.” She rolled her eyes. “Look, Cooper. You need to forget about that server and leave Hong Kong.”
What? “I’m on a mission to destroy Ming Kow.”
“I am too, and I cannot have a big galoot like you getting in my way.”
Wait. What? They were on the same mission? If she was out for Ming Kow, she couldn’t be in league with Babikov. Could she? “What do you mean?” he asked.
Her frown deepened. “I’m too close. I can’t have you screwing everything up.”
“Too close to what?”
But she didn’t seem inclined to answer his questions. “I promise, if you go after Ming Kow’s server, you will get caught. And he will kill you. I know this guy. He’s brutal.”
“I know him too. And I’m a badass.”
She flicked a dismissive look at him, focusing on the bonds above his head. “Just take my word for it. Get the hell out of Hong Kong. Now.”
He should be furious at her and he really tried to glower, but his head was going muddy again and his eyesight was dimming. “But I have a mission,” he tried to say, but it came out all garbled.
The last thing he saw was her expression—it was mortifyingly pitying.
He thought he felt the brush of her breath on his lips before he passed out again, but he was probably just imagining it.