She just knew it.

Or maybe her imagination had gone amuck in the military-like facility, and he'd stretched out to sleep on the narrow cot, forgetting all about her. Was he watching or wasn't he? Unanswered questions p.r.i.c.ked her like needles. So finally giving up, she turned to face him.

Nope. He remained sitting, his gaze thoughtful on her. "I thought you'd never turn my way." Through the Plexiglas, his voice emerged deep and softened.

"I have work to do." She brushed hair off her forehead and tried not to squirm. Years ago she'd read a book featuring a hero with the face of a fallen angel, and she had rolled her eyes, while imagining a light-skinned, blue-eyed cherub having curly golden hair that so was not s.e.xy.

Now, facing masculine, sculpted perfection... she understood. Angels held ideal beauty, while a fallen one would probably appear dark and deadly, like the man facing her. G.o.ds had chiseled Jory's face into hard lines and sharp angles. The nearly brutal contours were arranged with full lips, dark brows, and a firm jaw. An unusual gray colored his eyes into the deepest of storm clouds, and a small scar cut into his left eyebrow, hinting at danger and strength.

Any woman would be attracted to him and find him compelling. Alone, in the utilitarian cell, his beauty alone would tempt any romantic to try and save him.

Bad guy or not.

He overwhelmed the cot, his hands and feet beyond large. Most guys his size looked like overgrown puppies, but the thought of comparing the warrior to a scampering animal was laughable at best.

"You're wasting your time with trying to engage the chip," he said. "I strongly suggest you give up now and get out of here."

Charismatic and too handsome, without question. A sense of s.e.xual danger all but cascaded off him, and she had the oddest sense he knew it. Maybe even controlled it-which did nothing but intrigue her more.

She shook her head. The military place full of secrets was messing with her imagination, and the romanticism she had to tamp down. Her stash of romances would remain untouched for a while, and after the job had been successfully completed, she'd reward herself with a weekend of binging on alpha males and surreal adventures.

For now, she'd get the job done.

He watched her face as if fascinated by an engaging television show. Could he read her so easily? As if responding to her unasked question, he smiled. Even teeth, a flash of white in a devastating face.

Her breath sped up, and flutters beat through her abdomen. Her brain tried to shut down any response, while her body flared alive. A flush spread like wildfire up from her chest and over her face with such a force her skin flamed.

How was he doing that?

Her head snapped up. While her body seemed to be on the blink, her mind remained clear, but now incredibly intrigued. "I can figure out how to wirelessly reach your chip," she said, quietly pleased when her voice remained steady.

"No, you can't. While I appreciate the Hail Mary pa.s.s, you can't reconnect to the chip. It's damaged. Off-line. Unreachable. Trust me." His earnest expression would probably gain him admittance to heaven if he asked nicely.

Considering that her taste in men truly sucked until just recently, it figured she'd be attracted to him. But really, who wouldn't be? The guy was every movie hero, romance novel antihero, and s.e.xy villain she'd ever seen all trumbled into one seriously hot package.

But he was full of s.h.i.t, and he'd just made his first mistake. No way-no way had he given up on life so easily. n.o.body worked at staying in such amazing physical shape to just roll over and die. Well, unless he had another reason to stay fit. "Trust you? Seriously?"

He c.o.c.ked his head to the side and lifted one eyebrow. "Sure. Why not?"

She could take the mocking, and she could handle the tension he seemed to shoot her way. But treating her as a dumb girl and trying to charm her into trust? h.e.l.l to the no.

She rushed from her chair and toward the cell. So stupid to let her temper free. Darn Irish blood. "Gee, I don't know. Maybe because you're a traitor?" d.a.m.n it. She couldn't let him get under her skin, but anybody who'd turn against their own country should be shot. Not saved. And somebody that freakin' amazingly hot had so many advantages in life it was even worse he'd chosen the wrong path. "Here I am trying to fix the chip planted in your back."

He stood slowly and deliberately, his dark gaze keeping hers, his expression inscrutable. "Who do you think planted the chip?"

She swallowed and fought the urge to step back. d.a.m.n, he was big. Instead, she lifted her chin, a necessity if she wanted to meet his gaze directly. "That's what happens when you double-cross Russians."

A low rumble of a laugh barked out of him. "Russians? Seriously? f.u.c.king Russians." Dark amus.e.m.e.nt filtered through his tone and glittered in those amazing eyes. "You're not as smart as you look, green eyes."

She was a f.u.c.king genius, actually. Even though most of the world believed Russia was contained, her limited experience at the NSA during her internship proved otherwise. "While I appreciate your attempts to get into my head, I should get back to work to save your life. You know, in time for the court martial."

His smile revealed even white teeth. No dimples. Shouldn't a fallen angel have a dimple or two? "There's no way to fix the chip, as it was damaged physically by a bullet. No router problem, no way to repair the connection. Setting to WAP personal won't work and neither will setting to mixed network mode." He shrugged ma.s.sive shoulders.

Interesting. She stilled and studied him closer, if that were possible. Intelligence filled his eyes, which she'd overlooked because of his hulking size... and his incredible looks. "So you know a little bit about computers, do you?" If he was as knowledgeable as he seemed, he could've sold all sorts of state secrets to their enemies.

"A bit. Don't waste time using stumblers or sniffers. The last techs they sent wasted too much time trying." He sighed. "Then they tried a wireless honey pot. Idiots."

She shook her head. He seemed to have the world at his feet, just from brains, brawns, and beauty. "Why?" she asked, her voice croaking.

Furrows dug into his forehead, and he stepped closer to the gla.s.s. "Why what?"

Although impossible, she could swear she felt heat from his body through the part.i.tion. "Why would you do such a thing? Betray your own people?" Sure, she'd made mistakes-big ones. But disloyalty wasn't one of them.

His gaze softened. "I have never betrayed my own people. Ever."

The words had to be a lie, but truth echoed in the low tones. She sighed. "So your people aren't the citizens of your own country."

One ma.s.sive shoulder lifted. "I'd never turn against this country, but no. My people share my blood." He paused and rubbed his scruffy chin. "Well, and the women they might love-I'd never betray them, either." His smile returned at the last.

For some reason, the statement both intrigued and irritated her. "So your people are only men."

"More than men and never only." He didn't appear to move, but suddenly seemed taller. Bigger. More formidable. "Is there anybody you'd die for?"

"Yes." Absolutely and without question.

His lids half lowered. "How about kill for?"

She blinked. "Y-Yes." The order of his question as well as the flash of sorrow in his dark eyes bespoke of hidden hurts and unplumbed deaths. "Who are you?" she whispered.

"I like that about you. A lot."

Her chest warmed, and warning clanged inside her brain. "Like what?"

"The way you blurt out what's in your head without thinking. You've done it twice already." His full upper lip quirked. "While you're definitely on guard, your natural state is unguarded. Very appealing."

Oh, he did not get to read her so easily. "Maybe I'm working you."

Now his eyes darkened, swirling with something... male. "Baby, you could work me any day."

Laughter rolled out of her, quick and unexpected.

His eyebrows lifted.

She forced her lips out of a smile. "That come-on voice you use, trying to be suggestive. It's such baloney."

He rubbed his bottom lip, studying her. Deep. Before he'd seemed merely curious, now it felt like he dug deep and mined her brain. Maybe deeper. She wanted to step away, to get back to work, but the guy was like a refuge in the middle of chaos. Even trapped, a sense of calmness surrounded him.

When was the last time she'd been calm?

"Jory? Is that your real name?" For some reason, knowing his real name mattered. Why, Piper would figure out later.

"Yes. Always has been." Jory flattened his platter-sized palm against the gla.s.s. A wicked and faded white scar marred his life line. "Is Piper your name?"

Her head jerked back. "Yes. Always has been." An urge to press her palm against his, even to just marvel at the difference in size, propelled her back a step. "If you tell me who implanted the chip, maybe I could figure out where it came from and study the design so I can somehow reconnect wirelessly with it. So the d.a.m.n thing doesn't go active, slice your spine, and kill you."

No physical reaction whatsoever from the hard-a.s.s prisoner.

"If I told you, they'd kill you." He kept his palm in place, the scar a deadly reminder of who he was and what he might do. "Get out now, Piper."

A chill skittered down her spine. "n.o.body will kill me. We're both protected here."

He sighed.

She shook her head. Yeah, she wanted to save him, and not just to cement her place in the organization. To be truly useful and needed. Maybe there was a good reason he'd betrayed the people she now trusted? She shook her head. There was no good reason. "You're just too good-looking. Bad guys shouldn't look like you."

His cheek creased. "I'm not a good guy, I admit. But in this world, in the place you're standing in right now? I'm not even close to the baddest. Unfortunately."

Fanatics believed wholeheartedly in their cause and in the rightness of their crimes. She knew better than to trust him, and she was too smart to be manipulated. "I can see you believe your statement."

A line formed between his eyebrows. "What exactly did Dr. Madison tell you about me?"

Piper paused. There didn't seem to be a good reason to withhold information. "She told me you were an American a.s.set, one trained in a.s.sa.s.sinations, who turned against our country and sold secret information to the highest bidders and then ended up working with the Russians. Apparently your new friends didn't trust you, so they implanted a kill chip next to your spine, and a bullet impacted the device, rendering it off-line."

Jory quirked his upper lip. "Great story."

She studied him. What if the story was untrue? Dr. Madison was a stone-cold b.i.t.c.h and probably had no problem lying. Especially since she couldn't stand Piper. "Want to counter?"

"No."

An odd regret weighed down her shoulders. "So it's true."

"No." He shook his head. "The less you know about me, the safer you'll remain."

What a bunch of baloney. "If you cared about my safety, you wouldn't have sold my country's secrets to our enemies," she shot back.

He shook his head. "You're really a patriot, now aren't you?"

She lifted her chin. "Yes." Although her reasons for working at the compound were definitely personal and not professional, she loved her country and couldn't understand how anybody could betray their homeland. "I studied computers and coding through college and graduate school just to be able to work here."

"So you're here voluntarily." Whatever openness had been in his gaze moments ago snapped closed-hard and fast, like a bank vault door.

She bit the inside of her lip. "Yes. I trained at the NSA, and that made me appealing for this organization." Of course, she'd already been in contact with the organization when she'd earned the NSA internship, but since the NSA didn't know that fact, neither should the prisoner. Now saving Jory was her a.s.signment.

"Does the NSA know about this job?" A low thread of something dark wove through his words.

She blinked and told him the first lie of the day. "Yes."

His chin lifted. "Ah. Interesting."

She crossed her arms. "What is interesting?"

"You're a terrible liar, Piper. I like that." His eyes warmed.

She kept silent, not wanting to compound the lie. What was wrong with her? Every time the guy said he liked something about her, flutters heated her abdomen. He was the bad guy.

Now she worked in a covert military organization, and she needed to learn to lie better. When she'd moved to Utah, she'd known of the job's secrecy. Sometimes duty required sacrifice, she'd been told. Something whispered inside her head that the man in the cell had seen plenty of sacrifice. "I'm not lying," she muttered.

He lowered his chin. "You seem like a smart woman, so I have to ask you, does lying to the NSA seem like a good idea? Does an organization, one that professes to be part of the U.S. military, lie to the NSA?"

The back of her nape tickled. Sometimes, the NSA didn't want to know everything, which was why it hired out organizations such as the one she now worked for. That much, she'd figured out on her own without the covert training she was currently undergoing. "n.o.body is lying to the NSA," she said evenly.

He snorted.

She cleared her throat. Time to get back to the job at hand. That's what he was, and what he had to remain. Merely a job. Her time of rescuing stray pets had ended, and she had to stop his attempts to dig into her head. "So far I haven't been able to reconfigure the code algorithm or to gain a connection between the computer and the chip. The code changes every thirty seconds, so you need the connection to make it work and to pause it. Help me to save you." Maybe he didn't want to be saved.

"You really want to help?" he asked, his gaze intent.

"Yes." She had to prove her usefulness in order to stay, and more than anything, she needed to stay. Plus, now she wanted to save the man in the cage. The Russians didn't get to decide when and how he died. The American courts would.

"Then give me the codes and the computer," he said.

They'd warned her he'd try to work her, and she'd scoffed. Now she saw the reason for the concern. n.o.body should be that charming. "How exactly am I supposed to get you the computer?" she asked.

"Help me get out of here." He dropped his hand. "You're good, I admit it. But I'm better, and if I had the chance at the computer, I could fix this."

He was lying. She shook her head. "If you could save yourself, they would've given you the chance. You want the computer to contact your allies. The commander warned me."

That easily, that quickly, Jory turned from an amenable charmer into something... impenetrable. Cold swept the gray warmth from his eyes, and his jaw firmed into a shape harder than granite.

The mask slipped to reveal the killer deep inside.

For the first time, she had no problem imagining him as the bad guy. "I knew you were in there somewhere," she murmured.

His chin lifted, and his nostrils flared. "You have no idea who's in here, green eyes. No idea at all."

"Was it the mention of your allies that did it?" Her knees trembled with the raw need to escape danger, even though he was contained. The hair sprang up on the back of her neck, and her fight or flight instinct bellowed for her to flee. Would a mere cell wall keep a man like him trapped? Somehow, she didn't think so.

"No allies. Just how well do you know the commander?" Jory asked, his lip twisting.

Piper shrugged again and swallowed over a lump in her throat. "Pretty well. Considering he's my father."

CHAPTER.