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How I knew she was smart was a no-brainer. She was looking for Ulysses. And she’d made it this far. That in itself was as improbable as it was impressive. One quick look at her app and I didn’t need to draw on a lifetime of training as a human intelligence operative to know she was kickass spankingbrilliant.
How I knew she was brave was also a piece of cake. From the moment I’d set eyes on her, she’d been fighting her reactions and working through her shock with impressive grit. Hell, I’d seen veteran operators shaken over a hard landing and crying over contact burns. She’d been in a plane wreck and wasn’t even complaining. Top all that with the fact she’d just tried to shield me with her body, and the profiler in me wascaptivated.
She was on the run. Pretty obvious, though she wasn’t about to admit it just yet. The injuries she’d sustained wouldn’t kill her, but she had to be sore. The high dose of ibuprofen I’d given her would ease the pain, but still, sheneededhelp.
The face that had emerged after I wiped off the blood and soot was nice to look at. A pair of upraised lips formed a small but sumptuous mouth that seemed perpetually suspended in a pucker. Or a kiss. Oh, yeah, a kiss from that mouth would be nice. Plush. Sensual. The mental image of her mouth closing around the tip of my cock made me hard. Fuck. I didn’t need a hard on right now.Stick to your profile, Vazquez. Even the best profilers were not immune to theirsubjects.
Her gaze shifted between me and the guys on the ledge, glittering with bewitching intensity. Fair, arched eyebrows punctuated her thoughts. The brow/eye combo were a profiler’s dream, an open window to her mind. The little glances she stole at me were signed and sealedconfessions.
Lots of personality on that face. Lots of choices made to underscore who she was and who she wanted to be. Like the tiny diamond stud perched on the corner of her small, slightly upturned nose. Or the blunt angles cut into her short platinum mane. Or the little tattoo I’d spotted at the bottom of her wrist, the skeleton of a tiny frog ringed by a telling reminder:Hack the happytoday.
Had I been a hundred percent, she’d be patched, packed up and under way. She’d be safe and feeling so. But these days, I was a human snail and it would’ve taken me a hell of a long while to get her down the mountain by myself.Adapt. I could hear the doctor’s voice in my head. Adapt my ass.Get on the ball,Vasquez.
I smirked at the men on the ridge. “What took you sogoddamnlong?”
“It was uphill the entire fucking way.” Zar assessed Nina with his keen, blue-eyedgaze.
“The old man was gonna keel over from a heart attack,” Aiden offered quietly in his New England accent, his brown eyes bright and alert as he took in the situation. At thirty-seven, Zar was by no means ready for the cemetery, but we always gave him shit about his age, since he was two years older than me and four years older thanAiden.
“Bullshit.” Zar swiped Aiden with his icy glare then returned his attention to Nina. “What the hell do wehavehere?”
“Do you know them?” Nina’s gaze wavered between them and me. Her chest rose and fell in shallow gasps that pushed the top of her small, round breasts against her T-shirt. The panic in her eyes tore upmyguts.
“Yeah, sweetheart, I happen to know these two.” I put my arm over her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “We came out here hoping to bag some elk today. The ugly guy with the boonie hat is Balthazar Flint, but he goes by Zar. That giant, long-haired hippy with the man bun and the scruff on his face is Aiden Black. His barbersucks.”
Aiden pulled up half his mouth into a semblance of a smile, an effort I appreciated. Zar was Zar. His stare roamed over Nina, the meadow, the smoldering wreck, and back to Nina. He wasn’t liking any of whathesaw.
“Sit-rep?” hedemanded.
“This is Nina.” I toned it down for her benefit. “She just tried to shield me from the bullets she thought you guys were gonna put into me. She was in a plane crash and she doesn’t like the police. Or hospitals. Or guyswithguns.”
“Isthatso?”
I didn’t like the glint in Zar’s eyes. Aiden went real still. I had some convincing to do and they didn’t even know the most interestingpartyet.
“She’s been hurt.” I glared at both fools. “Sheneedshelp.”
“Actually, no, I don’t need any help.” Nina raised her little square chin in the air and steeled her voice. “All I need is a lift. I need to get somewhere.Quickly.”
Her expression might’ve been defiant if she didn’t look so battered and exhausted. Enough with the talking. I needed to take careofher.
“So?” Time to put this to a vote. “What’s theverdict?”
“She’s a bossy one,” Aiden observed, lifting his split eyebrow high on hisforehead.
“Hey!” Ninaprotested.
I shrugged. “Can’t argue withtruth.”
“And where does she want to go?” Zar asked, from the depths of histacticalmind.
I still had Nina’s cell in my hand, so I lifted it up. “MayI?”
Not that she had a lot of choice in the matter, but she nodded and I tapped on the U app and tossed the cell over to Zar. He caught it as a rumble of thunder rattled the earth, sounding a lot closer than I liked. Aiden leaned over Zar’s shoulder and together they looked at the GPS satellite pics. Nary a wiggle of the eyebrows from either one of them. Their faces came up to meet my gaze, blank aswhiteboards.
“Well?” I said. “What is itgonnabe?”
“Hospital,” Zar spat, non-committal.
