Page 82 of Elite Metal: Warriors

Sterling blinked. He had long lashes and they fluttered like a girl’s. Benedict had always hated that oh-so-innocent blink. “Um, to save your ass?”

“Little late, aren’t you?”

Sterling frowned. “I got here as fast as I could.” He held out a hand and helped Benedict up. He only teetered a little. “What happened?”

“The bad guys got here first.” He pulled down his shirt and re-snapped his jacket, but only to have something to do. “They got her.”

“Got who?”

“Michelle. The woman. The one I was extracting.” He didn’t like the way Sterling’s gaze snapped to him, the way he stared with those all-seeing eyes. “We need to move. We need to get her back before they hurt her.”

“Um…okay.” Sterling holstered his weapon. “Where’d they take her?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll find her.” He rifled in his bag until he found his tracking device. He flicked it on and waited until the screen lit up. A red dot appeared along with an atonal beep. Yes. The tracers sewn into her sweats were working. He shot a dark look at Sterling. “You ready to go?”

“Yup.”

Benedict shouldered his bag and headed for the door. But he stopped short, went to the counter and grabbed a handful of Peeps.

Who knew how far they had to go to find her again.

Chapter Seven

“So who is this woman?” Sterling asked as he turned off the trail and onto the road.

Benedict didn’t like the slick lilt of his voice, or the amusement in it. “Just a job.”

A snort rounded the cab.

Benedict frowned at him. “What?”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice the way you said her name.”

“How did I say her name?”

“Like a prayer.”

“I did not say it like a fucking prayer.”

“You kind of did.” They drove in silence for a while, because honestly there was nothing else to say, but then Sterling asked, “What does she look like?” He laughed when Benedict growled at him. There was no call to laugh. There was no call to ask what she looked like. The fuckwad. “I need to know what she looks like. You know. So I don’t shoot the wrong person.”

“You shoot her and I’ll skin you alive.” It would be a pleasure.

“I won’t shoot her…if I know what she looks like.”

Benedict glared out the window, but all he saw in his mind’s eye…was her. “Tall.” Willowy. “Curvy.” Tantalizing. “Short black hair.” That curled around her cheek like a caress.

“Beautiful?”

A sigh.

Sterling hooted a laugh. It took all Benedict’s legendary self-control not to clock him. Decking Sterling would have been inconvenient…considering the fact that he was driving the car. “Holy God. Never thought I’d see the day.”

Benedict scowled at him. “What day?”

“The day Lithium fell in love.”

“I’m not in love.” A snarl. A lie. Maybe. He wasn’t sure what this horrible feeling bubbling in his gut was, but it felt like hunger and weakness and need. Love was flowers and butterflies and fucking rainbows. Shit like that.