Hot & Bothered (A Hostile Operations Team Novel - Book 8) by Lynn Raye Harris

the one making contact, the one who’s going to find out their location for us.”
    Ryan couldn’t speak. Rage rolled through him. The kind of rage that made him want to smash something—or someone.
    He was pissed at Ian Black. At Emily. At himself for being so stupid as to get involved with her in the first place. He’d convinced himself she was this helpless little thing who needed his strength and his friendship.
    He’d let himself care, and that was the one thing he knew he shouldn’t have done. Because caring made you vulnerable to hurt.  
    He stood and glared at Black. “You don’t fucking care who you put in danger, do you? She had a life in DC, a life away from all this shit—and you brought her back into it. What did you promise her?”
    Black didn’t look the least bit apologetic. “A chance to clear her name.”
    Ryan took a step toward him, ready to pummel the man for lying to her. If it were possible, Mendez would have done it. Ian Black had lied for reasons of his own, but Ryan wasn’t going to let him get away with it.
    “Ryan.”
    Emily’s voice was soft and shaky, but her eyes were open. She gazed up at him with glassy brown eyes, and he sank down on the mattress beside her, pushing her hair back off her forehead with a tender gesture. Too late, he realized what he was doing and dropped his hand away.
    “I’m sorry,” she said softly.  
    Her apology kicked him in the gut. “He lied to you, Emily. He can’t do what he said. You need to go home and go back to school.”
    She moved her head from side to side on the pillow. Telling him no. Rejecting him.  
    He stiffened.
    “You and Victoria want to cocoon me in Bubble Wrap and keep me from living my own life. This is something I need to do. I’m not leaving until it’s finished.”
    “It’s not safe here for you. You know that.”
    “It’s not safe for you either. For any of us.”
    Ryan got to his feet. She was a stranger to him in so many ways. The woman he thought he’d known—the soft, sweet, sometimes confused woman—was nowhere in evidence. This woman was determined and stubborn.
    But so was he. He turned to Ian Black and Matt, who’d come into the room with them.
    “We need to call Mendez and get her on the next transport out of here. She can’t stay.”
    Matt didn’t look happy. He also didn’t look like he agreed, and that was enough to make Ryan nearly burst a blood vessel.
    “Can’t do nothing about it, mon ami ,” he said, his Cajun accent thickening for a second. “She’s here and she doesn’t want to go. Our mission is to extract the hostages, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
    Emily was sitting up now and holding a hand to her stomach. She didn’t look as green as she had a few minutes ago, but she didn’t look well either.
    “She’s sick. She needs medical attention.”
    “Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Emily said, her eyes blazing hot. “I’m not sick. It’s just something that comes and goes. I got too hot. I’ll be fine in a little while.”
    Matt frowned as he looked at her. Then his gaze landed on Ryan again. “You heard her, Flash. Now let’s get down to the business we came here for, which is finding those hostages.”
    Ryan felt like he’d landed in an alternative universe. After two months of worrying about Emily, wondering where she was and if she was safe, he’d found her again. But she wasn’t the same person. She didn’t want his opinion. She didn’t want to tell him her problems or listen to his advice the way she once had.
    Two months ago, she’d come to him and said she had to be with him, just once. Said he was the brightest spot in her life. Then she’d snuck out of his apartment while he’d slept and she’d left the country with Ian Black. He’d felt betrayed, angry, confused.
    He’d gotten a handle on those feelings in the past two months. But the lid had snapped off today, and everything was churning in his gut right now.
    He’d told