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

himself on the long flight here that he would find her again. That once he had Ian Black in his sights, he was getting an answer no matter what he had to do to get it.
    But he hadn’t expected to walk into Black’s compound and find her with little effort. Hell, until a few minutes ago, he’d even let himself believe she wasn’t here willingly. He’d believed she’d get on a plane as soon as he found her and go back to DC gratefully.
    She didn’t look grateful at the moment. She looked upset and miserable.
    “I was just telling Ian that my contact didn’t come to the rendezvous today,” she said to Matt. She didn’t look at Ryan, and it stung. “He’s not ready to divulge that info yet. Not without more incentive.”
    “You aren’t going out there again,” Ryan said. “It’s too dangerous.”
    All three of them looked at him. Matt’s jaw was set in a hard line. Emily looked furious. Black was the only one with the hint of a grin on his face. Ryan wanted to wipe it away with a solid punch.  
    “I make the personnel decisions around here,” Black said. “And I say she goes. Unless, of course, she decides she’d rather not. Emily?”
    Her face was red as she lifted her chin. “I’m going. I’ll try again tomorrow. I’ll keep trying until we have an answer.”
    Black went over to his desk and fired up the combat-hardened laptop sitting there. “We’re working with satellite imagery to try to find where they might be, but so far we don’t have anything concrete to go on. There are some native tribes in the area that camp out in different locations—the Freedom Force could be with one of them, but we can’t go blasting our way into every camp to look. If we do that and we have it wrong, the word will spread. We won’t have a chance of getting those people back alive if that happens.”
    “Agreed,” Matt said.
    But Ryan couldn’t get on board with the conversation. He was too invested in the fact that Emily had run away in the night and now she was ignoring him. It just didn’t compute.
    “So what was all that in my apartment?” he said. “Lies? Why bother? Why come to me with your bullshit about wanting to be with me?”
    “Jesus,” Ian Black said.
    “Flash, not here, dude,” Matt added. “Not now. I already have to tell the colonel—don’t add fuel to the fire.”
    Emily dropped her gaze from his as she fiddled with the edge of the abaya lying on the mattress. He waited for her to look at him, but she didn’t. And he suddenly knew he’d be waiting for a long fucking time. Whatever had happened between them in DC was over.
    “Yeah, all right, I get it.” He turned toward Matt. “Unless you need me for this, I’m going to go find my bunk or something.”
    Matt looked sympathetic, which didn’t help soothe the bruised feeling in Ryan’s chest.  
    “Go ahead. Tell the guys we’ll meet in an hour.”
    “Copy that.”
    He didn’t mean to look at her again, but like Lot’s wife, he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t turn into a pillar of salt, but his heart felt like stone as he walked away.

CHAPTER SEVEN

    EMILY WANTED TO GO UP to her room and hide after Ryan stormed out, but she didn’t let herself do it. Instead, she listened to Ian and Matt discuss the Freedom Force and the possible scenarios in which they’d use the hostages.
    “Will they make an example of them, Emily?”
    She looked up to find the two men staring at her. As soon as she’d felt stable enough, she’d gone over to sit in a chair instead of on the mattress—Ian had a mattress in his office because he slept there. While it was a pretty sparse setup without any personal touches, it still felt too intimate to lie on his bed.
    She cleared her throat. She felt much better than she had, at least physically. Her heart, however, still felt as if someone had stomped on it pretty hard. She could still hear the anger in Ryan’s voice, still see the disillusionment on his face. He’d been furious with her,