Pandora's Box (31 page)

She shook her head, stunned.
 
“Are these damn microchips really worth your life?”

“If I save one person, just one, then yes it is worth it.
 
I know you don’t understand.
 
You are young and still see the world as black and white, no shades of gray.
 
Sometimes you have to sacrifice to make something out of yourself, to help save the world.
 
I am willing to die for that.”

“No.
 
I can protect you, but I need a list of the people with implants.
 
They must be stopped.”
 
And there was one other thing she desperately wanted to know.
 
“Was my father one of them?
 
Was he programmed to kill the president?”

Before Grainger could answer her, she spotted a tattoo on his left hand, caught between thumb and forefinger.
 
She grabbed him by the wrist, jerked his hand up for closer inspection.

“What the hell is this?
 
Why do you have the same tattoo as my father and Rico Boracci?”

Grainger shrugged.
 
“We got them while we were in college, all four of us.”

Someone with that tattoo had killed her mother.
 
She had been so sure the killer had been Boracci, but it could have been any one of them.
 
Even Grainger.
 
She took a step backwards, her narrowed eyes on his face.
 
What if the man standing in front of her had murdered her mother?

Grainger looked puzzled.

A shot rang out.

Tires squealed as the shooter took off.

Grainger slapped a hand over the wound and stumbled backwards.
 
His back hit the motel.
 
Blood dripped through his fingers.
 
With his free hand he grasped her wrist and pulled her closer.
 
She went to her knees with him.

It happened so fast, she didn’t even see the car the shooter had been driving.

Tyler
raced outside and knelt next to her.
 
He pulled out his cell and dialed 911 after he saw that she was okay.
   

“Your father…he called everything Pandora’s Box,” Grainger said between gasps.
 
“It was a joke.
 
If someone was hiding something, it was in Pandora’s Box.
 
If they put important papers in a box, it was Pandora’s Box.”

“I don’t think you should talk right now.”
 
Although she was interested in what he was saying, she wanted to save his life first.
 
He could talk later.
 
The man had saved her from the deadly effects of the microchip, not to mention the control issue.
 
She owed him.
 
She tore a piece from the bottom of the rented gown she was still wearing and shoved it beneath his shirt.
 
She pressed down hard on the wound.
 
“We need to get you to the hospital.”
 

“Listen to me.”
 
He covered her hand with his own.
 
“Please.
 
Listen.”

She nodded.
 
“I am.”

“Your father had secrets and once he joked about hiding them in a Pandora’s Box.
 
I don’t know where it is, but I think you would be interested in finding it.
 
I think it might be revealing.”

And then Grainger took his last breath.

******

Chapter Fourteen

Within the hour they were safely hidden in a pretty suburban home.
 
Lacy curtains, toys on the floor, and photographs of the family everywhere brought back that empty feeling to
Madison
.
 
Because her mother had died when she was so young,
Madison
hadn’t had a normal home like this one growing up.
 
But she was acutely aware of what she’d missed.

Tyler
had admitted to researching people on vacation before coming to
Las Vegas
.
 
In fact, he told her he did it everywhere he went just in case he needed a place to hide out.
 
Then he’d dazzled her with his lock-picking skills.
 
She’d been right about him from the beginning: kismet.
 
They were two of a kind.

While
Tyler
rattled around in the kitchen, searching for something to eat,
Madison
paced the carpeted living room floor in bare feet.
 
The soft carpet felt so good squishing between her toes.
 
It was a bit distracting.
 
Part of her longed to go upstairs, take a hot soak in the nearest tub, but she had to figure out who was behind the microchips.
 

Tyler
carried in a tray with assorted fruit, cheese, and bread on it.
 
He shrugged.
 
“They didn’t have much in stock.”
 
He pulled a bottle of wine from behind his back.
 
“I did find this, however.
 
Join me in a glass.”

“Are we celebrating or drowning our sorrows?”

“Neither.
 
Or either.”
 
He poured a glass and handed it to her.
 
“Whatever you want.”

“What I want isn’t in this glass.”
 
She took a quick sip, liquid courage and set the glass down on a nearby table.
 
“I don’t know about you, but my adrenaline is still pumping something fierce.”
 
She took his glass and placed it next to hers.
 
His eyebrow rose slowly, but he didn’t make a move.
 
It was all up to her.
 
She stood close, leaned in, and pressed her entire body against his.
 
She whispered, “Roxie interrupted us when we were about to get to know each other better. I think maybe we should pick up where we left off.”

“Do you?”

“Oh, yes.”
 
She teased him, keeping her mouth an inch within his reach. But she didn’t make a move to kiss him.
 
“I want you more than ever now.”
 
She tilted her head this way and that as if trying to figure out exactly how she wanted to kiss him.
 
Every time she moved, her body rubbed against his, a slow lover’s dance.
 
“What do you want,
Tyler
?”

A sexy smile played across his full lips.
 
He compressed them together instead of on hers.
 
Hovering just above her mouth, his eyes greedily devoured what he saw.
 
What did he see?
 
And how could one look from him make her feel like a self-conscious school girl?
 

His lips parted and he moved closer until she could feel his hot breath on her own mouth.
 
He would kiss her now.
 
Her eyes drifted shut.
 
She waited.
 
The kiss didn’t happen.
 
He was teasing her now.
 
She opened her eyes and was rewarded with a brief kiss on the tip of her nose.

That was it?

Tyler
spun her around so fast she didn’t have time to think.
 
One of his arms locked around her slender waist, pulling her back against the evidence that he wanted her.
 
With his other hand he moved her hair, exposing her neck and shoulder.
 
His lips, hot and wet, made a trail from the bare part of her shoulder to the long column of her throat.
 
He sucked and nibbled his way to her earlobe.
 

His hot breath tickled the hair behind her ear when he whispered, “Are you sure about this?
 
No regrets in the morning?”

“My only regret will be that we didn’t do this sooner.”

“I love the way you think.”

“Kiss me,” she begged.
 
“I want you to kiss me long and hard until I forget my own name.”

“Soon,” he promised.
 
“But first I’m going to drive us both crazy with need.
 
By the time I take you, neither one of us will remember who we are.”

His hands started at her waist.
 
They molded every muscle, spread over her flat stomach, moved up to the point where her breasts began to swell, and slid around her back.
 
Every time his hands started to go somewhere interesting, they took a detour.
  
Another trick to drive her over the edge.
 
She mewed in protest and wiggled her bottom against him.
 
Two could play at that game.

He groaned.
 

Target located and hit.

Tyler
decided to take their play to the next level.
 
He grabbed the hem of her eighteenth-century gown and whipped it over her head.
 
She spun around, shocked by the swiftness of her disrobing.
 
She stood in front of him in lacy bra and panties.
 
Her eyes took in his change of expression.
 
Pure hunger.
 
He couldn’t hide how desperately he wanted her.

“You look adorable,” he said.

Madison
stepped into his arms and kissed him with feverish intensity born of

self-imposed abstinence and the thrill of beating death yet again.
 
He kissed her back, hard.
 
His tongue immediately sought entrance, dueling with hers.
 
They silently battled, pushing against each other, both wanting to dominate.

They were equals on so many levels.

Madison
ripped his shirt open, sending a couple buttons flying across the room.
 
Déjà vu.
 
She stopped kissing him long enough to check out his solid chest.
 
Her hands explored the entire area: chest and abdomen.
 
Her fingers caught in the dark, curly hair surrounding his hard male nipples.
 
She followed the path of hair down the center of his abdomen, teasing the rib area.
 
While his hands smoothed down her bare arms, she unzipped his pants.
 
He helped her then by kicking them free.
 

She giggled at the sight of him in teddy bear boxers.
 
They were dark blue with the cutest little bears littered over them.
 
What kind of a Navy SEAL wore underwear like that?

“Think that’s funny, do you?”
 
He scooped her off her feet and turned her

upside-down, dangling her over the creamy carpet.
 
She squealed, the playful child inside of her coming out for the first time in years.
 
“I’ll show you funny.”

“Put me down!”
 
She laughed so hard that her stomach hurt.
 
“Put me down or I’ll hurt you.
 
Come on.
 
And don’t drop me.”

He set her gently on her feet.
 
Her laughter died when their eyes met and sexual tension coiled in her stomach once again.
 
She’d never felt so at ease with another human being, able to laugh uncontrollably, letting down her guard, and then falling back into total desire for that person.
 

His cell phone began to play that damn song again.
 
With a muttered curse
Tyler
retrieved it.
 
He glanced at the caller ID.
 
“Guess who?”

“Brett.”
 
She rolled her eyes, thinking how she was going to slap Brett silly when they finally met.
 
“Aren’t you going to answer it?”

“He’ll call back.”
 
Tyler
tossed the phone.

“Couch or bed?” she asked with a giggle.

He smiled.
 
“Ladies’ choice.”

Her eyes went to the couch.
 
It was probably a foot too short for
Tyler
to stretch out on.
 
Of course there was always the floor directly in front of the fireplace.
 
But that brought back instant memories of her father’s cabin.
 
She wanted to forget her problems, drown in
Tyler
’s arms.
 

“Maybe we should go upstairs and find a comfortable bed.”

Other men might have carried her upstairs and other women might have let them.
 
Madison and Tyler ran up the stairs.
 
She got to the top first, but she had a feeling he might have let her win.
 
Laughing again, she found the biggest bed in the house and jumped onto the center of it, bouncing like a kid.
 
She felt free and totally uninhibited, no alcohol necessary.