Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(63)

“PT?” Nope. Her brain wasn’t capable of recovering fast enough to remember simple acronyms yet. Full-blown fantasies of kissing him were taking up the majority of her mental capacity at the moment.

If anything, his grin widened. As if he could know. Well, maybe he could. “Physical training.”

And how did one volunteer for it?

She dragged in a full breath of chill air. Cold shower might be better. “Good food is worth it.”

He winked. “Agreed.”

If he didn’t turn down the charm, her heart was going to crash right through her chest. Or stop for good.

“I’ll see you later, cora??o.” When he leaned in, she didn’t duck. His kiss seared her lips and when his fingers touched her jawline she opened her mouth so he could deepen the kiss. In moments, she was lost.

Then the kiss ended and he took a step back. Off balance, she almost stumbled forward and he reached out to steady her, letting her go as soon as she had regained her equilibrium. Physically, at least.

She thought he might say something. He opened his mouth, closed it. Then he turned and headed back.

What had she been hoping for? Had to be something, because the pang of disappointment hurt and she didn’t think it was Gabe’s fault. There was no doubt of the attraction between them, and he was walking away to do exactly what she’d wanted him to do from the first time she’d met him. Every minute she spent with him, her reasons for holding distance between them crumbled. And he had to know.

And he was giving her time. She should be thankful for it. But she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to help him close the distance or run.

She turned and walked inside the cabin, heading for the kitchen out of habit. But standing there, she couldn’t lock on to anything. Cleaning had been a great way to burn off the combination of confusion and frustration she’d felt this morning, but she wasn’t about to do it all again. There was keeping busy and then there was being crazy.

Pacing helped for about a minute or two.

Heading into the bedroom, she flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.

It’d be silly to go back over there right away, even with the excuse of starting to cook something complicated. Gabe had just walked her over here, possibly to keep her out of their hair.

Besides, seeing Gabe and having him ignore her in favor of something else? It’d be hard. And not fair to want him to devote all his attention to what mattered, then be around distracting them both with the obvious lust issues they had.

No. That was unkind and unfair to the both of them. Whatever this was, it wasn’t just lust. It was more, for her at least, and Gabe wouldn’t be trying so hard if it was passing desire for him.

At lunch, she’d had a harder time than she liked to admit resisting the urge to tap at his shoulder and ask him to help her while she’d been cooking. He hadn’t been ignoring her at the time, but she’d wanted his full attention. And she didn’t like the way she wanted it because it hadn’t come from affection. It’d come from insecurity.

Where did they stand with each other?

The ball was mostly in her court. He’d made it obvious. So the indecision was all hers too. Great. She had no patience for indecision, especially her own.

She needed to trust him again. On a whole lot of levels.

Sitting up, she pulled out her smartphone and turned it on. It had about a twenty percent charge. Not bad but she hated having her electronics anything less than fully charged if there was an outlet nearby.

She started poking around in drawers and cabinets for a stash of chargers. There were a couple of interesting things, like a first aid kit and a mystery duffel bag in the little alcove under a shelf in the closet, but no chargers.

Out in the living area, where Gabe had been sitting with his laptop earlier in the day, there was a power strip and—found it, a charger that fit her phone. Hah.

She hadn’t checked email or messages in days. It’d been one thing to install the game app on the temp phone but Gabe had warned her not to check the things most likely to be under surveillance.

There were messages in her digital voice mail so she decided to clear through those first. A few client messages in response to her out of office notification asking her to respond as soon as she returned. Nothing urgent. She saved each of them to address later, when she was officially back from her “vacation.”

“Maylin. I need you to listen.”

She froze. Charlie’s voice was so strained, she barely recognized it.

“Please. There’s people. They won’t let me go. They’re giving me forty-eight hours and then they’re going to kill me. Kill me! They said all you have to do is let them come get you and they’ll take you to your sister. It’s what you wanted, right?”

Oh, no. Charlie. No, no, no.

His voice dropped to a pleading whisper. “Everyone gets what they want, right? Please tell me this is the right thing to do. Please. I don’t want to die.”

A sinking feeling in her stomach turned and twisted into a tight knot of fear. How long had it been? Fumbling, she saved the message and cursed as she got the voice mail service to replay and announce the time stamp. It’d been a day and a half ago. A day and a half.

She should run to the main house. Right away. Ask Gabe...

Shuddering, Maylin went to the bathroom and threw up.

As she ran cold water from the tap and splashed her face, she pulled herself together piece by piece. She needed more information for Gabe and the team. This would split their attention, take precious time away from finding An-mei. But she wasn’t about to leave Charlie with whoever had him.