Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel #2)(9)

“Are you ready to talk?” Eric asked. After a minute she realized he was talking to her.

She shook her head, trying not to look nervous. Eric let out a long suffering sigh. “I didn’t think so.” He turned his attention to the two men on the floor.

“Chris!”

The man either didn’t hear him or was ignoring him.

Isabella wasn’t about to find out which. She needed to keep her head clear and she wouldn’t be able to do that if she looked at him again. These were some scary drugs they gave her if she was fixated on a psycho cult member.

A deep timber voice said, “I think we need to talk, Eric.”

She just barely stopped herself from closing her eyes and savoring the warm vibrations that voice gave off.

She really needed to get out of here. This was too weird even for her.

“I’ll be right there,” Eric said, but he was looking at her.

“Do you need anything right now?”

“C-can I please use the bathroom,” she said, forcing her eyes not to shoot over to her bag, the bag that still held all of her possessions, and was currently sitting on a chair by the broken doors.

He nodded as he gestured for the two men to take her.

Eric gestured towards the door the other man had just gone through and she had to fight back the urge to go after him, but she quickly pushed it aside and moved forward. A few feet away from her bag she stopped and made it a point to look embarrassed.

“I-I need my bag,” she said quietly.

All three men frowned. Eric asked, “Why?”

Looking pointedly at the other men, she leaned in closer to Eric and whispered, “I need my bag,” she stressed on a hiss.

“I don’t understand. Why do you need your bag to use the bathroom?” Eric asked in perfect male confusion.

Oh, this was going to be all too easy.

She did her best to look embarrassed.

He shrugged, picking up the bag and opening it. As he peered inside he asked, “What do you need? I’ll get it.”

“Tampons, but I’m not sure what size yet. Can you see if I have Supers, and Super Plus, of course it is kind of early in my cycle so I might just be able to get by with a Regular if you can find it? They should be in the bottom of the bag in the zippered compartment,” she said, hoping she sounded as well as looked innocent considering she was lying her butt off. Not only didn’t she have any tampons or any of the necessities a woman with PMS needed in her bag, but she also didn’t have her period.

Never had actually.

Although she’d developed physically like all the other girls she’d never had to endure having her period, which didn’t help with the feeling that there was something wrong with her.

A startled, well frightened really, pair of intense blue eyes down up at her. She had to bite back a chuckle.

The mere hint of PMS could usually scare even the toughest man and there was no question in her mind that this man was dangerous.

Eric noticeably swallowed. “Ah, um, well….” He looked a little lost. He cleared his throat and looked at the other men. “Any weapons in the bag?”

The two men shook their head as one. “Only thing in there that could cause a problem is a small Netbook, but there was nothing on it but a few games and pictures and there’s no network card. Not that it would matter since the signal is secured,” one of her captors said with a shrug.

This time Isabella had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. They saw what she wanted them to see. She wasn’t called “The Illusionist” for nothing.

“I’m going to need my hands free for this.”

“Not a problem,” Eric said, quickly uncuffing her. Gee, it was almost as if she’d said something to frighten them, she thought dryly. Seriously this was sad, but at least it never failed.

Eric handed her the bag and gestured towards the mutilated doorway. She hugged the bag tightly, feeling whole for the first time since she’d been captured and allowed the two giants to escort her to a rather plush bathroom while Eric went off, rather quickly, to talk to the hot, um, psycho.

“Don’t lock it,” one of the men said.

Smiling sweetly up at him, she of course said, “No problem.”

Once the door closed she was ecstatic to discover that the lock on the door was a heavy duty bolt lock. So, of course she locked it.

“Hey! I said don’t lock it!” the man snapped on the other side of the door.

“Ooops, sorry. Habit. I’ll be out in a few minutes,” she said, pointedly not mentioning unlocking the door.

As quickly as she could, she powered up her little computer and relieved herself. Once that was done she signed onto the real administrator site and set to work.

Finding the wireless signal took less than a second and the program she designed three years ago, and kept private, unlocked the signal before she was done washing her hands. By the time she was done drying her hands her computer jammed their signal and she was online.

She ignored the pounding and shouts at the door and focused on her computer. Five minutes, that was all she needed and she was golden. She quickly tore through the connection and discovered that she was in New Hampshire, interesting, but not really useful since there were probably hundreds of towns in New Hampshire. She needed a lot more information if she was going to alert the authorities so she hacked into their network and searched for any records that might tell her where in the hell she was.