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As if he’d already decided she wasn’t going to tell him what he wanted to hear and that nothing she had to say would change his mind. Goddammit, being caught by a terrorist was one thing. Being caught by someone who hated you and knew your weak spots was an altogether different horror.
    “Archer—”
    The cool blade of the scissors brushed her inner thigh, and she jumped. Panic pushed in and rippled through every inch of her body. And with it, in the background, something—a memory, a thought, a picture she couldn’t quite bring into focus—telling her there was an important element to all of this that she was forgetting. Something personal. Something from earlier. Something that would make what he was doing here seem like nothing.
    Why couldn’t she remember?
    “Archer, listen to me.” She swallowed again and tried to stay calm. Through a haze she fought the effects of the drug and focused on the here and now. “It killed me that I couldn’t tell you the truth in Beirut. It killed me that I couldn’t tell you on the phone that day I called. Someone inside the CIA set Aegis up to take the fall for that scientist’s death in Guatemala. Someone who wasn’t me. I swear it.”
    His eyes stayed locked on her skirt. He opened the scissors and sliced through the fabric again. “It’s really too bad you chose to work in espionage. You’d have made millions in Hollywood.”
    “Archer, dammit! I loved you, you son of a bitch! Why would I try to get you killed? I was trying to save you!”
    The scissors stilled. His head lifted. Stormy hazel eyes locked on hers. Eyes that didn’t seem so sure anymore.
    Her heart pounded hard. Her palms grew sweaty. “Archer—Zane—I-I’m not lying. I’m telling you the truth. Just listen to me. Listen to what I have to say—”
    A roar of metal slicing through metal echoed from the doorway. Sparks flew into the room, spraying across the floor.
    Eve swiveled in the direction of the noise so fast she knocked the chair off balance and hit the concrete. Pain radiated through her shoulder, echoing in her head.
    “Fucking fabulous. Your goons found us.” Archer was at her side in a flash.
    The whir of a saw continued to snarl through the room. Voices echoed on the other side of the door. Voices that sounded even more hostile than Archer’s.
    “Hold still.”
    Something cold pressed against her ankle, followed by pressure and release.
    Zip ties. Not handcuffs. He’d zip-tied her to the fucking chair.
    He cut the tie from her other leg, grabbed her arm, and hauled her to her feet. The room spun. The cement was cold against her bare toes but solid. Shoving her around, he reached for her arms, bound at her back. “If you’re lying to me again, Eve, I swear to God this will pale in comparison to what I’ll do to you.”
    The cuffs released from her wrists and clattered against the floor. The roar of the saw cut off, and a banging sounded from the direction of the door. As if whoever was out there was about to blow into the room.
    Fuck that.
    The need to escape grew to exponential levels. But the here and now overrode her flight response. As soon as she was free, Eve whipped around and plowed her fist into Archer’s jaw. “That’s for threatening me, you bastard.”
    He stumbled back a step. She hauled off and kicked him as hard as she could in the thigh of his good leg. His weight went out from under him, and he dropped to the floor with a grunt.
    Temper boiling, she leaned over and added, “And that’s for drugging me, you son of a bitch.”

 

     
    H e’d underestimated her. While that thought pissed Zane off, the reality of what was bearing down on them overrode his need to retaliate.
    He rolled to his side and pushed up on his hands. Ground his teeth against the pain throbbing in his leg. Eve’s hands yanking on his arm surprised him more than if she’d hauled off and kicked him in the head just for the fun of it.
    “Dammit, hurry your ass up, Archer. They’re