Read The Stealth Commandos Trilogy for Free Online Page B

tread on her.
    “Chase—” Her voice was hushed again, as though she’d been caught whispering during a church sermon. “I thought of something. What about the other two men, your partners? Why don’t you contact them? They could tell you who I am.”
    His partners? She had to mean Johnny and Geoff. “How do you know them?” he asked.
    Her blue eyes were sparkling with anticipation, as though she’d found the solution to all their problems. “We met with them on the way to the border, don’t you remember? It was part of the plan, to discuss strategy. They’d found the scientists, and you’d found me. I even remember Johnny joking that you had the best deal.”
    Chase wondered why he hadn’t thought of it. He didn’t recall the meeting, but his partners had mentioned it briefly when they’d visited him in the hospital. They’d said very little about the girl, but Chase had assumed it was because of the tragic way she’d died. Later on, since no official agency had been able to find any record of her, the incident was pretty much swept under the rug.
    The whole episode had left a bad taste in Chase’s mouth. It had prompted his decision to retire, and then, in a dominolike reaction, that decision created a misunderstanding between him, Johnny, and Geoff. He hadn’t seen either of his partners in over four years.
    “I’m sure they’d remember me, if they saw me.”
    Annie’s voice broke into his thoughts, soft and eager. “They had an Indian guide with them,” she went on. “Only no one could understand him, so I interpreted. ... ”
    Chase studied her as she recounted the story, searching her guileless features for any sign of deceit. The eagerness in her expression tugged at him, and he had to remind himself forcibly that the situation had been reversed only moments before. But she did have a way about her that made him want to abandon all his concerns, brave any danger, and gallop full tilt to her rescue. She was a land mine, he realized. And he was the idiot about to tread on her.
    “At the very least they could verify who I am,” she pressed. “Then would you believe me?”
    “Maybe ... ” He drew up the barrel of the gun as he spoke, letting it point lazily in the vicinity of her thighs. A smile, faintly bemused, drifted over his face as he considered her flushed cheeks and the quick rise and fall of her breasts. She was an eyeful when she was excited. Obedience, modesty, trust, and submission, he thought, remembering the list of virtues she’d mentioned. He would soon know which, if any, Annie Wells had learned.
    “But that isn’t our immediate problem, is it?” he said, lowering his voice intentionally as he nodded toward her ragged sweater. “Come on now, Miss Annie. Don’t make me have to do it for you. Take off those clothes.”

Three
    “G O AHEAD THEN ,” Annie said softly, dropping her clenched hand to her side. “Shoot me where I stand. Because I’m not going to undress at gunpoint. Not for you. Not for any man.”
    The words felt good as Annie said them, as sure and steady as she could ever have wanted them to be. But she’d barely had a chance to savor her potent declaration when she realized her misstep. She’d forgotten to take into account his reaction.
    The look that crossed Chase’s face at that moment would have given a corpse cause for concern. A corner of his mouth curled back in disbelief, and his black eyes narrowed to shimmering slits. Anthracite, she thought, aware that she’d finally come up with an apt description of his eyes. At the moment they looked hotter than the coals of hell.
    “You’ve got it wrong, Red,” he said. “I wasn’t giving you a choice. Either you do the honors or I’ll do them for you.”
    Annie’s heart was beating hard enough to knock her to the floor, but she held his gaze without flinching. “Pull the trigger then,” she said, raising her hands. “Shoot me and have it over with.”
    He shifted the gun, and Annie gasped.