Hot on the Hunt. Melissa Cutler

gun.”

      His hand slid to her wrist, loosening the twist, but he didn’t release her. With his mouth near her ear, he whispered, “If you try anything clever, I have no qualms about hurting you.”

      She didn’t doubt it, given the way he’d threatened to pull the trigger of his gun earlier. “You must have some qualms or you wouldn’t have said that. In fact, I think you’re pretty damn offensive. You would have never said that to a man. Don’t be such a sexist pig.”

      He let out a sardonic chuckle. “I couldn’t give a damn that you’re a woman. Truth is, you’re a worthy adversary, and I would’ve loved to have you on my team. It breaks my heart a little to have witnessed your fall from grace.”

      There were so many questions that sprang to her mind from that comment that she didn’t know where to start. His team? She’d already figured out that he was no run-of-the-mill ICE field agent. He had the sophisticated moves and toughness of a black ops agent, which begged the question, once again, of why she’d never heard of him before today.

      At a slow, deliberate pace, she bent and stretched her right hand down toward her gun. “What’s your real job with ICE?”

      He tsked. “I’m sure you’ve already guessed the answer to that. You want me to tell you, anyway?”

      She tugged her pant leg up, then ever so tediously unbuttoned the strap holding her backup nine millimeter in place. “Why don’t you go ahead and spell it out for me what you’re doing here and why you had a front row seat to my so-called fall from grace?”

      “Did you think the need for a black ops crew disintegrated when you and your team did?”

      Honestly, she hadn’t given much thought to ICE since they forced her to go on disability leave. Just thinking the term made her temper catch fire and gave her a fresh surge of adrenaline.

      Closing her eyes, she visualized the position of his gun-holding arm, his stance and his height and breadth, calculating exactly how she’d need to move and strike to gain the upper hand. Then she dropped the gun between her legs, the barrel propped against the top of her right foot.

      “What’s your plan with that move? Are you going to kick it up and grab it from midair?”

      “Something like that.”

      “It’d almost be worth letting you try that, but how about instead you shuffle it behind you.”

      “I would, but I can’t move.”

      He lifted his knee away from where he had her leg pinned, so she slid the gun back just as he’d asked, biding her time. She gave a start as she felt his hands on the bare skin of her waist where her shirt had pulled up from her pants. He must have spotted the belt she’d strapped to her ribs under her shirt. She remained doubled over and let him look.

      “I wasn’t going to strip-search you, but you’re not giving me a lot of choice.” He used his gun to push her shirt higher, revealing her concealed carry-gear belt. “You’re like a one-woman army, here. Grenades, ammo, flash bangs, multi-tool. And I’m sure there’s more in here somewhere.”

      He felt along her bra, then gave a humph as he reached the hilt of the knife she’d sewn into it. His touch was clinical, free of any sexual undertones, but she still had to ignore the sensation of being violated. “Ingenious. Makes me wish I was more creative with my concealed carry.”

      “Yeah, well, I don’t look as good as you do in cargo pants.” She pushed off her left leg and stood, twisting into the hand that still held her wrist to pin it behind her and bringing his face into strike range. She elbowed him in the nose, then ducked under his gun-holding arm and twisted again, locking out and twisting the arm of the hand that held her wrist until he had no choice except to release her.

      Before he could spin to face her, she kicked him with all her might, then reached under her shirt and ripped her knife from its sheath in her bra as she dropped to her knees near his head. She held the knife to his throat.

      Wearing an expression of respect, he touched the clotting blood on his thigh from where she’d stabbed him. His eyes were watering, his nose bloody. He reached with unsteady hands into his pocket for her gun and she let him get it clear of the fabric before she elbowed him in the gut, then plucked it from his hand and aimed it at him with her left hand.

      “Should I shoot you or slice your neck open?”

      “Nicely played. There’s just one little problem.”

      She registered the sound of a vehicle at the same time he raised his head and looked past her. A van done up like a resort’s airport shuttle, but with darkly tinted windows, screeched to a stop not two meters away. She supposed the shuttle look was as much camouflage on a tropical island as the type of run-down A-Team knockoff van she and her black ops crew had driven in the Third World countries they often found themselves in.

      The side door of the van swung open to reveal two ripped, fit men holding automatic rifles, both aimed at her. Driving the van, and with a handgun aimed at Alicia, was an equally fit young woman.

      “Alicia Troy, meet your replacements.” The glee in McCaffrey’s voice made her want to punch him in the face all over again.

      Damn it all.

      “Drop the gun and get your hands in the air,” Logan said, the smug smoothness returning to his voice. “We’re done dancing.”

      Out of ideas, she complied, setting the knife and gun on the ground.

      While she processed the turn of events, Logan scooted from beneath her, gathered her discarded weapons and stood. He returned to the car she’d planned to steal and retrieved her computer bag from the passenger seat. “We’ll need this as evidence.”

      And, boy, would they find it on that computer. Her gut twisted.

      “I see you weighing your options, but the only one that’ll keep you alive is to get your hands in the air. We’re the best of the best and I wouldn’t underestimate us if I were you.”

      “If you’re the best, it’s only because my team’s out of the picture.”

      Logan and his crew all chuckled. Logan shook his head. “Nearly two years ago, you and your merry band of misfits nearly destroyed a billion-dollar, international operation, and Rory Alderman sold national secrets to the highest bidder. If you ask me, it’s a miracle ICE decided to give their black ops experiment another try.”

      Given all the guns pointed at her and that she was outnumbered four to one, her best option—her only option, really—was to do as he said, at least for the time being. For the first time in her life, she raised her arms in a show of surrender.