Intrigued, Tate opened the dishwasher. Water droplets clung to the plastic containers lined up neatly on the upper rack. Someone had been eating leftovers, then was nice enough to wash the dishes.
It probably hadn’t been Bell, since dead people didn’t eat pasta. Or wash dishes.
“Tate, you might want to come into the living room and take a look at this.”
Closing the dishwasher, Tate walked into a living room that would make Martha Stewart swoon in approval to find Chase looking at a framed photo on the far wall.
He glanced at Tate over his shoulder. “I think I finally figured out who Bell was in a relationship with.”
The photo was a close-up of Bell and Mahsood sitting on a small sailboat, the wind tousling their hair as one of them took the selfie. Mahsood had an arm thrown around the other doctor’s shoulder, and Bell looked genuinely happy. Hell, Mahsood looked happy, too.
“This probably explains why Bell was tortured,” Chase said.
“I guess so,” Tate agreed. “Either Ashley or the mercenaries we ran into at Joanne’s place knew about Mahsood and Bell’s relationship and carved up the doctor to try to get him to talk. But if the signs of recent activity in the kitchen are any indication, they didn’t get what they wanted. Mahsood is still in town.”
* * *
Zarina lowered the big wood crossbar across the cabin door the moment Tanner left, then climbed in bed and prayed he’d be okay out there. The bed was still warm from his recent departure, and she pulled the blanket around her shoulders, trying to ward off the chill. The small cabin had seemed so much warmer when he’d been with her. She knew there was no scientific basis for that, but it was true nonetheless.
Shouting came from outside the cabin followed by the sound of vehicles speeding out of camp. She pictured Tanner in one of those vehicles, speeding toward danger.
Zarina cursed. If she let her mind wander too far in that direction, it would drive her insane with worry. Instead, she forced herself to think much more pleasant thoughts, specifically the things she and Tanner had been doing right there in bed.
Her lips still felt deliciously abraded from where the scruff on his jaw had rubbed against her as they kissed. She smiled. She’d never been kissed with such complete and utter abandon like that before. The memory of how his strong hands had caressed her body at the same time as he’d teased her with his mouth almost made her moan.
And when Tanner had dropped to his knees in front of her and kissed her belly button? There weren’t words to describe how amazing that had been. Heat had pooled between her thighs the moment he’d pressed his lips to her navel. She’d been so turned on, it was unreal. It had only gotten better when he’d unbuckled her belt and begun kissing and licking his way downward. For a moment there, she thought she might actually orgasm with her clothes still on.
She’d been with other men, but it had never been like this with any of them. Then again, she’d never experienced a man like Tanner. He was beyond special.
Zarina had known that about him from the moment she’d slipped into his cell in the ski lodge right before those crazy doctors had shown up to give him another injection. She’d been shocked he’d survived the first dose of hybrid serum and knew the chance of him making it through a second without help from her was slim to none. So she’d rushed in with a sedative mixture that she hoped would keep his body from tearing itself apart and another drug cocktail she’d put together to drop his heart rate down low enough so they’d think he’d died. If he didn’t die for real. It had been a risky plan, but it had been the only thing she’d been able to come up.
Zarina wrapped the blanket more tightly around her, remembering it like it had been yesterday. Tanner had been strapped to a gurney, his shirtless chest straining as he’d growled and fought to pull his arms loose from the heavy manacles holding him down. As she’d leaned over him, his eyes glowed vivid red and his fangs extended, but they’d both disappeared the moment she told him she was going to save him. He’d stared at her wide-eyed before telling her it was too dangerous, that she was putting herself at risk and should get out of the cell before it was too late.
That was the first indication of how amazing Tanner truly was. He’d been terrified, in horrible pain, and mere seconds away from being given a drug that would almost certainly kill him, and yet he’d been more worried about her than he’d been about himself. As she’d learned in the weeks and months following that day, that was simply the kind of man Tanner was. Courageous, fearless, gentle, and unselfish.
Zarina wasn’t exactly sure when she’d fallen in love with Tanner, but there came a point when she had stopped thinking about him as someone who needed her help and instead began seeing him as someone she wanted to spend her life with. That was why she’d come out here. Not merely to deliver the antiserum, but to spend her life with him. Admittedly, it had been tough breaking through the damn wall he’d built up around himself, but now that she had, she wasn’t going to let him build it back up again.
It had been difficult hearing about what had happened to him in Afghanistan, then afterward here in Washington, but she was glad he’d told her. Not only had it helped her understand
