Check Mate Part 5

Five.

Jake recognized the voices immediately. Lester's grumbling, midwestern drawl and Burgess's gruff, I'm-in-charge growl. d.a.m.n! What the h.e.l.l had sent these two back to the cabin in such a hurry? They hadn't been gone much more than thirty minutes.

"Give me your gun," Jake whispered to Mariah. "We'll get the jump on them when they come in the back door."

"No, we won't. They both have weapons and they're both killers. I can't take any unnecessary risks with your life."

"Dammit, woman, you're too cautious to be a federal agent. They may have weapons and be trained killers, but they're idiots. I say we-"

Before Jake knew what hit him, Mariah gave him a couple of well-aimed chops to his midsection and his jaw, sending him to his knees. When he glanced up, she was holding her pistol on him, a threatening look in her eyes. Just as he opened his mouth to ask her what the h.e.l.l she was doing, the kitchen door opened. Burgess stopped dead in his tracks. Lester skidded directly into Burgess's broad back.

Burgess looked down at Jake, then surveyed Mariah from head to toe and noticed they were both wearing coats. "What the h.e.l.l's going on here?"

"Mr. Ingrain tried to escape," Mariah said convincingly. "I'd stepped outside for a few minutes to look for a tape I thought I had in my car and caught him trying to slip out just as I came back in." Mariah pointed her 9 mm right in Jake's face. "You should know better than to try to escape. Did you think that because I'm a woman, I couldn't stop you?"

"d.a.m.n b.i.t.c.h," Jake grumbled, falling into the pretense mode Mariah was using, and wished she'd take her gun out of his face.

Easing the gun to her side, Mariah turned to Burgess. "Help him get up, then take him upstairs." Burgess jerked Jake roughly to his feet. "And be sure you handcuff him to the bed. He can sleep in his clothes for all I care. I'm through being nice to him. Obviously he doesn't respond to good treatment."

"Hey, Doc, if you want me to work him over, just say the word," Lester offered.

"Thanks, but I don't believe that will be necessary. At least not tonight."

Burgess grabbed Jake by the nape of his neck. "I thought that shot you gave him would keep him sleeping all through the night. What happened?"

"I don't know, unless his genetically altered system is more resistant to the drug than the average person. If I use it again, I'll increase the dosage."

Mariah lied quite nicely, Jake thought.

"He don't look much like a superhero right now." Lester got right up in Jake's face and grinned. "How does it feel, Mr. Big Shot Genius, having a woman best you?" When Lester chuckled manically and Jake smelled his sour breath, he wanted to coldc.o.c.k the son of a b.i.t.c.h.

"Get him upstairs," Mariah ordered.

When Burgess yanked Jake into motion, he didn't resist. As bad as he hated to admit it, Mariah had probably been right to have responded quickly and subdued him before he'd acted on pure male instinct and attacked the two men when they entered the kitchen. It was possible he might have been able to shoot Burgess, wounding or killing him, but before either he or Mariah could have gotten to Lester, the guy would have pulled his gun and opened fire.

"Oh, by the way, why are you two back so soon?" Mariah asked. "You didn't even have time to make it into town."

Lester chuckled again, with more humor and less menace this time. "Our big tough guy here-" he pointed at Burgess "-got a bellyache and we had to stop and let him go by the side of the road. He's got the backdoor trots."

"Shut your trap!" Burgess gave his partner an I'm-going-to-kill-you glare.

Lester kept laughing, the grating sound reverberating throughout the cabin. Mariah returned her Smith & Wesson to its holster, then headed to the refrigerator. She hadn't eaten since lunch and Jake hadn't had a bite since breakfast. She removed a couple of apples from the crisper, then brought out a hunk of cheddar cheese, sliced off several thick slabs and laid them on a paper towel. All the while Lester watched her, his leery grin unnerving her even more than her watchdogs' unexpected return.

"Get away from me!" She snapped around and glowered at the aggravating man. "Go to your room, watch TV, go take a flying leap off the nearest mountain peak."

"I like a feisty woman. I don't mind a good fight before the s.e.x."

"Out!" Mariah yelled. "Get out of my sight. Now!"

Count to ten. Recite the Lord's Prayer. See how many U.S. presidents you can name, Mariah told herself. Do anything to stop yourself from killing Lester.

"h.e.l.l, you must be on the rag or something," he grumbled as he walked out of the kitchen.

After taking several calming breaths, she stashed the apples and wrapped cheese in her coat pocket and headed up the stairs. When she reached the hallway, she met Burgess coming out of her bedroom.

"I let him take off his coat before I handcuffed him to the bed," Burgess said. "If that's all you need me for right now, I-"

"Go, go." When Burgess rushed past her toward the stairs, she called out, "There's some Imodium in the kitchen cabinet over the sink, along with several other items in the first-aid kit."

"Yeah, thanks."

After entering the bedroom, Mariah closed the door quietly behind her, then held up a finger to Jake to indicate silence. Jake, one wrist chained to the bedpost, nodded his understanding. She locked the door, then removed the food items from her pocket and placed them on the desk.

"I couldn't fix you a meal since I've stated that I'm preparing to use some not-so-nice tactics on you," she said softly. "But I did bring up apples and cheese for myself and there's enough for two."

"I guess I should apologize for suggesting we gun it out with those two." Jake grunted. "I'm usually not so foolhardy. Or at least I didn't used to be. Something in me seems to have changed drastically since I discovered the truth about my past. I've always been known for my logical thinking, for being cool under fire, but lately I've been jumping into action and disregarding the danger to myself."

"You want to protect your siblings. Gideon in particular right now. And you want to help bring down the Coalition. That's perfectly understandable." Mariah took off her coat and tossed it on the bed, then walked over to Jake, the key in her hand, and unlocked the handcuff attached to the bedpost.

"What if one of our bodyguards comes up here to check on us?" Jake asked as she moved to unlock the manacle on his wrist. "Maybe I should keep the cuff on so I can stake myself out again if we hear them coming."

Mariah paused. "Burgess will be in and out of the bathroom for hours. And I believe Lester is wondering whether or not I'd actually shoot him. But maybe you're right." She left the handcuff on his wrist.

Jake grinned. "He just doesn't know when to give up, does he?"

"You're right about him. The man's an idiot."

Jake got up, clutched Mariah's shoulder and squeezed. "Let's eat while we work on Plan B."

"What's Plan B?" she asked.

Jake sauntered over to the desk, pulled out a chair and sat, then picked up an apple and bit into it. After chewing and swallowing, he replied, "The next escape plan. Surely you have a backup scenario figured out."

"I'm thinking knockout drops in their morning coffee."

Jake smiled.

"If possible I'll do it in the morning," Mariah said. "If not tomorrow, then the next day. As soon as I can work out something to keep both men out of the kitchen long enough for me to doctor the coffee and think of a good excuse for not drinking any myself."

"Maybe I can do something to distract them. I don't mind getting roughed up a bit, as long as it's for a good cause."

"We'll play it by ear in the morning. Now eat, then we need to get some rest. I'll set the alarm so we can get up early. Maybe I'll whip up some pancakes or something and be all female and fluttering in the morning. And you can act up when I give you a cue. Get wild enough so that it'll take both Burgess and Lester to drag you out of the kitchen."

Jake munched on the apple. Mariah sat on the edge of the desk and unfolded the paper towel protecting the cheese. When she held out her hand, offering him a slice of cheese, he eased up off the chair just enough to bring his lips in alignment with hers. She held her breath, waiting for his kiss.

Without breaking intimate eye contact with her, he took a piece of cheese, then whispered against her mouth, "Thanks."

Tension wound tightly inside Mariah. "You're welcome." Even to her own ears, her voice sounded sultry and breathy. G.o.d, why was it that when he got so close to her, she turned into a hundred percent female, without a hint of the tough, highly trained federal agent about her? He brought out all her feminine instincts, reverting her into a primitive woman who needed a man for survival. Snap out of it right this minute, her common sense warned.

He eased back down in the chair without kissing her. Hit by a combination of bemus.e.m.e.nt and frustration, Mariah laid the paper towel on the desk and picked up the second apple. What was Jake playing now? she wondered. Hard to get? If so, then she'd simply turn the tables on him. Two can play that game.

Jeez, Mariah Colleen Daley, what's the matter with you? Even with Jake she couldn't shake the highly compet.i.tive side of her personality. She'd been born and bred on compet.i.tion, a natural side effect of being not only the baby of four children, but the only girl in a family of three brothers. She'd had to fight, scratch, claw and play rough in order to survive. And as far back as she could remember, she'd thrived on keeping up with her brothers and doing her d.a.m.nedest to outdo them. Her father, a Hillsboro, Ohio cop, had loved the fact that his daughter was a real sc.r.a.pper. And although she and her mother, a Southern gal from Lexington, Kentucky, had always maintained a close relationship, Marian had hero-worshiped her father. Heck, the whole town of Hillsboro had admired big Mike Daley.

Marian eased off the desk and strolled across the room, then flopped down on her bed and bit into the apple. Now wasn't the time for playing games. And it certainly wasn't the time to compete-in any way, shape, form or fashion- with the man it was her sworn duty to protect. But try as she might, she found it difficult to see Jake Ingram as a helpless victim. Despite being kidnapped with his life now in constant danger, he didn't possess the demeanor of a victim. And even handcuffed and shackled, as he'd been when Burgess and Lester brought him to the cabin, he hadn't seemed helpless. It was that confident, self-a.s.sured att.i.tude of his that made him seem invincible. Had that much self-confidence come naturally to him because he possessed a genius IQ?

"A penny for your thoughts," Jake said.

Marian took another bite from the apple, chewed and swallowed. "You like to play games and I like to compete. I guess it's the same thing. There's always a winner and a loser. And neither of us likes to lose."

"And this great observation is leading up to...?"

"We shouldn't be playing games or competing. We need to cooperate. If we're going to get you safely away from the Coalition, we'll have to work together."

Jake nibbled on the cheese. "Hmmm."

"I'm the professional in this case. I believe you should follow my directions."

"Hmmm."

"Will you stop saying that!"

"You can plan the great escape tomorrow and I'll follow your directions to the letter," Jake told her. "But once we leave here, we're going to devise a plan to steal Gideon's disk from Coalition headquarters. And we'll do what can be done only from the inside-access the disk that will cut off the Coalition accounts."

"Leave that job to us. I've tried to explain how important your safety is to-"

"If you G-men-" Jake grinned "-could get to the disk, you'd already have it. So don't tell me to leave it to the professionals. I thought I'd made myself clear-nothing is more important to me than retrieving that disk."

Is it more important than Gideon's life? she almost asked, but clenched her teeth before she blurted out the information that was sure to prompt Jake into acting foolishly. Put yourself in his place, she told herself. If the Coalition was holding Michael or Steven or Patrick, what would you do? A big part of your professionalism would get lost in your personal concern for your brother. You'd take foolish risks. You'd leap into action and consider yourself a one-woman army.

She had to keep the information about Gideon's capture from Jake-just until she had placed him under guard with a team of Federal agents to protect him. He'd probably hate her for lying to him by omission, but she'd do whatever she had to do to keep him safe. Mariah prided herself on being a top-notch agent. To date, she had an exemplary record, and her accomplishments had been rewarded with several promotions. But saving Jake Ingram had become more than just an a.s.signment. It had become, much to her dismay, very personal.

"I understand how you feel," she told him. "And I'm not going to waste my breath arguing with you. We need to concentrate on one goal at a time. And our first goal is to get away from here and out from under Burgess's and Lester's watchful eyes."

"Agreed." Jake finished off his slice of cheese and chased it down with a last bite of apple. "When I get back to civilization, I want a steak as big as my head."

"Would that be the actual size of your head or the figurative inflated ego size? The latter would mean a steak the size of Texas." Mariah took a huge bite out of her apple as she lifted her eyebrows and gave him a humorous glance.

Jake wiped his hands off on the wrinkled paper towel, then strode across the room, his gaze riveted to Mariah's face. She gulped. And when he was almost upon her, she tossed the apple core on the nightstand and started scooting backward, inching away from him. She wasn't afraid of him, not in the normal sense of the word. But the way she felt about him unnerved her. She really didn't like the fact that this guy could turn her inside out with just a bold look. It wasn't like her to go all gushy-gooey over a man.

Yeah, but Jake Ingram isn't just any man, she reminded herself. He's the man. Her maternal grandmother would have said, "He's so Cary Grant." As far as Grandma Gloria was concerned, Cary Grant was the standard by which all other men on earth were judged. Mariah guessed there was a touch of Cary Grant in Jake, as well as a bit of Sean Connery's James Bond and maybe a hint of George Clooney's devil-may-care persona. And don't forget that the guy's a genius and about as physically perfect as a man can be, she reminded herself.

Keeping several inches separating their bodies, Jake leaned over Mariah. "Since we have a very busy day planned for tomorrow, I'm ready for bed. How about you?"

Mariah swallowed, then nodded. "You in your bed and me in mine."

"Aw shucks, ma'am, we can't have no fun in two separate beds."

"We aren't going to have any fun. We're going to get a good night's sleep."

"How can I sleep in my condition?" He lifted himself up just enough to give her a full view of his aroused state.

She knew she had to stop their s.e.xual bantering before it went any further. "Have you forgotten that Burgess and Lester are downstairs and both men carry very big guns? We're in a dangerous situation here and it's hardly the time for fooling around."

Jake swooped down over her, bracing his hands on either side of her head, the handcuffs dangling from his left wrist. He straddled her hips with his knees. "What better time to release some pent-up energy than when we're facing danger and maybe even death?"

He had spoken the words in a light, humorous tone, but when Mariah looked deep into his eyes, she saw how deadly serious he was.

"No, Jake, we can't"

"Yes, Mariah, we can."

"No. I'm a federal agent on an a.s.signment. I can't-"

He cut off the rest of her sentence with a devouring kiss that took her breath away. The kiss was absolute perfection and had the desired effect. She melted like ice on asphalt in the summertime. Nothing could really be as wonderful as she thought this kiss was, could it? He continued the kiss, playing with her lips. Nipping. Licking. Oh, yes, this kiss was every bit as good as she thought it was. Maybe even better. When he eased his tongue inside, he slid his hand between them and undid the b.u.t.tons on her shirt. She tossed back her head, exposing her throat and giving him a clear path from her lips, down her neck and to the front closure of her plain white bra. His quick, talented fingers undid the hook and shoved the cups away from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The dangling handcuff glided coolly over her hot skin. The moment he nicked his tongue across one nipple, she closed her eyes and sighed as her femininity clenched and unclenched.

Mariah wanted to touch his naked flesh. Tugging hard, she managed to free his shirt from his pants, enough to skim her palms up and over his rock-hard muscled chest. While exploring, she discovered a V-shaped thicket of curling hair that spread across his chest and down the center of his abdomen. She wanted to see him, but when he unsnapped her pants and slid his hand inside both her slacks and her panties, she bucked up, her body's needs quite obvious, as she forgot everything except her desire to have him bury himself deep inside her.

While Jake cupped her mound, she moved his shirt enough to kiss his neck and then his ear. He glided his fingers between her feminine lips and stroked her most sensitive spot. She writhed against his hand when he dipped two fingers inside her.

Nuzzling her neck, he whispered, "I love how hot and wet you are."

His fingers continued manipulating her intimately while his mouth moved from one breast to the other, giving each equal attention. A consummate lover, Jake knew how to bring a woman to the brink rather quickly. When she came, the explosion wild and fierce, Jake covered her mouth with his and captured her cry of satisfaction.

As she lay beneath him, panting and tingling while aftershocks rippled through her body, Mariah caressed his bulging s.e.x through his pants. Jake eased off her and down on the bed beside her. When she turned over, she immediately reached for his belt buckle. No sooner had she released the buckle and unzipped his slacks than a loud knock pounded on the door.

"Hey, Doc, why have you got the door locked? You're not doing any unlawful experiments on our prisoner, are you?"

"d.a.m.n, it's Lester!" Mariah hissed the name through clenched teeth.

Six.

"It happen to already be in my pajamas," Mariah responded. "Is there a reason why you've come upstairs to bother me?"

"Burgess is homesteading in the John, so he asked me to check on you before bedtime to make sure everything is okay with Ingram."

Jake shot off Mariah's bed, smoothed his shirt and plopped down on his bed, then handcuffed his wrist to the bedpost. Mariah undressed hurriedly, unconsciously giving Jake a quick striptease. He was already hard as a rock, and seeing her naked, no matter how briefly, made him break out in a cold sweat. If he didn't already want to rip Lester in two, the guy interrupting them at the worst possible moment-or was that the best possible moment?-was enough to bring out Jake's killer instincts.