the bags. “I don’t think so, bud.” “What’s this? You’re holding food from your good old buddy?” “It’s for me and…a lady friend.” Blade let out a low chuckle. “You’ve got yourself a pleasure slave. That explains why you’re half an hour late.” He would have been a hell of a lot later if he hadn’t heard Blade’s whistle. His friend grinned wickedly. “I noticed you didn’t sleep in here last night. Did you spend the night in one of those sex dungeons they have beneath Pleasure Palace?” “It’s none of your business where I spent the night.” Blade’s amused grin only got wider. “You must have found yourself a real jewel.” Time to change the subject. “Cheri Blakely said she was leaving for a little while. Why don’t you go out and locate her. Then I can strangle the whereabouts of the cure from her.” 58 Colter’s Revenge “We already know where the cure is.” Shit! “So why the hell don’t you get it?” “The security is too tight. A high risk of failure. We don’t want to make any attempts to tip her off. After her husband died, she went deep undercover and she’s just resurfaced. We have to wait until she brings the cure here where you can step right in and walk away with it. She’ll never know she was duped by the good guys. She won’t go into hiding and when she comes up with cures, which she will, since she knows the makeup of the virus as she and her husband created it, we can send another undercover S.K.U.L.L. agent in and do this all over again. So, big buddy? Were you in one of those dungeons? You do look a little tired. And where were you going with that food? Obviously not here. It’s a good thing I saw you passing by earlier this morning or I would have had to report back that you’d gone MIA. Did you forget we were supposed to meet this morning?” Colter shrugged. Blade frowned. “Well hell, that sure as hell ain’t like you. What’s going on?” Here was his chance to tell Blade about Ashley. To ask him to get her out of there. To keep her safe and sound until he could deal with his feelings for her. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “I’ve just been snooping around getting information about Cheri and the cure,” Colter lied. “And?” “No one is saying anything.” “Didn’t think so. She’s surrounded herself with seven new husbands. They stick to her like glue. She’s a hot-looking woman and I hear she’s even better in bed.” No one was better in bed than Ashley. Colter shook the erotic thought away. He should be telling Blade to take Ashley away so he could concentrate on the assignment, but the thought of having her out of his sight just didn’t sit right. And for some strange reason he knew she was right about her not being able to trust men or even Blade. Especially the way Blade had talked about that young pleasure slave when he’d first seen her yesterday. From his past experience in the Terrorist Wars, when S.K.U.L.L. men went without sex for too long on assignments, they tended to do things a normal man might not usually consider doing…things like he’d just done with Ashley. Collaring her against her will. Figging her round little ass. Fucking her with a vibrator. Enjoying every minute of dominating her. Perhaps if he could ease up on his revenge, get her to change her mind and accept her collar and the pleasure he wanted to bring to her, things could be rather pleasant over the next couple of days. Pleasant for both of them. 59 Jan Springer And when this assignment was over and he had the cure for S.K.U.L.L., he could go back to exacting his revenge on Ashley by simply walking away as she’d done to him. * * * * * Ashley slipped the pill into her mouth a split second before she saw Colter’s shadow pass the window. Shoot! Back already. Slamming the suitcase shut, she twirled the combination lock and propped the case up on the nearby wall. She’d been lucky in getting to the