Free Aegis Security 03 - Extreme Measures by Elisabeth Naughton Page B

in a dazed voice.
    “I don’t know. You were about to help me with my friend, but you passed out as soon as you got out of the ambulance.”
    Zane fought from smiling. The sleeper hold shut down blood flow to the brain, which left a person with memory gaps, and as he remembered, Eve was good at administering it. He’d been on the receiving end of it a few times when they’d been killing time, sparring in Beirut. This poor girl would never know what hit her.
    When he heard shuffling, he darted around a parked car so he’d be out of the view of the ambulance’s mirrors.
    “Here,” Eve said. “Why don’t you sit down? You don’t look so good.”
    “I’m . . . I’m fine,” the EMT replied. “Wow. That was weird. I don’t remember anything except getting out of the vehicle.”
    “You could have low blood pressure. You might want to get that checked.”
    Zane found it mildly ironic that Eve was giving the EMT medical advice, but then, Eve had always been confident in everything she did. The woman could fake it with the best of them. His lips turned to a frown when he thought about how she’d used those incredible acting skills to play him from the start. And that only reminded him of just why they were here in the first place.
    He waited while Eve helped the EMT around the back of the ambulance so she could sit. From his position, he couldn’t see much of the EMT except her boots perched on the bumper. But he could see Eve, standing next to the open back doors, looking concerned and . . . stunning in that ridiculous outfit and wild blonde hair.
    Blondes had never really been his type, but at the moment he wouldn’t mind taking that one for a test drive.
    Dammit. He ground his teeth when he realized where his fucked-up thoughts were going. She still got to him, after all this time. Even after everything she’d done. But he wasn’t a moron. People had died because of her. He’d almost died because of her. And he wasn’t about to forget that.
    I loved you, you son of a bitch! Why would I try to get you killed?
    She hadn’t been telling the truth. She couldn’t have been. A person like Eve didn’t know how to love. And he wasn’t falling for her fiction even if she was helping him right now.
    “Do you want me to get someone?” Eve asked the EMT. “Do you have a partner deckside?”
    “No.” The EMT lifted a hand toward her head. “No, I’m fine. I—wait. Didn’t you say your friend was hurt?”
    “He is, but you’re in no shape to help him right now. Though if you have some bandages or gauze so I could cover his wound until we dock, I’d appreciate it.”
    “Sure. Yeah. I can do that for you. Um, bandages are in here.”
    Eve disappeared into the back of the ambulance with the EMT, and Zane used that as his chance to get away. Staying low, he maneuvered back around cars until he came to the RV. Quietly, he opened the door and slid inside. Dropping the materials on the small table, he pulled the needle guard from the shot, tugged down his pants, and injected the solution into his hip.
    Relief would come slowly, but faster than with his pills. And maybe it made him a wuss, but he didn’t care. Between the pain in his arm from that gunshot wound and the perpetual burn in his leg from all the scar tissue, he needed some relief right now.
    He dropped onto the bench, leaned his head back against the wall, and closed his eyes while the drug began to work. Minutes later, Eve tapped on the door and pulled it open. The scent of peaches reached him, and he drew it in, remembering the hundreds of other times he’d taken that scent in with his eyes closed. Just before she’d touched him, or kissed him, or straddled his lap and ridden him to oblivion.
    “Looks like my plan worked.” Paper rustled as she dropped supplies on the table. “The EMT gave me extra bandages. Now take off your shirt so I can get at that wound. We don’t have a lot of time.”
    He grunted as he tugged his shirt up and off.