Page 21 of Fighting for Scarlett

What did he need that for?

She was only going to go behind a tree to get a little privacy. After being paraded around the basement naked for days, then out through the house to the pool so Raul could threaten to have her drowned if she didn't tell him what he wanted to know, a little privacy didn't seem like a big deal.

Too exhausted to argue, she merely nodded and headed for the trees.

Maybe she was being too hard on Tate. She only knew bedroom Tate, not in the field Tate. Maybe he was always this aggressive on an op. Other than assuming they were in Mexico because that’s where Raul was rumored to reside, she knew nothing about their location, the number of men here, or anything else pertaining to the op.

“Could you umm … close your eyes?” she asked when she reached for the waistband of her borrowed pants. Tate might be just trying to be vigilant since she was injured and unarmed and his responsibility right now, but she didn't want him watching her pee.

For a moment, she thought he was going to refuse, but then his eyes closed, and she quickly shoved her pants down and squatted awkwardly to do her business.

It wasn’t until she was yanking the pants back up that she realized she had never asked. “Raul? Did your team get him?” If he was in the SEAL’s custody, she wouldn’t have to worry about him coming after her again, and maybe she could survive this whole ordeal with her sanity intact.

“Nope. He bailed in a helo,” Tate answered, opening his eyes and pinning her with a harsh stare she didn't understand.

“Left?” Now that she thought about it, she remembered being out by the pool and everyone, Raul included, suddenly running off, leaving her standing there. Not long after that, Tate showed up and saved her life. Somehow, Raul had known the SEALs were coming before they had arrived and fled so he wouldn’t be captured.

“Yeah, left you behind.”

Thankfully. Because if he’d taken her with him, she might never have been heard from again.

Fighting a yawn, Scarlett did her best to push away her hurt that a man she’d felt such a strong connection to was treating her so poorly, especially when she needed a little coddling right now. “So, what next?”

Giving her a long, hard, assessing look, Tate finally hooked a thumb behind him. “There’s a cave just back there. We’re going to wait in there for a few hours. You can get some sleep and then we’ll head to the extraction point.”

“Then we can go home,” she said with a happy sigh. She couldn’t wait. All Scarlett wanted to do was put this whole nightmare behind her.

Tate gave her a weird look. “Yeah. Home.”

“I can't wait.”

A grunt was the only response she got.

“Lead the way to our cave, a nap sounds perfect.”

“You go first,” he said quickly, and she could have sworn his hands tightened on his weapon like he was almost afraid to let her out of his sight, even for a second.

Which made zero sense.

Not that any of this made sense.

How did Raul even find out about the Reactivator? No one outside a few people at Prey knew anything about it. Why would any of them pass that intel along to a known weapons trafficker?

Right now, she didn't have the energy to figure it out. Once she got home and got some rest, she, her team, and Prey would figure it all out.

January 13th

1:02 A.M.

This woman was making him question everything.

Tate knew the facts and had read the email for himself. In it, Scarlett offered the sale of the Reactivator for five million dollars.

Those facts were not in question.

Yet everything about Scarlett and her demeanor screamed that she was innocent and had no idea what was going on.

The problem was, for every benefit of the doubt he wanted to give her and prove her innocence, there was a counterargument.

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