Smoked

her personality was still intact.

4
Siren
I hated the way Smoke was smirking at me. On the other hand, he was so fecking fine that, if I could, I’d crawl out of this bed and onto his lap.
He was older than me. Maybe by years, given the way his hair was graying and his skin weathered. My guess was the lines edging his eyes were more from frowning than smiling.
Physically, he was huge both in height and breadth, but it was all muscle. His powerful arms, covered in tattoos, strained against the short sleeves of his shirt. His trousers were no different in the way they stretched over the bulk of his thighs.
I closed my eyes and shuddered, remembering the way he’d eased inside me. “More,” I could hear myself begging. He’d growled in response, I recalled.
“Siren?”
I opened my eyes. “What?”
“Are you listening?”
“Of course I am.”
He smirked—again. “What did I just say?”
There was no reason to respond; he knew I had no idea.
He leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees. “What were you thinking about?” he asked in a thick voice.
I looked into his eyes and shook my head.
“Gnéas?”
My cheeks flushed, but I raised my chin. “Yes.”
Smoke moved the sheet covering me and wrapped his hand around my ankle. He stroked the top of my foot with his thumb. With the opposite hand, he folded the sheet so it rested near the top of my thigh and then moved the hospital gown. I closed my eyes and pushed against the bed, willing his hand to move closer to my slit. As though he could read my mind, his thumb parted my folds and rested on my clit. My eyes shot open when he removed both hands and pulled the sheet back over me.
“Why did you stop?” I groaned.
“Now that I have your attention, I need you to listen to me.”
“You’re a feckin’ eejit.”
“Not the worst thing you’ve called me.”
“I’m not surprised.”
He squeezed my knee through the bedclothes. “Pay attention, Siren.”
I opened my mouth to hurl another insult at him, but shut it. The bastard laughed. “Get on with it, then.”
“The team we worked the op for has made arrangements for a private plane to take us from London to the States. Once there, we’ll plan for your continued care.”
“In hospital?”
“As necessary.”
“Why would I agree to this?”
He raised and lowered his eyebrows and then moved the hand resting on my knee up my leg. “Many reasons. We’ll make sure you get the medical treatment you need while, at the same time, keeping IMI from knowing the details of your condition.”
“Wouldn’t they have the means to find out?”
Smoke shook his head. “Not up against the Invincibles. IMI doesn’t stand a chance.”
“And if I refuse?”
“You won’t.”
Less than twenty-four hours later, under the cover of night, Smoke carried me out of the hospital, accompanied down a back stairwell by a nurse I hadn’t met previously but was told would be traveling with us.
When we arrived at the tarmac of a private airfield, he carried me up the stairs and to the back of the plane, where he gently rested my body on a bed in a stateroom filled with the same equipment as the hospital room.
He watched as the nurse hooked me up to monitors and reconnected the IV.
“This is highly unacceptable,” I heard a familiar voice say, but I couldn’t place it until I saw the man ushered into the room by two men about the same size as Smoke.
“As I’ve repeatedly informed you, you’ll be generously compensated for your time,” Smoke said to the man I recognized as my surgeon.
“I’m not licensed to practice medicine in the States.”
“Irrelevant.”
“You can’t do this.”
“I already have.” Smoke stepped aside, motioned for the doctor to take a seat, and then leaned down and got in the man’s face. “You make sure not a single hair on her head is further hurt, and you’ll make more money than you do in a year. You don’t protect her life with yours; you won’t enjoy the consequences.”
“I’ll have you arrested for kidnapping.”
“Good luck with that.” Smoke laughed, as did the two men still standing guard outside the door.


5
Smoke
“Who are you?” I heard Siren ask the two men who I knew she’d worked ops with previously. I’d forewarned them when they arrived at the hospital of the possibility she wouldn’t remember them.
“I’m Jagger,” said Mick Reynolds, stepping forward. “This is Vex,” he added, pointing to Bronson Dunning. I watched for any sign of recognition, but saw none.
“Nice to meet you,” she murmured, looking from them to me. I winked and then motioned the two men out of the stateroom.
“What does she remember?” asked Vex.
“Obviously not much about you, since she hasn’t thrown anything in your direction,” muttered Jagger. “Sorry, man,” he added when I shot him a glare.
“Here’s the deal. Are you listening?”
Both men nodded.
“I didn’t have time to brief you on this before we had to leave the hospital, but Siren believes that she and I are in a…relationship.”
Vex opened his mouth and then wisely closed it.
“As far as you’re concerned, we’re a happy couple. Why, is none of your fucking business.”
“Copy that,” they each responded, although I didn’t miss Jagger’s raised brow.
“Right now, your job is to keep an eye on Siren and the doc. That’s it.”
When they returned to the back of the plane, I reached out to Hammer.
“I was just getting ready to call you,” he said.
“What’ve you got?”
“How far is your place from Asheville?”
“Depends on where.” My place, as Hammer put it, consisted of a little over a thousand acres that sat between Gatlinburg and Clingmans Dome on the Tennessee-North Carolina border.
“Biltmore area.”
“Two hours tops,” I told him.
“There’s a fancy new medical complex with a world-renowned stroke-rehab center. Want me to set something up?”
“I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll get your final flight leg rerouted too.”
“Thanks, Hammer.”
“I’d say you’re welcome, but I’m doing this for Siren.”
“Copy that.” I ended the call, knowing he wasn’t.
Once in the air, it took nine hours to fly from