“I always did like your quick mind.” He reached out and hauled his pack closer. “I’ve got some water.”

“Yeah.” She waved her hand in an off hand fashion and then glared at him. “You aren’t going to drug me, are you?”

“No.” He laughed, pulled the cap off the bottle of water and drank from it before he offered it again. “I like my women awake, Jacq.”

She snorted and accepted the water. “I’m not going to be one of your women.”

“I don’t really advise it.” He raised one eyebrow when she frowned. “I’m a real bad bet these days. Once Harton is gone, your path to freedom from the Company will be set. He’s made it difficult for you to get high paying jobs, the kind that would have seen you free and clear of your obligation years ago. After I kill him, I’ll have to run and that’s no kind of life.”

Life. She didn’t have much of a life now. Disgruntled, Jacq swallowed back several gulps of water and watched him rummage through his pack. “We’re going to stay in this dingy little control room for two days?”

“I cleared out the owner’s chamber on the floor below a few hours ago so I’d have a place to sleep while I waited.” He raised one neat black eyebrow. “It’s got a big sleeping shelf with a nice firm mattress.”

She glared at him briefly and sighed. “Harton might have the funds to hire a merc privately.”

“Funds, yes. Resources, no. The man can barely function outside of his lab and by the time he could arrange to meet up with someone to help him, his time would be up.”

“So that fucker honestly thinks he’s riding to my rescue?” The thought made her blood boil. “He probably thinks he’s won, that he’ll have leverage over me once all of this said and done.”

“His personal security?”

“Just as much of a joke as you already assume. I don’t even think they have basic modification. The Company doesn’t like to waste money on them since the turnover is high.” She accepted the sandwich he tossed her way and shook her head. “You know I’ve chased down my share of escaped convicts... but none like you.”

“I’m not a convict,” Tyr muttered. “That would imply I’d been convicted of a crime.”

“I’m an idiot for accepting this assignment. I should have contacted Julian Tek personally.” Disgruntled that the need for credit had corrupted her good sense, she munched the sandwich in silence.

Jacq lifted her gaze from the food and let it sweep over Tyr. He was sprawled much the same way he’d been when she’d first seen him, staring at her intently. Heat pooled in her belly and she swallowed hard. How in the hell could she have possibly thought she could kill the man? Working for corrupted people was slowly but surely killing her very soul.

“Don’t look at me like that.” He tossed aside the foil that had held a sandwich and reached out for his water. “I have been in prison for six years, little wolf. It wouldn’t take much to convince myself spending the next couple of days balls deep in you is a good idea.”

She sucked in her bottom lip and sat back in the chair. Remembering the soft brush of his lips on her shoulder, the clench of his teeth, and the unbelievably gentle exploration of his fingers made her nipples tighten and she crossed her arms over them.

“I thought we agreed you were a bad bet.”

“Yeah.” His gaze dropped to her arms and then drifted back upward to take in her face. “A real bad one, but I could make you forget I said that.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. The warning in his words sounded more like a challenge than anything else. Jacq would have never imagined in a million years that she would find herself in such a situation, though she’d certainly entertained several hundred ways that would put her and Tyr in a room together. All of them had ended with her riding his cock, but none had started with her gun in his face.