No Regrets

"Six months ago, maybe, but not anymore." His voice was so deep and quiet it took a moment for his words to register in Noelle's mind.

"What happened to them?" she asked, fearing she already knew the answer.

"You only need to know that the same thing isn't going to happen to you."

"Tell me what happened to them," she demanded, needing to know but not wanting to hear the bleak truth spoken aloud.

His hand stroked over her mussed red curls and he regarded her with a stare that was fierce... determined. "They didn't have me protecting them."

CHAPTER FOUR

David watched Noelle from the corner of his eye as she fell back asleep in the space of a few seconds. The tranquilizer was still affecting her, but not as much as he'd feared. At least the drugs weren't going to kill her. It was up to him to see that nothing else did, either.

She was a small lump under the thin blanket, sleeping off the remaining effects of the drugs. They couldn't stay here much longer, but he wanted to give her every minute to recover that he could. He could tell by the panic in her green eyes just how much it scared her not to be in cdhtrol of her own body.

David doubted that Noelle had fully grasped the concept that her name was at the top of a terrorist hit list, Four men had been on that same list, and each had been kidnapped by the Swarm because he had a knack for cracking obscure codes. Either those men had refused to cooperate with the sadistic terrorist group or had simply been unable to break the code because all four had been executed. He just couldn't bring himself to tell Noelle she was next. The poor woman had been through too much already today and a person could only take so much fear before they simply quit processing more.

As much as David hated having his isolation ruined, Monroe had been right to call him back into Delta. David knew just what would happen to this young woman if he didn't do his job right. Mistakes were one hell of an effective teacher.

He only wished that Noelle didn't appeal to him so much as a woman. Even with her messy red curls and her baggy clothes and her face devoid of any hint of makeup, she was still alluring. She was so damn . .. cute.

He couldn't forget the way she smelled, all sweet and warm, or the way she made these little, faint noises while she slept. Every time he had to touch her, he felt himself getting excited, anxious like some fifteen-year-old boy who was about to see his first naked woman.

It was pathetic. And it was suck timing. Sure, he'd been more than two years without sex, but he should have been able to resist touching her more than absolutely necessary. Giving her a drink, yes. Feeding her the pain pills, sure.

Putting her under the blankets, fine. But stroking her hair? Touching her face? Completely unnecessary.

But really nice.

Maybe it was just his protective instincts on overdrive, but he had to keep fighting off the urge to pull her into his arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

The truth was, it wasn't going to be okay. Even in the best-case scenario, she'd have to walk away from her life, cut all ties and never look back if she wanted to live. Either that, or sign on with the Army, or maybe the CIA and live in some compound with airtight security where they would protect her in exchange for her brainpower.

Her comment about blood money had David guessing that she would rather die than choose any option that would put her at the disposal of the military.

Noelle shifted in her sleep. At least the drugs were wearing off enough that she might be able to walk out of here under her own power. That would keep him from needing to touch her more, which was for the best.

Their new vehicle was due to be dropped off within the hour. The track he'd been driving would be taken away tomorrow morning and used as a decoy, going in a different direction than they were headed. By then he and Noelle would already be long gone.

With luck, he'd be able to convince her to cooperate with the CIA before they made it to the safe house where CIA agents would no doubt be ready to pounce. Monroe hadn't given David the code they needed Noelle to break, since it was strictly classified, but he had said that the information would lead them straight to the remaining members of the Swarm.

The need for revenge still burned hot in David's gut, even though he knew it wouldn't change the past. He needed to completely wipe out every member of the Swarm from the face of the earth. Only then would he be satisfied.

And for that, he needed Noelle's total and complete cooperation. One way or another, that's what he was going to get.

There were a lot of things that Noelle could handle, but letting David help her use the bathroom was not one of them.

She had her pride. That was the drive that finally pushed away the last of the gooey cobwebs in Noelle's brain and got her legs moving. She wasn't completely steady on her feet, but with a wall nearby, she'd be fine.

Noelle pushed herself off the bed, hoping that David would just keep watching out the window through a crack in the plastic drapes and not notice her at all.

She wasn't that lucky. He noticed and strode over the gaudy carpet to her side. "How are you feeling?" he asked, his eyes measuring her body as if he was absorbing every little detail.

"Like I need to pee."

If her bluntness bothered him, it didn't show on his angular face. "Dizzy?" he asked.

"A little. Nothing I can't handle."

His hand gripped her upper arm, not so tight it hurt, but tight enough that if she took a spill he'd be able to hold her up. It was comforting in an odd you're-a-stranger-and-possibly-a-crazed-maniac-but-at-least-you're-here sort of way.

He escorted her to the bathroom door and she gave him a scowl that told him she'd take it from here.

He just grunted, which by the sound of it she guessed was as close to a laugh as he ever got, and leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed over that wide chest of his. "I'll be right here if you need me."

Noelle forced herself upright to her full five feet six inches and gave him her best professorial stare—the one that sent freshmen straight to the library with a burning desire to study. "I won't need you for this," she said as she shut the door in his face.

The effort of putting on all that attitude made her head throb and spin. Whatever it was she'd been shot with had one heck of a wallop. Of course, she'd missed a couple of meals today, which probably didn't help the whole dizzy thing much.

Now that she was vertical and relatively coherent, she took inventory of her situation. She still had no idea where she was, or who David was. She assumed he worked for the U.S. military, but there was a chance that he just wanted her to think that. For all she knew, he could be a foreign spy, sent to pick her brain for the decryption algorithms she'd previously worked on.

She wasn't as freakishly smart as her sister, Lilly, but she wasn't stupid, either. She knew the power her solution would give to any intelligence agency, be they government-sanctioned or otherwise. Information was power.

Protecting information was crucial to maintaining mat power. As soon as Noelle realized just how far she could take her work, she knew it was too powerful a weapon to develop. Whoever had control of it would never again have to worry about breaking any code, at least not as they existed today. Her solution wasn't just a one-time-only deciphering tool. If she took the time to finish it, she was pretty sure tffat, given enough computing power, her work would come close to artificial intelligence. Feed it enough ciphertext, and eventually it would have enough data not only to break any code, but actually to predict future codes based on historical information. The system would first learn, then it would teach.

Developing something that complex would likely take her years, but the fact that she could almost imagine how it would work, somewhere on the fringes of her brain, was enough to convince her that it was not only possible, it was within her ability to create.

No one knew how far her solution had advanced, and if she wanted to stay alive, she'd keep it that way. She couldn't imagine a situation in which someone would be able to force her to create such a thing against her will, but she was smart enough to know that her imagination for human cruelty wasn't as well developed as others'. As long as no one knew what she was capable of, there was no risk that she would be forced to work on what she considered the ultimate codebreaker.

The question was, if they didn't know about that— which she knew they couldn't—then why were those men after her? Why had David come to save her?

And more importantly, could she trust him?

Noelle looked around the cramped bathroom. It was nothing special, just a combination of cracked, mildewed tile and water-stained wallpaper. The most noticeable feature was the small, frosted-glass window high above the toilet.

One just big enough for her to squeeze out of if she really tried.

The door to the bathroom was locked, but she knew that it wouldn't take David much effort to break it down. She also knew that he'd do just that if he heard her trying to escape. She could tell him she was going to take a shower and get out while the water was running to mask the sound. It might work. Her legs were stronger now than before, though she still felt rubbery all over and moving took a lot more effort than it should have.

She could try to run. She might even be able to make it out. But should she? What if David was the only thing standing between her and whoever had tried to kidnap her earlier? It seemed stupid to run away from a man who had done nothing but help her so far. Maybe it was just a ruse to lull her into a sense of false security, but Noelle didn't think so. There was something about him that screamed of honor. He was a bit gruff and not exactly a gifted conversationalist, but he had protected her. He'd gotten her out alive. Groggy, but alive.

Noelle wasn't one for trusting instincts. She preferred logic and facts and a thick stack of empirical data to make decisions. But right now, she didn't have any of those. All she had was her intuition and it was telling her that David was a good man. Staying with him was a lot safer than shinnying out a window and facing the night alone, weak and unarmed.

Right now, David was her best bet.

When Noelle came out of the bathroom, he was still there, lounging against the doorframe. "I'm glad you didn't try it," he said.

"Try what?"

"The window."

Noelle tried to still her expression before he could see her shocked reaction to him knowing that she'd thought about running. "I don't know what you're talking aoout," she told him.

A faint flicker of amusement crossed his eyes. "You're too smart not to have at least thought about going out the window. You'd have fitted, but you wouldn't have gone far before I tracked you down."

Noelle rolled her eyes. "If I'd really wanted to get away, I would have, so don't go getting all macho he-man at me."

"No, ma'am. Wouldn't even think about it."

She gave him a look full of challenge, but the fluorescent lights over the sink and mirror behind him made her brain sting.

"Your head still hurting?" he asked, bending his knees so he was on a level to look directly into her eyes.

"Yeah, but I'll live."

He pulled a little penlight out of his vest of stuff, and said, "Hold still."

The light hurt, but whatever he was looking at must have bothered him, based on the serious frown he now wore.

"The tranq should have worn off by now, but your reactions are still sluggish. Are you on any medication? Taking any drugs?"