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"I agree Don't worry They won't ot a pool of irl and soht"

Over his dead body, but he didn't offer that bit of information to Monroe "Where'd they find men like that? The back alley of hell?"

Monroe shrugged "They serve their purpose Can't say I'd invite them home for dinner with the wife and kids, but we've used them before"

David looked at the colonel He respected Monroeabout killing Noelle as if it were just another distasteful op that would be full of mosquitoes and cold mud

David wanted to feel sorry for Monroe and all the shit he h inside to be so casual about killing, but instead, he found hi an innocent wo to protect the innocent Yeah, he'd done soht And yeah, he wished away a lot of days on drea the right thing He killed scum so that the innocent could live

But Monroe was talking about killing one of those innocents who

Somehow, that put them on opposite sides of an invisible line

David stepped away fro away the burning hatred that flooded his gut

Monroe placed a wide hand on David's shoulder and it was all he could do not to shrug it off and break the e her mind," said Monroe

"You've already threatened her with torture and death, and she still hasn't come around What the hell do you think ork? Oh, wait, I know We forgot to say 'please' I'm sure that was it"

"Don't be an idiot, son It's obvious that this whole thing is chapping your ass, but the botto you the truth and start looking for soest of any ot to have some idea of hoe can convince her"

David searched his memory for some soft spot in her arrateful

Any kid of hers would certainly have been used as a pawn

Teeks of intel said that she didn't go out with friends, at least not during the ti watched She went to work and carocery store or library She had family they could threaten--parents and a sister who lived in Kansas David could see using the to kill her fa

The only thing he could think of was the way her eyes lit up when she looked at that paper Monroe had shown her

David would have sworn she was looking at the Holy Grail of ciphers Maybe there was a chance they could whet her appetite enough and get her interested in solving the puzzle just for the sake of knowing the answer

Of course, even if she did break the code, ere the chances of her presenting it in a format that would be useful to the CIA? Just because she knew the answer didn't mean she had to share

David ran a hand over his chin feeling the stubble of his three-day beard He was tired Frustrated Angry as hell

He needed so he wasHe didn't know Noelle that well, but there had to be some way to convince her to help

That code would tell them the location of several nuclear warheads that had been hidden in Russia during the height of the Cold War That hy the Sas so dead set on breaking that code before the CIA did Intel had told theood men had died just for that little tidbit of information

If Noelle didn't help, those twelve lives asted Not to mention the fact that if David didn't knohere the Sas, he wasn't going to be able to get his revenge He'd vowed to kill them all, and that was exactly what he e was not strong enough to overshadow his desire to see Noelle safe And the only way she was going to stay safe was to agree to ith the e for her work It was a symbiotic relationship, and probably not a comfortable one, but the only real option she had

Whatever he did, he had to think of a way to get her to cooperate and fast With only twenty-four hours left, there wasn't a lot of tie Noelle's mind He had to find a way to weaken her resolve

In the end, he had only one card left to play, and the thought of using it made him break out in a cold sweat His past was not a friendly place If he shared it with her, she'd know just how horribly he'd failed His biggest ory detail And even if he did it--even if he bared his past and his dishonor, it still h to convince her to cooperate

David knew he had no choice He had to try Failing another woh to live with, and like it or not, he'd gotten hiether If she died, so would he

He'd do whatever it took to protect her And, unfortunately, that included facing his past again

CHAPTER SEVEN

Noelle's ar, but not nearly as much as her head All she wanted to do was curl up on her old, secondhand couch with a blanket and a good book and pretend that none of this had ever happened

For the first time in her life, she wished she had been born stupid At least then she wouldn't be sitting here wondering whether or not she was going to five to see her twenty-seventh birthday She'd be out at a club so drunk and picking up men

Man, that was the life

But instead, she was in this dingy little roo she had until they executed her

The bulletproof vest David had made her wear cut into her sides, so she took it off It wouldn't help if they wanted her dead, anyway They'd just go for a head shot

The room was cold, so she pulled David's shirt back on over her others, wishing for a blanket to cover her chilled toes It was probably soation technique toto get out of here by giving them what they wanted