Page 3 (1/2)
Screens flickered and shifted with feeds of everything frole perimeter to the rusted chain-link fence Jose i could be tossed aside as inconsequential
"Gentle the beard they all grehen undercover in-country for any length of time, "I trust I don’t need to stress how ioes off without oodwill visit at the end of the week, security is crucial"
If there weren’t civilian students involved in the kidnapping would they have left Stella there to die in the interest of preserving "security"? His fist clenched around his sobriety coin in his pocket He was the first person in a long line of faeant Jae of Stella fast forwarded "Here’s the part that brought you here today"
Stella hitched her hands on her hips, her face directed right at the nano bug "I really could use soain and again, skipping to different frames where she repeated over time… "Jose Cuervo… Jose Cuervo… Jose Cuervo…"
Cuervo An ironic reminder of a bad encounter with a bottle of the tequila, and due to his nan stuck Jose "Cuervo" James He forced himself to concentrate on the deceptively bland CIA operative in charge of the whole operation
"We looked into her file and your naht our attention We realized the two of you worked a o Our files indicate you became more than friends"
So much for their atte brother really atching
"Yes, sir," he answered si a look from his fellow teammate out of the corner of his eye
He’d been paired with Tech Sergeant Gavin "Bubbles" Novak, the least chatty PJ in their squadron, but the best medic Bubbles had also been there the day Stella had pulled them out of the Gulf of Aden
A wave from one of the techies drew their attention back The main screen filled with Stella in "real ti her now, so vibrant he ached to step into the i in Stella’s cell
Shit Why did they have to sit around here with their thuet to her Now
A guard tossed another liuy the only sign that their latest inquisition had left the student alive The guard’s shaved bald head glea He wore cae pants and a T-shirt with the sleeves cut, no military rank visible A over his shoulder
A blade was sheathed at his waist in a belt holding more bullets
Stella’s eyes ith perfectly played innocence and horror "I don’t knohat you want fro I know Can I just have souard hooked his hand on the strap of his auto over his shoulder "We want to knoho you are" His accent was clearly local, Somali most likely "Why were you and your fellow spies on our property?"
"I’ve told you already My nae student These are ram, but we’re all from different schools We were on a day trip when you found us, a study on ways to i a famine We only wanted to help" She backed step by step until she bu you, can I just go houard blocked the doorway out "I do not like to be insulted"
"I don’t like being taken captive" Her hand slid to the table, her fingers closing over a broken handle off a cup She tucked the remnant into the back of her waistband "I want to call ed her T-shirt as if for e her
His mind raced back to the first time he’d seen her when he’d hauled himself out of the sea and into the rescue boat She’d been at the wheel, holding the boat steady against the ha at her fiery red braid There’d been bullets, a blown up chopper, and blood streaking down her face
Not a roh the marketplace to the e dry by the job Afterward, he’d found her on the e for the aircrew of the downed chopper That explosion had shaken hi to have his one cigar awhen he kicked the booze, then had to kick nicotine as best he could One cigar a ot to be toohim back under the way one drink would So he carried a Cuban smoke in his pocket at all times He’d had it half out when he stepped onto the roof… and then he’d found Stella
He hadn’t sar since
Their attraction had been immediate Explosive Their five-month affair had been frenetic as they "dated" wherever their paths crossed on hout the Horn of Africa and farther along the Eastern region, even over as far as Uganda They’d lived on the edge, drunk on an edgy attraction that provided a greater high than could be found in any bottle
Until they’d crashed Broken up Ripped each other’s heart out
A quick elbow jab to his side brought him back to the present He looked sharply at his tea toward the iain Screen three filled with a male stretched out on the floor, a student beaten to a pulp for infor on by a thread
Stella knelt beside the pu to each wound as if to make sure to docuaze was so intense
Soed at him, but he couldn’t pinpoint what From her position, her back to the ene fro, her blinking strange, erratic Was she drugged? He watched closer, searching, slowly realizing…
Holy crap, there was a pattern