LITMIR.BIZ

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for the training session, she walked to the gym to finish her workout. She took a place at the first station and lifted the weights, evenly pushing up the bars on the bench press and enjoying the strength she had regained in her arms. Satisfied, she finished her reps and moved on to the next station and then the next. By the time she finished, her muscles trembled from her exertions, but it was a good feeling. The kind of sore that said she was getting stronger.

      The kind of pain that confirmed she was still alive.

      In the locker room, she peeled off her clothes and grabbed a towel, ready for a long soak in the Jacuzzi. As she passed a mirror, she stopped short, surprised by what stared back at her.

      The image of a hard-bodied woman of average height was reflected in the mirror. Shoulder-length hair in need of a trim. Fine-boned shoulders leading to full breasts above a long, barely pink scar that ran down her middle. Beside the scar was the ragged, stellar-shaped wound where she had been shot during her last mission.

      The physical wounds of the past year were alive in her vision, much like those in her heart, which had been there far longer. The scar of her parents’ murder. The ragged and still unhealed wound from her lover’s death barely three years ago.

      Dani ran her hand down the long scar, but it was numb. Just as she was numb inside. Paralyzed. Yet she still had things to do so that might make her feel alive again.

      So that she could finally go home. Go and see her twin sister, Elizabeth.

      Only, as she’d heard before, she suspected that she could never truly go home again.

      Lazlo agent Mitch Lama watched as Dani sparred with the two men in the gym.

      Was she ready? he wondered tapping his lips with his index finger as Dani deftly handled the two much larger men.

      The frailness from her injuries was gone, as was the pallor that had colored her skin for the many months she had been unconscious and battling for life. Months during which he had come to sit by her bedside, urging her to keep up the fight. Reading to her in hopes that she might hear his voice and return because they had things to settle between them.

      Now she was back from the dead and he didn’t know what to do with her. What to do about the lies she had told him for so long. Lies that had nearly cost him his life and hers.

      She looked strong now. Presumably ready for action.

      He had always admired Dani’s physicality. Been intrigued by the strength beneath the seemingly fragile and feminine surface.

      She was a warrior. A champion who was forever prepared to take up a cause and fight a wrong.

      He both loved and hated her for being a hero.

      For nearly three years, he had been waiting to see her. To talk to her again. To be able to touch her and have her know it was him.

      To ask her why she had lied to him about who she was, even as he’d lain dying.

      A loud beep came from his computer, notifying him that he had an urgent message from Corbett Lazlo. A second later, his phone rang and he had no doubt who would be on the line.

      He shut down his access to the camera trained on Dani, immediately regretting the loss of her.

      “Lama,” he said, a tinge of annoyance in his voice that he had been pulled away from his surveillance.

      Corbett Lazlo identified himself. “Did you get my message?”

      “Hold on just one second, sir, while I open it,” he said, the cadence and tone from his days in the military coloring his speech. He double-clicked to open the e-mail message Lazlo had forwarded and held his breath as he read it.

      The message threatened with its simplicity.

      Ready for Round 2?

      “I’m assuming Cordez couldn’t track the source of this message either?” He wondered why their top computer person was having such difficulty tracing the mysterious missives.

      “You’re correct. Plus, I have some other news.”

      He knew the news would be bad so he preempted Lazlo’s report. “Another operative is down. I’m assuming the same MO as before?”

      “Unfortunately, yes. His body was discovered not far from our Prague offices. Close-range shot to the head, just above the left ear. Hollow-point bullet. I’ve asked our various contacts to see if they have a record of any assassins with a similar MO but I suspect there may be quite a few.”

      Mitch considered the facts and sensed that the moment for waiting and watching had ended. Time for him and the Sparrow to join forces and discover who was behind the messages and attacks.

      “I’m assuming that you want me to activate the Lazarus Liaison now, Mr. Lazlo.”

      Silence came across the line before Lazlo asked, “Do you think she’s ready?”

      He recalled the sight of Dani as she sparred. “I think she’s physically ready, sir.”

      “Quite the political answer. And you? Are you ready? Physically? Emotionally?”

      He’d be a liar if he said “yes,” and so he provided the only answer he could.

      “That remains to be seen, sir.”

      Lazlo’s rare amused chuckle cut across the phone line. “Well, then. We’ll activate the Lazarus mission sometime tomorrow. Be prepared for a joint briefing with the Sparrow in the afternoon.”

      He wanted to protest that it wasn’t enough time but suspected that he could never have enough time to fortify himself to see her again. To face Dani down and deal with all the issues sure to exist between them.

      But he had no choice. Corbett Lazlo had saved his life and Dani’s. For that reason alone, he was honor-bound to do what Lazlo was asking of him.

      He only hoped that, when it was all over, he would finally have some peace in his life.

      Chapter 2

      Dani stared intently at the long steps leading up to Sacre Coeur on top of Montmartre. Months earlier she had tried to climb those steps but failed, her body debilitated thanks to too much time in bed. For the past few months she’d pushed herself by making each day’s walk longer than the one before. Her hikes eventually brought her back to the bottom of these steps, but she had never felt strong enough to make the climb.

      Until today.

      She began slowly, pacing herself in the August heat, but about halfway up she knew.

      She increased her pace and although she was slightly winded at the top, she made it. For a Rocky-like moment, she wanted to pump her arms in the air and jump around, but contained herself. She didn’t want people to look at her and think, Crazy Tourist.

      Instead, Dani glanced at Paris, laid out before her in all its splendor. From high up on Montmartre, most of the city and the Seine were visible on the clear summer day.

      She paused to enjoy the sight for only a moment, knowing that she had not only pushed her physical limits, but that she had stretched the boundaries of how long she had been away from the Lazlo medical compound. The beep that sounded at her side a second later confirmed it.

      Grabbing her cell phone, she read the text message—her presence was demanded back at the compound immediately. Mr. Lazlo wanted to meet with her.

      It would take her time to walk back, and she sensed from the curtness of the message that she shouldn’t dawdle. Texting back that she would be there within the half hour, she rushed back down the steps and walked to one of the side streets until she hit a main thoroughfare, where she quickly snagged a cab.

      In French as flawless as her English, she asked to be taken to the Louvre and then she held on as the cab sped off, weaving through traffic and the assorted circles at a breakneck pace. When the cabbie stopped with a screech before the museum in record time, she mumbled a thanks to God for arriving in one

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