LITMIR.BIZ

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someone. He had to find out what she was hiding.

      “I promise you’ll be safe there,” he added somberly.

      “Okay,” she finally agreed, and he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

      “Good. Tell me what you need from the car.” He continued to analyze her reactions very carefully and came to the conclusion she wasn’t an assassin. She gave too much away. Still, the odds of Eddie’s wife showing up on his mountain without a dire reason were just too high to ignore.

      Reyna sat up a little straighter in her seat. “There’s a tote bag. It was in the front seat next to me. It has...my purse and phone.”

      There was something more in the bag she needed. He saw its significance before she could camouflage it.

      “Why don’t you stay here where it’s warm and I’ll go get it?” He didn’t wait for her answer, mostly because he had no intention of taking her with him. He wanted to find out what was so important in the bag that couldn’t wait until morning.

      Davis turned up the collar of his jacket and braced to battle the cold.

      The moment he left the safety of the Jeep, a torrent bombarded him, drenching his clothing straight through to his skin. He slipped and slid his way down the side of the mountain until he finally reached the car once more. He found the bag in question lying on the floorboard of the passenger seat.

      A quick search produced a prepaid phone. Why would she need one of those unless she was trying to keep her location secret? He dug further and found a small plastic bear key chain with several keys attached and a woman’s purse below that. Inside the purse were a few fast-food receipts and a wallet.

      He pulled out her wallet and opened it. A Texas driver’s license with her name on it, a handful of tens and a couple of credit cards. An access ID card from Stevens Memorial Hospital confirmed what she did for a living. In the coin purse, he found another key that looked as if it could fit any storage locker. Not much to go on. Still, he didn’t like it. Three years and not a peep from his past until tonight.

      The remoteness of the area was the very reason Davis had moved back to Defiance. No one from his childhood lived here anymore. The Defiance Silver Mine, the main source of employment for the area, closed down about fifteen years earlier and the town had all but dried up. When he’d left his old identity behind, Kyle had destroyed his CIA personnel file. There would be no record of his past life anywhere. Other than Kyle, no one from the Agency knew he had grown up in Defiance.

      With the exception of Eddie.

      It finally dawned on Davis why Reyna looked so familiar. Eddie had shown him a picture of his wife once. He was so proud of her. Eddie told him that Reyna’s parents had died when she was barely a teenager. Lots of kids would have fallen apart after losing their entire family. Not Reyna. If anything, it had made her stronger. Eddie said that after they’d gotten married she’d held down two jobs just to put herself through medical school.

      Davis did a quick search of the rest of the contents of the car and found nothing out of the ordinary. A suitcase laden with clothing and toiletries indicated she’d planned for a long period away from home. She was running from someone. Eddie? It didn’t add up. Everything he knew about the man pointed to someone who wasn’t violent. Besides, she’d said she was looking for her husband’s friend, which seemed to imply Eddie had sent her.

      On impulse, he dumped the contents of the suitcase on the seat and found what he was after. A small box that contained a set of dog tags. Eddie’s. There would be only one reason the tags would leave a soldier’s body. If he were killed in action.

      Eddie Peterson was dead.

      Shocked, Davis slumped back against the seat, covering his face with his hands. Grief and disbelief made it hard to draw air into his lungs. He couldn’t wrap his mind around the knowledge his friend was dead.

      “Why, God? Why Eddie? He was an innocent,” he said in a broken tone and struggled to hold back the tears.

      Eddie hadn’t been part of the original Scorpion team that was being targeted for death, so Davis had believed him safe.

      Why hadn’t Kyle contacted him about Eddie? His friend knew how close he and Eddie had become. He didn’t like it. Something was wrong. Davis believed if it were humanly possible, Kyle would have reached out to him about Eddie. The fact that he hadn’t didn’t bode well.

      The threat facing the original Scorpions had been real enough for Davis to fake his death. Kyle was probably in grave danger, too, since he was the handler for the group. Had Kyle gone into hiding himself or...was he dead?

      “Please, God, no.” Losing Eddie was gut wrenching enough. He didn’t want to think about the possibility of Kyle being dead, too.

      Both Davis and Kyle had long believed something the Scorpions had witnessed during their time in the Tora Bora region was the real reason behind their systematic annihilation. But Eddie hadn’t been part of those missions. He’d joined the team later on.

      A surge of guilt shot through Davis, catapulting him back three years to that horrific day when his life had changed forever.

      Sometimes at night, he could still hear the firefight exploding around him. See the smoke and the flames. On those really bad nights, he could feel the bullet searing through his flesh as it destroyed his leg.

      That night, well, it had had given him the reason he needed to get out of the CIA, especially after learning the woman he loved had perished in the same battle. His injuries had been severe enough to send him home. But Abby and so many others had sacrificed their lives.

      Nowadays, the physical wounds were all but gone. The only reminder was a limp and the occasional throbbing ache when bad weather moved in. Like today. But the emotional wounds he carried inside ran much deeper. No matter how much he prayed for release, he doubted if he’d ever be done with them entirely.

      Davis let go of those dark memories with difficulty. What was the point of reliving what he couldn’t change? He’d gotten good at stuffing his feelings down inside. Only sometimes, on occasion, they refused to stay buried. When that happened, he dove into his Bible and prayed for God’s help.

      Releasing a ragged breath, he got to his feet and put the tags back in the suitcase then threw the clothes over them. He’d do a more thorough search in the morning. Right now, he needed to get Eddie’s wife out of here and to safety.

      Davis grabbed the tote bag and hiked back up to the SUV. He stopped at the edge of the road. He could see Reyna hunkered down inside. She had leaned back against the headrest, her eyes shut. He remembered the picture Eddie showed him. His buddy had told him they took it right after they were married. Davis remembered thinking how pretty she looked back then, and how innocent. Reyna Peterson had grown from a shy-looking bride into a strikingly beautiful and accomplished woman.

      Still, something had left an indelible mark on her. She appeared weary from life. No doubt partly due to Eddie’s death, but there had to be more to her story. Her skittish behavior only reinforced that feeling.

      Davis jerked the driver’s door open with a little more force than necessary. Reyna jumped as if he’d startled her and her hand flew to her chest. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He handed her the bag and she clutched it against her body like a life support. Further proof that the value of its contents were of grave importance to her.

      Davis put the Jeep into Drive. The wipers slapped back and forth at high speed, trying to fend off the ice and snow blanketing the windshield.

      “How much farther?” she asked, continuing to watch the passenger mirror.

      He glanced her way. “Not much. A couple more miles. Are you expecting company?”

      Her gaze flew to his and he saw the truth before she could deny it. His nerves hit the critical mark. Was someone following her?

      The Jeep crept along the road, occasionally slipping as the snow chains struggled to hold their grip.

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