LITMIR.BIZ

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it was her eyes that really got to him. They were dark brown and soulful, like his wife’s had been.

      His mouth twisted involuntarily at a memory. He recalled how he used to joke with Lena that at times it was as if she could look right through him. He saw the same expression in this woman’s gaze and it was gut-wrenching. Shocking.

      He crushed the tiniest bit of hope taking life inside his heart. He couldn’t go there.

      Kyle struggled to pull his thoughts together. “You recognize me?” The question came out sharper than he intended, mostly because everything about her unnerved him.

      He waited for an answer she clearly had no intention of giving. She shook her head and stared at the ground.

      Frustrated, Kyle glanced around the area. It was just the two of them, but clearly she believed she recognized him.

      I can’t believe it’s you.

      It didn’t sit well. Had she escaped from somewhere or was she part of a trap set by the notorious Fox? Her appearance certainly seemed to confirm someone who had been imprisoned. She was disheveled, her clothes tattered. Still, he didn’t like the fact that she’d appeared out of nowhere.

      “Answer the question. How do you know me?” he barked, and she flinched as if he’d struck her. Kyle didn’t let up. He had to know. “What’s your name? Why are you out here alone?”

      She closed her eyes. She appeared so frail—barely hanging on—so unlike his strong, confident wife.

      Until he knew her true identity and why she was wandering the desert, he had to treat her as a hostile.

      She swallowed visibly. “My name?” she managed, as if confused.

      “Yes, your name.” Kyle didn’t try to hide his annoyance. She was fading fast and he needed answers.

      “It’s...Ella...Weiss.” She didn’t sound very positive. “Please, you have to let me go. I have to find him.” Helpless tears filled her eyes. He watched her clench her hands into fists until the tears disappeared.

      “Who do you have to find?” he asked, even more concerned. What was she doing out here alone? Who was she searching for?

      She moaned softly, and it captured his full attention. He was losing her. Kyle rushed to her side. He wasn’t in time to catch her before she slipped to the desert surface.

      He knelt next to her and felt for a pulse. It was there but weak. She had a scar that ran the length of her right cheek and another far more severe one that parted her hair. Someone had hurt her badly. He couldn’t imagine the pain she’d suffered. He turned her hands up and swallowed back anger. Her fingerprints had been deliberately burned off. They didn’t want her identified.

      He couldn’t stop his thoughts from wandering back to Lena. He’d known the moment he met her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. They’d dated only a year before he’d asked her to marry him. Their five-year marriage had still been in the honeymoon stage when she’d disappeared. He shivered as recalled the horrible night he’d learned of Lena’s death.

      Because of the effects of the fire, her body had been unidentifiable except for the wedding ring still on her left hand. The inscription “To the love of my life” was on the inside of the band. There had been no mistaking the ring he’d given his wife on the day they’d wed. But knowing she’d been wearing it was the most confusing part.

      Lena had never worn her wedding ring on a mission before. As a seasoned operative, she knew better than to wear anything that might jeopardize her cover story. When he’d seen the band, he’d been shocked. It was a rookie mistake and one he was sure Lena never would have made. But then again, she hadn’t been herself in the days before she left for the mission. Something had been wrong, and yet she’d refused to talk to him about it.

      Now, the similarities between his wife’s death and this woman left him unsettled. They’d both been found in the same area, and someone had gone to great lengths to keep their identities a secret.

      Something around the woman’s neck caught his attention as it glistened in the headlights. A necklace. He lifted the chain in his hand. A small silver ring caught the light.

      “What’s happening out there, Kyle?” He barely registered Sam Lansford’s voice coming through his radio. He couldn’t move. His body glued in place.

      “Kyle, come in. Are you okay? Is that Hadir?” Sam said in a frantic tone. Sam had been the one to alert him to Ella’s approach.

      As a former CIA agent himself, Sam was highly skilled, and Kyle trusted him to have his back. Sam’s hostage-retrieval team had been in Afghanistan on assignment when Kyle enlisted Sam’s technical expertise as a pilot so he could have a real-time view of the entire location in preparation for his meet with Hadir.

      It had been through Hadir’s intelligence that they’d been able to confirm that the man in the photo that former Scorpion team member Eddie Peterson had smuggled out of a war zone was indeed the person Hadir knew as Alhasan. And the man they believed to be the Fox. For the first time they had a name attached to the notorious terrorist.

      Kyle couldn’t get the last conversation he’d had with his asset out of his head. Hadir had told him Alhasan was preparing to move his entire operation. Their window to capture him was closing quickly. Was this the reason for tonight’s meet? Did Hadir have the location for the move? His asset’s message was so unusual that it had sent up all sorts of warning flags.

      Kyle pulled his straying thoughts together. Too many people were counting on him staying alert.

      With one final glance at the woman, he snatched up the radio. “It’s not Hadir. It’s a woman...” His voice trailed off. Although Lena and Sam had never met, Kyle had told him everything about his former CIA agent wife.

      “A woman?” There was no mistaking Sam’s surprise. “Who is she? And more important, what’s she doing out here alone?”

      Kyle wasn’t able to voice his suspicions. “I have no idea,” he managed while trying to shut out painful memories of his final moments with Lena. The argument they’d had. If only he’d known it was the last time he’d see her alive.

      “I don’t like this.” Liz Ramirez, Kyle’s second in command came on the radio. “Something’s wrong, Kyle. Why would she be wandering around in the desert? This feels like a setup. We’re on our way.”

      As much as he might agree, he couldn’t allow it. Hadir had been very specific. “No, Liz, I’ve got this. I need you to stand down until I give the order.”

      Liz didn’t respond, but Kyle could read all her doubts in the silence. He shared them.

      He scrubbed his hand over his eyes. Being back in the field had opened up old wounds.

      With Jase Bradford running the day-to-day operations for the team, Kyle had realized he missed the action of the field and wanted to be there when the team brought down the Fox once and for all. He had a personal stake in capturing the formidable enemy—he believed the Fox was responsible for Lena’s death.

      Still, nothing he’d seen to date prepared him for running into a woman who so strongly resembled Lena. He slammed the door on that possibility. He couldn’t go there and survive having his heart torn to shreds again, because not a day went by that he didn’t miss Lena terribly. Longed to have just another moment with her. Seeing this woman had brought all that back.

      “Kyle, we’re picking up at least four vehicles west of you. They’re heading your way. Get out of there now,” Sam yelled into the mic.

      Kyle grabbed the binoculars and spotted dust boiling up on the western horizon beyond the compound. Liz was right. It felt like a setup.

      He raced back to the unconscious woman and scooped her into his arms. He’d managed only a couple of steps before an explosion split the night and shook the ground beneath his feet. The blast dropped him to his knees.

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