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Swede: Jasmine, the woman who took the scroll?
Ace: Yes.
Swede: Eli the person who could die?
Ace: Yes
Swede: On it. Stay safe.
As a taxi pulled up to the curb, Ace pocketed his cell phone, guilt gnawing at his gut. He should direct his questions about Eli to Jasmine, not Swede. If she wouldn’t share information about him, he’d be justified in asking Swede to look for information about the man.
That tug of jealousy kept him from openly questioning Jasmine about the man she’d fallen in love with. If he asked about him, she might realize he still had feelings for her. And damn it, he did.
That one-week affair hadn’t been a fluke easily forgotten. Being with her again reminded him of all the reasons why he’d fallen for the woman.
As Ace held the door, Jasmine slid into the back seat of the taxi. He slid in beside her, wanting to be open and honest with her.
Deep down, he could sense she wasn’t being completely open and honest with him. She was holding back secrets.
What was so special about her man, Eli? Why couldn’t he defend himself? Why did he need a woman to come to his rescue? Then again, Jasmine wasn’t any woman. She was a trained Sayeret Matkal soldier, with skills most women didn’t possess. Or men, for that matter.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“Until I can get more information on our destination, I want to get away from the airport. Any suggestions?”
Oh, he had a suggestion, all right. It immediately popped into his head. Ace leaned over the back of the seat and spoke to the taxi driver. “Antica Café.”
Chapter 4
As though she’d been punched in the gut, Jasmine sat back in the taxi, pressing her hand to her belly.
That Ace had suggested the café where they’d met could mean something or nothing at all. Not as familiar with Athens as she was, he could have said the only place he remembered.
Or was the café as dear a memory to him as it was to her? It was the place they’d met. The place where everything in her life had changed the moment Ace had sat at her table and turned her world upside down with his smile.
She didn’t want to read too much into his choice but couldn’t help it. She’d tried twice to tell him about Eli while they’d been sitting on the plane. Twice, she’d been interrupted, finally feeling like it was a sign that she wasn’t supposed to tell him yet.
When she’d been accused of treason and booted out of the army, she’d felt so alone. Her first thought had been to contact Ace. Shame had made her hesitate. Wanting to establish herself in another profession first, she’d gone about looking for work only to discover she wasn’t suited for anything in an office.
Her search had become more desperate when she’d learned she was pregnant. At her lowest, running out of money, having moved into a smaller apartment and scraping by, a chance encounter with a friend of her mother’s had led to her decision to become a private investigator. Who would suspect a pregnant woman of spying on them?
She’d wanted to tell Ace he had a child on the way but hadn’t wanted him to feel obligated to marry her because of it. When she’d finally tried to get in touch, he hadn’t answered the phone number he’d given her, and she hadn’t left a message, figuring he might not be answering because he didn’t want to hear from her.
Life became a daily battle to keep her head above water with work, pregnancy and then baby Eli.
Her heart swelled with the love she had for her child—the boy who looked more like his father every day.
Her fists clenched. She had to get her son back. He was everything to her. When she’d thought she’d never see Ace again, her entire world had focused on Eli. She’d done her best to provide for him, wanting to give him everything to make up for the lack of a father.
She glanced at Ace, still shocked that he’d just appeared in her life again. His timing couldn’t have been better…or worse. Better because she needed all the help she could get to save Eli. Worse because she couldn’t find the words to tell him who Eli was to her...as well as him.
Jasmine knew she should tell him and opened her mouth to do so.
His cell phone chirped at that moment, drawing his attention to the device. “It’s Swede.” As he read the text, his body stiffened beside hers.
When she leaned over to see what he was reading, he pulled the phone up to his chest and stared into her eyes, his brow dipping low. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her heart dropped like a lead weight into the pit of her belly. “Tell you what?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She knew before he answered.
