“I need you right now,” she whispered, reaching for his belt.
Once they were both naked, she leaned into him, her forehead resting lightly against his chin. For a moment neither of them moved. Exposed in every sense, Caspian felt his heart pounding in his chest. But this time, it wasn’t from the adrenaline but from the sheer weight of the emotions going through him. Here he was, standing skin to skin with the woman he loved, having escaped death once again. How many more times would they have to do that? At some point, their luck would run out.
He felt a slight tremor ripple through Liesel’s body, and he lifted her in his arms, carrying her to the bed without a word.
Later, as he lay there with her beside him, her breath warm against his shoulder, Caspian couldn’t shake the feeling that death was closing in on them. For once, he hadn’t been the instigator of what had happened. This time, trouble had found him. But that didn’t bring him any comfort. He knew the risks of the job. So did Liesel. They had both accepted that long ago. But here, in Mallorca? On what was supposed to be a break from it all?
Caspian closed his eyes.Will it ever stop?
Of course it wouldn’t. Not unless he made some drastic changes. And even then ... would Ranger ever really let him go? Would she allow someone like him to walk away? With everything he knew, everything he’d done? He doubted it. They didn’t let operators like him fade into civilian life.
At least not without strings attached.
He thought of his parents, Elizabeth and Richard. Their love for each other had weathered time, and Caspian had always admired them for it. And now, not for the first time, he realized he truly wanted that too.
With Liesel.
Was that too much to ask? That was a question he didn’t have an answer to. And then his phone vibrated. It was Ranger.
“Yeah?”
“Two things. Number one, I just heard back from my team in the field. Florence is fine. But in an abundance of caution, someone will be keeping an eye on her until we know what’s going on.”
At last, some good news,he thought. “And number two?” he asked.
“You and Liesel need to leave the island. You have two hours to get ready.”
“Okay ... what changed?” he asked.
“An air asset has become available, but I only have a short window to divert it to Palma. It’s presently in Madrid. I’m having someone from the Madrid office prepare documents for you and Liesel. I can have the plane at PMI’s private terminal in two hours, but it has a schedule to keep. It’s on a priority flight to Algiers to pick up a high-value target.The plane won’t stay on the ground for more than fifteen minutes. Understood?”
Caspian looked at Liesel, who was still sleeping soundly.
A high-value target. Well ... that explains why a plane has suddenly become available.
“Understood,” Caspian said. “We’ll be there.”
Chapter Eighteen
Estación Naval de Porto Pí
Palma, Mallorca
Mia Hernandez didn’t touch the brakes of her moped as she cruised past the open gate of the Estación Naval de Porto Pí. A single uniformed guard stood near the yellow security booth. Mia was aware there might be more guards inside, but if the earlier shoot-out in Port de Sóller had raised any alarms, it wasn’t visible from the street.
The naval station, which sat quietly off Carretera Dic de l’Oest, was delimited by an eight-foot see-through iron fence. From the street, Mia saw several low, functional sand-colored buildings with weatherworn facades. Farther east she could see the Porto Pí lighthouse—one of the oldest operating lighthouses in the world—standing watch over the bay, its forty-one-meter-high tower casting a long silhouette against the clear night sky.
Not many of those lighthouses left. And that’s too bad.
She’d always found that there was something noble about lighthouses. They stood firm at the edge of the world, helping others find their way.
Just like the Fisherman once did for me.
She continued south, then veered left onto Castell de Sant Carles, coasting down the slope toward the parking lot outside the Museu Històric Militar. The lot was deserted, and Mia backed the moped into a space near a squat pine. She killed the engine and took off her helmet.She took her small backpack out of the storage box attached to the back of the scooter, then stashed her helmet in the compartment beneath the seat. She uncapped a bottle of water, swallowed two amphetamine tablets, then chased them down with a long drink.
She powered her encrypted phone, then read through the mission brief Operations had sent her one more time. When she had committed all the information to memory, she deleted the file and made her way back to the main road. Underneath her clothes—which consisted of a pair of black jeans, a black long-sleeved hoodie, and a pair of dark hiking shoes—she wore a thin 3/2 mm wet suit. The night was warm, so the wet suit made her extra sweaty and uncomfortable, but if things went sideways and she ended up in the harbor’s black water, she’d be glad for it.
Water ... Mia had been forged in it.
