Page 5 of Rescuing You

When Leila first went missing, Michael had seen no reason to worry. For all he’d known, she’d had an emergency. Her parents lived outside Munich. He’d never met them, and she rarely talked about them, which had always struck him as strange. But he hadn’t delved into that, trying to stay solidly on the boyfriend side of the boyfriend-spy line.

Because of the long-distance nature of Michael’s relationship with Leila, they didn’t see each other often or consistently. So, at first, he hadn’t worried when she didn’t answer his phone calls or texts. But when twenty-four hours passed and she still hadn’t responded, he flew to Munich and started asking questions. He learned she hadn’t shown up for work for a few days.

He got ahold of the CCTV footage around the hotel where she worked and lived.

That was when he saw the recording of her being dragged into the van. At which point, he’d alerted his team.

Maybe if he’d told them sooner, they’d have already found her. His desire to keep his work life away from his personal life…

Talk about an epic fail.

Now they knew a terrorist had taken her, and it might be Michael’s fault.

And he was supposed to do nothing?

Stone’s gaze flicked to Sam’s house, then toward the little cove at the bottom of the hill. “This isn’t a bad place to rest.”

“I can’t sit here and do nothing.”

“Take it up with Brock. I’m just the messenger.”

“Fine.” Michael grabbed his phone and tapped the speed dial.

Stone leaned against the car, arms crossed, patient as ever.

His calm only irritated Michael.

The team leader answered the way he always did. “Brock here.”

“I have to find her.”

“You’ve done enough, Wrong.” Brock made the call sign sound like an indictment. “Stand down.”

“She means something to me. If this is my fault⁠—”

“Your fault came when you didn’t tell me about her. Your fault came when you trusted an Arab Muslim⁠—”

“She’s a Christian⁠—”

“—and chose to keep your relationship a secret. Did you tell her anything?”

“Of course not.”

“She know you’re with us?”

“I kept my cover.”

“Mmm-hmm. Here’s the thing. You take off looking for that woman, and you’re going to force me to make assumptions about where your loyalty lies.”

The threat stiffened Michael’s spine. “You know I’m loyal.”

“Here’s what I know. You’ve been cavorting with a woman associated with a terrorist. Maybe you want to save her. But maybe you want to hide her from us. Or join her.”

“I would never⁠—”

“I hope that’s true.” The way Brock’s voice lowered and evened out… This wasn’t an empty threat and he wasn’t just following some procedure laid out in some manual somewhere. “The problem is, I don’t know. And this is Vortex we’re talking about, not some low-level thug. Even if I wanted to give you free rein, you know I can’t.”

He paused, but Michael didn’t voice his thoughts in the silence. Because, God help him, he could see it from Brock’s point of view. Brock was wrong about Leila, but Michael’s confidence wouldn’t be enough to change his mind.