AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Salim hadn’t been put off by it. Fahd had respected it.
Would Harun see through it to the terror that shook her very core?
“Fahd Yousef was a crackpot zealot for a dying cause,” she said.
“Yet you cried when he died. Held your breath as he was drowning.”
“That’s because what you showed me was horrible. You’d have to be inhuman not to react.” She pierced him with her stare, her meaning clear.
Harun gave her a feral smile. “I will enjoy breaking you.”
She shivered at that. Did he intend to rape her? “Violate my body, and I won’t help you.”
“You speak as if you have a choice.”
The spot on her arm where the tracker was implanted began to itch again. She did have a choice. But if she called for a rescue now, it would be a failure. She had no new intel except the death of Dr. Yousef. And his body had probably been found already.
The SEAL team who’d risked everything to rescue her would be none too pleased to be called back two days later with nothing more to show for a successful rescue. And if it wasn’t successful…her life was forfeit. There would be no more chances.
She had made her choice and had to see it through.
But to do that, she had to violate the first thing Fahd had asked of her. She had to give up a site. She had to become the thing she despised.
She would take on the role of looter who dug up artifacts to support the Islamic State.
Chapter Twelve
Chris paced the small observation deck. The noise of activity on the flight deck below helped to wrap him in a feeling of isolation in this place where the vessel itself was vast, but there was no privacy in outdoor spaces or areas with enough room to burn restless energy with pacing.
The gym was full of sailors and airmen of all ranks. Too public.
It had been a while since he’d done a stint on an aircraft carrier, and the last time had been with the SEAL platoon that included guys he’d served with for years. They’d been close. Some of his best friends in the world. Now two of those men were dead and one was fucking his soon-to-be ex-wife.
He was still friends with a few of them, but they were either at Coronado still serving with the wife fucker or retired.
There was no one here who knew him. No one who knew what it meant for him to have a hostage turn on him.
Damn, he’d give anything to be able to call Xavier right now.
But if he did that, if he let anyone know he was struggling with this now, he’d be pulled from the op. Pulled from the carrier. Possibly pulled from the teams all together.
Unfit to serve.
That was what Pam had said in their final argument. That he was too fucked in the head to be her husband. To serve his country. It didn’t matter to her that he’d done the work with the special forces shrink. She viewed him as broken, and nothing he did could change that.
So she’d found a SEAL who wasn’t messed up.
She was wrong. He’d known it then. But what did he know now?
Had he shut down in the wadi? Had he single-handedly blown the op?
Had there been anything he could have done to change the outcome?
And knowing that Diana Edwards seemed to think she could give them intel on the supposedly dead Makram Rafiq, did he still regret the failed rescue?
As far as he could tell, about half the team was pissed at Edwards, and the other half were on board for a shot at Rafiq.
All he knew was he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman. He was in awe of her bravery and pissed as hell at her recklessness.
