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Chris watched the man retreat after dropping his cryptic bomb. There was definitely more to the operator than met the eye. And Chris was certain the man was an operator of some kind. What he wanted to know was, who was the guy’s real employer? It certainly wasn’t Gardner.
He returned his attention to Diana. She looked tired and beautiful, and he wondered if she’d slept any more than he had last night.
Probably not.
“I’m sorry,” he said. Before he could continue, the waiter brought their drinks. Diana had ordered one of the bar’s signature cocktails, while Chris opted for a nonalcoholic beer, his drink of choice when he needed to stay focused.
“So what, exactly, are you apologizing for?” she asked before taking a sip of the fancy cocktail.
He cleared his throat, trying to figure out the best way to defend himself without putting himself in a deeper hole. “I didn’t know how bad the situation was for you when I asked what was an honest question.”
She stiffened, but didn’t bolt. “Tread carefully.”
He nodded. “Freya explained that you could face extradition and prosecution for looting. I understand why the subject is…” He couldn’t think of a word to adequately encompass her situation, so he found a meek stand-in. “Painful.”
He took her hand and was glad when she didn’t pull away. “Diana, I wasn’t questioning your integrity. I was asking the same question I’d ask Rand or Xavier or any man on my team in a debrief after an op. It was a legitimate question. My team risked our lives twice to save you. I’d just spent four days being grilled like a kebab by the damn Pentagon about everything that went down and why. It’s not wrong for me to wonder if you’ve considered that you were in a damn stressful situation and might have made a mistake.”
“I didn’t make a mistake. It was Rafiq.”
“You said his face was more scarred than in the pictures we got of him five years ago. He looked different.”
“His eyes haven’t changed.”
“Yeah? Tell me about his eyes, then.”
“They’re brown.”
He snorted. “Good thing no one else in the Middle East has brown eyes.”
She pulled her hand from his. “I recognized your eyes. That was all I saw of you that first night. But I recognized you when you came to my rescue the second time.”
He sat back and stared at her, remembering that moment in Aqaba. She’d been in shock. Scared. Covered with blood. He’d just watched her kill a man.
Then, without any memory prompt from him, she’d said, “It was you, in the canyon. The one I asked to trust me.”
She’d recognized him after only seeing his brown eyes.
Diana closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat. She felt wrung out. First by the Gardners, then by Ian and his puzzling remark. Now Chris, who she shouldn’t have kissed and shouldn’t want to kiss again.
But underneath it all was the question: should she examine her memory of her meetings with Rafiq?
If she did that…she had to question everything she’d done based on believing she’d spoken with Rafiq.
Harun had told her that Fahd was killed after her botched rescue. The rescue she’d botched on purpose because of the belief she’d spoken with Rafiq.
Silence stretched between her and Chris as she considered this new nightmare.
Was it her fault Fahd’s children lost their dad?
“I want to help you, Diana, and I’m not talking about being your chauffeur because you can’t drive. I’m talking about the questions the State Department is asking. And with the PTSD you must be going through. It was shitty of me to take advantage of you last night.”
The last statement irked her. “You didn’t take advantage of me.”
“It was too soon. And even though we barely know each other, we have a history that’s traumatic for you. Having sex with you, without considering the emotional ramifications, was taking advantage.”
“Then I was taking advantage of you too.”
He smiled at that, then nodded. “Fine. But of the two of us, I’m the one who’s spent years on a special forces team. I know how to process an op.”
