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“Nothing could be further from the truth, and you know it,” he said quietly. Gabe waited patiently for her to make eye contact. It didn’t take her long. She’d never been a coward.
She tilted her chin defiantly. “I don’t know anything about you. I never did. Our life together was a lie. I’m not even sure you know the real you.”
He kept his face impassive, even though her words pierced his heart. “How long are you going to pretend she’s not sitting here between us?”
“Don’t mention her!” The quiver in her voice was quickly controlled. “I’ll get out of this car and disappear off the face of the planet. If you want me to stay, then the past stays in the past. It’s nonnegotiable.”
“Fine,” Gabe said. “Whatever you say.”
The SUV slowed to a stop, and Gabe pushed the door open, not waiting to see if she’d follow. It was a stupid idea to think he could fix things—to heal the wounds that had been bleeding for the last two years.
Gabe’s Gulfstream sat ready for takeoff on the hard-packed dirt the small Venezuelan city called an airport. He went up the stairs and then turned to face Grace, sure she’d still be in the car. But she stood at the bottom of the steps, her face carefully blank.
“You can either come with me or you can leave. The choice is yours,” Gabe said without emotion, tossing her the flash drive.
She caught it one-handed and stared at him, studying him, trying to read every angle of the situation as she’d been trained to do at the agency. She finally nodded and started up the steps. “I’ll come. A deal is a deal. And my word means something.”
Gabe flinched before he could control it and let the pain roll through him. He had a feeling that before this job was over, she’d have one more reason to hate him.
ChapterTwo
The Gulfstream was a luxury Gabe was glad he didn’t have to do without. The interior was set up like an apartment—a living area, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom—and was comfortably decorated in muted shades of gray and navy blue. He’d spent more time in the comfortable space the last two years than he had in his actual apartment. International terrorism and intelligence had kept him busy, and working constantly helped him forget Grace. At least he liked to think it did.
Logan climbed aboard, ignoring both of them, and immediately went to seat himself in the cockpit. A smile twitched on Gabe’s lips. Logan was a man of few words and was smart enough to take himself out of the line of fire. If there’d been another seat in the cockpit Gabe would have joined him and the pilot.
Grace had already fastened her seat belt by the time Gabe took his own place across from her. She stared out the window as they taxied before takeoff, doing her best to ignore him. A table sat between them, but it might as well have been a brick wall.
“Grace,” Gabe said softly. Her gaze met his—her eyes filled with pain and coldness—and he decided she needed no less than complete honesty from him. “I want you to join my team.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but he hurried on before she could deny him.
“You’re the best there is,” he said, “And I only want top agents working with me. I need you. Even if it’s just for this one mission, I need you. It’s important. More important than anything we’ve done before.”
She was the best sniper he’d ever known. She could focus on a target from a thousand yards, and she was brilliant enough to calculate terrain and angles in her head in a matter of seconds before taking the fatal shot. She never missed. And they’d worked well together once. She’d saved his life and the lives of others on more than one occasion.
She let the silence linger before she answered. “If I agree, I want something in return.” She gripped the armrest of her seat tightly as the nose of the plane tipped up and then left the safety of solid ground beneath. She’d always hated flying. A weakness he knew she despised in herself.
“I’ve already told you I’d double what you’re getting for the jobs you’re doing now,” he said. “I know what you’ve been doing with the money, Grace, and how important it is to you. I’ll give you what you need.”
“I won’t need the money anymore if I work for you,” she said. “I want something else.”
He looked at her warily, a feeling of dread curling in his stomach. He knew what she was going to ask before the words left her mouth.
“I want your help and your resources hunting down Kamir Tussad. I want his head on a platter. Take it or leave it.”
The hatred in her eyes knifed through him, but he understood it. Gabe stared at her intently, all the impotent rage he’d kept bottled inside at the terrorist’s name threatening to claw its way out and slash him to ribbons. He couldn’t afford to be ruled by anger as she was. Anger made him less than useless. They were fire and ice, and cold logic was the only thing that worked for him. He knew if he wanted to get her on his team then he had to agree to her demand. And then they’d face the past. Together.
“Agreed. But you’ll not take any side jobs while you’re working for me. My company has an international reputation. A good one.”
“Fine. Tell me about the job.”
Gabe handed her a thick file folder. “Take a look and tell me what you see.”
He waited patiently while Grace flipped through pictures and let out a long, low whistle. “It’s a clean job,” she finally said. “Too clean. Land this smooth doesn’t occur naturally. What was in these places before they were leveled?”
“Whole communities,” he answered. “Houses, people, animals, children. You name it. Six tribes, sparsely populated by traditional standards, fallen off the face of the earth. South America, Central Mexico, Africa, and Australia. The fingerprint is the same at each place.”
She raised a brow but didn’t say anything else as she looked through the rest of the documentation. She held up a picture of a couple, both with pale blond hair and the kind of creases in their faces that said they spent a lot of time smiling. “Who are they?”
