AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I did.”
“After you notify the guys, upload them here, and tell the admiral I said to send them. Explain what he’s seeing in the photos.” He gave Carl the admiral’s card with his personal cell and secure email address.
“On it.”
Within minutes, theteam assembled in the living room. As requested, the men in town brought some fresh panini and drinks.
“We have a new development, and I want you to know where we’re at, just so you are properly prepared.”
Harper looked over the faces of his men, men he trusted with his own life.
“While we were tailing Lipori and several of his guys, I had a random encounter with Lydia, my wife, the lady I was told had perished at the hands of Jakob Lipori, who lives here. I even met Lipori as well. They might suspect me, but we’re getting things checked out before we act.”
The room gasped, waiting for an explanation.
“She denied that she was Lydia, but there’s no question she’s under Lipori’s control. He intervened, and I’m trying to make contact with her to get some answers. In my gut, I don’t feel she’s involved. I’m still thinking she’s a victim. But I don’t know for sure. So part of our mission will be to capture her as well and bring her back to the states. If she doesn’t cooperate with me, it will be left to the State Department handlers, and you know how that works. But she’s now, until we learn otherwise, part of the terrorist group.”
It was complete silence.
“Why are we waiting then?” asked Knute. “Either way, she’s coming with us. Biggest danger is that the bad guys smell a plan in the works and disappear before we can nab them. Shouldn’t we be readying ourselves to go do that?”
“Yes, it is, and we will. I want to have one conversation with her, if I can.”
“Harper, what if she’d tip them off? You have to be thinking of that as a possibility,” said Paul.
“Which is why I want you to be ready, even for tonight. Once it’s dark, that’s always the best time. We also may have someone in D.C. or State we can’t trust. Patterson is checking on a witness. None of you are to relay anything to anyone if you call home, understand? We’re trying to figure out if we’re being compromised in some fashion. That doesn’t change the mission, just how we do it.”
“What did she say when you talked to her? Did she have an explanation?” asked Sam.
Harper swallowed hard. It was hard to tell them this.
“She either doesn’t remember me or is a very good actress and very dangerous. Let me also remind you, no harm is to befall any of those guys on Lipori’s team. This isn’t a kill mission, unless they’re trying to use lethal force against you. I need to make sure you understand that.”
The team, one by one, agreed.
He was ready to call the meeting. But Lydia did that for him. On his cell, he recognized the number from her paper. Her text was simple.
“Meet me at Angelo’s Deli, thirty minutes. Come alone.”
Chapter 16
“Iagreed tomeet you because you look like an honest man,” Lydia said, sipping her coffee. Unlike Harper’s cappuccino, she had ordered a chai latte with nutmeg. She noticed him staring down at it after she took the sip.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
“You never used to order that. We both ordered extra cream cappuccinos.” He held out his drink. “Here, you try this and tell me it isn’t divine.”
She refused, crossing her arms and leaning back into her chair. “You’ve got to stop this, Mr. Cunningham.”
That hurt.
“You still don’t believe me? You don’t think I don’t remember every day we were married?”
“Let’s go one step at a time. No. I don’t believe you. How could I? I am a different person than you think you know. If you want to have a conversation with me, you’ve got to quit trying to ‘win me over’ with some garbage about your dead wife.”
“And yet you agreed to meet with me. Explain this, please, because I didn’t come here just to walk away and think I’d made a mistake. Somewhere—”
She stood up. “I can see this was an error.”
