Читать книгу Mission: Marriage - Karen Whiddon - Страница 11

She’d forgotten his stubbornness. Sean was the only other person she knew who came close to being as obstinate as she.

In the past, they’d struck sparks off each other. Infuriating and exhilarating.

No longer.

Now, being around him made her insides knot.

The bright sunshine and cloudless autumn sky felt at odds with the turmoil inside her. If the weather were a reflection of her mood, there’d be booming cracks of thunder, lightning sparking among swirling clouds and rain pouring down in sideways sheets.

She refused to let the cheerful day pull her from her black mood.

Red wig and sunglasses firmly in place, Natalie power-walked down the boulevard. Past the bakery, where the mouthwatering scent of freshly made bread made her pause, and past the coffee shop, where strong coffee with a dollop of cream waited.

The October air felt brisk, which she welcomed. Cool air and exercise. Good for the body and the mind. Little by little, she felt her tension ease. She rolled her shoulders, stood in the warm sun and breathed deeply.

When she’d regained her calm detachment, she headed back, managing to smile and nod at other shoppers.

Entering Auggie’s store from the front, she greeted Auggie as though she was only a customer and didn’t know him. He responded in kind, asking her if there was anything he could help her find.

This oft-used code told her they were not alone. She couldn’t go into the back yet to say her goodbyes to Sean.

Goodbyes? She huffed, pretending to look at an assortment of candy. He didn’t deserve a goodbye, not really, not after what he’d done.

But this was Sean and she’d loved him for so long. She couldn’t help but feel as though the heavens had given her an added blessing, allowing her to hear his voice one more time.

If she were honest, something inside her, some small, foolish part, wanted to see his beautiful face one last time. To drown in the warmth of his eyes, touch his skin, breathe his scent. She craved this in much the same way she’d craved sex right after they’d married.

She’d given up sex. Certainly, she should be able to give up Sean. After all, she’d done so once already, two years ago. She’d gone on with her life and, while she couldn’t unequivocally say she was happy, she’d survived without him.

Sean. The love of her life. The one man she’d trusted. To learn he’d betrayed her hurt almost as much as his death.

Yet she couldn’t make herself walk away. Not without knowing why he’d done what he did. She should demand answers; hell, she deserved answers.

But did she really want to know? Could she really handle the truth, whatever that might be?

As she strolled nonchalantly around the small shop, she realized two things. One, though she’d never been a coward, she didn’t yet want to know the why of his defection. Someday, maybe. But not just yet.

And two, she couldn’t leave him. Not now, not until he was healed. And if some tiny, foolish part of her whispered never, she ignored it.

Finally, the other customer left. Auggie came to her and touched her arm. “Come on.”

Sean sat slumped over on the cot, his head down. He looked up when they entered, then looked away.

Natalie crossed the room silently and dropped down beside him. She motioned Auggie to leave, which he did.

Once the other man was gone, Sean raised his head, but still wouldn’t look at her. “You’re going,” he said. His voice sounded hollow.

Her throat ached. Wrapping her arms around herself, Natalie came to a decision. “No. I’m not leaving. I need your help,” she said softly. He met her gaze then, his own full of frustration and stubbornness and physical pain.

Swallowing, he dipped his chin. “I think maybe it’s the other way around.” He dragged a hand through his unruly hair. “I’m the one who needs help.” The soft gravel in his voice told her how much of an effort it cost him to say the words.

Despite herself, her heart melted. For sanity’s sake, she kept her expression stern. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“Help you go after the Hungarian? If so, I’m in. I want the bastard.” Now she had his attention. “I do think he’s responsible for what happened to my team. There are rumors that he’s running a major arms-smuggling operation. The code we were working on could be about that.”

He gave her a startled look. “Do you have any proof?”

“Not yet. But we figured out a rudimentary character-exchange system. Signal for phrases, that sort of thing. There was one section no one could crack. I’d planned to take a shot at it. Then my entire team was cut down in cold blood.”

“How?”

“Murdered at their desks.”

“At SIS? With full security on duty?”

“We worked a lot of nights on rotation. Someone disarmed the alarm and took out two of the guards. Everyone in the office that night died.”

“Except you?”

“I wasn’t there.”

“And the code?”

After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded. “All traces gone. Except for the copy I’d taken with me.”

“Do you still have it?”

“Yes.”

He swore. “I want that son of a—” Taking a deep breath, he met her gaze. “I want him, you want him and Corbett has offered to help. Don’t you think we have a better chance of taking him down if we work together than if we work separately?”

“Maybe.” She didn’t dare let her guarded hope show. “Are you proposing we work as a team? If so, then like I said a moment ago, I’m in.”

He looked down at his leg. “Are you sure?” he asked, quietly. “Before we do this, we both need to be one-hundred-percent certain.”

Even after two years apart, she realized he knew her too well, knew that she was offering this as a way to protect him.

“Please,” she added, because she didn’t know what else to say.

As he opened his mouth to speak, his cell phone rang.

Watching while he answered, again she was struck by his sheer masculine beauty. Her heart hurt.

How she’d missed him.

And, she thought bitterly, how she hated him for what he’d put her through.

“Here.” He handed her the phone. “It’s Corbett. He wants to talk with you.”

Gingerly, she took the phone and said hello.

“Your father’s worried about you,” Corbett said, by way of greeting. “Why haven’t you contacted him?”

Guilt made her wince. This was the first time in her entire career she’d had to ask her father, a former Lazlo operative, for help.

“You sent Sean,” she volleyed back. “You knew he wasn’t dead.” She couldn’t believe it. Corbett had known Sean was alive. As a family friend, Corbett had attended the funeral, offered his condolences, watched her suffer when with two simple words—he’s alive—he could have alleviated her agony.

But he’d never said them.

Then, when she’d been in the worst trouble of her career, she’d called her father and Corbett had sent Sean back to her. As if she wanted him back.

A horrible thought struck her. Had her father known, too? Had he withheld the truth, even as he comforted his grieving daughter?

The depths of such a betrayal would be impossible to fathom. Such a thing would rank right up there with her mother abandoning her when Natalie was six.

“I sent the best, per Phillip’s instructions.” Corbett’s clipped voice told her the subject wasn’t open for discussion. “Sean got you out, didn’t he?”

Clenching her teeth to keep from saying things she might regret later, she took a deep breath. “Is that all you wanted?”

Silence. Stalemate.

“I need your help,” Corbett finally said. “I’ve got a code for you to crack.” Since the Lazlo Group had their own team of code specialists, this request meant the situation was tense.

As if he sensed this, Sean made a restless movement, dragging his hand through his thick, dark hair.

Damn, she wanted him.

Tearing her gaze away from Sean, Natalie swallowed.

“Hello?” Corbett’s tone grew even grimmer. “Are you there?”

“Yes. Sorry.” Taking a deep breath, Natalie forced herself to loosen her death grip on the phone.

“Will you take a look at the code?”

She sighed. “I’ll try. But, I’ve got another code to figure out as well.”

“Another code?”

“Yes. My team and I were working on it when …” She choked, unable to finish the sentence. Clearing her throat, she continued. “I’m sure my father told you.”

“He did, but not that you still have any of it.”

“I do.”

“Excellent.” He sounded impressed. “I have a feeling you’ll see similarities with the one I’m sending.”

That got her attention. “Seriously? Where’d you get it and where was it going?”

“One of my operatives intercepted it from a dead man. We think the missive was headed to the Hungarian.”

What remained unspoken resonated over the line. This code might be the key to unlocking the secret of the Hungarian’s identity and location. She and her team had been so close. Too close. Instead of them bringing their enemy down, he’d attacked and eliminated them.

“How quickly can you get it to me?”

“I’m working on that as we speak. Once you have it, how quickly can you crack it?”

She eyed Sean, who’d crossed his arms and appeared to be trying to follow the one-sided conversation. “I don’t even have a computer.”

“I’ll get you a laptop.”

“Fantastic. But make it ultralight. The last thing I need to be dragging around is a seven-pound computer.”

“Of course. The Lazlo Group always uses the latest technology.” Corbett sounded distant. “I didn’t plan on sending you a dinosaur.”

“Good.” Distracted now, her fingers itched to get started. “It will be interesting to see if your code and the one I have are the same.”

“We have a short time frame.”

“You’re telling me. It’s difficult enough trying to stay alive and keep Sean from getting killed. Trying to crack a code takes intense concentration. I don’t have that luxury now.”

“Sean can help you with that. You can rely on him to get you the space and quiet you need.”

Rely on him? She almost laughed at the irony. “I’ll figure out something.”

There was a muffled sound, then her father’s voice came on the line. “Are you all right, baby girl?”

“Papa?” She rubbed her now-aching temple. “Corbett didn’t tell me you were in Paris.” Paris was the home base of the Lazlo Group.

His deep chuckle didn’t mask the concern in his voice. “I was worried.”

She had to ask, had to know the truth. “Did you know Sean wasn’t—”

“Not now.” The stern tone of her father’s voice was tempered by love. “We’ll talk about this later, once you and Sean have worked everything out.”

She bit her lip. “We won’t—”

“Natalie, you have no choice. Not now. Maybe once all this is over, but not until then.”

He was right, damn it. She sucked in her breath. “All right, I’ll do my best.”

“That’s my girl.” Her father chuckled again, making her wish she could hug him. “Now, here’s Corbett.”

“How soon can you be ready to do a pickup?”

“Of the code?”

“Of course.” Corbett didn’t even pause, and she realized he’d known immediately that she wouldn’t be able to resist such a challenge. Though he had his own code specialist, Natalie had gained a reputation as the best. For good reason. She used to brag there wasn’t a code she couldn’t crack.

Super-spy, Sean had called her. When it came to breaking tough codes, he hadn’t been too far off the mark.

“Where and how?”

“You’ll need to meet one of my agents.” Corbett named a location, an old abbey on the other side of Glasgow, maybe an hour away at the most. “Can you be there at 1600 hours?”

Auggie came back into the room, looking at Natalie for permission. She nodded and, returning her gaze to Sean, glanced at her watch. “That gives us two and a half hours. We have to rent a car and … yes. We’ll meet your man at 1600 hours.”

With that, she handed the phone back to Sean. She had nothing further to say to the man she’d once trusted. She’d decipher his code, because more than anything she wanted the Hungarian taken down. After that, they were through. As through as she was with her once-dead husband.

Understanding without her telling him anything, Auggie moved closer and squeezed her shoulder with his big hand. Grateful, she reached up and covered his hand with hers. Over the past year, they’d become good friends. Auggie, like Dr. Pachla, had hinted he was willing to become more, though she’d been careful not to encourage any closer relationship.

Sean had been the love of her life. Her marriage to him had ruined her for any other man.

As she closed his cell phone, Sean met her gaze, his own sable eyes clear. Though she knew he’d heard her tell Corbett about the stolen CD, he didn’t mention it. “We’ll need a car.”

Auggie removed his hand from Natalie’s shoulder. “There’s a car-rental agency a few miles from here. I can drive you,” Auggie offered.

“Excellent.” Sean nodded. “I have a new identity.” He gave Natalie another long look. “Corbett created it for me after I ‘died.’”

She kept her face expressionless. “What name?”

“Roark McKee.”

Another pang stabbed her heart. Roark had been the name they’d planned to call their son, whenever she conceived.

“Can you drive?” Natalie regarded his walking cast with skepticism.

“It’s my other foot, luv.” The familiar endearment seemed to slip casually from his lips. She stiffened, unwilling to comment, to let him know how much he had hurt her.

“Fine. You rent the car. No one is looking for you.”

When they reached the car-rental agency, Natalie waited in the car with Auggie while Sean went in.

“Take it easy, lass.” Auggie spoke in a soft voice, his burr becoming more pronounced. “You still love him, don’t you?”

Miserable, Natalie stared at the spot where Sean had disappeared inside the doors. “I don’t know how I feel anymore. Aug, I should just hate him for what he put me through.”

“But you can’t?”

Her halfhearted shrug was the best she could do. Her throat was too clogged with emotion to allow her to speak.

“You’re a damn fine operative, Natalie Major. You’ve moved on with your life. Don’t let this get you down.”

“You talk as if his returning from the dead is a small thing.”

“I’d say that depends on your perspective.”

She crossed her arms. “There’s no excuse for what he did.”

Auggie shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. You won’t know for sure until you talk to him and find out why.”

“I’d rather forget him.” Even as she said the words, she knew she was lying. Already, even when separated from Sean by a matter of minutes, she craved him.

A horn honked. “There he is.” Auggie pointed. “He’s gotten a nice Mini, now hasn’t he?”

Though she’d seen the tiny cars out and about, Natalie had never wanted to ride in one. They were too small, for one thing, and Natalie was a tall woman. She couldn’t imagine her six-foot-three inch husband crammed into one.

This would make the term close quarters no exaggeration.

Both Auggie and she exited his car at the same time, walking over to the Mini. Auggie circled the blue vehicle, a gleam of admiration in his eyes.

Sean rolled down the driver’s-side window. “Best I could do,” he said, before she could even comment. “We didn’t have reservations and they’re a bit low on cars.”

Auggie chuckled as he walked up beside her. “One thing about it, no one will suspect you’re a spy in this tin can.”

Natalie glared at him.

“You’d better get in,” Sean said, not smiling. “Before someone recognizes you.”

He was right, damn it. She gave Auggie a quick hug, then yanked open the passenger door and wedged herself into the seat.

“See, it’s not so bad.” Reassuring? Sean? She wondered what else had changed about him in the two years he’d been dead.

He handed her a well-creased map, then started to pull away from the curb. “I’ve marked the location of the abbey where we’re to meet Corbett’s man.”

Not sure how she felt about his automatic assumption that he would be leader, she opened her mouth to dispute him.

The back window shattered.

“What the—?”

“Get down,” Sean yanked the wheel to the right, heading into a narrow alley between buildings. “Someone’s shooting at us.”

She was already down, head on her knees, or as best as she could in the tiny car. “They must have identified me.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

He took another sharp turn and they shot out into the street. Horns blared and a lorry narrowly missed smashing into their side.

“We’re going to have to ditch this car.”

“Not now. We’ve got to meet our contact in—” she glanced at her watch “—forty-five minutes.”

“I don’t care. If they keep shooting, we’ll have no choice.”

“Yes, we will.” Natalie sat up straight, smoothing down her hair. “You’re not in charge here, you know.”

The narrow-eyed look he shot her would have lit a cigarette. “Don’t start this. Not now.”

After a moment of surprise, Natalie threw back her head and laughed. “We already sound like an old married couple, bickering.”

“We are an old married couple.” His expression softened. “Last month was our sixth anniversary.”

“Would have been,” she corrected, her chest aching. “If you hadn’t died.”

The tightening of his jaw was his only response.

As they entered downtown Glasgow, traffic increased.

They were sitting ducks at a complete stop, especially if a shooter had a high-powered rifle.

But no gunshots shattered any windows, and they reached the other side of town without incident.

“Too weird,” Natalie said.

“I agree. There’s no reason why they’d simply give up. Unless …”

“They knew where we’re going.”

“Impossible.”

Natalie shook her head. “Is it? You and I both know better.”

“So we’ll be extra careful.” The tight set of his mouth told her he wasn’t happy with the situation. “Get in, meet Corbett’s man, grab the code, and get out.”

When they arrived at the abbey, the parking lot was curiously devoid of the normal crowd of tourists’ vehicles. Only one other car had been parked in one of the marked spaces.

“They’re closed on Thursday,” Sean told her. He chose a spot on the other side of the lot, as far from the lone car as he could get.

Natalie understood his reasoning. One never knew where a car bomb might be planted.

Silent, they got out of the car.

The weather had changed and a light mist still fell, shrouding the air in a blanket of damp. The slate-colored sky exactly matched the weathered stone of the ancient building. As abbeys went, this particular one wasn’t much to look at. Part of the exterior had crumbled, and it was more of a ruin now than an actual building.

But the sense of age …

Natalie wasn’t a mystical-minded person, not in the slightest. But the energy of this place, the eerie invocation of timeless power, made her hesitate. She felt as though she were actually intruding, as though her very practical feet should not tread on this hallowed ground.

If Sean sensed the same, he gave no sign.

Keeping close to the crumbling wall, they moved toward the old cemetery on the hill. They were to meet their contact near an ancient crypt hidden behind several immense oaks.

A tingle on her left hand had her glancing down. The wedding ring Sean had given her—the woven band of silver she’d never taken off or switched to her right hand as widows were supposed to do—had grown hot. The ring was old; it had once belonged to Sean’s grandmother. Sean had always called the Celtic design “fairy metal.” He’d teased Natalie, telling her his grandmother claimed to have found the ring in an enchanted circle, left for her by her fey lover.

The way it responded to this place, Natalie could actually believe the story.

“You never took it off.” Sean’s quiet voice, raspy with pain, broke into her musings.

“No.” For a sharp instant, she was glad the sight of her wedding ring had hurt him. He had no idea how much she’d suffered, believing him dead. Or how much she continued to suffer, now that she knew the truth.

But then, he apparently had never realized how much she’d loved him.

He’d stopped moving forward. Though he still hugged the wall, he watched her, waiting for her to tell him more.

Instead of answering, she brushed past him, taking the lead.

The open space between the end of the building and the beginning of the cemetery would be where they were most exposed. Crouching low, Natalie ran. After a muffled curse, Sean followed, awkward in his heavy cast.

Several large trees by the wrought-iron gate provided a shelter of sorts. Natalie slipped behind one and Sean took another. Though there was no breeze, the gate was open, as if their contact had left it so when he’d passed there before them.

“Ready?” Low-voiced, Sean stood poised to move.

With a jerky nod, Natalie answered. She’d let him take the lead again—for now. At least this way she could cover his back if need be.

The old stone crypt was in the farthest corner of the ancient graveyard. They kept as close as they could to the larger monuments and statues, using them as granite shields.

When they were halfway across the cemetery, the crypt exploded.