UNDER ATTACK

When her life is on the line, Ashley Colson is rescued by the last person she ever expected to see again. Military officer Ethan Kincaid might have disappointed her once in the past, but now he’s the only person who can keep her safe. They’re under the gun to decode top secret files that can save the life of a friend who is in enemy hands. But the killers will pull out all the stops to get their hands on the files…and Ashley. With time running out, can they put aside their past and find the answers that could give them a future?

Before Ashley could even gasp, the newcomer shoved her through the back door of the truck onto the floor and dived in behind her.

“Stay down!” His shout was nearly drowned out by the thwack of bullets hitting metal as the vehicle squealed tires and roared forward.

Ashley’s entire body screamed from the tension and rough treatment. Glass shattered, and small pieces showered her. Fighting the weight that held her to the wide floor mats of the truck, she found her voice and screamed.

“Make her stop. I can’t think,” the driver called.

“Drive. And have a little sympathy.” The new threat hefted himself to the backseat slowly. “I think you got us out of there. Nice driving.” Hands, gentler this time, lifted Ashley from the floor. “You’re safe…for now. But don’t get up off of the floor.”

Rolling to her side, Ashley prepared to scream again, but a hand lay gently across her mouth. “You’re okay. Look at me.” The voice was low and…familiar?

JODIE BAILEY has been weaving stories since she learned how to hold a pencil. It was only recently she learned that everyone doesn’t make up whole other lives for fun in their spare time. She is an army wife, a mom and a teacher who believes chocolate and a trip to the Outer Banks will cure all ills. In her spare time, she reads cookbooks, rides motorcycles and searches for the perfect cup of coffee. Jodie lives in North Carolina with her husband and her daughter.

Smokescreen

Jodie Bailey

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?

—Psalms 27:1

To my daddy, who walked with me through

the darkest time in my life and never let me fall.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

EPILOGUE

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

ONE

“Drive faster.” Captain Ethan Kincaid slammed his palm on the dash of the crew-cab truck his partner piloted. At the rate they were going it would take two days to get to the Syracuse terminal. A glance at the clock said they had less than two minutes.

Craig Mitchum cast him a hard look, though his blue eyes flashed with amusement slightly out of place considering the situation. “Can’t do it, bro. I scream up to an airport running a hundred and twenty, and security’s going to be all over us. You want to get tied up in some back office answering questions?”

Ethan huffed but didn’t relax in the seat. Every second counted. That call from Sean had rattled him clear to his core. “Someone hacked my email. They know everything. Get Ashley off that plane before they find her.”

Ashley Colson was in danger she couldn’t imagine and would never see coming. Even more so than on the day she’d nearly died in his arms. Ethan swallowed hard against the rising tide of nausea the image of her broken and bloody body brought forth. That would not happen again. Even if he needed to die to stop it.

Ethan had warned Sean involving her was a bad idea. He should have pulled the plug on the whole thing from the start, but he’d been willing to take any risk to catch the guys who’d killed his first partner. And now Ashley might pay a steep price for it.

Please, God. Get us there before it’s too late.

“I’ll swing by the drop-off and let you out so you can sweep the concourse. I’ll head for the parking deck.” Mitchum tapped the photo of Ashley that was jammed into the instrument panel. “This late at night, there shouldn’t be a lot of people milling around. We’ll find her.”

Ethan grunted, convinced he could run up the long drive faster than Mitchum was navigating. In the dark of a cool spring night, the lights of the Syracuse airport bounced off the clouds, the glow painting the surrounding area in an eerie overwash. It chilled Ethan to the core, too much like the opening shot of a horror movie where the hero’s worst nightmares came true.

“Kincaid. You’re a ball of nerves, worse than a private in his first firefight. You’re too experienced to act like this. Do you need to...?” Mitchum exhaled loudly and eased up on the gas as they approached the low, glass-enclosed pedestrian bridges between the parking lot and the terminal.

“Do I need to what?” Ethan whipped his head toward his new partner. Assigned to work with him just under a year ago, the younger man often spoke his mind without a lot of thought to the consequences of his words. It was something Ethan admired, that ability to call it as he saw it, but Ethan was not about to let the man question his ability to do the job. Not on this case.

Mitchum cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably, readjusting his grip on the steering wheel. “Recuse yourself.” The words hung on the air, too cold for the heat leaking from the vents to thaw.

Not on his life. There was no one else Ethan trusted to walk with Sean through this mission and no one else he trusted to protect Ashley.

Not that he was known for doing a stellar job. It was his fault a domestic-violence call when they were stationed as military police together had gone south and left her fighting for her life.

He shoved the memory to the side and glanced at the clock on the dash as Mitchum slowed the truck in the drop-off lane. Ashley’s flight had touched down nearly ten minutes earlier. Their window slipped lower.

Sean’s intel said the mission had been compromised. Their enemies had found Ashley and would be waiting. For all Ethan knew, she was already dead in some out-of-the-way corner of the airport. The thought nearly crushed his lungs. Please, God. Don’t let me be too late. Again.

* * *

Ashley Colson’s smartphone chimed as she fired it up and hitched her carry-on higher onto her shoulder. In all of her thirty years she’d never been so happy to exit an aircraft. When her feet hit the carpet of the terminal, she relaxed muscles that had been tense since the plane left Chicago. Between the couple arguing in front of her the entire flight and the turbulence battering the passengers from takeoff to touchdown, she felt as though all of the oxygen had been sucked out of that jet.

She entered the exit portal at the end of the concourse, waited for the second door to open and stepped into the main terminal. Now she was free, and she couldn’t get home fast enough.

The cell phone vibrated repeatedly in her hand, so she stepped out of the trickle of traffic. No way had she missed so many calls in a couple of hours. As word of her knack for sniffing out vulnerabilities in computer networks spread, Colson Solutions grew busier, but demand hadn’t been that high.

Hopefully, it wasn’t her biggest client. Sam Mina had called her in Chicago and asked her to come to Albany to integrate new machines into their existing network. She’d put him off until Monday. Hopefully he hadn’t violated their contract and hired someone else. Losing Mina would be a blow her company might not recover from.

Seven texts and four voice mails. Skipping the texts, Ashley pressed the unfamiliar number in her voice-mail queue.

“Ash, it’s me.” Sean’s voice was low and hurried, setting her apprehension level even higher than the couple arguing on the plane. Something was wrong. “Call this number. Now.” There was a hiss and a click as the call dropped. Three more similar messages amped the adrenaline in her system. Then, “I need you to go to my post-office box. Get the package from my mailbox. Work our program. And watch your back. I’m sorry, Ash. I’ll explain as soon as—” A muffled shout. “I’ve sent—” The call cut out.

Nausea hit her hard, almost doubling her over. Sean. Her ex-fiancé and lifelong best friend.

Something was very wrong. In all of his deployments, he’d said there was no need for a cell phone in a war zone. One of his greatest fears was that something would happen to him, leaving his contact information vulnerable for anyone to see.

Knees weakening, she punched the screen to see her texts. Seven from Sean, all telling her to call until the last one. I’m sorry.

What had he done?

A force from behind propelled her forward, sent her phone flying and caused her bag to slide to her elbow with a jolt. She nearly pitched onto her face but strong hands wrapped around her upper arms. “Are you all right, miss?”

Watch your back. Sean’s warning rained in her head as she spun and came face-to-face with a tall, dark man in a sleek, gray business suit.

Concern wrinkled the corners of his dark eyes. “You seem ill. Are you okay, Ms. Colson?”

How did he know her name? Ashley scanned his face, muscles tightening in her neck as she found nothing familiar. Her past bred caution and this guy unfurled every red flag possible. Her mouth opened then closed tight, refusing to ask the question.

A cold smile crinkled the edges of his lips. “Ah, see? I am more than just a helpful fellow in an airport.” He leaned closer, voice lowering. “And here is something else I know about you. Your worst nightmare is any gun, but particularly one aimed in your direction.” Slipping his fingers to her wrist, he pulled her hand to his rib cage, letting her fingers brush holstered cold steel, his eyes glittering above that frozen smile.

The weapon burned her fingertips, shooting fire into her soul. She wanted to scream, to run, to do anything, but her muscles froze, the memory from years ago and a deafening roar drowning out the rest of the world.

The man smiled wider, taking dark pleasure in her panic. “Your fear is my best friend.” Slipping her bag from her elbow, he shrugged it onto his shoulder and wrapped an arm tightly around her waist, pressing the gun to her side, the metal digging into her rib cage. The way he held his free hand, on the strap of her bag, he could reach the trigger with very little motion. “Now, we will walk out of here together, quietly.”

Some accent tinged the edges of the polished words, but Ashley couldn’t quite place it through the roar in her ears.

“And when we get where we are going, you will tell me all about your friend Sean Turner and his mission overseas. If you feel you do not need to talk, well...” He chuckled. “That is when the fun will begin.”

A sob glued itself to the scream stuck in her throat. She was in trouble. Sean was in trouble. And this man had everything to do with it.

Ashley’s feet dragged as the man urged her forward. The world was under water, images hazy around the edges, sounds muffled as her pulse rang in her ears. How could no one see what was happening? The late-traveling crowd trickled thin, security guards easing their scrutiny as more planes arrived than departed. No one even glanced their way.

Fear, a familiar nemesis, imprisoned her in an unbreakable paralysis. She was going to be kidnapped in plain sight. Tortured if this man got her out of sight.

There was nothing she could do, not with the weight of a gun pressing tight against her side. The man didn’t even have to lay a finger on it as long as she knew it was there. A whimper broke through the solid wall in her throat.

“I can put a bullet in you right on top of that scar that is already there and be out of here before your body reaches the ground. It might be I have to go to my hotel and wash the blood out of my suit. It would not be the first time.” He pulled her closer. “I would not get my pay, but I would make it out of here a free man, which is the most important thing.”

“Who are you?” Ashley hated how thin her voice sounded, how she wanted to scream, but, always, that cold lump dug into her side. He could pull the trigger faster than she could ever hope to run.

“Does it matter?”

The exit doors loomed in front of her and, on the other side of the main drive, the parking garage. Despair ate at her. This was her one last chance to scream.

As she pulled in a deep breath, the man stiffened, muscles coiled. “I will kill you and anyone who tries to help you.”

Ashley deflated as they stepped through the exterior doors and the cool humidity of a New York spring night enveloped them, the soft air mocking her plight. She couldn’t win at the moment, but she would not give up. In the parking deck, she could hide behind a car, buy a few seconds and flag down a passing driver...though it was almost certain this man would kill anyone who stopped.

As they stepped into the dim light of the quiet parking deck, a red pickup screeched to a halt at the sidewalk in front of them and a man jumped out, blocking their path. “Thanks for dropping me off,” he called to someone inside. “Let me get my stuff out of the back and I’ll catch you on the return trip.”

Her captor huffed and shifted his step to ease her toward the bed of the pickup, the shorter way around.

But as they stepped sideways, the man spun and threw a sudden punch, knocking her abductor’s grip from her. Before Ashley could even gasp, the newcomer had shoved her through the open back door of the truck and onto the floor then dived in behind her. “Stay down!” His shout was nearly drowned out by the thwack of bullets hitting metal as the vehicle squealed tires and roared forward.

Ashley’s entire body screamed from the tension and rough treatment. Glass shattered and small pieces showered them. Fighting the weight that pinned her to the wide floorboard, she found her voice and screamed.

“Make her stop. I can’t think,” the driver called.

“Drive. And have a little sympathy.” The new threat slowly hefted himself off of her and onto the seat. “I think you got us out of there. Nice driving.” He looked at Ashley. “You’re safe...for now. But don’t get off the floor.”

Rolling to her side, Ashley prepared to scream again, but a hand lay gently across her mouth. “You’re okay. Look at me.” The voice was low and...familiar?

A whole new kind of adrenaline rocketed through her as her green eyes met brown ones she’d never forgotten. She sucked in a gasp, choking on the leftover scream in her throat, and buried her face in her hands, certain now this was all a bad dream. Ethan?

Sean’s last words swirled. “I’ve sent—”

Ethan Kincaid. Sean had sent Ethan Kincaid. The man who, five years ago, had nearly cost her her life.

* * *

Fear, resentment, confusion... Ashley’s expression shifted so quickly Ethan could hardly track it all. When she hid her face, it was all he could do not to pull her close and tell her he’d protect her.

Not that she’d believe him, and he didn’t have time to convince her now.

Peeking over the backseat of the truck, he scanned the road behind them. “We’re not being followed. Yet. But with shots fired at an airport, it won’t be long.”

“And with our rear end shot up, we’re a little obvious. Smart guy to use a silencer, but I doubt this whole little adventure went unnoticed.”

Ethan noted Mitchum’s jaw was set so tight it had to hurt. He looked grim, angry. Likely because it was his truck sporting a new series of ventilation holes.

Ethan caught his eye in the rearview mirror. “Told you to let me drive.”

“Shut up, Kincaid. Where do we go from here?”

Ethan watched Ashley, mind racing for a plan. She still hadn’t moved, the only indication she was alive being the rapid rise and fall of her shoulders as she came dangerously close to hyperventilating. His practiced eyes scanned for wounds but didn’t see anything to concern him. Not like the last time.

He laid a hand on her shoulder, fingers brushing the soft blond hair that slipped forward with every breath she took. There was no way five years had passed since he’d last seen her. She hadn’t changed a bit. She was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. Over time he’d managed to convince himself he’d done the right thing by leaving her to Sean, but now, in her presence, his decision reeked of stupidity and selfishness.

She worked her jaw from side to side then looked up, meeting his eyes with those improbable green ones. Even strangers had stopped her to comment. She swallowed hard. “What is going on here?” The words barely made it out through her tight jaw.

“Are you okay?”

Her nostrils flared, but she only nodded.

There was no telling what she really wanted to say to him. Right now, they were probably all blessed by her speechlessness.

Ethan tore his gaze from hers and pulled his hand to his side, the warmth of her lingering on his palm. He never should have touched her. She was Sean’s. Always would be. Their engagement might have been short-lived, but whenever Sean talked about her, the strength of his feelings bled into the words.

“Kincaid? Direction here?” Mitchum needed an answer.

There was work to do and God bless his partner for pulling him back to it. Ashley might be...well, Ashley, but she was also an assignment, and she should be treated as such. Shoving the past into a box and mentally securing the lock, he leaned forward. “Call local law enforcement and tell them to step back, but don’t give them a clue why. Take me to my truck, then ditch yours and get another vehicle, one our kidnapper won’t recognize.”

Mitchum’s eyes met his in the mirror. “You think it’s wise to split up?”

“I think getting Ashley to safety is priority number one. Getting the evidence is number two.”

“Let me handle picking up the—”

“No. We get her safe. We link up. We move forward.” One thing at a time. As long as they were in this vehicle, it wouldn’t be long before the network after Ashley found them again or local law enforcement tied them up in more red tape than they had time for. While separating from his partner was normally foolhardy, there wasn’t time for them to do everything and get Ashley to the safe house fast enough.

Mitchum exhaled so hard the picture of Ashley on the dash fluttered. His eye twitched. “I don’t think—”

“I’m ordering you.”

Ethan’s voice was so firm, Ashley flinched.

She cleared her throat. “Start explaining. Now.” She moved to ease up to the seat, but a sharp shake of Ethan’s head sank her to the floor again. “Is Sean okay?”

There it was. The question he’d been dreading. The question with no good answer.

“We don’t know.” Mitchum’s voice cut in from the front.

Ethan wanted to punch his partner’s seat. The last thing Ashley needed right now was more uncertainty and fear. When they’d linked up for this mission, Sean had updated Ethan on Ashley’s recovery, so he already knew her fear was a ticking time bomb. The post-traumatic stress following her shooting had derailed her military career and shattered her future.

Ashley’s eyes slipped closed as she momentarily withdrew, sitting back against the door. Rather than fall apart the way Ethan had feared, Ashley’s posture stiffened, almost stone-like in its lack of emotion. “Why did he send you, of all people?”

More than the words, the tone tore at him with serrated edges. It was a moment before he could answer. He shot Mitchum a warning glance in the rearview, then looked at her. He’d expected a panic attack, a loss of control, but she’d become a statue, an impassive observer.

The question was tougher to answer than she realized. Ethan’s plan included a lot of things from shoot-outs to fistfights, but how to explain his sudden reappearance wasn’t one he’d dwelled on.

“Sean’s in trouble.” Resignation gave Ashley’s words a dull edge.

Ethan’s hand twitched, the drive to comfort her overwhelming. Ashley and Sean had grown up together, even joined the army together after their parents were killed in a car accident on frozen New York roads. While Sean went infantry, Ashley joined the military police—where Ethan had fallen for her the very first time he’d seen her.

From the moment the army stationed the three of them together at Fort Carson, Colorado, they were a team, inseparable even after Ethan and Ashley moved on to Fort Drum in her home state. The hard truth was, though Ethan had fallen hard, Sean had always been the one Ashley gravitated to, the one closest to her heart.

Now her heart was in danger.

“Why would you say that?” Ethan asked, trying to gauge exactly what she knew, to stall as he worked out a plan to proceed.

Ashley didn’t answer. Instead, she dug her fingers into the back of her neck, elbows locking as she pulled tight.

Ethan recognized the move. He’d seen it in the past. She was fighting a swell of panic that threatened to drown her. More than anything, he wanted to reach down and touch her, but he’d given up any right five years ago.

He turned his focus to the road behind them, wind from the broken window fluttering against his face, to let her fight her battle in peace.

It took a minute before she spoke. “He left me several messages. The last one...” The words strangled out. She pulled in a deep breath and held it before continuing. “The man at the airport let me know this was all about Sean. Now you and your buddy kidnap me and—”

“We did not kidnap you.” Mitchum’s voice was laced with insult.

“Really?” Ashley addressed the question to Ethan. “Then take me to my car and let me go home.”

“Can’t.” In fact, it would be the worst thing they could do, driving a bullet-riddled vehicle straight onto airport property. Their whole operation would be upended faster than any of them could even state their names. The answers were so close, Ethan could see them on the horizon, and there was no way he was going to risk a run-in with local law enforcement that could jeopardize everything.

The panic must have passed, because Ashley dropped her hands and shifted her posture. “Then you’re taking me against my will. Tell me this... It’s been five years since I last saw you, since I last heard even one word from you. What makes you think I want anything to do with you? What makes you worthy of my trust?”

Mitchum snickered as he pulled into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, easing into the space next to Ethan’s black, four-wheel-drive pickup.

Ethan winced. He’d deserved the question. It forced him to pull out the one fact he knew would make her believe he could be trusted, even though it was the last thing he wanted to talk about. “Yes, Sean sent me. He also told me if it ever came to this I should tell you something no one but the two of you would know, something he promised you he’d never tell me.”

“Go on.”

Ethan really didn’t want to, but he had bigger fish frying than any past issues with her. “Mitchum, check your truck and pull security.”

“We’re wide open here. You sure you want to risk sitting still long enough for—”

“Just do it. Two minutes.”

Mitchum’s displeasure escaped in shades of blue as he climbed out and slammed the truck door so hard the entire vehicle rocked.

Ethan fired a silent reprimand through the window before he turned his attention to Ashley. Better to say it and get it over with than to drag it out. “Sean was about to deploy for the first time. He came to Fort Drum to see us and took you to that little steak house near post for dinner.”

“Stop.”

“He asked you to marry him. You said no. You got up and left him on one knee while the entire restaurant watched.”

There it was. The guilt grew stronger every time he felt just a little bit relieved she’d turned Sean down the first time.

“You didn’t tell him yes until later.”

“I said stop.” Ashley pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, burying her face. “He was never supposed to tell anybody. It was...”

When she didn’t finish, Ethan finished it for her. “Humiliating for both of you. I know.” As hard as any of the rest of it had been, now came the hardest part, the part she’d likely hate both him and Sean for until the day she died. “He knew telling me would prove he trusted me, and you should, too. You have to. That man didn’t just want to take you.” She had to understand the seriousness of her situation. “He’s part of a group that wants to use you as a pawn against Sean, to see if they can get him to talk and compromise an entire military operation.”

Ashley shook her head from side to side. “No.”

“Sean sent me because he knew you were in danger and I was the only one who could get to you in time.” He fought to keep his face impassive, to not let her see he was telling her half of the story. “He’s gotten into some hot water over in Afghanistan, and the bad guys are looking for any way to get to him. Including you. He doesn’t have any family, and you’re the closest thing he’s got. It didn’t take them long to track you down.” Not to mention, Sean and Ethan had inadvertently pointed them right to her. It was a bad idea from the start. Right now, he just needed her to trust him enough to get them both to safety. And if he told her everything up front, there was no telling what Ashley would do. She for sure wouldn’t trust him to get her out of this situation, and she’d probably never turn over the evidence she didn’t even know she held.

TWO

Bullets had been fired. At her.

The seat belt clicked as Ashley shoved it into place, but the sound was a thousand miles away. She hated this sensation, the feeling she was two paces behind, both participating in and watching a movie she couldn’t quite follow. It was the feeling that usually preceded a loss of control nothing could stop.

A few feet from his truck, Ethan and his partner were engaged in a heated, hand-waving discussion. Ethan seemed to be gaining the upper hand, his stance suggesting authority. It was a posture she’d seen more than once, his shoulders back, broad under the black fleece he wore, blue-jeaned legs just far enough apart to keep him from wavering. He’d filled out, grown not broader but definitely more solid, the line of his jaw sharper, more determined. He’d been dangerous enough before, but with this new maturity, he could devastate her if she let him.

With a final string of words Ashley was grateful she couldn’t hear, Mitchum stalked into the darkness, leaving Ethan by himself.

Ethan climbed into his truck and turned the key.

Ashley shouldn’t have agreed to go with him, should have insisted he take her to her car and give her her life back, but the implications of what had happened pressed in. The man at the airport had not only wanted her, he’d wanted to use her to hurt Sean. Ashley was a pawn to him, easily manipulated and eradicated if it furthered his agenda. She tugged her lips between her teeth, then thought better of it when pain pulsed through her skin.

She refused to wince. Somehow being insecure in the face of Ethan’s confidence seemed like the worst possible thing. And blowing up in a full panic attack in front of him? Not an option. Years ago he’d left her because she was weak.

She dug her nails into her thigh and tried to hang on, to keep her body and her mind from bolting out of control. It wasn’t easy with her pulse stuttering and a thin sheen of cold sweat coating her skin.

Even with Ethan’s knowledge of Sean’s first proposal, Ashley didn’t know what to think. She had no idea what Sean was involved in or what Ethan’s plans for her were.

Until Ethan proved his intentions, she wasn’t about to go along without more than a story that needed to stay in the past. “You’re speculating a lot. Maybe the man was trying to help me.” Not likely, since he’d made his threats quite clear, but if that was the case, there was no reason to panic. Maybe—please, Lord—this was all some giant mistake.

Ethan’s face hardened like cut stone, dark eyes steely under blond hair just long enough to have a wave in it. He checked for traffic and accelerated onto the highway. “Stop it. This is not a game.” The leather seat protested as Ethan pushed against it. “You and I both know what he wanted. He threatened you. He was no Good Samaritan.” The look he fired at her was one usually reserved for suspects under arrest. “Fine. Here it is. All of my cards, on the table, so you’ll know this is bigger than all of us.”

In that moment Ashley knew. She knew what she’d always suspected, knew there was more to his disappearance than her inability to cope with life. Her fingers balled. “You went into Intelligence.”

A frown creased Ethan’s cheek and he turned his attention to the road, almost as though it was too painful to look her in the eye. “I did. For a while.”

Yeah, he ought to be afraid to look at her. After serving as an MP, Ashley’s goals had curved toward Intelligence, gathering information on their enemies using her beloved computers. Ethan had been right there beside her, driving toward the same dream.

And Ethan had been there the day the dream blew away on the wind.

“That’s why you took off when I was recovering. When I got in, you were wait-listed.” The realization pounded tension across her forehead. “When I got shot, you took my spot.”

“They offered me the schooling and I took it before I fully realized what was going on. If I hadn’t gone in your place, someone else would have.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “Sean filled me in on how you’d been doing. You got out of the army to help companies shore up their network security and infrastructures, using your contacts to hook people up with what they need to function in the twenty-first century.” His smile lost its sadness and grew smug. “Am I right?”

So he thought he knew so much. Oh, how she wanted to wipe the grin off his face. “You’re right, but how is this laying out all of your cards? Sounds more like you’re telling me what I already know. All you’re doing right now is proving you’re a stalker.”

The smile vanished. “Sean is working with me.”

Ashley fought to keep her face impassive, even as her eye twitched. She watched city fade into the darkness of the country through his side window. “Sean’s not with Intelligence.”

“No, but he’s involved in an ongoing operation.” Sinking against the seat, Ethan settled in as though he had a long story to tell. “And, even though you don’t know it, so are you.”

That wasn’t true. Of all people, Sean knew better. And Ethan should, too. “What do you want?” The words rode the edge of a blade, sharp and cold.

“Trust me.”

The simple request tugged at her the way Ethan alone could. But...no. He wanted her trust? After taking on the position she’d earned? After simply vanishing on the very day she’d decided to tell him she needed him in her life? She’d hurt Sean and embarrassed them both because she hadn’t been able to shake her feelings for Ethan, feelings he hadn’t returned.

She’d waited for him for hours, alone in her hospital room, and he’d never shown. Not that night or the next... Not ever again until today. He’d simply disappeared without even a phone call, making no further contact even when a complication from the gunshot had nearly taken her life.

Never. She’d never give him the chance to hurt her again.

Ashley held up one finger, then pinched her cheek between the thumb and index finger of her free hand, eyes welling with unshed tears. She searched Ethan’s profile a long time. The headlights of a passing car illuminated the hard set of his jaw. Hold it together, girl. Ethan might have almost gotten her killed and taken off on her when she’d needed him, but he’d never, ever lied. “Okay. I believe you, but you tell me what you know before I tell you anything. Those cards? Still not on the table.”

“Smart girl. Even if you’re using those smarts against me.”

No way was she going to glow at his praise. No. Way. He didn’t deserve it.

Ethan didn’t wait for her to respond. “Seven months ago, Sean deployed to Afghanistan. Likely it was sooner than anyone expected.”

“He’s been gone so much the past few years, I was pretty shocked the army would send him again when he’d been home less than a year.”

“He asked.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened, closed, opened again before she could find her voice. “Why?”

“On his last deployment, Sean got wind of some issues with the Field Ordering Officer, the guy in charge of the money going to contractors to build Forward Operating Bases and the like. He did a little digging and found discrepancies in the paperwork from some of the contractors. A group of locals and two companies in particular. Some of the discrepancies didn’t match between live documents and backup copies. Someone had hacked in and made changes, small ones scattered over a lot of entries. It added up to huge amounts of cash, virtually untraceable. He contacted me because he was unsure if his chain of command was involved.”

Ethan watched her closely from the corner of his eye, gauging what she knew.

Well, he could gauge all he wanted. All of this was news to her. Deeply troubling news in light of Sean’s mysterious messages. “Prove to me you’re helping him and not digging for information, thinking he’s involved with the bad guys.” Ashley knew how investigations worked, and she wouldn’t tip her hand until she was certain Sean wasn’t in danger.

“Nobody’s saying Sean’s in with the bad guys, but you know for us to be good at our jobs we have to keep every possibility in mind.”

“There’s no way.” She shifted slightly in the seat, streetlights playing dark and light across her hands.

“Anything is possible for anybody.” The truck engine hummed louder as Ethan changed lanes to take an exit that would lead them away from Syracuse and deeper into the North Country. Shadows in the cab grew darker as they left the city behind. “Money can turn even the strongest of minds.”

Something about the look on his face didn’t sit right with her. He couldn’t possibly think Sean could be bought. “So you’re telling me even you have a price?” She leaned closer, not quite bridging the gap between them. “How much would it take? Ten thousand? Half a million? At what point would you turn your back on the country you’ve sworn to defend? If everyone has a price, what’s yours?”

Red heat hit his skin as though she’d turned a flamethrower on him. Yeah. He ought to be ashamed of himself.

Her chuckle was low and harsh. “It’s insulting to you. And it would be just as insulting to Sean.” She tugged at the sleeve of her black jacket. “Watch how you toss your words, Kincaid. You run the risk of sounding incredibly arrogant.” In the face of her triumph, the threat of fear vanished. Control. Her very best friend. She held on to it like a life preserver.

“Tell me some small part of you doesn’t think that’s possible.” Ashley opened her mouth to speak, but Ethan carried on. “You’re the one who floated the idea when you didn’t know what I was going to say.”

“You weren’t going there?”

“I never said it wasn’t a theory, but he’s the one who brought the problem to our attention. Unless that’s a bluff to throw suspicion off of him, Sean’s innocent.” He switched gears without pausing. “My team believes what Sean uncovered is a small piece of something worse—an insurgent infiltration of our trusted contractors. That would give them access to bases, soldiers...”

Ashley was silent, watching the lines in the road, stomach churning. All of this was unthinkable but horribly plausible. “That would explain what happened to me just now. A well-connected group could have sleeper cells anywhere, and this attack wasn’t random. He specifically mentioned Sean.” She gasped. That message. Sean wouldn’t. He hadn’t.

“What?” Of course Ethan would pick up on her realization almost as fast as she had.

Ashley kept her mouth shut. If he wanted what she knew, he’d have to ask for it specifically.

Ethan checked the rearview mirror then glanced her way. “I’m guessing you figured it out. Sean sent you intel on a set of thumb drives. He asked you to pick up his mail, but there’s one package he cautioned you to leave in the box.”

Ashley nodded, muscles weakening. Ethan was telling the truth. “Sean’s stationed in Colorado, but he forwards all of his mail to a post-office box to make it easier for me to take care of his affairs. There’s one package he told me not to worry about. It was there the last time I checked the mail—a little over a week ago.” The message. The package. The program they’d developed together during her recovery. Whatever was on those thumb drives, it would require their shared work to decode it.

She needed to get to her apartment. Sean’s life was in danger and their program might be the one thing that could save him. “You have to take me home. Without the software Sean and I developed, those drives are worthless.”

“You tell me where it’s stored and Mitch will retrieve it.”

“Absolutely not.” Her trust in Ethan was thin enough, but there was no way she was going to hand the height of her life’s work over to anyone other than him. The stakes were too high. That program, when fully realized, would fund her future and Sean’s, as well.

“I’m getting you to safety. I’ve got a place where—”

Ashley’s head shook so quickly, strands of hair clung to her eyelashes. She swept them to the side and focused on the moment. If she kept moving, kept planning, she’d forget the entire situation was spiraling. “You have to take me to my apartment.”

“It’s dangerous. Sean said they hacked his computer, read his emails. They knew you were on that flight, which clearly means they’ve studied you enough to know where you live.”

“Clearly I have to go home. The program we developed... I didn’t store it on my hard drive.” The very same laptop the man at the airport had taken when he’d grabbed her bag. “It’s not stored in the cloud. Encryption software like we developed is valuable, an easy target if word gets out that it exists before we’re ready to shop it around. There are only two copies. The first one’s hidden in my apartment and the other is in a safe-deposit box, but the keys to that are at my place, too.

“Sean’s smart, and I’ll guarantee you he rewrote the encryption process on his computer overseas without creating a way to decrypt it on the same machine.” Not to mention, they needed to find the key for decrypting what he’d sent, but that was a discussion they could have after Ethan drove her to her apartment. “If somebody’s onto Sean and that package in his mailbox holds encrypted data, then you have nothing without what’s stored at my place.”

Ethan reached for his phone, stopped and banged his fist against the steering wheel. “This is where I wish I had more backup.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just me and Mitchum. I’ve got contact with my chain of command, but it’s limited to nonclassified communications and emergencies until we’re ready to move in. Believe it or not, this doesn’t qualify as an emergency, and me contacting them with where you are could land us in deeper danger.”

“Why just the two of you?” She’d assumed there was abundant help. If this was about to become a three-person team made up of Ethan, his pal Mitchum and her...

“Sean’s involved because we sent one man in already and he...was unsuccessful. Everything points to someone working on the inside. We don’t know how high this goes or who is helping who, so after what happened with our first guy overseas, my team has been whittled down to Mitchum and me with Sean assisting, keeping our information close until we can build this case.

“What we’re looking at is a well-funded group with some serious hacking ability. They’ve been able to manipulate secure computers. They’ve deleted files we were using to build evidence against them, accessed encrypted emails and planted some pretty nasty viruses on our secure servers, all while staying one step ahead of us. We’ve gone dark. Sean got involved because we knew we could trust him to be our boots on the ground as an established infantryman who already knew what was going on. He asked me if he could forward those drives to you for safekeeping if anything happened. I had reservations, but...” He flicked a glance her way and back to the road. “Neither of us ever thought something would happen to blow his cover and land you in danger on top of it.”

“What’s on those drives?”

“All of our evidence against them. They’ll want those drives to destroy them, Sean to find out what we know and what we’re planning, and you because they have no idea how deeply you’re involved.”

“So they’re after me not only to get to Sean, but because they think I have his intel.” Ashley’s fingernails dug into her palms. Danger. The last place she ever wanted to be again. That was why she loved her computers. They were safe. Nobody ever found a gun aimed at them because they built a tougher firewall. “We have to get the software.”

“You’re right. But you’re in danger as long as these guys are out there.” He eased over to the side of the road to turn around as his phone beeped. He pulled the device from his pocket, glanced at the screen, then gripped it tighter.

“What?” Ashley’s voice strained as she leaned closer, fingers trembling at the hardness in his eyes.

“It’s Sean.” His voice was matter-of-fact, but the expression on his face chilled the air in the cab. “Shortly after Sean contacted you, there was a breach on his FOB by insurgents posing as Afghan police.”

Ashley’s chest jolted with pain, the adrenaline aching in her veins. “And...?”

A muscle twitched in Ethan’s cheek. “They took Sean.”

THREE

Sean. Targeted. Taken by insurgents.

Ashley’s bravado wore thin. Winning the battle to go to her apartment had dampened the fear and given her a sense of control, but as they raced through Syracuse in the dark, the temporary sense of power didn’t last.

In just a few hours she’d gone from a network security consultant checking a friend’s mail to a hunted woman on the run with a man she’d hoped never to see again. This didn’t happen outside of Jason Bourne movies.

Ethan dropped one hand from the wheel and let it fall between them on the console. “You okay?”

“Why do you ask?”

“That was one mighty big sigh you just let out over there.” He sniffed. “Listen. It’s bound to not be easy right now, but we’ll figure out who’s behind all of this and find Sean. We have the benefit of knowing this wasn’t random. We have leads. It might take some time, but we’ll get it done.”

Something about the renewed confidence in his voice soothed Ashley. It washed over her in the soft darkness and made her believe he was right—it would all be okay. Eventually. She settled into the corner against the door, pulling the seat belt tighter in case anyone found them on the street and tried to take them out.

But nothing could keep the silence from pressing in. She wished there was something to talk about, but shock and weariness kept her mind focused on the monsters that could be lurking outside her home. Even that was better than letting her mind wonder if Sean was alive.

Her home. Her safe place. It would probably never be that again. Especially considering... “Have you been to my apartment before? Pulling surveillance on me?”

Ethan didn’t answer, but the fact he hadn’t asked for directions to her place spoke louder than words. The lights of his truck played across the front parking lot and he turned them off before they got to the side street of the building where her apartment was housed. He pulled into a space around a curve several buildings away from hers and cut the engine. “If you tell me where it is, I can go get it.”

And leave her here alone, a sitting duck for anyone who happened to spot her? No, thank you. Her best option was to go with him and face whatever giants might be lurking in her living room. “It’s too hard to explain, and you’ll need a screwdriver.”

His eyebrow arched, the shadow of the streetlights making him look like a supervillain in an old cartoon. All he needed was a mustache to twirl. It would have made her laugh under different circumstances.

Ashley reached for the door handle but a short grunt stopped her. Ethan flipped a switch by the steering wheel and popped his door open cautiously. When the interior lights stayed dark, he tipped her a nod and met her at the front of the truck, hand at his hip under his jacket.

Ashley’s eyes drifted closed as she wavered on her feet. She hadn’t considered he’d be armed. His reflexive movement as they faced danger spoke more than words. Even though they’d escaped the airport, she was still in a situation requiring weapons. She’d grown up around guns, been trained to use them, and still the irrational, stupid fear won every time. The memory of pain and stolen dreams overwhelmed her common sense.

Pulling in a deep breath, she released it slowly. Be strong. Focus on where you are right now. Ethan could never know how much the past still haunted her nightmares.

As much as she feared the gun at Ethan’s side, she edged closer. Right now, he was the one safe thing in her life. Ironic, considering his propensity for leaving when it suited him. Considering how her heart started to beat double-time when she’d realized he was her rescuer, it was best if she remembered that. Focus on the soft feel of the air... On the smell of smoke from someone’s fireplace... Anything other than guns and Ethan.

They slipped across the parking lot to the back, where a few feet of small yard stood between them and the protective wall that buffered the sounds from the road behind the building.

Ashley followed Ethan into the breezeway and up to the exterior stairs to the second level, stopping short when he did. The door to her apartment stood open slightly, the wood around the lock splintered. The intruders hadn’t even tried to hide their entrance. Far from fear, hot fury surged. It took a lot of chutzpah to bust into someone’s home without even caring if the whole apartment complex knew about it.

Motioning for her to follow, Ethan held a finger to his lips then slipped up the short breezeway to the stairs leading to the third floor. He ushered her underneath the open cement-and-metal structure. “Wait here.”

Ashley wanted to protest, but she knew better. Arguing would waste valuable time and he’d never let her go anyway. She stood tense against the wall, trying to make herself small.

No movement came from her apartment. The light wind that always seemed to blow through this part of the state whispered against her ears, blurring the finer sounds.

It felt like hours before Ethan appeared in the doorway, the dim lights of the breezeway playing strange shadows across his face. His eyes stood out, glittering with an emotion she couldn’t define. “It’s clear, but I wish you didn’t have to see it.”

Ashley’s mind and body downshifted into a place worse than fear. She was numb. From the inside out, she felt nothing. The chilled air, the thought she could die... Nothing connected. She wanted to pinch herself just to jolt something into her brain.

“Ash? If you tell me where it is, I can get it. You don’t have to come in. It’s probably better if—”

She didn’t let him finish. She needed to move, needed to feel something in her body, even if it was the simple forward motion of putting one foot in front of the other. Pushing past him, Ashley paused in the doorway and stared.

The streetlight in the parking lot leaked through the purple curtains at the front of the living room, casting a violet haze over the scene. Even in the dim light, it was obvious everything had been tossed, as though a tsunami had broken in the room and retreated. The light made the whole scene surreal, more frightening than it should be, the glow too much like a haunted house that had given Ashley nightmares as a child.

As badly as she wanted to flood the place with light, she knew better. It would only tip off anyone watching.

She stopped by the entrance as Ethan slipped the door shut the best he could behind her. “You’re sure you cleared the place?”

“Would I have let you in if I hadn’t?”

This sarcastic side of him didn’t even make her flinch. It tended to come out when he was stressed, worried about the unknown. The last time she’d heard it was at her hospital bedside the night her entire life blew apart.

Definitely not the place her imagination should go right now. The fear jolted again and brought a brusqueness with it. “A simple yes would have worked. I want to know they’re not going to pop up again when I pull the portable hard drive out. And I want to be double sure they don’t see what I’m about to do now.” She laid her hand against the wall and felt for the kitchen, inching forward, toes connecting with what was left of her normal life. Her sanctuary no longer brought safety. The violation fouled the air and crawled along her skin.

With no windows in the small kitchen, the blackness hung thick and inky. She could almost feel invisible hands poised to grasp her and yank her into a pit where her floor used to be.

She allowed herself a tight smile. Whoever was searching must have thought they’d found what they were looking for.

Laying hands on the small flashlight she kept in her junk drawer brought little relief, since it only served to make the darkness outside the beam even thicker, but it was better than nothing. She found a small screwdriver and, careful to keep the beam aimed at the floor and away from the windows, stepped over what she could now see. An overturned dining chair. The phone charger she’d left behind in her mad dash to make the plane. A spare key to her car.

She shoved it into her pocket. They’d need it when they went to the airport to get the keys to Sean’s post-office box from her glove box.

The light glinted off of something shiny.

Ashley swallowed hard. The Blue Willow china plate that had hung near the dining room table, the one tangible item left from her great-grandmother, had been smashed, fine pieces ground into the carpet. Something about those impossibly small shards on the floor undid her in a way nothing else could.

She bit back a sob Ethan was bound to hear.

He had. There was a scrape of movement near the door. “They found the software?”

Ashley shook her head then realized he couldn’t see her in the dark. It was a second before she could trust herself to answer. “Doubtful.” The word cracked just like the plate. She cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders. There were too many things to do, too many moves to make, for her to fall apart now. This was only the beginning.

Trying to corral her thoughts, she stepped gently over the plate and ran her hand along the wooden lip underneath the small, round dining table. Her fingers caught on a piece of duct tape barely hanging on to the wood at the far end of the curve. “They took it.”

Ethan was at her side before she even heard him move. “They took your program?” His voice drew tight, the dark magnifying the whisper until it sounded like a shout.

“No, I hid a dummy one.” She edged away, cheeks warming, even though the circumstances were wrong and history said she really shouldn’t notice. “Call it paranoia. Sean and I worked hard writing the software, and it could be worth more money than you can imagine. It’s not perfected, because we haven’t had time together to work out the bugs. Thieves want easy information they can sell. I figured if anyone ever broke into my house, they’d check obvious locations, think they’d found something important and leave. I never expected to end up needing this.”

“Still with the killer instinct. You’re something else.” The words curved on a grin Ashley could see in her mind if not in the dark. “What’d you put on it?”

It was getting hard not to tamp down the pride at his compliments. When had she gotten to the place she lit up at someone else’s approval? “Some photos my dad sent from Haiti and some medium-level encrypted files to keep anybody busy if they happen to snoop.”

“This ought to be good. What did you encrypt?”

“The stats for the postseason every year the Red Sox won the World Series.”

“Beautiful.” Ethan was all business again. “And are you sure they haven’t found the real one?”

“Not unless they moved the entertainment center.” Ashley slipped past, careful not to touch him. Something about Ethan and the dark made her want to talk, to tell him how she’d said no to Sean’s first proposal because some nagging little voice at the back of her mind whispered they were friends, not life partners. When she thought of her future, even now in the rare times she allowed herself to dream, it was Ethan in her front-porch-rocker visions.

Not that it mattered. Ethan had left her and Sean had stuck by her, his sympathy and her fear driving them into a rocky engagement that nearly ended their friendship before they realized their mistake. Even now she was growing more certain it was because Ethan had always been the one who owned her love.

This day needed to end before she capped it by opening her mouth and humiliating herself.

Stepping over scattered parts of her life as she entered the living room, Ashley scanned the area. Couch pillows and books littered the floor. Thankfully, the large wooden cabinet holding her television sat square in the wall. She’d banked on it being too heavy for anyone to move and, thankfully, she’d been right.

Tucking the screwdriver into her hip pocket, she crouched so she could move the cabinet, back braced against wood, legs providing the force. But after the rush of the day, her muscles weren’t ready to cooperate. “C’mon.” She gestured between Ethan and the cabinet. “Put your muscles into it.”

He leaned back, his shoulder brushing hers, sliding against the cabinet to get his body into position. “Can’t wait to see where this is going.”

“About six inches to the right. Now push.”

The bulk of the cabinet hesitated then slid in the dark, gaining momentum as it moved.

“Nice job.” Ashley guided Ethan out of the way and knelt in front of the wall outlet. Popping the small flashlight between her teeth, she pulled out the screwdriver and removed the outlet cover from the wall.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Ethan knelt behind her.

His breath tickled her hair. Her hands stilled, the plastic cover weightless in her fingers. For a moment she wanted to lean into him, to let him support her, to forget this whole wretched day ever happened, to pretend he was still the same Ethan and five years hadn’t changed them. The outlet cover slipped from her fingers, the motion jolting her into the moment. They didn’t have time to waste. If anyone was watching her apartment, they knew Ethan and Ashley were there and wouldn’t hesitate to return, especially if they believed she possessed Sean’s intel.

“How did you keep the electricity from wiping out the drive?” Ethan leaned closer, curiosity overtaking his sense of propriety.

“That’s a remote possibility, but it’s not in the outlet.” Ashley made quick work of two more screws and slipped the entire socket from the wall, exposing the hole where the outlet slid into place. “It’s between the walls.” She reached in with two fingers, found the duct tape attaching the small portable drive to the inside of the drywall and pulled it free. “There you have it.”

“I’ll have to remember that one.” Ethan eased to his feet and held a hand out to help her up. Ashley hesitated before she took it and then let him pull her to her feet, dropping his hand as quickly as she could steady herself. “Let’s go before they get too deep into your dummy files and figure out you’ve skunked them with your secret squirrel self, although I think it’s going to take some time for them to figure out they’re looking at Big Papi’s stellar season.”

“Here’s hoping.”

In the dim light Ethan’s gaze captured hers. “You’d have been a real asset to—” He broke the moment, stepping toward the door. “We need to get moving.”

They were mere feet from the door when a scrape and a man’s whisper leaked around the damaged frame. “Somebody’s in there.”

Ashley froze as Ethan stepped protectively in front of her, hand at his hip. “You have a balcony?”

“Off the bedroom.” With a whole other story between us and the ground. Ashley had thought many times about how she’d get out of her apartment if there was a fire, but she never dreamed she’d actually have to dangle above the bushes on the ground floor.

Ethan shoved her toward the hallway. “Think you can take the fall?”

FOUR

There wasn’t one moment of hesitation. Ashley was up the hallway before Ethan could tell her to move, and he was close behind. The possibility it could simply be the police or her landlord didn’t matter. The risks were too great.

Once he stepped into the room behind her, he slipped the door shut and clicked the lock. If it was their friend from the airport, the hollow door would buy them a few seconds, but those ticks of the clock might mean all the difference.

Light flooded under the door as someone flipped a switch in the front of the apartment. “See? Nobody’s in here.”

“I heard voices.”

The French doors on the other side of the bedroom whispered open, silhouetting Ashley against the dim glow from outside. She waved him forward. “Drop’s a few feet if you can hang on to the rail and let your feet dangle.” Throwing a leg over the side, she gifted him a grim smile. “Pray my downstairs neighbors aren’t looking out the window. And be careful.”

She was scared to death if she was this calm. Her emotional defenses drove her to a place where she felt nothing just to avoid the fear. He’d seen it on the battlefield, even experienced it himself. Ethan wished there was time to make sure she landed safely, but the lock jiggled behind him and a shout followed.

Shoving his gun into its holster, he climbed the rail, ran his hands down to the bottom of the wood railing and let his feet dangle in space. The sound of splintering door covered his crouched landing in the bushes below.

Their visitor was definitely not the landlord.

He was safely around the corner before voices rained down from above. “Nobody’s here.”

“So who locked the door?”

“Maybe you did when we left? No way they jumped without breaking something.” The voice strained as though the man leaned over the railing to prove his theory.

Ethan fought his muscles aching for a quick peek around the corner to see if one of the men was the assailant from the airport or if he and Ashley faced bigger worries.

She tugged at his arm. “Come on. Before they figure out we moved furniture and start looking for us.”

Tucking her behind him, a move he was sure to hear about later, Ethan reached for his gun but stopped. The way Ashley had reacted earlier, there was no telling what her response would be, and they needed all of her focus to get out of here alive. At this point, her emotional lockdown was their salvation.

She pressed close to him as he edged along the brick toward the front of the building, so close her warmth telegraphed through the thin fleece of his jacket. The sooner they were safely in his truck and she was a couple of feet away, the better.

At the corner he stopped and surveyed the grass-ringed parking lot. Not for the first time he hated the even spacing of streetlights that left few shadows in which to hide.

Ashley’s words tickled his ear. “What now?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “There’s a small ditch along the back of the parking lot.” Her arm snaked in front of him, indicating a spot at their two o’clock. “If we can make it without being spotted, we can get low enough to avoid detection and get to your truck.”

The pride he’d battled all of his life fought to take charge, to seize the moment and come up with the foolproof idea that would save the day. But he couldn’t. The route she’d laid out was the only way to safety.

She shuddered against his back, snapping him out of his self-recrimination. They needed to move before the situation dug in and she dissolved into panic. As much as he wanted her to be well, to be his old Ashley, the little time they’d spent together had already clued him in to the fear that plagued her. He fought against the warm bile of guilt in his stomach and forced himself to focus.

With Ashley breathing against his neck and his heart pounding from the stress of the moment, he could hardly hear if their visitors were lurking. “That ten feet of open grass bugs me.” Even his whisper echoed in the stillness.

“No choice but to go for it.”

If he closed his eyes Ethan could fool himself into believing they were still partners, still shared the easy rhythm that let them get the job done effortlessly. But they weren’t and likely never would be again.

Ethan tried one more time to listen for footsteps, voices—anything. Only the distant sounds of cars on the main road drifted to them. “Okay.” He slipped his hand behind him and found hers. He wanted her close in case anything happened. No matter what, unlike the last time, he would know he’d done all he could to protect her. “Let’s go.”

With a quick prayer Ethan plunged out of their hiding place, Ashley keeping pace behind. The damp grass, not yet revived after the long winter, crushed beneath their feet, leaving a dim trail to their destination. They’d have to move fast once they hit the ditch. He leaped in feetfirst, Ashley a millisecond behind him.

“You hear that?” The shout came muffled from above, probably from the balcony they’d recently vacated.

They had time, but not much. Propelling her by her biceps, he urged her forward. “Run.”

They slipped and slid along the ditch, feet skittering on the thin layer of mud in the bottom, Ethan’s ears tuned for the sounds that would let him know their pursuers had found their footprints.

Please, God. Hide us a little bit longer.

Behind him, Ashley muttered softly and he wondered if she, too, was petitioning for cover.

They rounded the bend in the ditch and Ethan scanned for a spot gentle enough for them to climb. “There.”

As he said it, a shout echoed across the night. They had a few more seconds before they were found. Jerking Ashley in front of him, he hefted her up the bank and scrambled up behind her, coming out just inches from the bumper of his truck.

Ashley beat him inside.

Shutting the door behind him, Ethan twisted the key in the ignition and, headlights off, drove as fast as he dared, praying the men hadn’t caught up in time to tail them. They were on the main road and two turns away before the bands around his chest relaxed. “They didn’t follow us.”

Ashley just nodded, arms crossed, fingers digging into her biceps. Her breaths came rapidly, shallow and hard.

He knew better than to touch her. She was on the edge of falling apart. “Talk to me, Ash.”

“Pull over.”

Ethan checked the rearview mirror, but no headlights flashed. Still, it was ludicrous to stop now. “I can’t. They’re bound to have figured out—”

“Pull over. Find a place.” Her voice was barely audible over her need for air. “Now.”

Ethan kneaded the steering wheel, tension radiating up his arms and into his shoulders. He couldn’t. It would be suicide, but Ashley was now gripping the headrest as though it was going to keep her from spinning off of the planet.

She turned her head to him, eyes pleading behind a sheen of tears. “Please, Ethan.”

His foot eased off the gas. Okay, he’d find a place to pull over.

Even if it killed them.

* * *

She could die right now. It would be just fine with her. The fact death was a real possibility didn’t matter. In the throes of uncontrollable emotion, the shame burning her gut eclipsed the fear of death.

Her body rebelled, refusing to believe there was nothing to fear because, this time, there was definitely something to be afraid of. And the reality was as bad as any of her nightmares.

Ashley had felt it the instant Ethan shifted the truck into gear, the moment she knew they were relatively safe and making a getaway. The fog she’d walked in for the past hour blew away, chased by hot fear. The cold sweat... The tight muscles trying to claw out of her skin... This was a full-blown panic attack the likes of which she hadn’t experienced in more than three years. One the rapidly shrinking rational part of her brain could not believe she was about to have in front of Ethan Kincaid.

The minute he pulled around to the back of a darkened gas station, Ashley yanked the door handle, slid from the truck, leaned against the cold metal and locked her hands against her knees. The damp night air filled her lungs and eased her body as she fought nausea, praying Ethan would stay in the truck and pretend everything was A-okay.

No such luck. His boots scrunched the gravel and came into view. “Ash?”

He might as well have shouted, because the whisper rained condemnation hotter than nuclear fallout. She was weak. Not strong enough. Still haunted by a weakness that defied explanation, one she should have overcome years ago.

The same weakness that had stolen her dream and laid it at Ethan’s feet.

His arm brushed her shoulder, but she swatted it away so hard her hand stung. The pain was enough to drag her into the present and she rooted herself in her former therapist’s advice. Be grounded in the moment. Be aware of where you are right now.

It wasn’t helping. Right now, in the moment, she was hiding from men who wanted her dead with a man who wanted...what, exactly?

Ethan possessed the good sense to step away and let her have some space. The warmth of him left her and gravel crunched under his feet as he paced toward the road. Let him patrol. Right now, she almost didn’t care if the bad guys did find them. At least she wouldn’t be tormented by terror anymore.

In the moment. Okay. In this moment, no gun was aimed at her head. At least not that she was aware of.

She swept the thought away.

In this moment, gray mud coated the toes of her brown boots and the hem of her good jeans. Ashley focused on the dirt and the way it played on her boots, taking her mind out of the fear.

By the time Ethan crunched back to her, the dust had cleared from her mind if not from her feet. Trembling, Ashley pulled herself upright and inhaled deeply, bracing her hands against the sides of his truck, wrung out from the aftereffects of panic.

Ethan leaned beside her, not close enough to touch her but definitely close enough for the warmth of him to penetrate her jacket. “You okay?”

She glanced at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. Instead he scanned the tree line, the side of the building, trying to keep an eye out for any possible incursions. Knowing he wasn’t watching her eased the remaining tension in her shoulders. “I’m okay.” But she’d be better if she were alone. What she wouldn’t give for five minutes all by herself to knit her thoughts together.

“So that still happens?” There was no emotion in his words, no condemnation.

Her spine stiffened. Yes, that still happened, though not in a very long time. It was a failing she’d never been able to hide from him, as much as she’d tried. In spite of weak knees threatening to dump her to the ground, she pushed herself away from the truck, taking a second to steady her legs. “I said I’m fine.” And she would be, eventually, if he’d quit focusing on her. “Shouldn’t we be getting out of here?” She yanked open the truck door, even though the interior of the vehicle shrank into a claustrophobic nightmare.

This would take all of her willpower. Honestly, men with guns high-speed chasing them through the night was way less scary than standing here while Ethan realized she was still only half of her former self.

“I think we’re fairly safe here.” He didn’t move, didn’t pull out his keys and act as though it was imperative they hit the road again. “You know you can’t handle this on your own, right?”

Her hand froze on the cool metal of the door. He was in no position to give her advice, not when he had no idea what her life was like thanks to his running away. “When did you become a therapist? Did you learn that when you were in Intelligence training?” Ashley winced at her words. That was the one thing she really shouldn’t have brought up in front of him. Maybe he hadn’t heard.

“Very few days go by that I don’t think about how what I have came to me at the expense of your dreams.”

“And you left like a coward without telling me why.” Without giving him a chance to respond, Ashley hefted herself into the truck and slammed the door shut. If Ethan hadn’t taken her spot, someone else would have, but she couldn’t let it go, couldn’t stand to be reminded her life was working on plan F: fear and failure.

It was a long time before he climbed in the other side and slid the key into the ignition, though he didn’t turn the engine over. “Ash, I—”

“The conversation’s over. The past is done.” If only. “Sean needs us. Let’s just get those thumb drives from the post office, find the decryption code and pass it all on to whoever needs them to shut your case and bring Sean home. Then you can go back to your intelligence gathering and I can go back to my computers.”

Ethan’s fingers dropped from the ignition. “You know it’s not going to be easy.”

Oh, but she wanted it to be.

“Ash, you can’t go home until these guys are caught. It’s not safe for you until—”

“I know.” But that didn’t mean she wanted to think about it. Ethan and Sean had ripped her from her safe, controlled existence. A few miles away her apartment lay in shambles and she couldn’t go home anytime soon...if ever. In her swirling life, she needed a safe place or she was in danger of losing every inch of the ground she’d recovered since the day she’d been shot. “Just give me a few minutes where I can pretend none of this is happening.”

“What good’s that going to do you?”

“None.” Ashley ran a hand along her thigh and gripped the front of the seat, the leather soft beneath her fingers. “Where do we have to take the drives for you to have them analyzed? And where’s the cipher key?”

Beside her, Ethan froze. It was as if time had stopped and held him in suspended animation.

“The cipher key? The decryption code? Ethan, if Sean didn’t give you a key, the program’s useless. We set up the program using a symmetric key algorithm. The data’s encrypted in files, but the encryption requires a key, some kind of code to lock and unlock the data. Sean’s too smart to mail it with the drives themselves. Did he give you any clue where it is? Where he hid it?”

Ethan was quiet so long Ashley ventured a look. He was staring at her, expression unreadable except for his eyes. The brown of them was deep, dark...and sad. “I don’t have the cipher.” He started the truck, the vents blasting warm air into Ashley’s face. “You do.”

The heat from the vents battled the cold running through Ashley’s veins. He couldn’t possibly be saying what she thought he was. “No.”

“I have no idea what Sean meant, but you’re it. You’re all we’ve got, because there’s no one else we can trust. He said you’d know everything once you saw the data.”

Physical pain thundered through her chest and shot lightning bolts into her extremities. A sudden rush of panic and she was clawing for the door, the lock... Anything. Any way to be free. She held the key, the one thing between Sean and death, between those men and the information they wanted.

Hands grasped her shoulders, angled her toward Ethan. Firm fingers tipped her chin and gently turned her head. As violently as she tried to fight, the gentle press of those warm fingers didn’t let up.

“Ashley.” Ethan’s voice was low, warm, calm. “Look at me. At me. In my eyes.”

It was the last place she wanted to focus, but her eyes were drawn to his. As soon as her gaze met his, everything in her stilled. It was the last place she should find safety, but her heart knew him and refused to feel anything else.

“You’re okay. You’re safe. No matter what happens, I am right here beside you. I will protect you.” Those last words hammered with emphasis, slow and heavy.

She couldn’t look him in the eye anymore.

Ashley leaned back from his grasp and exhaled, panic floating away with his promises. She had no idea how he’d done it, but she hoped he didn’t have to again. The way her pulse pounded now had absolutely nothing to do with fear.

This was probably worse.

As much as she knew close proximity to Ethan was dangerous to her heart and as much as she wanted to walk away to protect herself, she couldn’t. Sean’s life—her life—depended on their teaming up.

And, boy, when they were all safe, was Sean going to hear from her about this entire setup, from painting a bull’s-eye on her back to making her work with Ethan Kincaid again.

For now, there was work to do. Authority to assert. “You have to take me to my car.”

Ethan’s head came up, eyebrows high in confusion. “Your car? At the airport?” He shook his head. “No way. For all we know, there are people staking it out.”

Control. What she needed right now was control, and she was about to take it. She needed to be in charge if she wanted to survive this. She needed to fool herself into believing something was in her power. “Doubtful. They saw you come in all John Wayne and take me out of there like your truck was on fire. They’re long gone from the airport, focused on my apartment or somewhere else.” She pulled her seat belt across and latched it with a definite click. “We’re going to the airport.”

“There is no way I’m—”

“The keys to the post-office box are in it. The box is up north, in Black River. I go up every couple of weeks to check on my grandparents’ cabin and to get his mail.” That was something she should have seen before. The fact Sean had rented a postbox an hour away instead of a more convenient location in Syracuse. He was trying to protect her even while he used her. Maybe she should be grateful, and she would be, after she tore him apart for doing this to her in the first place. “We have to get those keys or we can’t get into the box. There’s no other way.”

There it was. The twitch in his right temple. It popped up when he couldn’t say what was on his mind. What she wouldn’t give to know what he was thinking right about now. Or not, because it probably wasn’t butterflies and rainbows.

“This is the single dumbest thing I’ve ever done.” Ethan pulled out his cell phone and punched the screen so hard it was a wonder cracks didn’t form. “I have to let Mitch know we’ve changed plans and we’ll be late getting you to the safe house.” He held the phone tight, muttering. “It’ll be by the grace of God if you don’t get us both killed.”

God. Since when did He worry about Ashley?

And since when did Ethan worry about God?

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