“They had your coordinates.”
“You know that for a fact?”
Tightening her mouth, she looked away. No. She clearly didn’t. And maybe she had led them here, but Amka had been the one to send her.
Unless the whole story was a lie. Which seemed unlikely at this point.
Trust, he knew, was hard won, and neither of them had gained it yet.
It was so quiet that he heard her dry swallow, so close that he could almost feel her body heat. Funny how the distance felt insurmountable.
“They said you killed colleagues, witnesses. Whole families. Your own…”
Parents.
He opened his mouth and closed it. Defending himself, he’d proven back then, was not his strong suit. “You wanted my name.” He stood. “You got it.”
She inhaled audibly. “Elias Thorne.” Was she unaffected by his prickly demeanor or just pretending? She set her forearms on her bent knees, looking almost casual despite the stained clothes and the beat-up look of her face. “You were, what…FBI? DEA or something?”
America’s most wanted.“U.S. marshal.” He kept his back to her, eyes unfocused while he cleaned the blood from his hands.
“Were you involved in his arrest?”
He didn’t ask whose. Pointless to play innocent. He grunted an assent.
“I’m sorry, I don’t speak Bigfoot. Was that a yes?”
“I was the deputy U.S. marshal responsible for apprehending Campbell Turner.”
“After he stole the virus from Chronos Corp.”
“From the Department of Defense.”
She sucked in a breath, the sound like an unvoicedoh. “Huh. Okay. Why did you—”
“Done talking.” He sat back down again and ripped open a bandage. “You gonna let me finish or not? Doesn’t matter to me either way.”
It took her a while to realize he meant her head. Her hand went halfway up and then stilled before returning slowly to her knee. “Oh.” Her gaze shifted from her hand to her leg, where Bo had settled, then on to his pack, and beyond to the passage leading out. Though she didn’t look satisfied with his response, by the time she came back to him, she’d apparently come to some kind of decision. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Leo Eddowes. Retired.”
Right. She looked as retired as the guys who’d flown in on her tail.
“Navy, huh?”
“Aviator first and foremost. The Navy was…” She shrugged and he still couldn’t tell if her nonchalance was real or forced. “A means to an end.”
“Leo your real name?”
She snorted, something approaching a smile hitting her eyes. “It’s Leontyne. But only my dad’s allowed to call me that.”
He grunted.
“Thank you again. For…” Her hand fluttered toward her head. “For not leaving me back there.”
This time, he responded with a slow nod. When she didn’t go on, he ripped off a piece of tape and edged as close as he could without touching her, eyeing his handiwork, trying hard to calm his thoughts while something inside was going wild. His heart, maybe, flailing in his chest like a salmon on a line.
He glanced her way and went still. “There it is.”
“What?”
