“Just friends? That’s it?” He reached out and caught her shoulders. She gasped as he dragged her hard against him, angled his head, and his mouth crushed down over hers. Heat scorched through her as he walked her backward till his hard body pressed her against the wall.
Josh kissed her and kissed her, kissed her until she was making little noises in her throat and clinging to his shoulders.
Then he broke away.
“Dammit, you make me crazy.” He stalked off, stared out through a newly replaced window, then walked back and stopped right in front of her, propped his hands on his hips.
Tory looked up at him. “You make me pretty crazy, too,” she said softly.
Josh sighed. Reaching out, he gently touched her cheek. “We’ll figure it out,” he said.
But Tory wasn’t so sure. She opened her mouth to say so when the sound of an engine reached them. “Someone’s coming.”
Since it was doubtful someone who wanted to kill either one of them would drive right up to the house, Josh headed for the barn door and Tory fell in beside him.
“It’s Taggart,” Josh said, recognizing the big black SUV and the blond man with the buzz cut behind the wheel.
The vehicle pulled to a halt and Quinn Taggart straightened and came out of the driver’s seat. Josh walked up and the men shook hands.
“You want to go into the house out of the heat?” Josh asked.
Taggart shook his head. “Don’t have time. Let’s go stand in the shade.”
They walked into the shade of the barn. It smelled like dust and hay. “What’s going on?” Josh asked.
“We caught a break in the case. Our interrogators are some of the best. One of the men we arrested during the attack on the capitol started talking. We’d already connected the dots about Saldana and Whitmore both being in Afghanistan at the same time, but apparently the threat is more specific than we thought.”
“How’s that?” Josh asked.
“Turns out both men were involved in the fighting that took place in the Bala Murghab River Valley.”
Josh nodded. “That’s right. Special operations took on a large insurgent force near the ruins of an old medieval town.”
“Marw al-Rudh.”
“Seems you’re well informed.”
“Well enough to know your team was also engaged in the fighting there.”
“That’s right.”
“The thing is, Josh, the man we swept up in the raid is an Afghan named Ahmad Bijan. He came from the village of Bala Murghab. His father is from the Buzi tribe, Mullah Ramazan, a spiritual leader in the region. He’s extremely influential.”
“What does any of that have to do with the murders?”
“According to Ahmad, his brother was killed by marine special ops soldiers who fought in that battle. Their father vowed revenge.”
“You think this guy, Mullah Ramazan, would go to that much trouble?”
“He sent his son over here. Couldn’t have been easy smuggling him into the country.”
Josh grunted. “Good point.”
“Two men are dead. The rest of the special ops marines involved are still on active duty, most deployed out of the country. That leaves you. If the killer is carrying out Mullah Ramazan’s revenge, you could very well be his next target.”
Chapter Thirty
Night sounds reached him through the darkness, crickets in the grass beneath the window, the hoot of the barn owl he’d spotted a couple of days ago.
