Likes: Long walks, romantic movies, flowers, museums.
Dislikes: Cooking.
Other: One son, age nine.
Noele used a photo of me taken on the river bank last year. She’d planned a picnic, and Mateen flies a kite in the background while I smile at the camera. His face is blurry, thank God. If she’d picked any other photo from that day…
Swiping away my tears, I call her. “How could you?”
“Lisette? What is it?”
Her confusion only makes me angrier. “You set up a profile for me on EuroMatch! Do you have any idea what you have done?”
“Oui. Something you refused to even think of. You should be happy,mon fleur.Not alone for the rest of your life!”
“I told you no,” I say, my voice trembling so much, I do not trust myself to pick up the bottle of Orangina. “Faruk is dead. But Ford warned me not to take any chances. That means no pictures. No social media. Nothing to draw attention to myself—or Mateen. He isin the photo, Noele. How could you be so reckless?”
“It has been three years,” she says softly. “No one will be looking for you.”
“You cannot know that! Take it down. Now!”
Noele stammers, “I d-do not know how… Why do you think I still have my profile after being with Marcel for so long!”
I sink from the sofa to the floor, fresh tears burning my eyes. “Fine. I will call Ford. He can help me. But Noele, stop trying to ‘fix’ me. However broken I am…that is how I want to stay.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Nomar
The sun streamsin through the curtains, slashing across my face. I hiss out a breath. The headache blares through my skull like a fire alarm. I only fell asleep three hours ago. I shouldn’t be awake. Why am I awake?
Ford’s ringtone spills from my phone’s speaker.
Well, that explains the fire alarm.
I roll up to sitting. “What? I called in. As ordered. And yet again, you gave her my number—”
“How fast can you get to Toulouse?” the former Marine says.
Jerking to my feet, I tug on a t-shirt. “I’m in Karachi. It’s an eight-hour flight. But there’s only one departure a day, and it’s not until 9:00 p.m.”
I shouldn’t know the fastest way to get to her. But I do. Always. No matter where I am.
“I’ll have a plane waiting when you get to the airfield. You won’t have to mess with commercial.”
Pants, boots, jacket, guns, passport. I don’t ask how he can afford this. No, there’s a much more important question I need answered.
“What happened?”
“Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. Lisette’s sister set her up on one of those online dating apps—without her permission. Wren deleted all traces of her name, photo, and information, but she hacked into the company’s back-end database, and at least a dozen users accessed her profile from Afghanistan.”
“Fuck! But Faruk’s dead. Along with all his men. Or did McCabe miss someone?”
“Breathe, man. Ryker doesn’t leave loose ends. And users from other countries aren’t uncommon. Scammers, rich SOBs looking for a trophy wife, kids with too much time on their hands… They could all be harmless. But Second Sight doesn’t have anyone free right now, and you’re closer than Ry’s team out in Seattle.”
For all I know, Ford’s lying to get me to talk to Lisette again. But I won’t take that chance. If there’s even the smallest possibility someone found out about her and Mateen, I’ll sit outside her home every night for the rest of my life, watching, waiting, keeping her safe.
“Don’t tell her I’m coming,” I mutter as I start wiping the room clean. “I’ll keep an eye on her until you can send someone else, but I can’t stay. Promise me, I won’t have to stay.”
