She lifted her jaw, trying to push off the way those words wounded. “I gave my word.”
At the threshold, he paused, hands on his tactical belt. “Pardon me if I can’t trust the word of a madam who has sold kids for sex.” He stepped out and closed the door, leaving her alone.
Yes … Alone. Very alone. Raz and Fatina were gone. The girls were gone. She slumped against the mattress. Loneliness she had known her entire life. Even being despised. Neither were new to her.
So why did she feel as if he’d just delivered the cruelest of blows? Why did she care so much about this American with his blue eyes, big muscles, and churning anger?
CHAPTERSEVEN
CIA Safehouse, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
What washe supposed to make of her tears as she watched the others leave? Was it fear of her own outcome? Manufactured so he’d go easy on her? And what was with the look she’d thrown him as he closed the door earlier?
Range flipped through the dossier Casey had put together on Kasra Jazani. Saw the facts there that he’d wondered about—she spoke several languages.
Called it.
Brown hair. Hazel eyes.
That didn’t really fit the color—they were brown with green and glittery-gold flecks rimming her iri—
What the heck?
Sliding a hand down the back of his neck, he flipped the page. Scoured the known intel for family—parents, brothers, sisters … Extended family. None.
Even though he’d distanced himself from his family, he couldn’t imagine not having any. What an empty existence. Then again, her family would likely never again claim her after sexual immorality. While Westerners had shirked biblical values and made excuses for sex before marriage, Muslims did not. He had to admit … he agreed with them—to an extent—on this one. Sex was a tangled, messy conversation no matter which way you came at it. Stepped on people’s toes. Crushed dreams and lives.
To this day, he still remembered that moment in Mom’s living room when Canyon had told the family he’d gotten Dani pregnant.
On a mission. A freakin’ mission when he was supposed to beprotectingher and keeping her safe.
While Mom had given Canyon a mild rebuke, everyone else had hugged Dani, welcome her. Got excited about a baby in the family again. Forget that she’d been with Range just before that mission. Attended his Coast Guard ball with him.
Nobody had even seen Range leave. He hadn’t looked back since.
His phone buzzed on the table, and he glanced at the screen.
Dani.
What the …? Seriously? It was like she heard his thoughts all the way across the globe. Stunned, he answered it. “Yeah.”
“Hey, just saw that I missed your call.”
“Right.” He’d forgotten about that. On the chair, he swiveled toward the door, mentally jogged down the hall to her room. “I…” He’d wanted to ask her how a woman held captive and sexually brutalized behaved. But now that he heard her voice, thought of what had happened to her at the hands of the Venezuelan general, he realized he was an idiot. “Yeah. Never mind. Problem resolved.”
“You certain?”
“I am. Thanks.”
“It’s been a while. You doing okay?”
It was some kind of twisted weird, chatting as if he hadn’t been MIA for the last decade. “Yeah, sure.”
“Okay, I don’t believe that.”
Danggit. He wanted to talk. Tell her what was happening. Get her thoughts on Kasra and what he should expect. But … “Maybe later.”
“Deal. But not two years later, okay?”
