Michal shrugged. “That is why the order came to me.”
“But first, you needed someone who could get you close enough to him.”
A frown worked its way across Michal’s brow. No, that wasn’t right. He had met Ami first…then…
“The CIA sent her to me,” he guessed, the full impact slamming into him at once.
Ron nodded, his face grim. “They abducted Amira Peres and brainwashed her into thinking she was this nonexistent Jamie Dalton. Then, after they’d messed up her head completely, they trained her as a field operative. When she came to you, she truly believed she was Jamie Dalton portraying Amira Peres.”
So, their former relationship hadn’t been real. That realization shook Michal when he’d felt certain nothing else could. It had all been lies…the betrayal had been deliberate from the beginning.
“Michal,” Ron placated, “she did not know what she was doing. They set her up just as they set you up.”
“And did you know?” Michal roared, every muscle primed and ready to hit someone…to do some kind of damage to relieve the raging emotions erupting inside him.
“No.” Ron looked straight at him. “You can’t believe I had anything to do with this.”
Michal looked away, though he felt certain that his friend spoke the truth. Ron might omit as required, but he would never lie to him.
“There is more,” Ron said.
His fury momentarily on hold, Michal turned back to hear the rest, though he could not see how it was possible to top what he’d already learned.
“When the hit went down, Ami was captured. A CIA agent named Jack Tanner risked his life, as well as his career, to rescue her before she could be executed for the murder of her father. He had her memory erased using some experimental technology and left her in the care of the psychiatrist who worked from time to time for the Company.”
That news quelled Michal’s fury and at the same time sent jealousy coursing through his veins. “Who is this Jack Tanner?”
“The CIA operative your man discovered hanging around recently.”
It wasn’t necessary for Ron to explain what that meant. The possibility that the CIA was once again using Ami was too great to ignore. Every instinct told him that she was innocent, that she didn’t know she was being used. But he couldn’t be absolutely certain.
“She has asked for nothing nor has she attempted to persuade me to track down anyone.” Michal shook his head, it didn’t fit together properly. “If what you’re suggesting is the case,” he offered, certain it couldn’t be, “who is the target?”
Ron looked directly at him. “The target is you.”
AMI STOOD BENEATHthe hot spray of water and tried to wash away the tension…tried to erase the images that, once unleashed in her head, would not go away.
Yael Peres had been her father.
She swallowed tightly and squeezed her eyes shut to block the picture of him staring up at her…asking why?
It couldn’t be right. There had to be a mistake. How could he be her father and she not know it until after she’d had him killed?
She leaned her forehead against the cool tile and allowed the hot water to sluice over her back. She tried sorting the myriad emotions whirling inside her, but gave up when she couldn’t determine where regret ended and bitterness began. She didn’t understand the feelings. Couldn’t remember why she would experience them. Had she hated her father that much? Did it have anything to do with her mother? A mother she couldn’t remember any more than she could her father.
Forcing the troubling thoughts away, Ami summoned the sweet memories of the last night she’d spent with Nicholas. Their bath together. Rocking him to sleep, softly singing his favorite lullaby.
The hurt started way down deep, climbing up from her belly, twisting inside her chest until it lunged into her throat, forcing a sob from her.
Somehow, for reasons she couldn’t remember, she had choreographed the murder of her father and the simultaneous betrayal of her lover, the father of her child.
Michal was a fool for trusting her.
She straightened, her eyes going wide with a new terror. All this time she’d worried about her son and the kind of life he would be exposed to were Michal to learn of his existence.
What about her?
Could she really be certain that Nicholas was any safer with her? What day—what hour—would her murky past come back to haunt her again? Who was to say that she hadn’t committed crimes much worse than even this? That she had been at work, away from her son, when the last run-in with her past took place was no guarantee she would be the next time.
