A shadow fell over Dan’s face. “She was shot shortly after we met. It was related to a case I was working. Mia was helping us through her visions. I was supposed to be protecting her, but the people we were after knew about her visions and tried to silence her.”
“You were there with her when it happened.”
Residual pain flickered behind Dan’s dark eyes. “It was the worst experience of my life. Thankfully, she survived. It took some time and a whole lot of physical therapy, but she’s good now. Really good.”
“You catch the person who shot her?” Alex asked, praying they had.
A cold grin he recognized from their time serving together spread across Dan’s face. “We caught them all.”
There was a stretch of silence before Alex spoke up again. “So, let me get this straight. You and the other partners all fell in love with women with extraordinary abilities. Now, those same women are using their gifts to help The Phoenix Agency solve cases. Does that about cover it?”
“In a nutshell?” Dan nodded. “Yeah. I’d say that about covers it.””
Alex blew out a breath. “Okay. So, putting all that aside for a minute, let’s get back to why your wife thinks Eden could be in danger.”
“A few days ago, Mia had a vision she didn’t understand.”
“What did she see?” Eden asked pointedly.
“A soccer ball.”
Eden’s gaze shot to Alex’s. “I saw you two playing soccer with that boy.”
Alex swallowed before turning to her. “Our Force Recon unit was stationed overseas for a mission. Our job was to imbed ourselves in a small village just outside Bahrain. Train the locals how to shoot, evade, and fight in hand-to-hand combat.”
“But really”—Dan intervened— “we were there to run surveillance on the group’s commander. There was chatter the guy was working both sides.”
“He was a traitor,” Eden surmised.
Dan tipped his chin. “He was.”
Eden thought a moment before saying, “I still don’t understand. What does any of that have to do with Mia’s vision?”
Alex answered for his former teammate. “While we were there, Dan and I befriended some of the local kids. One boy, in particular.”
“Khalil.”
Just hearing Dan say the boy’s name caused the pressure in Alex’s chest to worsen.
“I saw a fire.” Eden’s eyes filled with sadness. “Something happened to him, didn’t it?”
“The commander we were watching figured out what we were up to. He thought the people in his village had betrayed him, so he staged an attack. Paid a local militia to execute everyone in the village and then burn the place to the ground. Afterwards, they made a false report to the media claiming a different terrorist group was responsible.”
“They killed everyone?” Eden looked horrified. “Even the kids?”
Alex drew in a deep breath. “It was an early morning attack. The commander and a few of his men had conveniently left the night before for a scheduled meeting. Or, so he claimed.”
“How did your team survive the attack?”
Dan scoffed. “Dumb luck. Or fate. Whatever you want to call it.”
Giving her a little more, Alex said, “We got an unexpected call to assist a different team on a completely separate op. They were stationed about twenty miles south of the village.”
“We left an hour before the attack occurred.” Dan shook his head. “Had no idea what went down until we returned that afternoon.”
Eden reached for Alex’s hand, and he did his damnedest to push away the feelings of regret and sorrow the memory had brought to the surface. She had enough to deal with. She didn’t need to feel his pain, too.
“I’m so sorry.” She looked at Dan. “For both of you. That must have been horrible.” She waited a few seconds before saying, “You said your wife saw a soccer ball. How did you make the leap from that to me?”
