“You.” His throat worked a hard swallow. “More specifically, I want to know the details of your involvement in the attack on our team three years ago.”
“I know what attack you’re referring to, and I am truly sorry for your team’s loss. But I can assure you, I was not involved.”
“Save your bullshit sympathy for someone else,” he bit back. “We know you’re the one who orchestrated the attack, but you obviously didn’t do it alone. So give me a name of the person you went to, and Imight beable to keep you from getting the death penalty.”
Kaamisha…Kam…worked her delicate throat. But rather than offer up information on herself, she countered with a question of her own.
“What about you, Donovan?”
Sure, he’d play along.
“What about me?”
“I was led to believe you and your team were the ones who really killed my mother. That you used your government’s contacts in Afghanistan to lure the two rival Taliban extremists groups into a meeting of the minds. Your assets fed them false information that all but guaranteed their gathering together would erupt into violence. And it did.” A flash of emotion swirled within the greens of her eyes. “A shootout right there, in the streets of Kandahar. Not far from the coffeeshop where I found you lurking. From what I was told, it was like something out of one of those Wild West films. The perfect cover for you and your men to take out your real target…my mother.”
“Not sure who fed you that line of bullshit, sweetheart, but that version of the story couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“No? So your team wasn’t there that day?”
Did she honestly expect him to put his ass on the line by divulging classified information?
Not happening.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” Kam responded calmly after a beat.
“Whether we were or weren’t there doesn’t matter,” Van pointed out gruffly. “No matter the mission, we aren’t exactly in the business of killing innocent women.”
“Of course not. You simply drug and kidnap them, instead.”
Walked right into that one.
“Only after you tried to kill me.”
“I already told you, I wasn’t trying to end your life.”
“You also told me in the alley that you’d been looking for me and my team,” he reminded her. “If not to kill us out of revenge, then for what?”
The air between them grew silent, save for the dull roar of the jet’s engines as it propelled them through the night sky. Kam’s shoulders fell the short distance the cuffs would allow, and for the second time in as many minutes, he saw a spark of real emotion filtering through her stunning gaze.
When she’d been talking about her mother and the fictional details surrounding her death, he could’ve sworn he saw a sliver of actual, honest-to-goodness grief. Now, however…as the woman he and his team had been hunting stared up at him from where she sat on the floor…the only thing he found in her beseeching stare was…fear.
“I need your help, Donovan.” The words were spoken so softly he almost missed them. “Because you’re right. Someone did target you and your men.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.” She gave a quick shake of her head. “But whoever it is, I believe they’re also responsible for my mother’s death. Which is why I need your help. The more I looked into things once the files began to appear, the more I realized something was off about all of it. I began asking around to those who I believed could offer some help, but soon after, I began to get the feeling I was being watched. I have no idea who is behind this, or why, but I wholeheartedly believe if we don’t expose them to the rest of the world very soon, we are all going to wind up dead.”
CHAPTER 4
“You’ve gotto be kidding me.”
Kaamisha stared up at the tall, dark, and mouthwatering security specialist still lowered in a squat in front of where she’d been forced to sit. Her focus remained on his reaction to what she’d just said rather than his undeniably attractive face.
“I speak the truth,” she told him firmly.
Please let him believe me.
The incredulous expression on his ruggedly handsome face made it obvious that he did not.
