There was no need to look, as she already knew Donovan Braddock was still there. He’d started to stand, most likely having decided to give up for the night and leave.
But then…
He sees me.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed him slowly sitting back down. Like her, he’d been coming to this same coffee shop for the past three nights. He’d sit inside while she stood across the street, watching him as he waited for her.
Every night was the same. The former SEAL would wait until after dark, order a coffee he never actually drank, and sit alone at the table in the farthest back corner.
He’d remain there for a couple of hours, giving a very poor impersonation of a casual patron while trying his best to fit in. If Kaamisha didn’t understand how dire the situation truly was, she would have found his little performance rather amusing.
For most, Braddock probably appeared to be exactly what he wanted others to see. A man who liked to keep to himself while relaxing with a steaming cup of the best coffee Kandahar had to offer.
Lucky for her, Kaamisha wasn’t like most, and her eyes saw things beyond the average person’s. But even if that wasn’t the case, even if her parents hadn’t trained her to pick up on the slightest hints of deception, the man she’d been closely surveilling would stand out anywhere he went.
Large crowd or small, it wouldn’t matter. The American was extremely tall, impressively built, and far too attractive for his own good.
As he pulled down on the bill of his ball cap, Braddockalso looked like he wanted nothing more than to kill. And as Kaamisha stood less than ten feet from where he sat, she became very aware thatshewas his target.
Not one to willingly put herself on the defensive, she decided to take matters into her own hands. What she had planned for the former SEAL was risky, but it was either this or tip off the outside forces she could feel watching her every move.
After waiting for her turn to put in her order, she let her lips curve into a friendly smile. Kaamisha greeted the young woman behind the counter and then rattled off her usual order as if it were any other day.
The second she was handed the sleeved cup of coffee she’d ordered to go, Kaamisha thanked the barista with the same smile as before and then turned and walked out the door.
She counted the steps needed to bring her body out of the man’s line of sight. Once she reached the point where he could no longer see her, she hurriedly picked up the pace.
Her pulse quickened with each new step as she followed the same path she’d taken numerous times before. Practice made perfect, or at least that’s what her mother had always said. This time was no exception.
Quickly vanishing around the corner, Kaamisha entered an alley with only a sliver of moonlight present in its otherwise darkened path. Because she’d taken these same steps multiple times before, she knew the perfect place to hide while she waited for her prey to arrive.
As she approached the foul-smelling dumpster to her right, Kaamisha tossed her untouched coffee into the dark abyss without missing a beat of her step. Moving even faster now, she jogged to the next one positioned a few yards further down. And just beyond that…
Kaamisha took a hard right turn straight toward the building’s brick wall. A small inlet had been built into the sturdy structure for a door that had long ago been sealed.
Thanks to her previous assessment of the area, she was also familiar with the hidden niche that had been built into the narrow entrance. She didn’t care about its unknown purpose, only that her body fit perfectly within its shadows, and that the space was invisible to anyone passing by.
With a seamless move, Kaamisha slid her body into the small hiding place. Her heart felt as though it would pound straight out of her chest.
Taking a moment to calm her nerves, she forced her lungs to follow the same breathing exercises she’d learned as a child. She willed her pulse to steady, bending over to reach beneath the layers of her ankle-length dress.
The tips of her fingers came into contact with the large hunting knife strapped securely at her thigh. With the sound of traffic from the nearby street murmuring in the background, she unsnapped the leather strap keeping it in place and carefully pulled it from its sheath.
Kaamisha stood upright once more as the skin on the back of her neck stood on end. In her gut, she knew the shivers racing down her spine had nothing to do with the cool evening air.
Her grip tightened as her fingers curled around the long blade’s leather-bound handle. The former SEAL was close. She could feel it in her bones. All she had to do now was wait.
There was an odd sound coming from the same sidewalk she’d recently escaped. A long string of deep, male curses reached her ears just before she heard a man’s loud, frustrated voice.
“Fuck!I don’t see her.”
It was him. Braddock. And he was most definitely looking for her.
Calm and steady, Kam. Calm and steady.
She pressed her back against the wall, making herself assmall as she possibly could. Relying on her sense of sound, Kaamisha tuned out all the other outside noise and focused solely on the sounds coming only from him.
Several long, quick footfalls occupied her attention. She listened closely, needing the timing to be just right. Because this man was, without a doubt, a highly trained killer.
