Cover of Darkness (35 page)

"Dec!" she screamed, choking as the guy squeezed his arm across her throat and dragged her inside the back seat with him. Her eyes were terrified.

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Bryn...

He aimed at the back tire, fired, but he was too far away and the bullet pinged off the fender. He ground to a halt as the black car peeled away from the curb, fishtailed around the corner. Luke skidded to a stop beside him in the truck. He and Ben leapt inside. Dec's stomach twisted as they tailed the kidnappers. He didn't know how he'd bear it if they didn't get her out.

The car didn't have its lights on. It didn't have plates. If they didn't stay close enough to maintain a visual, they'd lose them. The car wove through traffic, running lights and dodging the crowds of people leaving the local market. Dec's heart sank. She'd dropped the phone fighting with her attackers. They didn't have a GPS chip to track her with.

"Don't you lose her," he said to Luke.

Luke sent them flying around the corner, hit the gas, searching for the car. "Where the fuck did they go?" He stomped on the brake to avoid hitting a group of pedestrians and laid on the horn to hurry them along.

The blood pounded in Dec's ears. He couldn't see the vehicle either. The muscles in his arms corded. "Ben?"

"Can't see shit out there," he muttered.

Oh my God...

Swearing, Luke blasted the horn again, but it didn't do any good. They waited agonizing minutes for the crowd to clear enough to let them through, and when they did, the car was long gone. They drove around for a while longer, but the effort was futile.

They'd lost her.

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Dec stared out the windshield, his chest hollow. The interior of the vehicle was silent as a grave. Inside his head, he was screaming.

Luke suddenly yanked the wheel and sent them in a one-eighty, sped down the street. "We gotta find Fahdi. That's the only way we'll find out where they've taken her."

Dec swallowed the lump in his throat. "How?"

"Transmitter. We'll follow its signal." His jaw clenched. He was pissed off at himself, as he should be. Bryn was going to die because he'd ordered her taken to Fahdi's house.

And because Dec had left her there.

Bryn thrashed against her captor's hold, tried to bite his hand as he wrapped her wrists with duct tape behind her. He swore and cuffed her. Her head snapped sideways, the sting making her eyes water. He'd sat on her to bind her ankles, and now he jammed a knee in the small of her back and hog-tied her limbs together. She screamed in outrage, but he slapped a piece of tape across her mouth, leaving her to suck air through her flaring nostrils. She bucked and twisted like a landed fish, but all it did was exhaust her. She kept thinking of the cellar she'd been thrown into. She couldn't stand the thought of going through that again, and this time she'd be alone. But maybe they weren't going to hold her prisoner.

Maybe they were going to kill her.

Terror gripped her. Her body shook. Was Dec still behind them? Was he still coming after her?

The erratic motion of the car eased. She couldn't see out the window. Where were they? The vehicle slowed. Maybe no one was chasing after them anymore.

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Had they lost Dec? Her heart thudded. She'd dropped her phone. If Dec lost sight of her, then he didn't have a way to find her. Despair almost choked her.

They drove for a long time. Neither of the men looked at or said anything to her. What were they going to do to her?

Torture her? Kill her? Why? For whom?

Fahdi, probably. He must have sent them after her. How else would they have found her? He'd planted the bomb that killed Ali. Was he linked to Tehrazzi? Maybe he'd been offered a reward to bring him to her. It would explain why she was still alive. Tears brimmed and rolled down her cheek, off her nose as she lay on her side on the back seat. Dec had been so close to saving her. The grief in his eyes when he knew he couldn't get to her haunted her. He'd blame himself for whatever happened to her. He hadn't wanted to leave her at Fahdi's. She wished they'd had more time together. At least they had the memory of the night of the air strike to hold onto. She wished she'd told him she loved him. Now he'd never know.

The car sped through the darkness, picking up speed. The pavement smoothed out as they accelerated. They were on a highway. She cranked her head up to try and catch a glimpse of a road sign. Time crawled past but she kept at it until the muscles in her neck screamed from the strain. Finally they passed under a streetlight and she made out the sign.

Basra
.

A silent sob shook her. They were headed south away from Baghdad.

Dec and the others would never find her now.

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Then the car slowed until finally it stopped. The driver's side window hummed as it lowered. Footsteps approached.

Her heart leapt. A checkpoint. Soldiers would inspect the vehicle. She reared up, flailing, screaming through her gag to get their attention. The passenger reached back and swatted her across the head.

"Quiet," he snarled.

She kept on hollering, desperately trying to make eye contact with the Iraqi soldier as he came to the driver's side.

He met her gaze, and she went utterly still at the lack of reaction in his face. He looked at the driver, spoke with him, checked the papers he handed him.

Why wasn't he helping her? What wasn't he doing anything?

Then he handed the papers back and waved them through.

Rigid with disbelief, Bryn watched the window go back up as the car started moving. No.
No!

She tried to figure out what had just happened. Had her captors paid him to let them through? The soldier had given her as much attention as a bag of groceries.

Mahdi army, she finally realized. Had to be. Probably one of Tehrazzi's.

Shit, were they taking her to Tehrazzi? Her blood turned to ice.

The car picked up speed, the engine whirring smoothly as they sped into the darkness.

Holding back her sobs so her captors wouldn't hear her, she dropped her head against the upholstery and squeezed 333

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her eyes shut. She thought of all the ways there were to kill someone.

Please God, when it happens, let it be quick
.

Luke was in a cold rage as they drove into the desert, following the transmitter's signal with the GPS. They'd hopped a helo to Mosul, then grabbed a truck to take them the rest of the way to Fahdi. Looked like the bastard was trying to make a run for the Iranian border. It took a lot for Luke to get worked up like this, but Fahdi's treachery had pushed him from pissed off to lethal. He wanted answers, from both him
and
Sam. And he wanted them yesterday.

Most of all, he wanted Bryn back, safe. The guilt was eating him up. If she died, it was completely his fault.

Beside him in the passenger seat, Dec sat staring at the pictures of Sam with Fahdi and his wife from the dossier Davis had compiled for Luke. He'd given it to him to try and take his mind off what might be happening to Bryn, after saying whoever had taken Bryn wouldn't kill her because Tehrazzi—and he was certain that's who was behind Fahdi's actions—would want her himself. Probably didn't help worth a damn, but it was the best he could do.

"We still don't know for sure Sam's involved," Luke offered, more to Ben than Dec, since he'd seemed most troubled about Sam's possible role in all this. All that was eclipsed by their worry for Bryn now anyway. Ben was halfway through a roll of Tums already. Dec looked sick to his stomach.

Christ, where had he gone wrong? He'd never made so many mistakes, and never with his crew. Fahdi he'd never 334

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completely trusted because of his role as informant, but Sam... He'd trusted her, as had Rhys and Ben. Hell, they all had. Her being AWOL on top of everything else made him damned uneasy. He'd bet his right nut she had to have known what Fahdi was up to. She did all the transmitters and GPS

chips, after all. How deep was she into this? Had whoever had broken into her place been pumping her for information all along? She'd seemed so sincere when she'd come to him only this morning with her theory about Fahdi. Either she was innocent and merely behaving suspiciously, or she was one hell of an actress and in it up to her pretty neck. He'd dealt with a few of both examples over the years.

Ben sighed. "It doesn't compute. Even if she was in with Fahdi, she would never have endangered Bryn."

"Unless she had to," Luke put in. "Maybe they've threatened her."

"Or someone she cares about."

"Most likely her cousin. Rhys spent time with both of them in Paris and figured they're real close. He said something about a photo of the pair of them at Sam's place this morning."

Ben wiped a hand over his goatee. "Christ. I never saw this coming. You?"

Luke balled his fists. Fuck, how had he missed the signs?

Well, maybe he hadn't. He'd been too damn slow to act on them, though. "I had a hunch Fahdi was trying to protect his family by playing both sides of the fence. Didn't know he'd jumped clean over it."

A tense silence passed.

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Ben finally cleared his throat. "This whole CIA shit is whacked, man. In a military op, everything's black and white.

Since I came on with you, there's been nothing but gray."

"It's an acquired taste," he said dryly.

"When this is over I'm gonna stick to private security."

"Want a job?"

"What do you mean?"

"After we get Bryn back and I nail Tehrazzi and his cell, I'm gonna start my own company. Bryn's offered to rent me her father's place for headquarters. I want solid guys I can trust. You interested?"

Ben's brow creased. "Maybe."

"What is it with you and Tehrazzi, anyway?" Dec grumbled.

"Is he the guy who's going to propel you to fame and fortune at the end of your career, or is it personal?"

"Personal. Very."

"Wanna enlighten us? I think we could use the distraction right about now."

Luke sighed. No shit. "Tehrazzi and I go way back. Over twenty years."

"How's that?"

"A little war between the Russians and the Afghans. The U.S. government thought it was a hell of an idea to get in there and help defeat the Communists, and I got sent in there to train some mujahedin."

Dec's shot him a disbelieving look. "You trained Tehrazzi?"

"Yep. Created him and a few other monsters. Even had a hand in making America's public enemy number one."

"No way, bin Laden?"

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"I don't do anything half-assed. Even my fuck-ups." Which were few, but catastrophic. Nasty terrorists. Abandoning his wife and kid. Sending his son's best friend to her death...

No. She'll be okay until she gets to Tehrazzi. They still had some time to find her and get her out.

"Christ," Dec said. "What a mess we make for ourselves."

"Yep. So as penance, I've made it my personal mission to clean this one up before I die."

Ben raised a brow. "You gonna stick at it that long?"

"Long as it takes." Along the way he'd given up everything that mattered to him. He didn't give a shit if he died, so long as he made everything right first. The chance for redemption was all that kept him going.

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337

Cover of Darkness

by Kaylea Cross

Day 12, Iraqi desert outside Basra
Late night

Bryn tried to stop trembling in the cave dug into the hillside. Her kidnappers had blindfolded her before carrying her in and dumping her here hours ago. She'd managed to wriggle around enough to get the blindfold off, but her face was scraped up from her efforts. At least she could see now.

Even though it was pitch dark, she felt a little less helpless to know she'd be able to see them when they came for her.

She'd lain on her side all night, her hands and feet bound behind her. They'd long since gone numb. She'd dropped off into an exhausted doze, and woken to the sound of her own cries, muffled behind the tape. She'd dreamed Dec had come for her. He'd ripped the tape away and pulled her into his strong arms. Told her he loved her.

Tears threatened. No way he could know where she was.

She'd come full circle now. A prisoner again, left to wither away in the darkness. Only this time she was alone, didn't even have her father's presence to comfort her.

Calm down. Breathe. Panicking won't help. Keep your head
clear.

Her breaths evened. She focused on her memories of Dec to keep her composure.

Men moved around outside in the darkness. Soldiers?

Mahdi army? She could hear them talking, but couldn't understand more than a few words and phrases. She didn't 338

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know where she was, other than somewhere close to Basra.

She had no idea how many of them there were. Not that it mattered. She was trussed up and powerless, waiting to find out who wanted her here and what they would do to her. She was terrified it was Tehrazzi.

The flap pushed open. She sucked in a breath when a tall man appeared, carrying a flashlight. He set in on the ground.

The white beam pointed to the ceiling, and illuminated his face. Her heart stuttered.

Farouk Tehrazzi.

His eyes glittered down at her, fanatical in their glee. He strode up to her, his feet crunching on the sand. He bent and reached out a hand. She cringed, ducking her head away, but he merely ripped the tape from her mouth. She gasped at the quick sting.

"Luke Hutchinson. Where is he?"

The sharp question threw her. "Wh-what?"