“Wow, I had no idea. How did you feel about joining?”
“I was young and idealistic, eager to serve my country. Israel and the Palestinians had signed the Oslo Accords to move toward peace. I’d grown up in the shadows of the war between our two nations and seen the hatred that festered from one generation to the next. It might sound counterintuitive, but I wanted to serve to be a part of the solution. To help with the peace accords. I was eventually deployed into the West Bank and witnessed how violence still prevailed. It was horrible. I quickly realized the only way to stop the violence was from the top down, not by policing the everyday people on the streets. We needed leaders who would genuinely want things to change and rally the people in that direction.”
“It’s better over there than it used to be, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but there’s still much room for improvement.”
“I take it you’re Jewish?”
He glanced at me, probably feeling like he was under interrogation. “Yes, but I’m not exactly practicing. I assume if you’re Hispanic, there’s a good chance you’re Catholic.”
“Technically, but I’m not sure I’m anything anymore. I’ve been questioning everything lately.”
“We all grow and change. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I know, but my tita was devout, and that’s the one way I still feel like I’ve let her down. She raised me, gave me love and a moral compass she would attribute to her faith in God, and it would break her heart to think I’d abandoned my faith.”
“That the same Tita who gave you that evil eye necklace?” he asked with a smirk.
“Yeah, why?”
“It’s been a while since I learned about Catholicism in school, but I don’t recall that being a part of their teachings. It seems to me your tita had quirks of her own.”
I smiled as I recalled all the old wives’ tales we had lived by. Times when my tita would rub an egg on my back, then crack open its contents into a glass and put it under my bed at night to help keep me from getting sick when a sniffle would set in. Our magical aloe plants and the almighty power of the red string. Her beliefs were definitely patchwork, and Tamir’s assurance was a great reminder of that.
***
The sun was slipping beneath the horizon as we pulled onto a dirt road, winding our way through a forest of evergreen pines mixed with other types of trees that had lost their leaves for the winter. Traces of a recent snowfall remained on the ground and in the crooks of branches. It made the place look utterly magical in the twilight of the setting sun.
The dirt road wound through the trees for about two miles before a small wooden building came into view. The outside didn’t give the best first impression. Boards covered the two windows, and the forest undergrowth was attempting to swallow the cabin whole. I tried to reserve judgment, but a part of me was very concerned. The cabin didn’t even look big enough for one occupant, let alone two.
“Just give it a chance,” Tamir interjected, reading my thoughts. “It actually cleans up pretty well.”
I was dubious, and I shot him a look that said so.
Once he showed me inside, I had to admit, I could see the potential. The entire cabin was one room, save for a tiny bathroom in the corner. One double-sized bed, a sofa, a two-seater table and chairs, and a corner kitchen, all encompassed in one room.
“Let me get the lights on. I’ll be right back.” Tamir left me inside, and after a few minutes, a generator out back came to life, then the lights flickered on.
Unfortunately, having light didn’t help the situation. It only highlighted the severity of the cleaning job required. On the bright side, the place was so tiny, there wasn’t all that much to clean, but what was there, was filthy.
Tamir popped his head back inside and rapped on the door to get my attention. “Let’s get our stuff inside, along with some firewood, before the sun sets. You’ve never seen dark until you’ve been in the forest at night. There will be plenty of time to clean later.”
We grabbed our few bags and the supplies we’d bought from yet another Wal-Mart and dropped them just inside the front door. Then I followed Tamir toward the pile of wood he kept in a covered stand. He placed three logs in my arms, and I made my way back to the cabin, placing the wood in the metal grate next to the stove. When I crossed paths with Tamir on my way out, he had twice as much wood in his arms as I’d been able to carry.
I started pondering why exactly lumberjacks and outdoorsmen were so damn sexy when I heard a flapping noise in front of me. All I saw was a glowing set of yellow eyes before an enormous owl swept by me so close, I felt my hair stir from the movement of its wings.
“Aye, chingao! La Lechuza!” I wailed hysterically, running back into the cabin and slamming into Tamir on my way in. “I swear to God it was La Lechuza! She swooped down and tried to take my head off, and now, I don’t even have Ned to ward her off. We are sitting ducks in this place.”
“Slow down,” he chuckled, clearly not taking matters seriously enough. “What happened?”
I stepped back and put my arms on my hips. “There was an owl, a huge, angry owl, that just swooped down and tried to kill me.”
“So, what were you saying about la…”
“La Lechuza. They’re witches that turn themselves into owls. That was one of them, I know it. I saw her eyes.”
The corners of Tamir’s mouth twitched. “And Ned? Who is Ned?”
I glowered at him, not happy about being his source of entertainment. “He was my aloe plant. They keep away evil spirits.”
“Your plant’s name was Ned?”
“Pinche cabrón! You aren’t even listening to me. Yes, my plant’s name was Ned, like you’ve never named a plant before. Whatever. You can get the rest of the wood yourself. I’m not going back out there.” I whipped around but then stopped, as I had nowhere to go without being covered in a mountain of dust.
Before I could make another move, Tamir pulled me back flush against him. My heart rate had just started to settle from my scare outside. With his arms wrapped around me and his lips near my ear, the poor organ in my chest lost all pretense of a rhythm.
“I told you I’d keep you safe,” he said in a rumble that had me clenching my thighs together. “Whether it’s from a man or a train or a well or a witch. Nothing is going to happen to you while I’m around. Got it?”
What about you? Who’s going to protect me from you?
I nodded my head in agreement, but my mind had been wiped blank by a potent wave of lust like a flashflood surging through a dam. He could have told me I was the Queen of England, and I would have agreed because I had no brainpower left to dispute him.
It took me a solid five minutes to regain cognitive function after he pulled away to continue stocking the firewood. There was no avoiding this man’s effect on me. It was chemical. Primal. And now, we’d be spending who knew how long together in a cabin the size of a dollhouse. We’d either kill one another or … I wasn’t sure I was brave enough to entertain the alternative.
Chapter 15
Emily
Between the two of us, we were able to make the cabin presentable by bedtime, which was good because, after an eleven-hour drive and cleaning, we were both exhausted. Tamir gallantly offered me the bed, but he was way bigger than me, and I would feel awful forcing him to stay on a sofa not much bigger than a loveseat. I made myself comfortable on the couch, and we passed out without hardly a word.
It was the next morning when the reality of our situation sank in. I lay there listening to the birds coming to life outside our windows and wondered what I was supposed to do with myself out here in the middle of nowhere.
“You up?” Tamir’s morning voice was sexy as hell. Deep and raspy. It wouldn’t take much more than a few words to initiate a delicious round of morning sex, had our relationship been in that place, which it wasn’t. But if it was…
Get a grip, Em.
“Yeah, I’m awake.”
“I thoug
ht I’d go hunting this morning if you’re interested in joining me.”
“I’m pretty sure my calendar is open … so sure.” If the man was going to kill me, he could do it just as easily in the cabin as he could a mile into the woods. I might as well take advantage of the opportunity because I didn’t think activities would be easy to come by.
We each took a turn getting dressed and freshening up in the bathroom, then put on our new coats and cold weather gear. Before we left, Tamir retrieved a rifle he kept in a gun safe beside the bed. He sighted the scope, using an old coffee can on a log, and then it was just the two of us alone in the woods.
Down in the Hill Country of central Texas, there were no forests—not like the one we were in. Texas had cedar trees and scrub, live oaks and mesquite, but nothing like the towering army of trees around us. It was breathtaking.
“See these trees with the white bark?” Tamir asked, drawing me from my reverie. “Those are aspen trees. A lot of them will have chunks of the bark peeled off because the bark has pain-relieving qualities like aspirin. The deer somehow know that and will gnaw at the bark, especially during rutting season. If you spot fresh marks on the trees, it’s a great way to help determine if deer have been in the area recently.”
“How on earth do you know that?”
“I spent some time with the forest rangers up here after I bought the place. They gave me all kinds of information about the local wildlife.”
After we walked for about a half hour, he found a spot beside a bush for us to use as a makeshift deer blind. I hadn’t been on a hunting trip before, but I knew the general principals. Sit. Be quiet. Wait. There was no pressure to talk, as that would have been counterproductive, so we were able to simply enjoy the silence and the beautiful setting.
We were there for about an hour when Tamir slowly lifted his gun and took aim. I hadn’t seen a thing, but when I squinted in the direction the gun was pointed, I made out something brown moving slowly in the distance. It looked entirely too far away to shoot. Between the trees being in the way, its movement, and the sheer distance, I couldn’t imagine it was possible.
One shot. That was all it took.
The blast rang out, slashing through the silence and echoing into the far corners of the forest. I flinched but kept my eyes trained on the deer long enough to see it slump to the ground. He’d done it. Located his prey, locked in on it, and brought it down with a single shot.
I was equally impressed as I was terrified.
We made our way over to it, and I was stunned to see just how large the deer was. “This thing looks like a mutant compared to the small white-tail deer we had back home. How are we supposed to get it back to the cabin?”
“With this.” He pulled out a blue plastic tarp with rope tied to two of the corners from his backpack. “All we have to do is roll the deer onto the tarp, then we can drag it back.”
What he proposed was far more difficult than it sounded. I had been pondering, when I first woke up, how I was going to occupy my time, but I started to realize roughing it might be more time consuming than I anticipated. The hunting trip alone was going to be an all-day affair.
We eventually got the deer loaded up and each took a rope, dragging the carcass behind us.
“That shot was pretty impressive. What exactly did you do in the military?” The question had been bouncing around in my head after seeing him use the rifle like it was an extension of his own body.
“Special Forces.”
“What does that mean? Like our Army Rangers or Navy SEALs?”
“Very similar, yes.”
“But not the same?”
Tamir slowed his steps, coming to a stop. When I peered back at him, he’d gone eerily still, his entire body chiseled in stone.
“Have you heard of the Mossad?”
The gentle breeze seemed to still at his words as if the forest itself feared what he was about to say.
“It’s a super-secret organization,” I offered, barely above a whisper. I sensed we were entering dangerous waters between his change in demeanor and what I could recall from my research of Krav Maga.
“Its existence isn’t a secret, but its actions are. The Mossad is Israel’s chief intelligence agency, the same as other countries have, except the Mossad has near limitless autonomy. It reports only to the Prime Minister—no one else. Its actions and operatives are not subject to judicial inquiry, nor are its operations disclosed to the public. The institution is given absolute authority to act in the best interest of Israel.”
“And you were a part of the Mossad?”
“Yes. There are eight departments for purposes such as espionage, research, and technology. One of those departments contains a top secret unit called Kidon. I belonged to that unit.”
I felt like a child about to ask her parents about the existence of Santa Clause. Somehow, deep in my heart, I knew the answer to my own question, but I had to ask it anyway.
“What does the Kidon unit do?”
“Assassinations.” He said the word without any emotion. No remorse or shame.
Tamir was a killer.
Not just a man trained to fight. He specialized in ruthlessly ending lives without a second thought. That was why he could shoot as easy as breathing. That was why he had a silent alarm in his apartment and kept a gun beneath his bathroom sink. That was why my survival instincts begged and pleaded with me to stay away from him.
I didn’t say a word in response.
We continued walking, a heavy silence blanketing us all around.
What did a career as an assassin do to a person? Could someone remain sane after that? When he’d told me earlier that he was in the Special Forces, I imagined something like Blackhawk Down or Lone Survivor—a unit of soldiers busting into a compound to save innocent civilians. Something grand and heroic.
An assassin sounded far more ominous. Stealthy and ruthless. When I thought about it, the description fit him, but it wasn’t the only aspect to him. He was also the man who had offered a private training session when class had been canceled, saved me from an attacker, helped me on the run, and even took me to a botanical garden to help ease my nerves.
What was I supposed to think? What was I supposed to do? I could try to get away from him, but if I was being hunted, wouldn’t it make more sense to stay with the man who claimed he wanted to protect me? He was certainly capable, if I could manage to trust him.
I glanced to where he walked along side me, rope slung over one shoulder and gun on the other. I’d sensed he was dangerous but had never truly felt threatened by him. Every one of his actions spoke to his effort to keep me safe. As far as I could tell, my best move would be to trust that his actions accurately depicted his intentions.
Besides, it wasn’t like I had a decent alternative. I was in the middle of a forest without any mode of transportation unless I attempted to steal his car for the second time. Somehow, pissing him off like that sounded like an especially bad idea.
He was there to help me, and I would stay with him as long as he didn’t give me reason to run. He was definitely the lesser of two evils. If he could keep me from falling into the hands of the men who were after me, I’d gladly accept the risk of staying with him.
Should he change his mind and want to harm me, then I was a goner.
I’d never stand a chance against a man with such lethal abilities. I would just have to hope he would continue to use those gifts to protect me, rather than punish me.
When we got back to the cabin, after we both had lunch, Tamir strung up the deer on a pulley and began to butcher it. I didn’t have the stomach to watch, so I stayed inside and experimented with the water tank shower system.
I’d gone camping in a friend’s RV one time as a teen. The cabin shower reminded me of using the RV shower. The water sprinkled out, barely penetrating my thick hair. On top of that, there was no conditioner, which meant my hair would be a tangled mess for the foreseeable future. The one main difference between the R
V and the cabin showers was the water temperature. I’d never in my life showered under such ice-cold water. It inspired a new level of efficiency in my routine.
Despite those drawbacks, I felt enormously better after cleaning off two days of grime since I hadn’t bathed after we arrived at the cabin the night before.
By the time Tamir finished and joined me inside, the clear sky had melted into dusk. He handed over two venison steaks, which we put in the tiny oven, and I began to cook dinner while he took his turn in the shower.
Dinner was better than I ever could have imagined. I had insisted on getting ranch-style beans for Tamir to try when we bought groceries on our way to the cabin. I cooked those and a can of green beans to go with our steaks. We were limited to canned goods and items that didn’t need to be refrigerated, but the meal tasted amazing.
After we finished every last bite, neither of us left the table. My belly was full, and the fire had kept the cabin toasty warm, which helped me feel more able to continue our discussion.
“As you can probably guess, I’ve thought about what you told me for the past few hours. I’d really like to know what happened after … what happened when you left the service.” He’d said that he was dishonorably discharged. I didn’t want to form any judgment until I knew exactly what had happened and had the entire picture.
Tamir stood and went to the kitchen shelf where an ancient bottle of whiskey had been collecting dust. He poured us each a small amount before returning to his seat. “Eleven years ago, my world came crashing down around me, and it was all my fault.”
Chapter 16
Tamir
Past
“I heard the commander talking about commendations for the mission.” Uri clapped his hand on my back as he announced his good news. Our team had spent months gathering intelligence and planning the assassination of a top enemy general, who had been a key proponent of suicide bombings of Israeli citizens.
“It would be well earned,” I replied, closing my front door after my friend had entered.
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