by Mary Alford
Was this just some innocent traveler lost in the storm, or the moment he’d feared for three years?
His heart drummed in his ears as he grabbed a flashlight along with his Glock and shoved the Jeep’s door open against the howling wind. The freezing air mixed with sleet robbed him of his breath. Instinct had him panning the area for unseen trouble. Was it a setup? Had his identity been blown? It could be someone dead set on eliminating the threat he still posed. Old habits died hard. Three years, and he still hadn’t broken his.
He shook off the past with effort and trudged through the additional snow that had fallen since he’d left home.
The flashlight’s beam picked up a small car perched about ten feet over the edge. Another three feet to the left and the car would be halfway down the mountain by now. As it was, it had laid bare a five-foot-wide stretch of dirt once covered in heavy brush and small trees, before coming to rest in a grove of aspens.
Davis shoved the Glock inside his jacket pocket, braced his right foot against one of the mangled tree trunks and shone the flashlight’s beam on the ground. Putting one foot against available trunks and another on an exposed rock, he slowly made his way down to the car.
He could see the driver—a woman—leaning forward in her seat, her head almost touching the steering wheel, the seat belt the only thing keeping her upright. The airbag hadn’t deployed. He couldn’t tell if she was dead or alive.
He yanked at the door. The woman moaned and Davis breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her, and watched as she struggled to focus on him. He noticed a quarter-sized red spot on her forehead that had the makings of one nasty bruise.
Davis moved closer and she shrank away, terror written on every inch of her face.
“No,” she said at last. “I don’t think so. It happened so quickly. I thought I had made the turn and then...” She fumbled with her seat belt.
“Hang on a second. Don’t try to move until we’re sure you’re not hurt.”
She didn’t listen and, instead, scrambled to undo her restraint. The woman was obviously suffering from shock.
The latch freed and Davis caught her before she could fall forward. His arm circled her waist and she froze. He lifted her out of the car and set her on her feet. The moment she was safely on ground, she pushed his hands away and distanced herself from him. It was clear he made her nervous.
The storm around them was no comparison to the one raging in her startling emerald green eyes. It had been a long time since he’d seen such panic. Was it just because of her near-death experience or fueled by something more?
Her light brown hair, once tied into a ponytail, was now mostly escaping. The first thing to strike him as unusual was that she seemed familiar. Impossible. They’d never met before; he was almost certain of it.
Davis realized he was staring and quickly pulled himself together. Too much time spent alone, obviously. “We need to get you out of here. The storm’s not easing any. Can you walk?”
She took a tentative step forward. “Yes, I think so.”
“Good.”
He gazed up at the sky. The weather conditions were definitely worsening and he had a decision to make. He couldn’t leave her here and the car didn’t appear drivable. But there was another option. He could take her back into town and deposit her at the hotel then wait out the rest of the snowstorm from Maggie’s Diner.
His was the only house past the last curve. No one came this far up the mountain by accident. So what brought her here? Old fears from his past life slowly crept in. She didn’t appear to be a threat, but he’d learned the hard way not to depend on appearances. Bad people came in innocent-looking packages, and in the spy business, you never let down your guard.
“What were you doing up here on the mountain in this storm anyway?” he asked through narrowed eyes, carefully gauging her reaction.
“I’m...searching for someone.”
Her body language told him she wasn’t being completely honest and he needed answers.
“There’s no one up here but me, so let’s try this again. Who are you and why are you really here?”
Her gaze collided with his, and he lost his equilibrium for a second. Even scared to death and as cagey as a trapped bear, she had the type of beauty that took his breath away. He hadn’t thought of another woman in such a way since Abby, and it bothered him that a total stranger could illicit such thoughts.
“My name is Reyna Peterson and I have told you the truth,” she retorted, bristling at his tone. “I am trying to find someone. A friend of my husband’s.”
She was married. A simple gold band on her left hand seemed to confirm her story, but he couldn’t let go of the doubts. “Oh yeah? What’s the friend’s name?”
She hesitated, evidently torn between answering his question and keeping her secrets. His internal radar pegged the top of the chart.
She cleared her throat. “Jase Bradford. His name is Jase Bradford.”
Shock and disbelief threatened to buckle his knees. He hadn’t heard that name in years. He had long ago buried the person he’d been back then.
Somehow, Davis managed to get coherent words to come out of his mouth. “There’s no one by that name around these parts. Your husband is mistaken.” A hard edge crept into his tone as it always did whenever he thought about the past.
Reyna stared at him in a way that conveyed she either didn’t believe him or didn’t want to.
“Eddie was so sure I would find him here...” she murmured, almost to herself.
Eddie. Eddie Peterson? No, not possible. He couldn’t have heard right. “Your husband’s name is...Eddie?” He latched on to the name as a distraction because it felt as if someone had slugged him hard in the chest. With the exception of his former handler, Kyle Jennings, Eddie was the last remaining member of the Scorpion team still alive. Eddie wouldn’t be trying to make contact with him without good cause. And why send his wife? Had something happened to his former comrade?
“Yes,” she confirmed reluctantly. The second the words were out, he could see she thought better of sharing them. “I’m sorry. None of this is your problem.”
She had no idea how wrong she was. Eddie Peterson had been one of his own. He’d recruited him personally as part of the elite Scorpion team after the failed weapons mission near Tora Bora had taken the lives of two crucial team members. Eddie had been a good fit with the team and they’d grown close while serving side by side. Her husband was his problem. And now so was she.
Davis’s plans had now changed. Instead of going back to Defiance, he’d take her to his place. See what he could find out by morning. Pray that all of this would turn out to be just some strange coincidence and then send her on her way. Unfortunately, he didn’t believe in coincidences. Especially ones this huge.
A deluge of wintry mix pelted his face like tiny bullets and his feet were numb. “There’s no way to get your car out of here tonight.” He crooked a thumb in the direction of his SUV. “My ride’s just up there. Let’s get you warm. You’re shivering. I can come back and get whatever you need for the night and we’ll deal with the car in the morning.”
Reyna didn’t budge. He could see she didn’t trust him. Not the normal reaction of someone just rescued from almost certain death.
“We’ll be stuck up here if we stay much longer,” he added, hoping to convince her.
She hesitated another second before giving in. “You’re right. We need to get out of the storm. It’s got to be well below freezing out here.”
Try as he might, he couldn’t get a good read off her, and he didn’t like it. Not one bit. “Watch your step.”
She clutched the edge of his jacket in a vise grip as she followed close behind, slipping over the icy mess.
Davis reached for her hand to help her the last bit of the way up to the road. The touch of her hand in his sparked a sweet memory of Abby from long ago. They had slipped away for a few brief moments alone between missions. T
hey’d climbed a snowcapped mountain in Afghanistan and spent the afternoon together, just enjoying the breathtaking view and the quiet they’d found amid a raging war.
Back then he’d still believed love was possible. That was before he’d lost Abby. He shoved that painful memory deep within the dark recesses of his broken heart.
Through the swirling storm, he located the Jeep and they trudged through deep snow the short distance. He forced open the passenger door and waited while she climbed inside.
Davis went around to the driver’s side, got in and cranked the heater up another notch. Reyna was shaking uncontrollably. He grabbed a blanket from the backseat and wrapped it around her shoulders.
For the first time she smiled and it caught him completely off guard. She had a pretty smile. It eased some of the tautness from around her mouth and eyes.
“Thank you for saving me,” she whispered. “If you hadn’t come along when you did, I—I wouldn’t have made it. With the temperature dropping so quickly and prolonged exposure to the elements, hypothermia doesn’t take long to set in...” He gave her a quizzical look and she laughed. “Sorry, I’m sure you must know all about the dangers of exposure living up here. I’m a doctor,” she explained. “Sometimes it’s hard to shut it off.”
He absorbed this new piece of information with a nod. He remembered something Eddie had said once about his wife studying to be a pediatric surgeon. That part seemed to lend credence to her story.
“My place is a couple of miles farther up the road. You can spend the night there. In the morning, I’ll see if I can get the car unstuck.” Her smile disappeared. Apparently, the thought of being alone with him made her uneasy. She glanced nervously behind them as if she was looking for someone. He had to find out what she was hiding.
“I promise you’ll be safe there,” he added somberly.
“Okay,” she finally agreed, and he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Good. Tell me what you need from the car.” He continued to analyze her reactions very carefully and came to the conclusion she wasn’t an assassin. She gave too much away. Still, the odds of Eddie’s wife showing up on his mountain without a dire reason were just too high to ignore.
Reyna sat up a little straighter in her seat. “There’s a tote bag. It was in the front seat next to me. It has...my purse and phone.”
There was something more in the bag she needed. He saw its significance before she could camouflage it.
“Why don’t you stay here where it’s warm and I’ll go get it?” He didn’t wait for her answer, mostly because he had no intention of taking her with him. He wanted to find out what was so important in the bag that couldn’t wait until morning.
Davis turned up the collar of his jacket and braced to battle the cold.
The moment he left the safety of the Jeep, a torrent bombarded him, drenching his clothing straight through to his skin. He slipped and slid his way down the side of the mountain until he finally reached the car once more. He found the bag in question lying on the floorboard of the passenger seat.
A quick search produced a prepaid phone. Why would she need one of those unless she was trying to keep her location secret? He dug further and found a small plastic bear key chain with several keys attached and a woman’s purse below that. Inside the purse were a few fast-food receipts and a wallet.
He pulled out her wallet and opened it. A Texas driver’s license with her name on it, a handful of tens and a couple of credit cards. An access ID card from Stevens Memorial Hospital confirmed what she did for a living. In the coin purse, he found another key that looked as if it could fit any storage locker. Not much to go on. Still, he didn’t like it. Three years and not a peep from his past until tonight.
The remoteness of the area was the very reason Davis had moved back to Defiance. No one from his childhood lived here anymore. The Defiance Silver Mine, the main source of employment for the area, closed down about fifteen years earlier and the town had all but dried up. When he’d left his old identity behind, Kyle had destroyed his CIA personnel file. There would be no record of his past life anywhere. Other than Kyle, no one from the Agency knew he had grown up in Defiance.
With the exception of Eddie.
It finally dawned on Davis why Reyna looked so familiar. Eddie had shown him a picture of his wife once. He was so proud of her. Eddie told him that Reyna’s parents had died when she was barely a teenager. Lots of kids would have fallen apart after losing their entire family. Not Reyna. If anything, it had made her stronger. Eddie said that after they’d gotten married she’d held down two jobs just to put herself through medical school.
Davis did a quick search of the rest of the contents of the car and found nothing out of the ordinary. A suitcase laden with clothing and toiletries indicated she’d planned for a long period away from home. She was running from someone. Eddie? It didn’t add up. Everything he knew about the man pointed to someone who wasn’t violent. Besides, she’d said she was looking for her husband’s friend, which seemed to imply Eddie had sent her.
On impulse, he dumped the contents of the suitcase on the seat and found what he was after. A small box that contained a set of dog tags. Eddie’s. There would be only one reason the tags would leave a soldier’s body. If he were killed in action.
Eddie Peterson was dead.
Shocked, Davis slumped back against the seat, covering his face with his hands. Grief and disbelief made it hard to draw air into his lungs. He couldn’t wrap his mind around the knowledge his friend was dead.
“Why, God? Why Eddie? He was an innocent,” he said in a broken tone and struggled to hold back the tears.
Eddie hadn’t been part of the original Scorpion team that was being targeted for death, so Davis had believed him safe.
Why hadn’t Kyle contacted him about Eddie? His friend knew how close he and Eddie had become. He didn’t like it. Something was wrong. Davis believed if it were humanly possible, Kyle would have reached out to him about Eddie. The fact that he hadn’t didn’t bode well.
The threat facing the original Scorpions had been real enough for Davis to fake his death. Kyle was probably in grave danger, too, since he was the handler for the group. Had Kyle gone into hiding himself or...was he dead?
“Please, God, no.” Losing Eddie was gut wrenching enough. He didn’t want to think about the possibility of Kyle being dead, too.
Both Davis and Kyle had long believed something the Scorpions had witnessed during their time in the Tora Bora region was the real reason behind their systematic annihilation. But Eddie hadn’t been part of those missions. He’d joined the team later on.
A surge of guilt shot through Davis, catapulting him back three years to that horrific day when his life had changed forever.
Sometimes at night, he could still hear the firefight exploding around him. See the smoke and the flames. On those really bad nights, he could feel the bullet searing through his flesh as it destroyed his leg.
That night, well, it had had given him the reason he needed to get out of the CIA, especially after learning the woman he loved had perished in the same battle. His injuries had been severe enough to send him home. But Abby and so many others had sacrificed their lives.
Nowadays, the physical wounds were all but gone. The only reminder was a limp and the occasional throbbing ache when bad weather moved in. Like today. But the emotional wounds he carried inside ran much deeper. No matter how much he prayed for release, he doubted if he’d ever be done with them entirely.
Davis let go of those dark memories with difficulty. What was the point of reliving what he couldn’t change? He’d gotten good at stuffing his feelings down inside. Only sometimes, on occasion, they refused to stay buried. When that happened, he dove into his Bible and prayed for God’s help.
Releasing a ragged breath, he got to his feet and put the tags back in the suitcase then threw the clothes over them. He’d do a more thorough search in the morning. Right now, he needed
to get Eddie’s wife out of here and to safety.
Davis grabbed the tote bag and hiked back up to the SUV. He stopped at the edge of the road. He could see Reyna hunkered down inside. She had leaned back against the headrest, her eyes shut. He remembered the picture Eddie showed him. His buddy had told him they took it right after they were married. Davis remembered thinking how pretty she looked back then, and how innocent. Reyna Peterson had grown from a shy-looking bride into a strikingly beautiful and accomplished woman.
Still, something had left an indelible mark on her. She appeared weary from life. No doubt partly due to Eddie’s death, but there had to be more to her story. Her skittish behavior only reinforced that feeling.
Davis jerked the driver’s door open with a little more force than necessary. Reyna jumped as if he’d startled her and her hand flew to her chest. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He handed her the bag and she clutched it against her body like a life support. Further proof that the value of its contents were of grave importance to her.
Davis put the Jeep into Drive. The wipers slapped back and forth at high speed, trying to fend off the ice and snow blanketing the windshield.
“How much farther?” she asked, continuing to watch the passenger mirror.
He glanced her way. “Not much. A couple more miles. Are you expecting company?”
Her gaze flew to his and he saw the truth before she could deny it. His nerves hit the critical mark. Was someone following her?
The Jeep crept along the road, occasionally slipping as the snow chains struggled to hold their grip. Each time he sensed she was trying not to scream.
“Why do you need to find this Jase Bradford fellow? Where’s your husband?” So far, she didn’t have a clue Davis was the one she was looking for. He planned to keep it that way. He’d find out what she needed, do his best to help her for Eddie’s sake, then send her on her way before someone realized he was still alive.
Reyna edged a little farther away, as if his questions made her uncomfortable. “That’s none of your business.”