The Stranger and I

He inclined his head and compressed his lips before stating, “You haven’t solved the case, and this is no TV cop show.”

Scowling at him, she said, “I didn’t remember what he said because I’ve been trying to forget what I saw and heard in that clearing.”

The deep lines at the sides of his mouth retreated. “I’m sorry. Thanks for telling me what you remembered, and you’re probably right. He discovered the tunnel, and they discovered him.”

She felt a warm glow. That’s more like it. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “How do you think that guy got in the trunk?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “The terrorists ambushed them and killed him first before you woke up. What I don’t understand is how they stashed the body in the trunk without waking you up or seeing you.”

She snapped her fingers. “Chad covered me with a blanket. The night was pretty warm and I didn’t remember having a blanket, but when I woke up I was completely covered. Maybe Chad hid me on purpose.”

Clapping her hand over her mouth, she uttered, “Oh my God, what if they had found me in that car?”

He touched her shoulder. A current sizzled from his fingertips to her bare skin. She searched his face to see if he felt it, too.

His amber eyes flickered, and then he drew back. “You must lead a charmed life. Could you find that spot again?”

“Are you letting me in?”

He pressed his back against the truck’s door. “Letting you in?”

The man had more nerve endings than an exposed tooth. She held up one hand. “I mean, are you allowing me to help?”

He relaxed. “If you can get me as close as possible to that spot, that’d be a big help.”

“I think I can do that.” She mentally converted the hours she drove into miles, and remembered the little town where she stopped for food and gas. Yeah, she could give him that.

Then maybe they could get her home, and she could call Mom and Tyler. She’d leave them out of this until the HIA could get her safely back to her apartment in San Diego. Then this strange, bottled-up man could get back to his job alone, and she could get back to her life.

She’d have to start pulling back on the strings that attached her to him. He was a wounded bird if she ever saw one, as damaged as any sea creature she helped to restore to its habitat. He had his own habitat, that sterile house where he took tea with anger and fear. He couldn’t even express sadness at the death of his colleague, even though she could read the pain haunting his eyes. Was he afraid if he let go he’d never find his way back to that barren shore he called a life?

Some people were past saving, better to concentrate on the ones who still had hope. She heard Gareth’s mocking voice whisper, “Sap.” Where he was concerned, she’d been a sap. And in that incident with Adam. She shuddered.

She hadn’t been wrong about Chad, though. In the end, she couldn’t save him, but she’d helped him. Shifting her eyes to the silent man next to her intent on the computer screen, she wondered if she was wrong about him. To save him would be a challenge beyond even her abilities.

They’d been on the road for nearly three hours. The moist ocean breezes of San Diego had long since been replaced by arid gusts that needled their flesh. Justin told her to pull over so he could take over driving duty once more. Before changing places, they stretched their legs outside the truck.

The shimmering heat rose like seaweed from the desert floor. Justin, hands on hips, drilled the horizon with his piercing gaze. He carried himself with the loose-limbed grace of an athlete. He’d deceived her with his strength when he’d yanked her into his house, impressing her as a huge, powerful figure. He had power all right and stood over six feet tall. But even though his body was taut, he was no bulging muscleman.

As if sensing her scrutiny, he turned and grinned. “You ready for the last leg of the trip?” His smile banished all the pain and disillusionment from his face. What put it there?

“Yeah, I’m ready to say ‘hiya’ to hiya.”

He shook his head as he climbed back into the truck. “This heat’s getting to you.”

Their last stop had been in Twentynine Palms where they fueled up and downed a couple of sports drinks along with some sandwiches. Justin promised her a shower and some rest at the HIA facility. She needed both.

They hurtled over the blazing asphalt of Highway 62, leaving Twentynine Palms and civilization in the dust. Justin turned down a road heading south. A gated structure, the color of the encroaching sand, took shape in the glimmering heat.

Lila quipped, “Will you have to kill me after I see the secret compound?”

A shadow passed over his face. “Don’t joke about it.”

They inched up to the gate, and he inserted a key card into a slot. The gate rolled back on squeaking wheels. He parked the truck and stepped out onto concrete, glittering with particles of sand. The facility looked deserted, but most of the agents parked their cars in the back.

His jaw tightened, and a pulse throbbed in his throat. All his senses danced on the head of a pin. He sniffed the air, his nostrils flaring at the faint, acrid odor of gunpowder. Range practice?

Lila chirped, “Is it always so quiet here?”

He felt for the gun he’d just shoved into his gun bag along with his backup and ascended the steps to the entrance. He punched the intercom. No answer. Swiping his sweaty hand across his T-shirt, he flipped open the print reader with his other hand. He pressed his thumb against the reader and said, “Lone Wolf 58634.”

The lock on the gunmetal-gray door clicked. He withdrew a badge and flashed it at the reader. A second click. Shoving the door open, he stepped over the threshold. The familiar whirring and buzzing noises filtered out from the data lab in the back.

Victoria Lang sauntered into the hallway holding a pink-frosted cupcake, an overnight bag slung over one shoulder. “Oh, it’s you. Prasad said you were coming in. Guess we didn’t hear the intercom.”

Justin expelled a breath and eyed the cupcake. Lifting one eyebrow, he asked, “One of your creations?”

Victoria scooped at the icing with a long, manicured fingernail and licked it. “Yeah, it’s Dave’s birthday. There’s more in the back.”

He gestured to her bag. “Are you off?”

She lifted the shoulder with the bag. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning, taking R & R in Vegas for a few days. Is this the witness?”

Before he could answer, she extended a sticky hand to Lila. “I’m Victoria Lang. Glad you came forward.”

Justin made a terse introduction. “This is Lila.” Victoria didn’t need to know Lila’s last name. Nobody did.

Lila said, “I don’t think I had a choice.”

Victoria shook her head so that her sleek black hair rippled over her shoulders. “We all have choices. Looks like Chad made a dumb one.”

Justin clenched his teeth. Was she blaming him for Chad’s failure? She couldn’t blame him any more than he blamed himself. “He was on the scent.”

Waving her cupcake in the air, Victoria said, “Yeah, yeah, but you’d never put anyone else in danger, Justin, except maybe yourself.”

He asked, “Anyone hear from Molina yet?”

She lifted her dark sculpted brows. “Nope. You think he’d know about Chad’s death. They were partners down there, albeit reluctant ones.”

Prasad joined them in the hallway, his face drawn and too gaunt for a man his age.

Justin nodded to the younger man. “You okay?”

Prasad shrugged thin shoulders that masked a tensile strength. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Chad always did take more risks than anyone else.”

The “except you” hung in the air.

Justin brushed it away with the sweep of his arm. “You learn from his mistakes and go on, but it can happen to any one of us, even you, Warrior Sheikh.”