Deadly Memories. Mary Alford

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СКАЧАТЬ seen photos for each of the team’s eight members. Alhasan had told her that Kyle Jennings had created the Scorpions after the war to fight the rising number of terrorist groups in Afghanistan and in an effort to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands. He’d raged on about the Scorpions’ interference in his activities and bragged about taking out key members in the past. Then he’d laid out what was expected of her if she wanted to save Joseph.

      “I can’t believe it’s you,” she whispered in total disbelief, still not certain she wasn’t hallucinating.

      This was the Scorpions’ leader. The man she was supposed to kill.

      * * *

      Somehow, Agent Kyle Jennings managed to hang on to his composure. Even weak and raspy, when she’d spoken she’d sounded exactly like...Lena. The thought struck home like a lightning bolt and he immediately rejected the notion.

      Impossible. He’d buried his wife almost seven years ago when her badly burned body was discovered in the desert close to this same area. The overwhelming grief and heartache he still experienced every time he thought about losing her assured him there was no coming back from that. Lena was gone. And he had a purpose to fulfill.

      He’d come here to meet Hadir after receiving an ominous text message from his asset. She was unexpected. What was she doing out here anyway, in the middle of a territory the military had nicknamed no-man’s-land for good reason? This Afghanistan desert terrain was under the control of the Fox, the CIA’s most wanted terrorist target.

      Kyle recalled something disturbing Hadir had told him recently. The man had said the Fox had bragged about grooming a female operative for a critical mission that would shock the world.

      And he was certain this woman recognized him. The only question was how? Because of the criticalness of their missions, anonymity was key. The Scorpion team members’ names and personal information were closely guarded. There were no pictures of the team in circulation. Their background files were kept in a safe at Scorpion headquarters in Painted Rock Valley, Colorado.

      How would she know him?

      With the lights at his back, he moved a little to the left so that he could see the woman’s face more clearly. Through the dust motes caught in the headlights, what he saw just about took his legs out from underneath him. She looked like Lena. Her hair—raven black—was the same color as Lena’s, although it was much longer and looked as if it hadn’t been cared for properly in a while.

      But it was her eyes that really got to him. They were dark brown and soulful, like his wife’s had been.

      His mouth twisted involuntarily at a memory. He recalled how he used to joke with Lena that at times it was as if she could look right through him. He saw the same expression in this woman’s gaze and it was gut-wrenching. Shocking.

      He crushed the tiniest bit of hope taking life inside his heart. He couldn’t go there.

      Kyle struggled to pull his thoughts together. “You recognize me?” The question came out sharper than he intended, mostly because everything about her unnerved him.

      He waited for an answer she clearly had no intention of giving. She shook her head and stared at the ground.

      Frustrated, Kyle glanced around the area. It was just the two of them, but clearly she believed she recognized him.

      I can’t believe it’s you.

      It didn’t sit well. Had she escaped from somewhere or was she part of a trap set by the notorious Fox? Her appearance certainly seemed to confirm someone who had been imprisoned. She was disheveled, her clothes tattered. Still, he didn’t like the fact that she’d appeared out of nowhere.

      “Answer the question. How do you know me?” he barked, and she flinched as if he’d struck her. Kyle didn’t let up. He had to know. “What’s your name? Why are you out here alone?”

      She closed her eyes. She appeared so frail—barely hanging on—so unlike his strong, confident wife.

      Until he knew her true identity and why she was wandering the desert, he had to treat her as a hostile.

      She swallowed visibly. “My name?” she managed, as if confused.

      “Yes, your name.” Kyle didn’t try to hide his annoyance. She was fading fast and he needed answers.

      “It’s...Ella...Weiss.” She didn’t sound very positive. “Please, you have to let me go. I have to find him.” Helpless tears filled her eyes. He watched her clench her hands into fists until the tears disappeared.

      “Who do you have to find?” he asked, even more concerned. What was she doing out here alone? Who was she searching for?

      She moaned softly, and it captured his full attention. He was losing her. Kyle rushed to her side. He wasn’t in time to catch her before she slipped to the desert surface.

      He knelt next to her and felt for a pulse. It was there but weak. She had a scar that ran the length of her right cheek and another far more severe one that parted her hair. Someone had hurt her badly. He couldn’t imagine the pain she’d suffered. He turned her hands up and swallowed back anger. Her fingerprints had been deliberately burned off. They didn’t want her identified.

      He couldn’t stop his thoughts from wandering back to Lena. He’d known the moment he met her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. They’d dated only a year before he’d asked her to marry him. Their five-year marriage had still been in the honeymoon stage when she’d disappeared. He shivered as recalled the horrible night he’d learned of Lena’s death.

      Because of the effects of the fire, her body had been unidentifiable except for the wedding ring still on her left hand. The inscription “To the love of my life” was on the inside of the band. There had been no mistaking the ring he’d given his wife on the day they’d wed. But knowing she’d been wearing it was the most confusing part.

      Lena had never worn her wedding ring on a mission before. As a seasoned operative, she knew better than to wear anything that might jeopardize her cover story. When he’d seen the band, he’d been shocked. It was a rookie mistake and one he was sure Lena never would have made. But then again, she hadn’t been herself in the days before she left for the mission. Something had been wrong, and yet she’d refused to talk to him about it.

      Now, the similarities between his wife’s death and this woman left him unsettled. They’d both been found in the same area, and someone had gone to great lengths to keep their identities a secret.

      Something around the woman’s neck caught his attention as it glistened in the headlights. A necklace. He lifted the chain in his hand. A small silver ring caught the light.

      “What’s happening out there, Kyle?” He barely registered Sam Lansford’s voice coming through his radio. He couldn’t move. His body glued in place.

      “Kyle, come in. Are you okay? Is that Hadir?” Sam said in a frantic tone. Sam had been the one to alert him to Ella’s approach.

      As a former CIA agent himself, Sam was highly skilled, and Kyle trusted him to have his back. Sam’s hostage-retrieval team had been in Afghanistan on assignment when Kyle enlisted Sam’s technical expertise as a pilot so he could have a real-time view of the entire location СКАЧАТЬ