“You think the men who attacked you knew about the kidnapping? Knew where Samuel and my daughter were being held and that Isma’il would kill them?”
Cullen said nothing, just let the plausibility of his assessment sink into Noah’s mind.
“What you’re suggesting is unthinkable! Who would do that? Sabine doesn’t know why she was kidnapped. She couldn’t tell authorities anything. She isn’t a threat to anyone.”
“Maybe whoever tried to stop her rescue didn’t know that, or didn’t want to take the chance that she did.” But they must have had a reason to think she was, or might be, a threat. “Isma’il could have told them anything.”
“Except he didn’t.”
“And now he’s dead.”
Noah ran his hand over his face, blowing out another long sigh.
“Sabine’s kidnapping was all over the news,” Cullen went on. “Her rescue is even more of a splash. What would happen if the truth got out? Who would it expose? Why did Isma’il kidnap the contractors to begin with, and why would someone want him to kill them?”
Noah stared at Cullen, his expression tight as he absorbed it all.
“Find the person who leaked the mission details, Noah. Then you’ll find whoever did this.” He paused. “My secretary is prepared to help in any way you need her.” Odelia Frank wasn’t just any secretary. The woman was amazing.
“No one in this organization would betray me like that.”
“There’s no other way it could have gotten out.”
“The only person other than me and the operatives on your team who had access to that kind of information is Cindy, and I never told her where Sabine was, or your refueling locations.”
“Could she have overheard you sometime? Maybe she or someone else stole the information without your knowledge.”
“Why would she do that? Cindy is young, and she’s not very bright.”
Cullen didn’t expect to solve everything right now. “Your daughter is in danger until you find that person, Noah. Nobody goes to that much trouble to try and kill someone if they don’t have a reason to feel threatened. You can’t assume it’s over just because she’s in the United States now.” He put the file down onto the conference room table. “If I were you, I’d start with taking a harder look at Aden Archer and his company.”
“Aden has been nothing but distraught over all this.”
“It doesn’t have to be him. It could be anyone working on that contracting job or anyone close to it.”
“Sabine was there to assess groundwater conditions.”
“A perfect cover for some other nefarious activity. Do you want to risk your daughter’s life again?”
Without hesitation, Noah shook his head. “I’ll dig deeper. I’ll find who leaked the information. I just wish I had more to go on.”
Gnawing dread churned inside Cullen. He was in danger of involving himself in this situation more than he could afford. This could destroy a career he’d worked years to develop. Did he want to throw it all away for a woman? No. No matter how great the urge was to go to Sabine, he had to stay away. No one could learn the truth about his company, however noble its purpose, and he had to protect the men he served. Men who could not admit to having anything to do with the creation of such a company.
“Maybe you should send someone to Roaring Creek to keep an eye on her,” he said. The best he could do was make sure Sabine was safe. “The press has done a good job of convincing everyone she doesn’t know why she was kidnapped, and the publicity might have scared whoever tried to kill her away for a while, but that could all change. What if Sabine gets too curious or remembers something she didn’t think was significant before?”
“Don’t worry. I already have someone on her. She’ll be watched until we get to the bottom of this.”
Wondering if the man Noah had assigned to Sabine was competent enough, wanting to ask but refusing to let himself, Cullen picked up the newspaper from the table. The photo drew him in, brought him back to the moment and convinced him he hadn’t imagined the way it felt with her. He didn’t feel comfortable leaving her safety up to Noah. Or any other man, for that matter. Noah’s men had experience guarding people and assets in foreign countries from rebels and other extremists. But would they know what to do with a more sophisticated foe?
He tucked the paper under his arm. “I’ll have Odie call you.”
Noah nodded. “I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”
Cullen moved toward the conference room door. The choice had been made. He’d made it when he left Sabine in London. No looking back.
Chapter 6
The media were really starting to annoy her. Sabine lifted a fondue set out of a box. In the four weeks since her return, they’d hounded her for information every chance they’d gotten. While she was no longer a headline, every now and again she’d catch a snippet about her, along with a photo. Her father’s opening an office in Denver only kept the intrigue alive. He’d told the press he was doing it to be closer to his daughter. The gesture threatened to soften her defenses, something she’d done one too many times as a child—trusted her hope when she should have known better.
All she wanted to do was live a simple life here in Roaring Creek. Put Afghanistan behind her, forget her father’s involvement in her rescue and his apparent change of heart. Cullen, too, though there hadn’t been any sign of his leaving her mind. At least she had the bookstore to occupy her.
As soon as she’d arrived back in town, she’d seen this old two-story building for sale and known exactly what she wanted to do. Books, and not the scientific kind, were a piece of her she’d abandoned on her way to proving her worthiness through achievements. She didn’t need to keep grabbing bulls by the horns. She could open a bookstore downstairs and live a simple life above it in this two-
bedroom apartment. Just the thought alone gave her a boost of elation.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this? It’s only been a month.”
Sabine turned to see her mother put a stack of plates into the kitchen cupboard, her shoulder-length red hair up in a clip.
“I can’t live with you the rest of my life, Mom.”
Mae reached for a stack of bowls and put them in the cupboard, with her green eyes glancing Sabine’s way. “I wouldn’t mind if you did. But maybe you should have at least stayed awhile longer. You know, until you were sure.”
“I’m as sure as I’m going to get.” Sabine put her fondue set in the cupboard above the refrigerator and stepped down from the stool. She moved to a box on the table. “You can’t protect me from everything.” Opening the box, she reached inside for a glass and began to unwrap it from the packing paper.
“Charlotte and Camille are close by anyway,” her mother rationalized. Charlotte and Camille were twins who ran the local bakery. “If you need them, their house is just down the street.”
“So are Elwin and Cloe and Buddy. I’ll be all right, Mom. Like you said, there are people close by. I live in town.”
“I don’t like thinking of you all alone when you can’t sleep.”
Reminded of the dream she’d had the night before, Sabine stared at the wineglass she was about to put away. It was the same dream she’d had in Kárpathos. Details seeped into her conscience even as she tried to ward them off. The knife. Samuel. Isma’il. The face of the beast.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Mae asked.
Sabine shook her head. “It’s just a bad dream.”
“Maybe if you tell me about it, they won’t wake you anymore.”
Sabine held the wineglass tighter as the same sick feeling churned in her. In the dream, the beast turned to face her. It always started with the back of his head. There was something familiar about it. She went still.
“Sabine?” She barely heard her mother.
That was it! The beast turning...its face morphed into a man’s. Someone recognizable. Sabine’s heart raced.
Isma’il.
She saw him clearly for the first time. How his cold, beady eyes blazed a hateful gaze into hers. How his head turned to face Samuel, presenting the back of his head to her while he resumed the torture that had eventually killed her field partner. She couldn’t go there. Couldn’t remember that. It was too horrible. But another time came to her, when Isma’il walked away after one of his brutal beatings. The back of his head again.
The back of his head.
A chill spread through her skin. She’d seen it before. Her heart raced faster. No. No. It couldn’t be.
“Sabine? Are you all right?” Her mother started to approach.
Too overwhelmed with the horror of her realization, Sabine didn’t answer. She’d seen the back of Isma’il’s head before her abduction. Aden had met him in the village where she and Samuel were working. She remembered telling Samuel about it. And he’d thought it was odd. Had he known something?
Aden had met with Isma’il.
The glass she still held slipped from her hand and shattered on the cream-colored tile floor.
Her mother gasped, watching Sabine with confused and deeply concerned eyes.
Sabine put her hand on the kitchen countertop to support herself. She was dizzy with the realization that Aden had met with the man who’d killed Samuel.
Or had he?
Was she certain Isma’il was the man Aden had met? Or were her dreams out of proportion with reality?
You couldn’t tell authorities anything that might help? The question Aden had asked when she’d first arrived home in Denver echoed in her mind. Was he relieved she hadn’t known why she’d been kidnapped?
“Sabine, tell me what’s wrong.” Her mother’s voice penetrated her shock.
Sabine lifted her hand to her forehead, hearing her own breathing and feeling her rapid pulse going helter-skelter. She shook her head. “I-I’m all right.” She knelt to clean up the broken glass.
Her mother knelt with her, doing a poor job of covering her sob. But Sabine couldn’t summon the wherewithal to reassure her any further. She was too overwrought.
What if her dream was not so far from the truth? What if Aden had known Isma’il? Someone had gone to great lengths to try to stop her rescue. Someone other than Isma’il and his men. Had Aden wanted her and Samuel to die?
Prickles of dismay made Sabine even more sick to her stomach. Bile rose in her throat, and in the next instant she knew she was going to throw up. Rushing to the bathroom, she fell light-headed to her knees before the toilet. If Aden had known the man who’d slaughtered Samuel, had he known the reason for their abduction? Could he have prevented it?
Sabine had dry heaves above the toilet. Samuel. Oh, God.
Their kidnapping couldn’t have had anything to do with Aden’s dealings with Isma’il. It was too horrible to imagine. Yet, the helicopter that had come after them, and the attack in Egypt, made it plausible. Aden wouldn’t want anyone to know his connection to Isma’il.
With a pale, trembling hand over her mouth, Sabine slumped onto her rear and leaned against the wall. She still felt so ill that it made her weak. She closed her eyes and struggled to make sense of it.
“Are you pregnant?”
Sabine opened her eyes like a spring had triggered them and froze, staring up at her mother. Mae stood in the doorway of the bathroom, anxiousness tight in her brow. The consequences had mattered very little after the first time she’d kissed Cullen. She’d reached out to him after her dream, but something stronger had led to the intimacy they’d shared.
“No,” she answered her mother stiffly. “It isn’t that.” It couldn’t be, thank God. Having a baby would be the cruelest irony, following in her mother’s footsteps and raising a child on her own. At least she didn’t have to worry about that. At least that much about her and Cullen was different than her mother’s relationship with Noah.
“Then what just happened here?”
Sabine didn’t want to worry her mother if her suspicions were wrong. So she had a terrible dream... That wasn’t unusual given what she’d survived. She had to be sure before she started pointing her finger at Aden.
“I was just thinking about Samuel,” she said, her mind still reeling.
How could she confirm it was Isma’il whom Aden had met in the village? She’d never mentioned to the authorities that she’d seen Aden with a local villager. Nothing in the press revealed she knew anything about the reason for her abduction. She shouldn’t pose a threat to anyone. But what if Samuel had known something? It would have been so like him to protect her by not telling her anything. And Aden might have assumed she knew just as much as Samuel.
* * *
Sabine drove into Denver, worrying if she was doing the right thing. She wasn’t comfortable going straight to Aden. What if her dream had nothing to do with reality? It could be a by-product of her trauma. Maybe Samuel’s wife could tell her something. Maybe he’d said something to her about Aden. Anything that might give Sabine a clue, confirm or dispel what the dream suggested.
She had to stop for directions at a gas station, but finally she made her way to Lisandra’s house on Cathay Street, a middle-class subdivision of Aurora, Colorado. The brick-and-beige-colored tri-level had mature landscaping and a big lot. Sabine parked in the driveway, glancing around her as she walked to the front door. Ringing the doorbell, she waited. Lisandra might not even be home. Sabine hadn’t called first.
But the door swung open and Lisandra stood still, staring at Sabine, obviously recognizing her from media pictures. Her thick, dark hair was up in a messy clip, and her dark eyes looked weary and lost.
“I’m sorry to stop by without calling you,” Sabine said.
Lisandra opened the door wider. “Come in.”
Sabine stepped inside, seeing a kitchen with hickory floors to her left, and a railing overlooking a spacious living room to her right.
“I’m sorry about Samuel,” Sabine said, facing Lisandra. “He talked about you all the time.”
Lisandra lowered her head. Her mouth pressed tight, as though struggling with emotion. After a moment she lifted her head again. “You didn’t have to come here and tell me that.”
“Actually, there’s another reason I’m here.” She hesitated, uncertain about how much to tell her. Not much, that’s for sure. She didn’t want to put the woman in any danger. “Samuel said something just before we were kidnapped. I wondered if... I wondered... Well, it may be nothing but I need to be sure.” She faltered for words.
“What is it? What did he say? Please, tell me.”
“He seemed to think Aden’s visits to the valley were odd. Did he ever say anything to you?”
“What would Aden’s visits to the site have to do with your kidnapping?”
“Maybe nothing. Samuel just thought it was odd, and I wondered if he had said anything to you. Maybe in one of his letters? Even if you didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
Disappointment dulled Lisandra’s eyes. “No. He never mentioned anything about Aden, on the phone or in any of his letters. Why? Do you think Aden knows something?”
Sabine sighed with her own disappointment. “I don’t know. I may be reaching.”
“No,” Lisandra quickly disagreed, touching Sabine’s forearm as though in emphasis. “If there’s anything that will help bring Samuel’s killers to justice, I’m glad to know you’ll try.”
Sabine nodded and didn’t know what else to say.
“Envirotech did send a package to me,” Lisandra said, dropping her hand.
Sabine straightened as her alertness sharpened.
“It came last week. It’s with his belongings from...over there.” Her eyes t
ook on a drawn look and her lower lip trembled. “I haven’t been able to open it yet, but maybe you’ll find something that will help you.”
“Does Aden know it was sent?”
“I don’t know. His name wasn’t on the return address. It was from one of the other contractors.”
Would Aden have checked the contents first? Maybe he never had a chance. Maybe he hadn’t known the contractor had mailed it. Could she be so lucky...?
Lisandra led her past a wall and up some stairs on the other side. At the first room, she stepped aside. “There’s a box in the closet.”
Sabine sensed the woman’s tension. Without commenting or showing any notice, she went to the closet and started to root through the contents of the box.
Other than clothes and other personal items, she found his backpack. She lifted that out and unzipped the opening. Reaching inside, she pulled out an empty water bottle, a change of clothes, an old granola bar and finally an orange field book. Samuel’s field book. He’d had it with him the day they were abducted. The contractor Lisandra mentioned must have been the one to find it and put it with Samuel’s things.
She opened the front cover. Three pictures fell to the floor. She knelt and picked them up, staring with foreboding at the first. Two men she didn’t recognize stood inside a narrow, badly disintegrating building with hats hanging along one side. It looked like a hat shop in a filthy bazaar somewhere. She didn’t know where, only that it was somewhere in the Middle East. The second picture showed the men shaking hands. The third showed them walking toward the back of the hat shop.
Tucking the pictures back in the field book, she leafed through the pages to make sure Samuel hadn’t written anything other than field notes. He hadn’t.
She had no way of identifying the men in the photos, and the only person she knew who could she didn’t want to see.
* * *
Sabine left Lisandra’s with Samuel’s field book, managing to avoid telling her about the photos. Outside, she noticed someone open the driver’s door of a white minivan. A spark of apprehension sent her pulse flying. But then the man lifted a camera and started shooting pictures. In an instant, she knew that stopping for directions at the gas station had cost her this. Now Aden would know she’d come to see Lisandra. Would he wonder why?
Seducing the Colonel's Daughter: Seducing the Colonel's DaughterThe Secret Soldier Page 28
