Rocky Mountain Pursuit

Reyna tore the rest of his shirt away from his arm and he froze. He wasn’t used to people taking care of him. Her eyes locked with his. Hers were huge pools of green. She drew in a breath and he realized he was staring at her full lips, thinking things that couldn’t fit into his life.

“Let me take care of your wound properly,” she managed in a soft, soothing voice.

Jase tried to gather his straying thoughts. “There’s no time. We have to keep moving. They could have snipers on this side of the mountain. A roadblock.” The possibilities were limitless.

She didn’t listen. Instead, she dabbed the wound thoroughly while he tried not to wince as the antiseptic hit the exposed area, and then she stuck a bandage over it.

“There. That should keep it from being infected. I can do a more thorough job once we’re...safe,” she added as an afterthought, then moved away.

He prayed that moment would come.

“Jase, we could have died back there.” Her words tumbled out, but he could barely hear what she said over his own pounding heart. His reaction to her was completely unexpected. “What do we do now?”

“I’d say that depends on you.”

Her delicate brow knit in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

“I think you do. No more secrets, Reyna. As you can see, these thugs are deadly serious. You said yourself you believe they murdered Eddie for something you have. Tell me what they’re willing to kill for.”

* * *

Throughout the frantic drive to Defiance, Reyna had asked God for guidance. Prayed for proof Eddie hadn’t been delusional. Then she’d discovered Jase was really alive, as her husband had believed, and now in the space of a few hours he’d risked his life to save hers...twice. But could she trust him? She turned in her seat so that she could see him more clearly.

“Why did you come here to me, Reyna?” he asked, his indigo-blue eyes piercing into hers. “Who are those people following you? If you want me to keep you safe, you’re going to have to tell me what’s really going on.”

His questions hit a little too close to home and an unfamiliar battle raged inside her. She was normally a straightforward person, but she couldn’t get past the fact that Jase Bradford was harboring secrets of his own.

Reyna decided to lay it all on the line. “I do need your help, but I’m sorry, I don’t trust you. You lied to me.”

She could see from the muscle ticking in his jaw that her declaration stung.

“You’re right... I did, but only out of self-preservation. I didn’t fake my death without a good cause, Reyna. Somebody wanted me dead. They still do. I had to be certain you weren’t working for those people.”

“And are you?” she asked curiously.

“I hope so,” he answered after a moment.

Not exactly the answer she wanted to hear, but at least she now knew where they stood. They were two people forced to trust each other when their lives depended on it.

“So now you understand how I felt when you lied to me. You could be part of them.”

“Them?” he snatched at the word. “Who are you talking about?”

“I’ll do my best to explain, but it’s so hard. I feel as if I’m drowning in what-ifs,” she said with frustration. “This is so far beyond my understanding. Nothing about it makes sense.”

His expression softened as he watched her. “I get that. Tell me what happened to Eddie. Why do you think he was murdered? How is his death connected to the people following you?”

Taking a deep breath, Reyna struggled to let go of her misgivings about Jase. “I should start by telling you Eddie left the CIA a year after your...death.”

Her revelation clearly floored him. “You’re kidding.” She watched the color seep from his ruggedly handsome face. “Why would he leave the Agency? He loved the job and he was working in Langley. He was safe.”

She stared at him, surprised. “What do you mean he was safe?”

Something came and went in Jase’s expression before she could name it. He cleared his throat. “Only that he wasn’t in a war zone. Did he tell you why he left the CIA?”

She couldn’t dispel the feeling that Jase hadn’t told her everything. He kept his secrets close. Eddie had, as well, and look where they’d gotten him. It seemed to be part of the job description when you were a spy. “He never really said. He just came home one day and told me he was done with it. And that he’d joined the Marines. I was speechless.”

“The Marines?” Jase looked baffled. “What happened to him? How was he killed?”

Reyna would never forget that day. It was imprinted into her memory like an indelible stamp. “Two men showed up at my door and told me Eddie was dead. One was a marine. The second man was dressed in a suit. He never identified himself. The marine told me Eddie’s platoon had been hit by sniper fire. The strange thing is, Eddie was the only one who died. No one else sustained injuries. It seemed almost as if he was the only target.”

Jase never broke eye contact. “You’re right, it does sound peculiar.” He thought for a second and then asked, “Was the second guy CIA?”

“That was my guess, but he never said, and I don’t understand why the CIA would show up. Eddie wasn’t with the Agency at the time of his death. Anyway, it had me curious so I called Kyle Jennings and left a message. I never heard back from him.” She studied Jase. Something about what she said obviously made him uneasy.

More secrets.

If it weren’t for the urgent call she’d received from Eddie shortly before he died, she might not have thought anything about his death was out of the ordinary. But Eddie’s call had shaken her.

She shared the details of the conversation with Jase. “My husband was scared for his life. He kept repeating ‘I wasn’t able to prove what happened. Tell him I’m sorry I wasn’t able to prove what happened.’ I had no idea what he was talking about.”

But Jase clearly did. He looked as if he’d been punched in the gut.

“What is it?” she asked.

He looked away. “Nothing. Go on.”

She sighed and stared out at the darkness. “They didn’t want me to view his body, but I insisted. I had to see him one last time.” She shook her head. “It was...the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I barely recognized him. They told me his injuries were severe.”

“I’m so sorry,” Jase said gently. “That must have been so difficult.”

She drew in a quavering breath. “It was...heartbreaking, seeing him like that.”

Reyna watched as Jase glanced into the rearview mirror once more. She looked over her shoulder. “You think they’ll keep coming after us.”

“Without a doubt. Which is why we need to get off this road as quickly as possible. It’s best if we keep moving for the time being.” He peered through the windshield at the sky. A handful of stars had popped out. “The storm’s letting up at least.”

Jase put the Land Cruiser in gear. “You still haven’t told me what you have that those men want.” He spared her a glance.

The gravel road dead-ended onto pavement that appeared to be at the opposite end of town from where Reyna had entered. Nothing looked familiar. The compass in the console said they were heading due north. Just the opposite direction of where she had stashed the laptop. She wasn’t going to leave without it. Whatever was on it had been significant enough for Eddie to risk his life to get it out of a war zone. The laptop was her only bargaining chip. Which meant, like it or not, she had to tell Jase where she’d left it. “I have a laptop that Eddie hid before he died. We have to go back for it.” Reyna briefly explained about the letter she’d received from Eddie.

Jase brought the SUV to an abrupt stop on the shoulder of the road and faced her. She could see she had his full attention.

He ran a hand across his stubbled jaw. “I can’t even imagine how difficult it must have been receiving a letter from Eddie after his death.”

“It was...so horrible. Almost like losing him all over again, and the note was extremely cryptic. He started out by saying how much he loved me and looked forward to us being together soon.” Reyna’s voice caught and she blinked back tears. “Then he mentioned our first date.”

She thought the letter was frightening until the men had shown up at her door and threatened her. “I didn’t understand what he was trying to tell me until I thought about where Eddie took me for our first date. You see, Eddie’s family owns a farm outside of Stevens, Texas.”

Reyna remembered how emotionally difficult it was to go back to the farm.

She drew in a breath. “We went on a picnic there for our first date and afterward we went horseback riding. So I went back to the farm and I found the laptop in a fireproof box in the stable where they used to keep the horses. Eddie hid it there along with the photo of the Scorpions. I realize now that since you and I had never met, he wanted me to know what you looked like.” She paused for a long moment. “My guess is he hid it the last time he came home on leave. I remember he was acting strangely. He was paranoid someone was watching him. He’d disappear for long periods of time.”

“He knew you’d be the only one who would know where to find it,” Jase said. “Sounds like Eddie went to a lot of trouble to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. What’s on it?”

“I wish I knew.” She sighed impatiently. “Jase, there are a bunch of photos that I don’t understand and another file that’s encrypted.”

He continued to watch her as if trying to ascertain whether she was telling the truth. “Where is it? We can’t go to the car. They’ll have found it by now.”

“It’s not in the car. I thought if they caught up with me, they’d search the car and find it. Then they wouldn’t need me anymore. I couldn’t take the risk.”

“You left it in a storage facility somewhere,” he concluded.

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