Page 42 of Evening Shadows

“I assure you there’s no connection. The first time I even heard of the man was at Bev’s. She never even told me about him while they’d supposedly ‘dated.’” She paused before asking, “Why would you think there was a connection?”

“He knew about you.”

She jerked, and it jarred his neck. While wanting to cry out, he bit his tongue, watched and listened with his heart tied in knots.

“Me? He asked if that was my name. Obviously, if he figured Bev would call me, he must’ve known something about me.” She paused for a moment. “So he expected me to bring HIS here? What for?”

When he waited too long, her penetrating gaze knifed through him. He had no reason to lie. She either knew already or needed to know.

“Ken, what does he want?”

“He wants Jesse… and me.”

17

Sam gaped at him. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words escaped. Abandoning that effort, she lifted her chin and looked at the opposite wall.

Wanting to trust her, Ken closed his eyes to block out the pain and his unwelcome thoughts. He’d gone from wanting to get into her pants that morning, to wondering if she’d been a traitor to HIS by late afternoon.

He still had the second thing to ask her. He probably should’ve asked this one first, but the other had actually put a life at risk, so he deemed it important to feel her out. On the phone conversation he’d partially overheard, he could have misinterpreted it, taken it out of context, and been way off base with the subject matter.

Kicking himself for not calling her conversation into question before they’d departed on this op or when he’d been with Jesse, Ken could only move forward and hope he hadn’t put lives at risk by keeping quiet about Sam. He’d just never believed what he thought he heard could be true.

“You and Jesse?” she asked in surprise.

Hmm. His heart pressured him to believe her… to put his faith in her. The hardened warrior in him kept shutting that desire down.

Opening his eyes, he began, “Sam—” Emotion clogged his voice. Fear that he wouldn’t like the answer to his question clogged his throat, making it almost impossible to speak. “When Beverly called— When she called you, I overheard something that needs explaining.”

She visibly swallowed hard, and rocks tumbled in his bruised stomach. “Go ahead.”

As a guise to stilling her hand on his hair, he grasped her wrist and held it, monitoring her pulse rate. “I don’t remember the exact wording”—a bold-faced lie if he’d ever told one—“but it had something to do with you working for us and two people Beverly wanted you to kill.”

Based on the way her pulse raced, he had no doubt the words had meant what he’d thought. The reality of that had him jerking away from her wrist and sitting up—albeit biting back a groan amid the throbbing of wounds—to put some distance between them.

He definitely should’ve asked that question beforehand, but he hadn’t wanted to believe.

Shifting forward on the cot, she left the distance he’d put between them. “Ken… I—It was Bev’s desire. I never agreed to such a thing.”

Hearing her sniff, he turned in time to see her swipe at a tear gliding down her dirty cheek. The face paint had blended with sweat, and it clung to her sleeve and hand. Still, her beauty astounded him.

No matter his pull to her, he had to escape and warn Jesse, get them both out of the area. Once they rejoined the team, he’d have Sam held to ensure she couldn’t harm anyone or run back and help their enemy.

In a gruff voice, he announced, “If we get a chance tonight, we’ll escape.” How the hell he planned to do that eluded him. To save his teammates, even Sam, he’d find a way.

Her shaky voice turned his insides upside down. “I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

Of course she had. The woman exuded strength and confidence. He shouldn’t have expected less. After seeing her risk her life for him, he’d really understood how competent she was and that he’d wasted so much time watching over her.

Jesse and Stone should’ve been on the transport with Cody. Due to the situation, Franks and Cowboy would’ve come back to rendezvous with Doc.

It occurred to him that she’d said she hadn’t agreed to Bev’s wishes. But the time lapse on that shot had him wondering if she’d devised another plan with her friend? Why? If that was the case, she wouldn’t have saved Jesse and come back to save him. Maybe he was overthinking it.

The groan that escaped him included a mix of pain both physically and emotionally. No matter his concerns, he just had to trust her to get him out.

“When the meal arrives, we’ll overpower the guard or guards,” Ken said.

“We?” she taunted. “How about me? I’m already wondering how far I can carry you once we’re out in the open.”

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