Page 18 of Trapped

For an unwelcome moment, George’s face floated into her mind. She hadn’t done him any favors by walking down the aisle with him. And she was always going to feel guilty about that. She hadn’t known it at the time, but she’d been using him. Of course, she’d figured out that he’d been using her, too.

But maybe she wouldn’t even have to tell Cash about her mistake of a marriage. Maybe it wasn’t going to be an issue at all because nothing would really change. He wouldn’t tell her why he hadn’t called, and she wouldn’t tell him how devastated she had been. After this, they could go their separate ways again, and she’d return to searching for a man who could substitute for him. Even when she knew the quest was doomed to failure.

She clenched her teeth, struggling not to make any noise and give anything away to the man lying in the next cot. She could hear him breathing. It wasn’t a pleasant sound.

She didn’t much like him. But she was a realist. She was stuck working with him. And if she wanted to help Cash, she was going to have to rely on his judgment.

When Phil had first come to her office at Howard County Mental Health with the information that Cash Baker was in danger, she hadn’t believed him. But he’d brought along documents and other proof that she couldn’t ignore. And when she understood what was at stake, she’d had no choice but to go along with the scenario he outlined.

Because she wanted to save Cash. And because she wanted an excuse to be with him again.

Of course, she’d come to realize that Phil had thought someone working in a low-paying government job couldn’t pull her weight on the mission. She’d found out later that some of the others on the team had informed him she didn’t need the income, and she’d picked the job because she saw it as an opportunity to help people who’d gotten shafted by “the system.”

After that, he’d settled down and gotten to work. And the team had given her a lot of information about Cash. She’d eagerly lapped it up because it filled in so many of the blank spaces that had kept her wondering over the years.

He’d had ranger training at Fort Benning. After that, he’d been on some hair-raising missions—every one of them successful. He was good at his job. He’d served with distinction. And he’d earned a Distinguished Service Cross, no small achievement.

Then he’d been sent to a village in Afghanistan, on an assignment that obviously had a hidden agenda. Only she didn’t know what it was. And neither did Phil Martin.

After nobody on Cash’s team had reported back, he had been declared missing in action, presumed dead. Only it turned out that he was alive and at the mercy of a bastard named Carlton Montgomery.

And now he needed her help.

She shuddered.

Martin and his group had made her go through a week of intensive training. She’d thought she was prepared. But she knew she was in over her head.

Because the training exercises had been just that—exercises carried out in an environment that she knew was safe. Or maybe she’d felt comfortable because she hadn’t been able to cope with the enormity of what she had to do.

But everything had changed. Once she’d stepped inside the bunker, reality had slammed into her like a speeding train.

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Cash lay awake for what seemed like hours, staring into the darkness.

He still didn’t remember enough about his personal life to fill a two-hour made-for-TV movie. But he was pretty sure he’d never been married. And he had the feeling that his memories of Sophia had kept him from hooking up with someone else.

He blinked in the darkness. Was that really true? No woman had ever really compared to her—so he’d never tried to forge a relationship with anyone else? So why hadn’t he tried to make something work out with Sophia?

Because he’d been too young and too stupid to realize what he was throwing away. Or maybe he’d been afraid that one night was enough for her. A novelty. She’d made love with him because it fulfilled one of her own fantasies—connecting with the big bad boy of Centennial High on a very intimate level. And then she could go on with her life.

But tonight, it had seemed like she cared. They’d touched each other, and they’d been right back where they were ten years ago. Or that was the way it seemed to him.

He sighed in the darkness. The longer he lay here, the more he kept second-guessing their encounter. And second-guessing her wasn’t doing him any good. Gritting his teeth, he switched to another topic—his work.

He was more certain about that. At least Sophia had triggered his memories. Bits and pieces of his military career were coming back to him.

The enemy weapons ship he and a crack team had blown up in the Persian Gulf. The helicopter mission to raid a desert stronghold in Iran. The operation to rescue an Army team captured by a Shiite militia. Expeditions into the territory along the Pakistani border where you could get shot by troops from Pakistan or Afghanistan.

As far as he knew, he’d been good at his job—until that village that shimmered in his dreams

If he’d ever really been there. Clenching his fists, he struggled to relax when he wanted to get up and pace around the room.

He stayed where he was, because pacing wouldn’t do the leg any good. And he needed to get some sleep.

Finally, he fell into a restless slumber. And soon after that, he was back in the heat and dust of Afghanistan.

The sun beat down on him as he pressed against the wall of a house that looked like it had stood in that place for three hundred years. Again, he heard the gunfire in the brown hills. This time the members of the team had split up, and he was sneaking around, trying to get behind Lieutenant Calley so he could shoot him.

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