Page 41 of Trapped

She winced, then said, “You asked how I got involved. It’s because Dr. Kathryn Kelley is a friend of mine. She does some work for Decorah, and her husband, Hunter Kelley, is one of their agents. She came to me—after they found out you knew me.”

He still didn’t get all the implications, but he only said, “Okay.”

“She told me you were in danger. And when she explained what was going on, I couldn’t leave you there.”

Her voice sounded sincere. He wished he could see her face, but that was impossible in the dark.

Although he kept pushing ahead, the injured thigh was starting to show the strain. Finally, he knew that he had to stop for a few minutes.

He cleared his throat. “I hate to slow us down, but I need to rest the leg.”

She turned toward him immediately. “I’m so sorry. I should have thought of that.”

“Not your problem.”

“Of course it is.” She made a low sound. “I mean, we’re in this together.”

Turning, she ran her light over the trail ahead. “Actually, we stopped a little way farther along on the way in. There’s a place we can sit.”

“So, we’re about halfway?”

“Yes.”

She led him to a flat rock that could serve as a bench.

He eyed the height. “It’s better if I sit on the floor and stretch out my leg.”

“Sure.”

Gingerly, he lowered himself to the ground, and she sat beside him.

With his leg straight out, he massaged the sore muscles. Maybe because he wanted to torture himself some more with all the reasons why he and Sophia had nothing in common, he said, “I assume you went to college after I left.”

“Yes. I went to Radcliffe. Then Hopkins for my master’s and PhD.”

He pictured what her life must have been like. Probably her parents had paid for her to live in an apartment while she was in school. She would have had a car so she could drive anywhere she wanted. She would have joined a sorority. Gone to parties and football games.

While he’d been crawling through muddy obstacle courses or learning how to kill people. And then relaxing in the evenings with the guys at a local bar. Or picking up willing women in town.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

“You know I never furthered my education after high school. And I was lucky to graduate from there.”

“Because you didn’t apply yourself. After that, you got a lot of life experience in the Army.”

“That doesn’t give us much in common.”

“Are you worried about that?” she asked in a soft voice.

He wasn’t sure how to answer. If he said yes, that implied he was thinking about the future. If he said no, that would sound arrogant, under the circumstances.

“It puts us on an unequal footing,” he finally said. Because the night vision goggles were starting to get uncomfortable, he took them off. Beside him, Sophia did the same.

“I don’t see that as a major problem.”

What was she trying to say? That they wouldn’t be together for very long? Or that she didn’t see their wildly different educational levels as separating them?

When he remained silent, she asked, “Are you trying to push me away?”

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