Page 95 of Fast Vengeance

Racing to her office, she grabbed her phone and dialed his number with a shaking hand, heart thudding as she waited for him to answer.

“The number you have called is no longer in service,” an automated voice said instead.

Her heart sank. Dammit! Of course he had changed his number. His old phone had either been lost or destroyed when he’d been taken prisoner. Who else did she know that might know how to reach him?

Thinking fast, from memory she dialed the number of one of the marshals from her former security detail. Moments later, the same message sounded in her ear.

“Shit,” she breathed, then raced for the front door. Maybe Carruthers could—

She ripped it open just in time to see him driving down the street, phone to his ear. Her shoulders sagged.

No.

Disheartened but determined, she went back inside, dialing Tony. “It’s Tori,” she told his voicemail. “Call me back as soon as you get this. I need a favor.”

Ending the call, she headed for the kitchen and the bottle of wine she had been saving for this weekend, impatient as hell and having no choice but to wait. Her mind was made up. The moment she was free to leave, she was out of here.

And as soon as she left, she was going to Brock.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Nighttime was so quiet out here. Every little sound was heightened.

Instead of the usual rush of traffic in the street out in front of his condo, there was only the chirp of crickets in the air as Brock sat at the end of the dock and stared out at the lake, his bare feet dangling inches above the water. Moonlight rippled on the dark surface, and when he tipped his head back, the sky was a midnight blue velvet blanket, punctuated by a million diamond-bright stars.

Out here his nearest neighbor was a mile down the lake, and they only visited on weekends and in the summer. He had absolute privacy here. All the time and peace he could ever want.

Except peace kept eluding him. He wasn’t sure if he would ever find it again.

He closed his eyes, inhaled a deep breath, thankful that his ribs no longer hurt. His repaired shoulder still bothered him, but not as bad as it had for the first week or two. The stitches in his face were gone as well, leaving an angry red scar that slashed over his nose and upper cheek.

He hadn’t been to Oregon since his SF days, back when he’d done his winter mountaineering training on Mount Hood. He’d never been to Bend before. One of Lockhart’s cousins had set Brock up at this cabin out on the lake for some R&R. The guy had offered Brock a job with a private security startup that he ran if things didn’t pan out the way Brock hoped with his recovery.

Brock wasn’t ready to contemplate that yet. He was too busy torturing himself with thoughts of Tori.

He thought of her constantly. How was she? Was she settling in okay in her new town? She would be lonely. Probably not sleeping.

He missed her so damn much. Wanted to see her. Be with her. As long as it wouldn’t compromise her safety. At one point he’d even considered trying to break into the WITSEC files to find her location, and managed to talk himself down before he’d done something stupid that would end his career.

He’d been talking with his WITSEC contacts to see if anything could be done about their situation. So far, the threat to her safety was still considered credible enough that Brock hadn’t tried to find her. Though he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold off.

He’d arrived here four days ago after finishing off the latest round of physio appointments for his shoulder. The left one was okay now. The right one had limited range of motion and was still sore, would probably take a good six months to fully heal.

Right now, he was in wait and see mode. If it turned out he couldn’t meet the physical requirements to keep him with FAST Bravo, Taggart had hinted that his job as team commander might be open for Brock to apply for someday soon.

Right now, he didn’t want to think about any of that. For the moment he couldn’t go back to rejoin the team as an operator and staying at home all by himself had made him nuts, so he was here taking advantage of the downtime. Today it had been warm enough out for a short swim in the lake. Not far, just enough to stretch his muscles and give his shoulder a gentle workout without pushing too hard. He had hoped it would exhaust him enough to help him sleep.

No such luck. So here he was, sitting on this dock.

A sound carried from behind him, out on the road.

He looked over his shoulder, searching for the source. He caught a flash of a vehicle’s headlights on the road out front of the cabin. Then they disappeared and it was only the moonlight and crickets again.

He turned back to stare out at the water, a slight breeze picking up. Taggart had called to check in on him earlier, said something cryptic about a surprise arriving tonight, but nothing had shown up at the cabin door.

Now it was almost midnight. He should be inside trying to sleep, but he slept for shit these days and the thought of lying in bed staring up at the ceiling and trying not to think about either Tori or what had happened to him was about as appealing as having pins stuck in his eyes.

Something moved behind him. He snapped his head around, all his senses on alert. Then it became clearer.

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