Page 26 of Tempted by a SEAL

He could fly a helicopter. Drive a goddamn tank if he needed to. But this ridiculousness of putting the driver on the right side of the car was unnerving.

And wasn’t that an understatement.

Emma released a breath, shrinking down into the seat beside him. Closing her eyes as she exhaled. She clutched her backpack tightly, her fingers turning white.

“Breathe,” he commanded. “We’re safe. We’ll find somewhere to hide out while I figure out our next move.”

“I know. I know—it’s just. I can’t believe this is happening. Any of it. A week ago, I was doing research for my paper—pretending to be an aid worker, perhaps, but nothing terribly uncouth. Just another foreigner visiting Kabul. And now I have international terrorists chasing after me.”

“I think we should head out of the city,” he said, his voice low. “I don’t know how many of those guys there are, but we need to lay low. I’ll copy whatever papers you have and get them to my CO. He can deal directly with the rest of the Brits. Share them with the Pentagon.”

“Right. I already made copies on my thumb drive. I have the hard copies, too, but we can upload them easily to a computer and send them off.”

Has gaze swept to her. “Where’s the thumb drive?”

She swallowed nervously.

“Emma, I think we’ve already established that you can trust me.”

“It’s sewn into the lining of my backpack. I have my laptop as well, but I wiped it from there, just to be safe. In case it was stolen. Luckily I kept it on my person as my flat was ransacked—all my research is there. I keep backups of course, but bloody hell. I don’t need to lose all of my work as well in the midst of this disaster.”

Hunter let out a low whistle. “Mind telling me what’s on the papers you found? I’ve been shot at, chased out of a hotel, run out of a pub—I think at this point you can assume I’m on your side. Never mind the fact that the whole reason I was in the damn pub conducting surveillance in the first place is because I was looking for you.”

“Looking for me? What on Earth do you mean?”

“Our latest SITREP indicated there was a missing British archeologist in Afghanistan. It seems that a friend of yours went to the American Embassy when you disappeared. They contacted the Brits, and the rest, as they say, is history. Mason and I happened to be in the right place at the right time and did a little off-the-books work.”

“Lily. I left my friend Lily in the market a week ago. I spotted some men I thought were looking for me, which is why I deserted her there. I didn’t want her involved in any of this. I’m sure she was worried sick when I never went back to the housing the aid workers were staying in, but I didn’t have any choice. It was safest to just leave immediately—disassociate myself with all of them.”

“You haven’t tried to contact her?” Hunter asked, glancing sideways at her. Watching as she nervously bit her lip, her eyes worriedly meeting his.

“No. I feel terrible, but I had to get out of Kabul as quickly as possible. And I didn’t want her to be involved in any of this. I took those papers I discovered, but she didn’t know anything about it. No one did.”

“Mind telling me how you snuck back into Britain?”

She blew out a sigh. “It’s kind of a long, complicated story.”

“I figured. Enough about that though. Tell me what’s in the documents you have.”

She nodded. Searched his gaze before he glanced back at the road. “It’s a list of targets—terror targets. Sites in the U.S. and Europe. The entire document was pages and pages long—but I grabbed the list from the pile of materials so they wouldn’t notice that the entire thing was missing right away. I wish I had time to copy all of it—photograph it with my phone or something, but I stumbled upon it so quickly I just grabbed what I could without thinking. I thought I’d be helping—I didn’t really think of the consequences. That they’d come after me if they discovered who took them.”

“Where’d you find it?” he asked incredulously.

“Outside of Kabul. I wanted to visit some of the areas I’ve been researching once more. I stumbled upon a parcel that must’ve been inadvertently dropped. It certainly wasn’t very well hidden. Some of the papers were coming out, so I looked at it.”

“And took what you could.”

“Unfortunately, yes. As soon as I realized what I’d found, I decided to leave Kabul as quickly as possible. I was there on a 6-month work visa but made plans to leave the following day.”

“Did you tell anyone?”

“Not a soul. I left my closest friend Lily alone in the market—I literally just turned and headed off in a different direction when I became concerned. I told my friend I’d meet her in ten minutes, but I had no plans to go back. I just left.”

“And they saw you,” he ascertained, narrowing his gaze as he followed the signs leaving downtown London. The city was beginning to light up for the night, and his eyes swept over to the Tower Bridge. Damn shame he hadn’t gotten to really play tourist while he was here, but that was life.

Duty called.

“Apparently so,” she said. “A colleague of mine told me that some men were asking about me the day before. I thought visiting the bazaar would be a good move—get me out of there.” She blew out a breath, rubbing her shoulders with one slender hand as she relaxed into the seat.

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