Page 3 of Chasing the Past

“We were getting ready to leave you,” CIA Agent Carter Palmer told him as they entered the chopper.

Eli didn’t respond as he claimed his seat. The hatch door closed. Seconds later, the helicopter lifted off under heavy fire.

The extent of the war coming upon Kunduz was clear from the air. The bombed-out buildings and huge parts of the city that were darkened confirmed the damage Kunduz had taken already. Massive amounts of Taliban soldiers outside the city assured Eli there would be no way the Afghan military could hold the city against that type of military attack.

Gavin slipped into the seat beside him. “You okay?”

Eli shook his head. How could he answer that question when his heart was still back there in Kunduz in that destroyed building. He searched through the city, mostly darkened from lack of electricity until he spotted the fire. She was dead. The woman he loved was dead. The future he0’d envisioned for them was gone.

Gavin clutched his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Eli. I wish things had turned out differently.”

Eli didn’t respond. He kept his attention glued to the fire below until it was no longer visible. He owed as much to Sashi. She’d put her life in jeopardy to help save her country from Taliban control because she’d seen how destructive life under their control could be in the past. She wanted more for her people. She’d fought for more. In the end it had cost her everything.

She was gone.

Because of him.

How could he ever forgive himself?

Chapter One

October 1st. Hope Island, Maine – Present year

“Earth to Eli,” Hope Island Securities team member Janine Chambers waved her hand in front of Eli’s face.

The past faded for the moment. “Huh? Sorry, Janine. I guess I was a million miles away. What were you saying?”

The former FBI agent smiled as she shook her head, her short red hair swinging with the motion. “Just that we’d better hurry if we’re going to make it to our client meeting.” She scraped back her chair as she stood.

Eli did his best to get thoughts of the past under control. “You’re right.” He grabbed his jacket and followed her out into a perfect fall day on Hope Island. “Can you drive?” His head was all over the place, and he didn’t trust himself behind the wheel.

“Sure thing.” Janine arched a brow but caught the keys he tossed to her. She didn’t remark about how strange it was for him to give up control of his SUV.

Eli slid into the passenger seat and waited for the first question to come.

Janine was smart. She’d recently solved a decade’s old serial killer case and cleared her husband, Bennett Chambers’ name in the process. The two had recently become parents to a little girl who was their world. Janine was back at work but only working part time.

“Okay, what gives, Warren?”

Most days, Janine’s brash sense of humor could bring him out of any funk. Today wasn’t one of those days.

“Nothing. Just life.”

She shot him a look. His business partners JT Wyatt and Declan Thomas both knew about his past service as a Green Beret. They had heard about the loss of his asset, but they had no idea how deep the loss of Sashi had cut.

“Yeah, right. Sorry, my friend, I don’t believe you.”

The anniversary of losing Sashi hit him harder this year. Though he still had nightmares of those final hours in Kunduz, he’d believed he’d made peace with his part in her death. His reaction today proved otherwise.

Following his team’s evacuation, Eli had combed the sketchy news coming out of Kunduz for anything about the explosion but there had been little mention except that an unidentified building had burned due to what was believed to be a Taliban missile attack.

The offensive to retake Kunduz led by Afghan troops and supported by United States special forces and airstrikes was able to successfully recapture the city on October 13th.

Eli and Gavin had been part of the recapture. When the city was stable, he’d gone back to the building. He stood before it and tried to understand why Sashi had to die. She’d been so close to escaping the nightmare. How had the mysterious man managed to grab her?

Why had he grabbed her?

By that time, the hospital had been closed, the doctors evacuated. There was no one to ask and so he’d thrown himself into figuring out why the building had been targeted. Unfortunately, there was little information about it other than it had been owned by an Egyptian businessman and empty at the time of the explosion.

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