Page 23 of Covert Past

Boone held up his hands. “I get it. The thing wandered up to Ellie’s house, and she seems determined to keep it. Can you send me that picture? I’ll show it to Ellie. It’ll make herfeel better knowing Dottie’s in good hands.”

“Sure thing.” Eli’s expression sobered. “I’m guessing these men we spotted yesterday are here for Ellie and not Sashi.”

Boone knew his friend was worried about his wife’s safety after everything she’d gone through in the past. “Probably. They may be Syrian Intelligence Agents. Ellie believes they’ve never stopped searching for her.”

Ellie came over with coffee for them. “I wasn’t sure what you all drank,” she told them after Boone introduced the two men. “There are coffees and my Rocky Caramel espresso drinks. Help yourselves.” Her worried gaze bounced between the street out front of the coffeehouse and Boone.

“Thanks for these.” Boone tried one of her signature drinks and told her about the safe house. “As soon as we can leave Hank comfortably, I’ll have Janine—she’s one of our people—pick up your things and meet us over at the dock.”

Ellie’s tension didn’t ease any at the news. “Thanks. I don’t have much so it shouldn’t be hard to collect.” She glanced over her shoulder as another group of people Boone didn’t recognize came in. “I’d better go help Hank.” She hurried away.

As he watched her go, Boone could almost see the weight of the world on her hunched shoulders. He wondered what she would be like when the past holding her down was gone.When?That was an awfully positive assumption.

“She has no idea how they keep finding her?”

Declan’s question pulled Boone back to the conversation around the table.

“None. She told me she got rid of everything from her past. Except her engagement ring and weapon. The phone is a burner. I don’t get it.”

Declan’s frown deepened. “There’s something from her time in Israel and with Mossad that’s allowing this. Maybe a laptop or tablet?”

Boone shook his head. “Nothing. Not even a water bottle or coffee cup.”

Declan didn’t let it go. “There’s a connection somehow. Wejust have to find it.”

Boone had no idea what it could possibly be. Once they were safely out of sight, perhaps the team could help Ellie go over everything she’d experienced since the night her fiancé died. Declan was right. There had to be some way. Finding it would be key to breaking the hold her enemies had on her. At least, for the moment.

Chapter Nine

“We’re almost there,” Declan confirmed with a glance in the SUV’s rearview mirror. Like everyone else in the vehicle, he was on edge.

Though the severe thunderstorms that could produce more flooding weren’t predicted to strike until sometime after dark, the skies had continued to turn ugly, with high winds and rain.

Ellie shivered at the thought of being on the water with lightning strikes. She couldn’t imagine how terrifying that would be.

She’d dealt with rain before but never one storm after the other like what was happening now. If Hope Island flooded, she had to wonder about Breakers, a much smaller piece of land that was vulnerable and more exposed to the ocean.

She sat in the back of the blacked-out SUV alongside Boone, while Declan drove and Eli sat beside him.

Peekaboo glimpses of the ocean winked at them through sheets of rain.

To ease her tension, Boone showed her a picture of Dottie with Sashi. She took the phone from him. “I can’t believe someone would abandon her.”

Boone squeezed her shoulder. “I think it might be divine providence. She’s definitely better off now.”

She smiled. Silly to lose her heart to a pig she barely knew. Dottie represented the first brick in her possibly having a forever home here on the island with her adorable little late-nightintruder.

“There it is.” Declan, navigating the SUV that belonged to Hope Island Securities, pointed to a weathered gray building perched beside the water.

Dreadful memories from the past and her narrow escape from the Dead Sea crept into her thoughts. The box intended to be her coffin filled with water. The effects of whatever medicine they’d given her weighed her limbs down. It had taken all her strength to swim to the nearby shore. Before she reached it, one of her captors spotted her and shot her in the shoulder. She’d almost passed out. Anger and grief were the only things that kept her going. She refused to die. Not without first finding out why Daniel had been killed.

“Sit tight. I’ll get the door.” Eli hopped out and went over to the building then opened the roll-up door. Declan pulled in alongside another parked vehicle, where a woman stood next to it.

“That’s Janine,” Eli told them.

Boone opened the door and got out. Ellie slipped out beside him. The woman she’d seen before with the bright red hair stood near the back of her car with her arms crossed.

“Did you have any trouble?” Boone asked as they neared.

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