Page 18 of Stone
“You know Daniella Vale?”
The picture felt hot in my hands and I tossed it on the table. “Yeah, a long, long time ago. You obviously know that or you wouldn’t be here. Why in the hell are you bringing me a picture of her?”
“Just calm down. You dated her when you were younger, before you joined the Navy. Right?”
Of course I knew the question was rhetorical. He obviously knew the answer. Why put me through the wringer of answering it?
“Calm down?”
Gray sighed. “Just answer the question, Stone. Please. I need to establish your connection.”
“Yeah, we had a strong connection, but her father fucked it up. We dated for a couple years. We lost touch not long after I joined. A distant memory now.” I didn’t need this right now. The last thing I wanted was to be reminded of both the best and the worst thing that had happened in my life.
“I see.” Now he had a concerned tone?
“Why the fuck are you asking me this, Commander? I haven’t talked to her in almost twenty years.” Since I’d fucking betrayed myself and sent her away to find another life. God. There wasn’ta week that went by that I didn’t think about my actions or wish things could be different.
He sighed and sat back, the intense look in his eyes catching my attention. “Call me Gray. I haven’t been your commander in years.”
“What. Do. You. Want. Commander. Why are you fucking here?”
“Because she’s been kidnapped.”
The news hit me hard. Stars of rage and anxiety immediately rushed in front of my eyes as my blood pressure shot up.
“What? Where? How?”
“She’s been living in Paris for years. From what the CIA and Interpol managed to piece together, including footage from a few security cameras, she’d left her place of employment around ten-thirty at night and was taken off the street.”
“What the fuck,” I whispered, more shaken than I cared to admit. “You said kidnapped. Are we talking for ransom?”
“It would appear so.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning her father was contacted by a member of the Le Métro. In case you’re not familiar with them, they are a?—”
“A French revolutionary group led by a fucking pariah named Matis Garnier,” I interrupted.
He smirked. “I thought you retired.”
“For a long time I thought you were dead.” I pulled the file into my hand, shifting to the other documentation he’d provided. Myeyes continually drifted to Dani’s picture. My gut ached, the tight pull in my heart something I’d long since tried to shove aside. “I keep track of things, Gray. I don’t like the thought of being ambushed by anything or anyone.”
“You do know you’re out of the war. Right?”
I lifted my gaze. “You sure about that? You’re here because you need me to rescue her.”
“Yes, that’s why I’m here.”
There wasn’t enough alcohol in the house to deal with this. I shifted to the French police report as filed by a woman by the name of Colette Baudin. “Who is the chick who reported it?”
“A friend who went to Daniella’s apartment and found her place had been trashed.”
“But Dani was taken off the street.”
“Yes.”
“What do the bastards want?”
