Page 86 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

"When my mother escaped Sorrell, I was only three. She had me placed in a convent while she continued to run. The good sisters there knew I was in danger. They protected me. It took Sorrell only months to find her and kill her. One of the nuns awakened me one night and we slipped from the convent. It was burned to the ground at dawn that morning with six nuns inside. The coroner's report stated that at least one of the bodies had been tortured before the convent was burned. I've been on the run ever since. Always just a few steps ahead of him, always fighting for survival."

"So why move against him now?" Ian wasn't the trusting sort and he didn't believe in a gift horse.

Teyha sighed before glancing behind her at Reno. "When you deserted and took the reins on the cartel in time to keep Sorrell from taking over I knew it was time. He's been gaining on me, tracking me. He found the nun who raised me about ten years ago. She had known Sorrell was close to finding us. She put me in the care of a priest that she knew well and did the same thing Mother had done. She kept running. I have no doubt she gave them a reliable description of me before his men murdered her because within months the priest and I were on the run as well. We ran for years before he found someone he thought could protect me better than he. My life has been filled with blood, Lieutenant. After the priest was killed, I ran away from the retired marine he had placed me with. Within months the marine was dead, and I was alone. I've been alone since I was seventeen, fighting to stay out of Sorrell's hands, always aware of the future that awaits me if he catches me. The only way I'll be safe is if he's dead."

As she spoke, her voice thickened with unshed tears, with the horror of the life she had lived. Kira moved from his side and walked to her, her arms going around the younger girl as she stood in the center of that room, her head lifted, her lips trembling, taking on her own slender shoulders responsibility for the lives her father had destroyed.

"She came to Aruba to ask for your help." Reno stepped forward then. "Macey saw her at Coronado's several times, watching you, trying to get close to you. Kell caught her trying to slip into the Fuentes estate a week ago. He convinced her to let us cover her until we could form a plan."

"Why not let her come to me?" Ian snapped.

"Because one of Fuentes's most trusted soldiers is reporting to Ascarti, Ian. His cousin Muriel. She would have been walking into an ambush if she had entered Diego's villa."

Ian froze inside. Muriel was one of the few within the Fuentes organization that Ian had handpicked himself to protect the villa and Diego.

"Do we have proof?" He was aware of Kira's gaze jerking to him as she slowly released Teyha.

Reno moved to the small table at the side of the room and picked up a file. He handed it to Ian slowly.

In living color the digitally printed photos showed Muriel and Ascarti meeting. The exchange of an envelope and Muriel handing the other man photos. Photos of the inside of the villa and the grounds as well as photos of Ian with various suppliers and transporters.

"Ian." Kira stepped back to him.

"He'll be at the villa in the morning with Diego," Ian said coldly. "We'll take him then and have Antoli question him."

"Antoli's good at what he does. You know he's a plant from within Russia's Federal Security Service, don't you?"

"I'm aware of that." Ian continued to stare at the photos as he fought against the knowledge that this betrayal by his cousin would be a shock to Diego. Diego discussed everything with Muriel and Saul. And why the fuck he should care, Ian didn't know.

Antoli had been a very low-level soldier within the Fuentes organization when Ian came in. Ian had promoted him to security not long after recognizing him. He had known Antoli was a plant from the start. The man had been quietly putting together his escape when Ian waylaid him late one night in Colombia just after reading the file Diego had on him. Which was a hell of a lot different from the truth. Just as it appeared Muriel was different from what he had been perceived as.

He pushed his fingers through his hair as he focused on Tehya once again.

"How will you recognize his voice? If you've never seen him, if you've been on the run all your life, how could you recognize anything about him?"

A bitter smile twisted her lips. "He left me a phone number once. Unfortunately, it's untraceable. Reno has the number. Sometimes, when I want to remember how much I hate him, I call him. He always answers. And it's him, trust me. As bad as he wants me back he would never let anyone else answer that phone. He's assured me, time and again, that he's my father and he wants only to protect me. It's Sorrell, Mr. Richards. I remember that voice from my nightmares. As a child, I heard him rape my mother, his voice so calm, so reasonable, and demonic. I'm staking my life on the fact that it is him."

She was indeed betting her life if what she was saying was true. Ian let his gaze connect with Kira's, saw the concern in it. She knew Tehya, and evidently, she trusted the other girl.

So young. Twenty-three and yet the haunted pain in her eyes made her appear so much older. He'd lived on gut instinct too long to discount her, but that didn't mean he trusted her.

"And I have an ace, one he's unaware I possess." She stared at him intently then, tears glittering in her wild green eyes.

"What ace would that be?" he asked carefully.

"I carry his birthmark. It resembles a scythe. Sorrell's personal mark, the same birthmark he carries."

She turned then, lifted the thin T-shirt she wore, and revealed the mark low in the center of her back, below her hips. In the exact center, perhaps two inches above the cleft of her rear, was the small birthmark resembling the scythe Sorrell used as his own personal mark.

Kira moved her gaze from the mark low on Tehya's back, to Ian. He hadn't tightened, hadn't moved, his expression hadn't altered in the least, but the tension suddenly emanating from him was electric.

"No one knows about the birthmark," Ian murmured. There had been no rumors, not so much as a whiff of information regarding it, Kira knew.

"No one knew about this except myself and my mother. She warned me, before she left me with the nun, to never reveal it. To never let anyone know of it. And I never have."

"Does Sorrell carry the mark in the same area?" Ian asked, moving closer as she stared ov

er her shoulder at him.

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