Page 87 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

Kira watched Ian. He was no longer suspicious; it was as though something had fallen in to place for him, some source of information that only he knew.

Ian bent to sit on his heels, staring at the mark closely.

"We have a chance to get him here, Ian." Reno spoke softly from the other side of the girl. "She's willing to help us and we have enough to identify him."

"He dies," Ian said, his eyes locked on the mark. "I don't care how much information he could have." He rose slowly, straightening to stare at Reno over Tehya's shoulder. "He doesn't leave alive."

"You'll have to set up protection for her. Something away from the villa," Kira stated as Tehya pulled the hem of her shirt back into place. "You'll have to give him visual proof that you have her. You'll have to threaten to mark her, scar her. If she's scarred, then her value to him is diminished. Sorrell doesn't deal in damaged goods. And his daughter would be an asset. An extension of his ability to create perfection."

"Antoli." Ian nodded slowly. "We'll set up a vid, an interrogation of her, make it look good. Give her the appearance of bruising . . ."

"It will only work if you actually bruise her." Kira shook her head. "Bruising does more than discolor the flesh. To convince Sorrell, you're going to have to go further."

"She's right." Tehya held Kira's hand as several male heads shook instinctively. "It won't be the first time I've been bruised. And if your Antoli is as good with interrogation techniques as I've heard, then he'll know how to do it right."

Courage. The woman had more courage than she should have at her age. To even consider allowing a man as brutal as Antoli to touch her.

Ian let his gaze drift to Kira then. He saw the pain in her eyes, the shadows, and knew she was reliving the loss of her own family to the murderous bastard. She had been ten, but she had escaped the horror Tehya had lived through. Thank God.

"We don't need to beat her up to convince Sorrell." Ian shook his head as he turned his gaze back to the small redhead with the wild green eyes. Eyes that saw too much, that knew too much. Eyes that broke Kira's heart with the pain and rage inside them. "All we need is the visual proof that we have her. He's chased her this long. Make her accessible and he'll mess up. He won't be able to help it. He'll be desperate to secure her."

Kira was watching Tehya's eyes as he said it, saw the terror that flashed inside them. She had courage, but she was smart enough to know what she was getting herself into.

"I'll do the vid," he continued. "We'll take her to a secured safe house, record it, and send it to Ascarti via Colombia," he mused. "We'll give him a short timeline. Make him react quickly."

"He's not far from Ascarti," Tehya said then. "Wherever Ascarti is, you'll find Sorrell close. But if you snatched Ascarti he wouldn't come running."

Ian nodded slowly as he turned back to Reno, his eyes narrowed, the air around him pulsing with danger. "What kind of probables have you run?"

"We checked out the names she gave us of those who tried to help her. They were dead. Deaths were by torture. They died hard and likely gave Sorrell everything they knew. It fits with his particular MO. Evidence we've gathered about his network suggests it was his personal handiwork. No one knows torture in his organization as well as he does. We know he's indeed French, Tehya's mother was of French descent. Reports on her death suggest that she hadn't been in Nicaragua more than a few weeks when she was snatched from the street. There were a few witness reports, but you know how sketchy local law enforcement is there. It was dropped within hours; only the notification and questioning of witnesses was kept until her body was found."

"Her name was Francine Taite. She was the daughter of a French industrialist driven to bankruptcy after her kidnapping. They died before my birth. She was kidnapped and sold, according to the information she gave the nuns, though she never gave his name. Thirteen years after her disappearance as a child, she was dumped out of a dark sedan on a dirty street in Nicuragua. She had been raped. Her fingers shattered, the soles of her feet had been burned. She died slowly," Tehya recited, a frown marring her brow as she seemed to stare off into nothing. "She was tiny, delicate. I remember her crying. I never remember her laughter."

She seemed to shudder as Kira moved to Ian's side. His arm went around her naturally, pulling her to his side, feeling the pain that worked through her as Tehya turned to Reno. "I'll require a weapon. I won't let him take me, Reno. It stops here. Either he dies, or I do."

Reno nodded slowly.

"We need to get this together and get moving on it, before Sorrell figures out what's going on," Ian said. "If he's never more than a step or two behind her, then he knows she's been here watching me. It could be the reason he fired a missile at me rather than a gun on the last attack. Do you have a safe house in mind?"

"Right here." Reno grinned. "She's been here since the night Kira moved out. All we need to do is get this vid made and shipped out and wait for the response. We have everything set up. We were just waiting for you."

"Fucktard," Macey muttered as an aside.

Kira watched the grin that tugged at Ian's lips. Evidently tonight wasn't the first time Ian had heard that particular insult. He stared around at the other men. "First chance I have, I'm telling your women you left them to play on the beaches in Aruba. Fitting punishment, I think, for driving me crazy with that sniper rifle you've had trained on me for the last two weeks."

"Best telescope I own." Macey snickered. "Felt it, did you?"

"Every time you stroked the trigger, I felt it, Macey," he growled.

"Should have shot you," Macey grumbled. "Dumb fuck. You should have let us in on the fun. You're just plain selfish, Ian. I've always said that about you."

Ian pulled Kira against his side. She felt the warmth of his body, the strength, the steady confidence. "You have no idea. Remember, the next time you train that telescope on Kira, I'll shove it up your ass."

Macey winced, but the tension that had filled the room began to dissipate.

For the first time in eight months, Ian felt the camaraderie, the sense of teamwork that he had relied on for so many years.

And in his arms, close to his side, he felt the center of his soul. He had avoided the acknowledgment, tried to deny it, fought to push it away. But as he stared at Tehya Talamosi, and saw a woman alone, fighting to live in the face of a monster, he realized how very similar he had once been to her.

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