Free The Spy Who Saved Christmas by Dana Marton Page B

cured her of that. She was going with Reid simply because she couldn’t stand staying behind. She needed to be part of the effort to find her babies.
    “Remind me again why the FBI can’t go and investigate that virus and this Jason guy?” she asked.
    “We don’t have the CD the kidnappers want. We’ll need something else to negotiate with.”
    “Is this where the virus comes in?”
    “Partially. The virus comes in on many levels. For one, we want to take it out of circulation as soon as possible.”
    That was good. Made sense. And she was also glad that whoever had taken her babies wanted to negotiate. There was hope then. And Reid was on her side. As much as she hated the idea of who he was, some undercover agent who made a living by spying and fighting, she did appreciate that she had a warrior on her side just now.
    When she’d first spotted him at the restaurant, it was as if her most impossible dreams had come true. She could barely believe her eyes. She couldn’t have been happier. Then she’d realized that he wasn’t the man she’d thought he was. That all he’d ever done was lie to her. That she hadn’t meant anything to him, as proven by the fact that he could leave her without a second thought. And then she got mad. Disappointed and hurt, too, but mostly angry as hell.
    Now she was just desperate. She was ready to forgive him for abandoning her if he helped her get Zak and Nate back.
    The miles whizzed by them. Interminable minutes followed one another.
    “They really are yours, you know,” she told him as he took the next exit off the highway and went in the drive-through of a fast-food restaurant. “The boys.” She wasn’t sure why it was important to make him believe—whether it was so he wouldn’t think she was a liar, or maybe some part of her thought that if he truly believed her he would fight harder for them. She didn’t examine her motives too closely.
    “I know.”
    Good. So he hadn’t changed his mind about that yet again. “How?” she asked.
    “I looked into their faces. Burgers okay?”
    “Fine. With lots of coffee.” She wasn’t hungry, but she understood that to keep their strength up they needed to eat at regular intervals. “Everyone says the twins look like me.”
    “Maybe around the mouth. But my mother could show you some of my baby pictures…” He grinned as he shook his head.
    “You have a mother?”
    He gave a low grunt. “Are insults really necessary at this stage?” He took their food and got back on the road.
    She flashed him a look. “Back when we met, you told me you didn’t have a family.”
    “Right. I try to keep her out of my undercover work.” He started on his food.
    She started on hers. “Your father?”
    “Died in the First Gulf War. He was the same age I am now. We don’t know the circumstances.”
    She stared at him. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
    “He was MIA for a long time. We kept hoping the Iraqis had him. POW. At least he would have been alive. I was eighteen when he went missing, college freshman. As I said, we kept hoping. The last of the troops came home. July 31, 1991. He didn’t come with them. When the second war came around, I looked for him personally. I was in the army by then.”
    “I’m sorry about your dad,” she said, but soon her thoughts went in another direction.
    He was watching her. “What? You have that look on your face.”
    “Zak and Nate have a grandmother.” She couldn’t help a small smile. “I always thought they were going to grow up without a father. Always wished that at least they had grandparents. I was always worried that they had nobody but me. What if something happened to me, you know? My uncle is great, but he’s pretty far away. And he has too many health issues to take on two little kids if I was no longer in the picture.” She shrugged. “Once you become a mother, worries come out of the woodwork to keep you up all night.”
    “Nothing’s going to happen to you,”