Free Dead in Their Tracks (A Mitch Kearns Combat Tracker Story Book 1) by JT Sawyer Page B

being
married to you.”
    His expression grew serious. “I got the
right mind to leave your city-girl ass out here. You sought out my help,
remember—not the other way around. I was supposed to be enjoying some down
time. Before you came along, my life was just fine…just fine.”
    He pushed past her, leading on through a
winding route over slickrock to conceal their tracks then dropping down into a
shallow basin that looked like a meteor had slammed into it thousands of years
ago. As they trekked during the remaining light of dusk, they stayed silent,
both of them embroiled in their thoughts and what the night would bring.

 
    Chapter 14
    With only a hint of light left in the
west, they followed the narrow ledge that skirted along the second row of
limestone caves until they reached the third level. Mitch scanned the dim
entrance ahead to make sure there were no rattlesnake surprises and then
crouched and walked inside. While the back recesses were dark, he could tell
from the auditory clues and passage of the wind that it only went back a short
distance. He squatted along one side of the entrance while Dev kneeled beside
the other.
    “Where are we?” she said, casting her eyes
wide upon the eerie blue-gray landscape below for any signs of movement.
    “Henderson Flats region, I believe. This
area of the Sonoran Desert has ridge after ridge of honeycombed caves like
this. We should be safe here for a while.”
    He cleared his throat and glanced over at
her face in the faint light. “You started telling me some things back at the
ranch and on our little nature hike. You wanna finish that conversation and
fill me in on what the fuck is going on?”
    She finished the last of her water and sat
silently as if she hadn’t heard his request.
    He turned and gave her a penetrating look.
“I’d like some answers on how your father is involved in this and your
background. By the way you handle yourself and what you’ve described doing at
Aeneid, I’d say that came from more than weekend outings twice a year with your
old man.”
    “I was just a rank-and-file soldier who
did four years of military service and then got into the cyber security field
afterwards with several different civilian corporations.”
    Mitch looked over at her, motioning with
his hands to continue. “And…”
    She stared at the rising moon and then
leaned back against the smooth limestone cave, finally relaxing her shoulders.
“When my father returned from training what must have been your unit here in
the States, he and some of his old colleagues from the Mossad started their own
agency.” She rolled her boot over a twig on the ground, snapping it in half.
“My mother was furious that I developed an interest in his tradecraft. It put a
real strain on our relationship as she always wanted me to get a regular job in
the civilian world that didn’t involve guns or fighting.”
    She rubbed her hand along the back of her
neck. “My father put me, like any new recruit, through the same rigorous
training that he had endured in Mossad—all except the assassination part, for
which I am grateful. I am not cut out for that kind of work—killing someone in
cold blood. However, I was good at the undercover aspect and negotiating with
captors along with knowing a few things about computers.”
    “Yeah, well, it looks like his training
paid off. You’re still alive.” He paused and then sat down across from her.
    “My father’s company employs former
Mossad, SAS, and other ex-special ops personnel. In addition to field
operations, we also have our own cyber security division and a proprietary
malware that can force pairing with another computer to read its information.
That’s how I was able to get past Aeneid’s firewall.”
    “What led you to suspect Aeneid in the
first place?”
    Dev folded her arms across her chest. “We
rescued a subject in Turkmenistan who had been captured by rebels that had
attacked an oil rig in the Caspian Sea. He was