Free Heavy Artillery Husband by Debra Webb Page B

Hellfire learns you’ve turned on them.”
    â€œNo.” The blood drained from his face, his eyes wide and wild. “You can’t do that. Engle would never believe I’d turn.”
    Frank shrugged. “Belief and trust are fragile things. Good luck.” He moved through the doors as the warning sounded, glancing back to see the kid fumbling to get his other arm working.
    Engle , Frank thought, mentally tucking the new name away, along with every other word the kid had said. Between the two of them, he was sure he and Sophia would find the connections. He started searching through the kid’s phone, knowing it could be a morass of fake IDs and cover stories. Time would tell. If they were lucky, Engle would prove to be a loose link in Hellfire’s chain of command.
    He glanced at the clock on the display and winced. He had a lot of ground to cover to make the rendezvous point in time. If she thought he’d ditched her—again—there would be hell to pay.
    Tuesday, April 19, 2:10 p.m.
    S OPHIA WANDERED ON past the Smithsonian Castle when she didn’t see Frank in the vicinity. Frank should be waiting right here, per the plan. She told herself he hadn’t left her, that he would be here. Wouldn’t he?
    Or would her husband, in some ill-conceived notion of protecting her, run away again?
    She tried to divert the immediate reaction and the negative spiral of her thoughts with what she’d learned in the chat with her old friend Eddie Chandler. It didn’t work. Very little from that meeting gave her hope they could successfully expose Halloran’s greedy scheme. It would take some creativity and more than a little good luck.
    She couldn’t give up. Unless they stopped Hellfire, her husband would be forced to live in hiding indefinitely, an outcome she refused to accept. She checked her watch, circled through a nearby garden and turned back. Where was he?
    If he had left her, she’d track him down and wring his neck. Though she could hardly be considered abandoned in Washington, DC, even without her resources and connections, that wasn’t the point. They’d agreed to move forward together. If he reneged on his word...
    No. A cold fear curled into a fist in her belly. He hadn’t reneged. She couldn’t believe it. If he’d wanted to leave her out of this mess, he would’ve found a way to leave her in Chicago. Although it was as clear as the sky above that he hated involving her in this crisis, they’d tossed out any other option. He needed someone helping him unravel Hellfire. He needed her.
    She checked the time again, considering the more likely scenarios, each of them increasingly unpleasant as they flashed through her mind. He’d been tailed and led the tail away from her. He’d been recognized and arrested by federal authorities. He’d been killed by Halloran’s prize sniper. Her stomach pitched at the ghastly image, putting an end to her terrible thoughts.
    If a sniper had struck Frank out here in the Mall, the police and emergency crews would be crawling all over the place by now. Even his arrest would’ve drawn a media presence.
    So, if not killed by a sniper or picked up by police, Frank should be here. The obvious conclusion was he’d spotted someone tailing him. She should move to the alternative rendezvous point, closer to the parking garage. He was probably there, worrying and waiting for her to show up.
    He wouldn’t leave her. After last night, she was sure he realized he couldn’t defeat Hellfire alone. Frank needed her. As much as she needed him, a small voice in her head pointed out with a vicious snarl. It startled her to have that voice reach out and lash at her. She thought she’d left that near-panic intensity locked away in the early days of their marriage.
    When they were young, his career path as a military leader had seemed courageous and bold, almost glamorous. His confidence and