Free The Soldier's Mission by Lenora Worth Page A

trip at one of the souvenir stores. He was now fortified with a backpack full of bottled water and power bars slung on his back along with the weapons of various shapes and sizes that’s he’d strapped to his body earlier when they’d gone by his trailer, including a nasty-looking knife and a tiny pistol tucked inside his boot. He had compasses and maps and his trusty phone. And he’d made her buy a pair of sturdy hiking boots and good socks, using most of her cash.
    While she felt safe knowing he was prepared, Laura also fretted about how he’d react to whatever came at them next.
    Luke Paco Martinez was in full black ops mode from what she could tell. And that “take no prisoners” scowl he wore as they marched through the fall heat didn’t bode well for anyone who crossed him. Including her.
    â€œRest,” he said now, his tone curt and no-nonsense. He was the point man, of course, explaining that they would take a five minute rest at the top of every hour.That five-minutes wasn’t nearly enough for Laura but she didn’t complain. She was at the man’s mercy, after all.
    He pointed to a big bronzed rock jutting out from a heavy cluster of yucca plants. Laura gingerly looked around for scorpions, snakes and spiders before she sank down on the warm rock.
    â€œDrink.” He handed her a bottle of water.
    Laura took it and chugged until the bottle was unceremoniously taken out of her hands.
    â€œSlow, sweetheart. Drink it slow.”
    Well, at least he was still calling her sweetheart. That endearment coming from any other man would have made her bristle. But Luke seemed to use it almost absent-mindedly, making her think he called a lot of people that.
    Not just Laura Walton, and not because she was special. She was nobody special, just the woman he was now forced to protect. The woman who’d come here hoping to redeem herself away from the guilt nagging at her, hoping to cure her own ills and insecurities by picking Paco’s brain. Fat chance of that. He’d have her talking and confessing everything from stealing a kiss from a boy in the fourth grade to eating too much ice cream while she watched sappy movies, she guessed, before he spoke to her of any of his own pain.
    â€œThanks,” she said, handing the bottle back to him.
    â€œI’ll save the rest for later.”
    He drank the rest. Then he halved a power bar and handed her part of it. “Eat.”
    Laura ate the chewy, nasty-tasting bar with a firm smile on her face.
    His next words were, “Let’s go.”
    â€œCould I ask where we’re going?”
    â€œTo my brother’s house. We can rest there and regroup.”
    â€œHow far?”
    â€œAnother ten miles.”
    That sounded like a hundred miles in desert time, she decided. Hadn’t they already been at least twenty miles? And because she needed to distract herself from the dry heat and the sun and the creepy-crawly things, she said, “I wish I knew why they wanted my laptop.”
    â€œTo get information,” he replied with a “duh” tone.
    â€œBut what information? How could they benefit from my patient files?”
    â€œMaybe they wanted your personal stuff.”
    â€œThat doesn’t make any sense either. They apparently know a lot about me already.” She shrugged. “And besides, I don’t have much personal stuff. My work is my life.” A sad admission and one she wished she’d kept to herself.
    â€œMaybe they wanted to get next to you—that thing you said about showing you they could invade your privacy anywhere.”
    â€œThat worked, then.”
    Laura decided she’d keep quiet for a while. He didn’t seem in a chatty mood and she’d spill even more of her pathetic personal information if she didn’t shut up.
    Then out of the blue, he said “Tell me more about the stalker.”
    â€œAlex?” Surprise and dread filled her.