Free The Soldier's Mission by Lenora Worth Page B

“Big mistake. We met at a business function. He worked selling alarm systems and seemed to enjoy it. At first, he was so great—kind, considerate, fun to talk to. He asked me a lot of questions.”
    â€œHold it right there. What kind of questions?”
    â€œYou know, about my life, my work. The usual.”
    â€œSometimes the usual can be the most obvious.”
    â€œYou mean, he had an agenda maybe?”
    His grunt indicated yes. “How long did you date?”
    â€œA few months. But then he got a little too possessive for me to feel comfortable. He became demanding and paranoid. He even accused me of cheating on him. Things escalated and I got scared. I tried to reason with him, tell him it just wasn’t working. I offered to get him help. But he kept at me, telling me he loved me and we were made for each other. After he started showing up at my apartment and my work and sending constant text messages and voice mails, I broke things off. He cornered me in the parking lot and that’s the day he slapped me. I was advised to take out a restraining order.”
    â€œAnd he didn’t take that too well?”
    â€œNo. Not at all. His pleas turned to even more threats. But I never could prove much beyond the text messages I’d saved. He was always careful to leave typed notes or things that couldn’t be traced. Little clues—”
    She stopped. “Luke, little clues. What if this is him doing all of these horrible things and that’s what he’s done with my old business cards? Left some sort of clues or threats for me to find—just to scare me.”
    â€œAlready considered that, sweetheart. I’m going to check those out more when we get to Buddy’s place.”
    Well, of course he’d considered that. “Do you believe it’s him then?”
    He guided her past a giant saguaro. “I’m liking him for it, yeah. But it’s almost too easy.”
    â€œToo obvious?”
    â€œYeah. Like I said, things don’t add up. If he’s stalkingyou because he’s obsessed with you, he wouldn’t try to kill you right away. He’d want to come after you and maybe take you away to convince you to love him the way he loves you. And then he’d kill you if you didn’t see things his way.”
    Laura shivered in spite of the rising heat. “If he was trying to do that, then he might have tried to shoot you, too. If he thought, you know, that you and I—”
    â€œPossibly. But why send another hit man?”
    â€œTo keep his hands clean? Or to help him, make it easy for him to take me.”
    He shrugged, but the look he gave her reassured her. “If we ever get to a safe place, I’ll sit down and figure this out.” He turned, doing one of his panoramic views, looking behind them.
    Laura turned to respond and found herself flat on the sandy desert floor, his hand over her head.
    â€œDon’t move,” he said, drawing weapons with a swift clarity. “We have company.”
    Dirt ground like shards of glass against her skin. “Where?”
    â€œOn the road behind us to the east. Don’t look.”
    Laura breathed dust, her pulse hitting against the hard desert floor, her mind very much aware of Paco there beside her. “How many?”
    â€œOnly one so far. I think I can take him.”
    She chanced a glance at him and watched as he pulled that mean-looking knife out of his boot. Not wanting to see this, Laura closed her eyes again and prayed with all her might.
    Paco held his hand on her neck. “Don’t move a muscle. We wait until he’s right on us.”
    â€œAre you sure it’s someone after us?”
    â€œYeah, since he’s packing a high-powered rifle and since I’m pretty sure he has that rifle trained on the spot where he last saw us.”
    Beads of sweat caught in the center of her back between her shoulder blades and evaporated with each beat of