Free Badass: Deadly Target (Complete): Military Romantic Suspense by Leslie Johnson, Elle Dawson Page A

the question, but don’t take it back. Instead, I pace and wait. My patience is rewarded when she says, “We’d play hide and seek, and she’d teach me how to find the best spots, how to stay quiet. We’d wrestle a lot and I almost got better than her at it. She’d put up targets and we’d take turns shooting at them. With Mom, everything was a contest.”
    “Real guns?”
    She shakes her head, then nods. “Well, real guns when I was older. She taught me how to use guns and shoot, but when I was little, it would be with toy Nerf guns. She’d have me do crazy things like roll and shoot. I got pretty good.”
    “Did she teach you how to speak Russian?”
    “No, never Russian. But I learned Spanish and French, German. A little Japanese.”
    “Did you ever hear you Mom speaking in Russian?”
    Her forehead furrows. “I don’t know if it was Russian, but I remember her talking on the phone sometimes when I was little. I didn’t understand anything.”
    “Did your mom have many visitors?”
    She laughs. “Never. She didn’t date. Didn’t have lunch with friends. Nothing like that.”
    “How did she spend her time?”
    She chews her bottom lip again, then touches the place it is split with her finger. “She was on her computer a lot, but she didn’t work, not after she retired. Like I said, we lived off her pension. She didn’t have me until she was older. Forty-two. She talked about being tired and just enjoying free time after so many years of service.”
    “And you believed her?”
    “Why wouldn’t I believe her? She’s my mom.” Mia covers her face with her hands. “Was my mom. Of course I believed her. I love her.”
    I study her, trying to judge her level of sincerity. I find it difficult to believe that a woman could raise a child all of her life and that child never pick up on the fact that she was a spy. Because that’s what she must have been. Maybe her retirement from the “Army” happened to coincide with her connection to another government agency. Perhaps more than one.
    “Did she travel often?”
    She immediately shakes her head, then pauses, biting her lower lip, her tongue playing at the split. “Never when I was younger, not even in high school. But about a year ago, she made a friend. Sylvia was her name. They’d travel together for weeks at a time.”
    “Mia.” I wait until her eyes lift to mine. “Did you ever meet Sylvia?”
    She shakes her head.
    “See a picture of her?”
    Mia frowns. “No, actually I don’t think I did. Mom would show me pictures she’d taken, but I don’t remembering seeing one of her friend.”
    “Was your mom in any of the pictures?”
    She stares at me, her eyes growing glassy as she realizes the purpose of my question. “You think she was lying to me, don’t you?”
    “Was your mother in any of the vacation pictures, Mia?”
    She swallows and the tip of her nose grows pink again. “I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure.”
    I knew for sure. I’d bet every dollar I had that Mia’s mother was lying to her. That she was letting her daughter pore over stock photos, making up lie after lie of her adventures. I wonder if she’d ever felt guilty.
    Deciding to come back to this line of questioning later, I ask something more important. “What about the instructions? Didn’t you say she gave you a set of instructions on what to do with the contents of the box?”
    Her face grows dark. “Yes, but I’d rather read it privately, if you don’t mind.”
    “Are you fricking kidding me? Of course I mind!” I blow up. “I’m risking my neck for you, sweetheart. Do you know how easy it would be for me to sink a bullet in your head and walk away with that box and letter? I’d be hailed a hero for recovering documents of this importance. The President would probably pin a great big medal on my chest.”
    She jumps to her feet, wincing and holding her ribs as she does. “If I’m as bad as you think, then do it,” she