Read In the Arms of a Stranger (Entangled Ignite) for Free Online Page B

what Wade had meant. She’d expected too much.
    “Then what happened?” JP prompted.
    “I never heard from him again.”
    He kept his gaze on her, silently urging her to continue.
    She’d said this much, there was no point in stopping now. “Brooks came to my brother’s.”
    “That same day?”
    “No, two days later.”
    “What did he say?”
    “That Wade was missing. He wanted to know when I’d last spoken with him.” She remembered the desperation of not knowing what to do. Wade had said to trust only JP, but Brooks had been so insistent. “I didn’t tell him about Wade’s call, or about you. He wanted to know where Wade kept his work things—papers, computer, stuff like that. I told him there was nothing from work. He just used my father’s old veterinary office next to the barn as a workshop for his fishing items. He tied flies there, and did some woodworking. Brooks and another man came to the house and searched. They turned the place upside down but didn’t find anything, so they drove out and searched the workshop. They even searched the barn.”
    And they’d done more, but she wouldn’t reveal that. Wouldn’t tell this man that Brooks and the Agency had investigated her brother, their friends, their finances. Everything. And had asked just enough questions to tell Abby they suspected Wade of something. Something bad .
    “And then?” JP asked.
    “Two weeks later, Brooks came back and told me they’d found Wade. He was dead.” No, that wasn’t exactly right . “Killed. Brooks said killed.”
    “He didn’t say where they found him?”
    “No. He brought someone with him, who made sure”—her voice trembled, but a quick breath banished that horrible day, at least for now—“I got the benefits Cole and I were entitled to because of Wade’s job. That man offered to arrange the funeral, since it would be a military one.”
    “Do you remember that person’s name?”
    “Bill Smith. I remember thinking it should have been John Doe.”
    JP regarded her. “You didn’t think that was his real name?”
    “I don’t know. It just seemed odd.” She shrugged, suddenly exhausted, hating that she sounded so uninformed, so out of the loop. She’d spent weeks questioning everything about that time, and the whole past year questioning her marriage.
    “Did you get Wade’s personal effects?”
    “I got his wristwatch and his wallet.”
    JP pursed his lips. “What about clothes? His car?”
    She shook her head. “Brooks said all of that was part of the investigation.”
    “Did he offer any explanation at all of Wade’s death?”
    “No.” She would not tell this stranger what Brooks had hinted at. Wade was honorable. She would prove it, given help and information.
    “Did you ask how he died?”
    “Of course I asked!” She hadn’t meant to sound so vehement. “I even asked to see his body.” She drew another steadying breath. “Brooks said it would be best that I didn’t.”
    JP frowned. “Did he explain why?”
    “I figured it was because they’d…done things to him.” She’d hoped Brooks would deny it, tell her that nothing like that had happened, but he didn’t. She’d been a coward until the last moment. At the funeral home, without Brooks’s knowledge, she’d asked to see Wade. He hadn’t looked right. He’d looked—repaired. Made-up. She remembered the funeral director’s words— we did the best we could, but … “I think they did do things to him,” she whispered finally. She tried to tell JP what she’d seen, but the words stuck in her throat.
    “Where’s he buried, Abby?” JP asked in a low voice, taking her thoughts away from the edges of horror.
    “Pensacola, at the national cemetery there,” she said, looking down briefly before adding, “Did you know he was in the Army?”
    He hesitated, but finally answered, “Yes.”
    His honesty hurt. “I didn’t.”
    “Abby, it’s covert operations—”
    “I know exactly what it is. Was.” She took a