in psychic visions, but for the past couple of days her dreams had been full of blood, death and a driving sense of urgency. Each morning she awoke exhausted and filled with dread.
Wherever Toby had disappeared to, she need to find him. Fast.
“Woman, I don’t have all night. Will you please answer my question? Where did you hear the name Kerberos?”
“My name isn’t woman,” she grumbled, even though for some strange reason hearing this man call her woman turned her on. “It’s Faith. Faith Andrews. Who are you?”
He hesitated, but not with recognition of her name. Good. Instead she suspected he was trying to decide if he wanted to tell her the truth or not. “ Hey mister has a nice ring to it,” she offered.
His eyebrows lifted in astonishment. Okay, yeah. This wasn’t exactly the type of situation that invited teasing. But she often resorted to humor when she was nervous. Or in danger.
“Mark,” he finally admitted. “My name is Mark…Tonelli.”
She opened her mouth to say something smart alecky, but a slight hardening of his expression had her biting her tongue.
“Kerberos?” he prompted.
Faith sighed. Was she really going to confide in a total stranger? Why? Because he claimed to be working against Jamieson? Because he used the word please and hadn’t hurt her, or even been angry with her for holding a gun on him? Because he was the sexiest man she’d met in months?
No. Because I’m desperate and if there’s even the slightest chance he can help me, I have to take it.
“Okay, Mark. Before I tell you anything, I want your promise that after I’m done you’ll answer my questions.”
He studied her for so long, her cheeks grew warm under his scrutiny. What did he see? Did he find her attractive? Think her a fool? She clenched her teeth and reminded herself again that it didn’t matter what he thought, as long as he gave her the answers to help her save Toby. Still, she wished they had met when she wasn’t wearing a wig and colored contacts.
Just when she thought he wasn’t going to answer, he gave a curt nod.
“Okay.” She turned and stared out the windshield at the moonlight shimmering on the incoming waves. “My brother Toby is with military intelligence,” she began. “A couple of months ago, he started an assignment that kept him more out of touch than usual. He’d warned me of this ahead of time and promised to check in every two weeks to our secure email account. When he missed two check-ins in a row, I started to worry.”
She plucked at the hem of her sweater. “Then I received a package in the mail. From Toby. With a letter, a bunch of handwritten and typed notes, and two flash drives. In the letter, he explained that he’d instructed the lawyer to send the package out if he hadn’t checked in for four weeks.”
Faith shivered, despite her thick sweater. She hated thinking about her brother being in pain. Tortured.
“The flash drives held all the details of his investigation into missing military and law enforcement personnel. He’d traced several of the men back to an organization called Kerberos. And he pointed to Wayne Jamieson at the CIA as the head of Kerberos.”
Mark didn’t say a word, but she felt his increased tension.
“Toby had been closing in on Jamieson before he disappeared. In his notes were details on the man’s schedule, where his office was located, his home address, everything I needed to start following him.”
Mark snorted in disbelief. “Right.”
She raised her brows. “Looks can be deceiving, as I’m sure you know.” At first glance, Mark could be a model out of Town and Country . Only once you moved close enough to see the hard look in his eyes would you understand he was a tough, dangerous man.
“I used to be a damn good investigative journalist,” she said. “Our team even won a Pulitzer.” Not that they’d been after the prize during their investigation. No, all they’d wanted was to expose the truth. But
Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens