Read Reclaimed (Hostage Rescue Team Series Book 10) for Free Online Page A

out to her. “Got something for you.”
    “What’s this?” she asked as she took it.
    “I reached out to a contact of mine to see if he could help. He served in Vietnam and is pretty hooked into the veteran community. I told him about your grandfather’s story and he said he’d look into it if you give him the details.”
    His thoughtfulness floored her. “Thank you.” It seemed like an inadequate thing to say in light of how much his gesture meant to her.
    He shrugged. “No problem.”
    Even more curious about him, she wondered how long he’d been overseas and how long it had been since he’d been out with a woman. And she had a gut feeling he wasn’t just regular Army.
    His confidence, the way he moved, the way his gaze remained vigilant with all the people around them the entire time they’d been in the museum, and later at the café. Those were clear indicators to her that he’d seen combat, and she was betting not in a conventional unit.
    Inside the restaurant the host seated them at a private table near the back. She stole glances at him as they perused the menu, studying his face. Wide forehead, dark eyebrows, strong cheekbones and a nose that was straight other than the small bump near the bridge that told her it might have been broken at one point.
    And when those ice-blue eyes flashed up to meet hers, she felt a ribbon of heat unfurl in the pit of her belly. His slow smile made her pulse skip.
    “See anything you like?” he asked, a teasing note in his voice.
    “I do.” And one of them wasn’t on the menu.
    After they ordered she stacked her forearms on the table and tilted her head as she looked at him. “So now that we’re at dinner, are you going to tell me what you do in the Army?”
    One side of his mouth kicked up. “It’s been bugging the hell out of you since yesterday, hasn’t it?”
    “ Yes ,” she confessed, not feeling the least bit embarrassed by it. “But I have a feeling you knew it would.”
    Those broad shoulders she wanted to put her hands on lifted in a slight shrug. “Well, I wanted to make sure you were interested enough to come back for more.”
    Oh, she was more than interested. She couldn’t remember ever being this attracted to anyone. His plan to keep her guessing was working, and then some. “And here I am.”
    He reached for a piece of bread from the basket between them, his eyes on hers. Pale, startling blue, with a darker blue ring around the outside of the irises. Gorgeous, especially with the contrast of his dark eyelashes and brows. “You really want to know?”
    “I really do.”
    He huffed out a laugh. “I’m Special Forces.”
    I knew it. She grinned in triumph. “Aha! A Green Beret, huh?” He’d work closely with the local population wherever he was sent, train their soldiers. She knew that much.
    He nodded. “For almost four years now.”
    “How old are you?” she asked, curious. It was hard to imagine this laid-back guy doing such a dangerous job but he definitely had an intense edge to him.
    “Twenty-six. You?”
    “Twenty-three.” She waved a hand and continued. “I took some time off after high school to travel the world, then I couldn’t figure out what my major should be. But eventually I got it ironed out.”
    “And what do you want to do after you graduate?”
    That was easy. She’d decided that in her junior year of high school. “I’m going to apply to intelligence agencies. NSA, CIA and DIA. I want to focus on the Middle East. I spent a few months over there after high school and loved certain parts of it.”
    The only things she’d hated were the way women were treated in some places—like shit—and the poverty she’d encountered in some areas she’d visited during that leg of her trip. “My Arabic is pretty rough but I’m taking a language course for it and plan to keep at it while I work.” That would increase her chances of getting hired there.
    “What was your favorite city over there?”
    She thought