Read Secondary Targets for Free Online Page A

should do?” She tried to hide her insecurity. If Eric bailed on her, she was toast.
    “My gut tells me we need to hit the road.” He paused, clasping his hands together behind his head. “But to where, I haven’t a clue.”
    “Somebody out there knows what happened to my father.”
    “That they do.”
    “How do we find out who that is?” Uncertainty hovered in Grace’s mind. “How do we differentiate the good guys from the bad?”
    “I have a feeling, if we trust the wrong people we might end up like the General.” There was no malice in his words, just wisdom.
    “If it’s all the same with you,” she said, “I’ll let you choose who we trust and who we don’t.” Her track record for making decisions hadn’t been the greatest since her father died.
    Eric glimpsed at his watch and then lifted his gaze to meet Grace’s. “Why don’t you grab a couple hours rest?” he suggested. “We’re going to be leaving as soon as it gets dark.”
    “Where are we going?”
    “I haven’t decided yet.”
    Maybe that’s why he was waiting for dark—to think of somewhere to go. No matter the reason, she decided he was right. She’d better rest while she had the chance.
    Grace pushed up from the couch. “I’m going to follow your advice.” She pointed toward the hallway and the guest room he’d offered her. “Wake me when you’re ready to leave?”
    “Sure.” His smile was a defeated yet determined attempt.
    Plenty was left to say, but she didn’t want to go there. Instead, Grace took the easy way out, heading toward the hallway with her worries and insecurities intact. Better to hide inside the silence of a lonely, empty room than give Eric a chance to ask questions when he probably wouldn’t like the answers.
    Grace opened the bedroom door and her instincts urged her to run. But she’d already done that, and look how it turned out.
    It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Heading to the Cape for some alone-time was supposed to help her come to terms with her father’s death. 
    She hadn’t told anybody but Eric that she was leaving or where she was going. It was their special place and nobody else needed to know about it. Early in their relationship they’d gone up the coast and ended up spending a long weekend at a seaside inn. And, immediately following her father’s death, the Cape was the only place she could think of that brought her peace.
    The trip was only supposed to last a few weeks, at the most. And when she left, she had every intention of coming back. She just needed a little time to accept the way her father had died. Suicide.
    But her chosen path to solace had failed Grace. The only place it led was rehab, five years later.
    Her instincts hadn’t exactly been reliable back then, so why should she think it’d turn out any differently now?

    I f any part of Eric had contemplated walking away from Grace at the cemetery, that opportunity passed when he discovered the General’s name was no longer associated with Cherry Point’s records.
    Eric stared at the fireplace. Maybe he should retrieve it . Assuming it was still there. Yesterday he would have thought that likely, but in light of the General’s disappearance, anything was possible.
    The General had done some odd things in the months before he died. Things to which Grace wasn’t privy. But none of the man’s past behavior could’ve prepared Eric for yesterday’s outcome.
    The clock above the mantel said Grace had been in her room for a little over an hour. He let two more hours pass before he dared to make his move.
    Eric stood and took quiet steps across the room before sitting on the hearth. Leaning back into the firebox, he reached up inside the chimney’s flue. The bricks were rough and covered in soot, but that didn’t deter Eric. He searched for the loose, telltale brick. Once he got a decent grip on it, it came out with relative ease. Eric lifted himself up to feel inside the hole.
    The small metal container,