Point Blank Seal

“They wouldn’t allow you to use the phone?”

“No.”

“And they wouldn’t notify me? Your father? Your brother? Miguel, your father...”

“I know he’s dead.” His nostrils flared. “They wanted you to go on believing I was dead, too. They still want you believing that.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Those bugs you found—is that the navy, the FBI, some intelligence agency I don’t need to know about?”

“It’s not the navy. At least the navy is not calling the shots on this one.”

“But you have reason to believe forces in the intelligence community broke into my home and planted listening devices?”

“Yes...maybe.” He didn’t know who was behind the sinister vibe he’d picked up at the debriefing center.

“Miguel, why? They should be treating you like the hero you are. They should be throwing you a ticker tape parade.”

“Part of it is the sensitive nature of the assignment. They never went public with it.”

“Part of it.” She smoothed a hand across the shirt she’d wrinkled earlier. “What’s the other part? Why wouldn’t they allow you to contact me?”

Running a hand through his hair, longer than he usually wore it, he said, “I don’t know.”

“They don’t know you’re here.”

“They don’t know where I am, but I’m sure they can make an educated guess that I’m coming here.”

“You spent eighteen months as a prisoner of war and now your own government wants to imprison you again?” Her cheeks flew red flags, indignation making her voice squeak.

“I don’t know what they want, but I wasn’t going to stick around anymore to find out.” Guilt stabbed at his gut. The FBI had warned him that he could be putting Jennifer in danger by showing up on her doorstep, but he was afraid she already was in danger and he knew he was the only one who could protect her.

She trailed her fingertips along his tense jaw beneath his new beard. “What did your captors do to you, Miguel?”

“Tried to get information out of me.” He rubbed a spot on his hip, still sore from the wounds he received from his captors.

“How?”

He thought he’d imagined the whispered question, spoken so softly, but the question lingered in Jen’s blue eyes.

If he told her everything would it be worse than she imagined? He gazed into those baby blues and a knot tightened in his gut. Never.

“It was rough, Jen, but I’m here. I survived it.” He brushed his lips across hers. “The thought of you gave me strength, pulled me through the most brutal moments of my captivity.”

“How did you know I’d be waiting for you? You must’ve figured the navy would tell me you died. You didn’t even know I was pregnant before you left. I didn’t know I was pregnant.”

“I tried not to think about it. Tried not to think of you moving on with someone else.” He scooped her hair away from her face, his fingers tightening involuntarily. “Have you?”

“Of course not.” Her lashes fluttering, she leaned in for the kiss he had waiting for her, and then she jerked back. “How did you know where I lived? How did you know about Mikey?”

“After the hospital in Germany, I went to a debriefing center near DC. I kept asking about you, kept asking for a phone. All they’d tell me was that you were okay and I needed to concentrate on getting better.” He ground his back teeth. “As if seeing you wouldn’t make me feel better immediately.”

She grabbed his hands. “Did you escape this center? Leave without their permission?”

“Yeah, but not before breaking into an office and looking at my file.” He pulled away from her and smacked a fist into his palm. “They didn’t even tell me I had a son.”

“A-are you AWOL or something?” Her gaze dropped to his clenched fist and then back to his face.

He shrugged, rolling his shoulders and flexing his fingers. “They debriefed me. It’s not like I’m going to confess anything to you about my captivity or about Vlad that I didn’t already spill to them.”

“But you’re not supposed to be here.”

He ran a hand across his mouth. “This is the only place I’m supposed to be.”

“I thought I was dreaming. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again—except in those dreams.”

He curled a hand around her neck and pulled her close, but before he could plant another kiss on her mouth, a crash resounded from the room next to them.

Then he smelled the smoke...and heard the screams of his son.

Chapter Three (#u46a7807e-34b5-5688-a14a-acd85a67ef0e)

Miguel bolted from the sofa and Jennifer lunged after him, tripping over the coffee table and banging her shin. The acrid smell of fire invaded her nostrils and terror ripped through her body like the jagged edge of a knife when she saw black smoke pouring out of Mikey’s bedroom.

“It’s Mikey’s room.”

Miguel charged into the smoke-filled room as Jennifer hung back coughing, her eyes watering. The heat from the flames licking at the drapes spiked her adrenaline, and she stumbled into the room after Miguel.

“Stay back, Jen. I’ve got him.”

Miguel emerged from the dark gray cloud, Mikey clutched against his chest. He slammed the door behind him.

“Get out. Get out of the house now—back door.”

She grabbed her phone on her way to the sliding glass door and gulped in the fresh air when she hit the patio. The smoke and fire from the front of the house hadn’t made it back here yet, hadn’t escaped from Mikey’s room.

She got on the phone with 9-1-1 while stroking the back of Mikey’s head as he sobbed against Miguel’s shoulder. After giving emergency services the details, she held out her arms and Miguel transferred Mikey to her.

Even amid the terror, she couldn’t help noticing how Mikey, in his fear, had clung to Miguel. She whispered in Mikey’s ear, “It’s okay. You’re okay now. Mommy’s here.”

She rested her chin on top of Mikey’s head and met Miguel’s gaze as he pulled her away from the house. “What was that?”

“As far as I can tell from the smell, it was a Molotov cocktail.”

“Meant for you? The FBI would go to those measures to get you back? Risk harming a child?”

Miguel cocked his head at the sound of sirens in the distance. “No, but who said I was being debriefed by the FBI?”

“You’re scaring me even more, if that’s possible.” She squeezed Mikey so tightly, he squirmed in her grasp. At least the FBI had some accountability, rules to follow, public exposure. But these shadowy black ops organizations? Who held them accountable?