The Soldier's Mission

“Probably. And they probably couldn’t find a way to get to you before you left this morning. Or they wanted to get you in an isolated situation.”

“Which they did.”

“Yes. Two attempted hits in as many hours so I can almost guarantee more will follow.”

“I don’t know why I’m a target,” she said, grabbing the door handle. “I wish I could explain this.”

He held tightly to the steering wheel, his silence stretching like the long road they’d just traveled. “You might be right about it being aimed toward me. Maybe someone didn’t want you to talk to me for a reason.”

“Or maybe they wanted to kill both of us for a reason.”

“That’s what we need to find out,” he said as they left the truck and entered the hotel the back way. “Let’s check out your room, see if anything looks suspicious.”

“What if they’re waiting for me?”

“I’ll take care of that.” He walked her up the empty hallway without making a sound. “Just stay behind me.”

Laura wouldn’t argue with that. He had a way of going noiseless in and out of places. But then, he was trained to be invisible. Right now, however, he was a very visible presence in her life. And a blessed one, considering she knew nothing about espionage or spying or killing people. She only knew how to help those who did so try and pick up the pieces when things got to be too much.

Was Luke ready to go back into the fray?

Please, Lord, let him be ready. Not for my sake but for his. She had a gut feeling if he failed this time, it would put him over the edge. She also had a feeling he hadn’t talked to anyone much since he’d come home from the front. Shane Warwick had warned her Luke Martinez could be as quiet and stone-faced as a rock when he went into one of his dark moods.

She’d come here on a mission of her own, though. And she’d brought trouble to an already troubled man. So she prayed for guidance and mercy and protection for both of them. She wouldn’t abandon him now, no matter the danger.

But when Luke opened her hotel room door and she saw what someone had done to her room, Laura knew this was about more than a jilted boyfriend stalking her or a grieving father seeking revenge. The bedspread and pillows were tossed and scattered, the drawers and closets thrown open and her clothes strewn around the room.

And her laptop was missing.

“I didn’t bring it with me this morning,” she said. “I had my phone and I’d downloaded your file onto it. I didn’t bring the laptop in case I had to do some hiking. I thought it would be safer here than in the car.” She turned to Paco, grabbing his hand. “They have my files. Everything is on that laptop.”

“Explain everything.”

“Notes on my patients, my personal files, you name it. My life is on there.” She didn’t tell him that she’d saved some personal information about him on there, too. “It’s all encrypted and backed up on an external hard drive at my office, and I have a password, but still—”