Reclaimed (Hostage Rescue Team Series Book 10) (3 page)

He studied the display, remembered seeing his grandfather wearing a green uniform just like it in pictures, thinking about how things in the military had changed over time and yet how they hadn’t changed much at all.

War was a constant state with the human race, and he was part of that story.

He finished reading a plaque next to an artifact at the bottom of the case, then straightened and turned around without looking—and slammed right into someone.

He heard a female squeak of alarm at the same time he saw the young woman tip back. He automatically shot his hands out to grab her shoulders as she stumbled sideways. Her book and purse clattered to the floor as she latched onto his forearm to steady herself. “I’m so sorry,” he murmured.

She released his arm and looked up at him with gorgeous light green eyes, flashed him a smile that made him go completely still. She was striking, her long red hair up in a sassy ponytail and a group of freckles marching across her nose and cheeks. “My fault. I forgot to shoulder check.”

Her quick humor made him grin. Realizing he was staring like a moron, he tore his gaze from her face and bent to pick up her things. A notebook and pen, her purse. Straightening, he handed them to her. Even in her little wedge heels the top of her head only came up to his nose.

“Thanks,” she murmured, hugging the book to her chest, hiding the pert outline of her breasts beneath the top of her deep blue summer dress. That was a shame.

Having nearly knocked her down, he felt the need to prove he wasn’t an ass. “You doing some research?” He gestured at the notebook, wanting to draw the conversation out a little because he wasn’t ready to see her walk away yet.

“Yes. For a final paper.” She held out a hand. “I’m Summer, by the way.”

“Adam.” They shook. Her hand felt so delicate in his. Soft and smooth and feminine. He cocked his head to the side and released her, already intrigued. She looked a few years younger than him. “What are you studying?”

“Political science and foreign relations, with some history mixed in there. I’m graduating next month.” She eyed him with those big eyes. “What about you, are you here for research too?”

“No. Just in town for a language course and thought I’d come take a look.”

“Oh, what language?”

“Pashto.”

She studied him a moment. “Are you in the military?”

“Army.”

She nodded, still assessing him with that sharp green gaze that told him she was picking up far more than the average person would. “My grandfather served in the Army.”

“Mine too. Vietnam era?”

Another smile. “Yes. That’s what my paper’s on. He died a few years back so I can’t call him up and ask him the things I want to know. But he sent letters to my grandmother and she kept all of them with his medals. I kind of feel like a history detective, tracking down answers to fill in the holes,” she added, tucking a bright lock of hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear. “So, what do you do in the Army?”

“Whatever my commanding officer tells me to,” he answered in a teasing tone.

She laughed softly. “Not gonna tell me? Well that tells me quite a bit, actually.”

Yep, she was a quick one all right. Charmed, he shoved his hands into his pockets and studied her a moment. “Hmmm. I might be willing to tell you more if you sat down and had a coffee with me.”

She blinked then gave him an impressed look and nodded. “Okay, that’s not bad. Not the worst pick-up line I’ve heard, either. But how do you feel about helping me figure out the last clues to this mystery first? As a soldier, I could use your opinion and insight on a few things to steer me in the right direction. If you’re willing. I want to get it right.”

A slow smile curved his mouth. If he was willing? He was alone here, had the entire afternoon to himself and getting to spend more time with her was the best thing that had happened to him in over nine months. “That sounds good to me.”

While she explained what she was working on he followed her through the rest of the exhibit, already fascinated at the way her mind worked. It was clear that her interest in this topic was genuine, and wasn’t all because this was her final paper and she simply wanted a good grade. No, this was personal and she was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery she was trying to solve.

At one display they stopped to check something and she talked about the South Vietnamese soldier who’d saved her grandfather’s life over there. In addition to finding out what she needed to know for her final paper, she was on a mission to find out who he was. Her passion was contagious and within ten minutes he found himself caught up in the story.

As she finished explaining she trailed off and paused a moment to look at him, a slight frown creasing her forehead. “Am I boring you, by the way?” Her expression turned rueful. “I didn’t come here today with the intent of basically hijacking someone in the middle of the Smithsonian.”

He smothered a laugh. “No, not at all. I’m already hooked.”

A relieved smile was all the reward he needed. “Well, I’ve probably taken up too much of your time already. You still want to grab that coffee?”

Hell yes. “That sounds good.”

They made their way out of the exhibit and down the street to a coffee shop. At a table for two in the corner, she sipped her iced drink and gazed speculatively at him. “So. Are you going to tell me about you now? I mean, you know where I’m going to school, what my major is, and more about my extended family than you probably ever wanted to know, yet I know next to nothing about you.”

“I’m from Kansas, born and raised there. My parents are still back there, and so are my three younger brothers.”

Her eyes widened. “Four boys? Wow.”

“Yeah. We kept our mom and dad busy.” He took a sip of his coffee, savoring the taste of the hot, strong drink. Light-years better than what he’d had during his recent deployment.

“I’ll bet you did. And are your brothers in the military too?”

“One is.” His baby brother, Jamie. “The others are in the family construction business.”

She leaned forward to fold her arms on the table, her full attention focused on him. He liked the way she did that, and the way she seemed genuinely interested in him. “And why did you want to serve your country that way?”

“I always wanted to, ever since I can remember. I grew up listening to war stories my granddad told us about, and I guess they always stuck with me.”

“Have you been sent overseas?”

“A few times, yeah. Just got back a few days ago, actually.”

“Welcome home. And I’m betting you’re in…something infantry-related. But not a regular unit.” She paused a beat. “Rangers maybe?”

He hid a grin. “Used to be.”

She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “You can’t tell me, or you don’t want to?”

He shrugged, loving the back-and-forth banter. It had been a long time since a woman had snared his attention and intrigued him like this. “I might tell you,” he said, cocking his head a little. “If you let me take you out to dinner sometime while I’m in town.”

A reluctant smile tugged at her mouth, her eyes filled with humor. “Damn you, that’s my weak spot. You just met me two hours ago and you already know I can’t turn down the chance to solve a mystery.”

That’s what he’d been counting on.

She sat back in her seat, arms crossed, and nodded. “Okay. Dinner it is.” She held out a hand, wiggled her fingers. “Give me your phone.”

The demand surprised him for a moment but he dug it out anyway, accessed his contacts and handed it over, amazed at how much he was looking forward to the prospect of seeing her again. He hadn’t been on a first date in a long damn time, since well before his previous tour in Afghanistan. And that relationship hadn’t withstood the time and distance of a nine-month combat deployment, as so many didn’t.

“This way if you don’t call or email, at least I’ll know it’s not because you ‘lost my number’ or some other lame excuse guys usually use,” she said as she input her information.

Was she serious? “I can’t imagine any guy being dumb enough to turn down the opportunity to go out with you,” he said with a frown.

“Trust me, I know all the excuses by now.” Handing his phone back, she gave him a long, level look. “When do you think this dinner is going to happen, by the way? A week from now? A month? I’m just asking because I’ve got this paper due and a couple exams next week, so—”

“How about tomorrow night?”

She blinked, as though he’d taken her completely by surprise. He got the sense that it was a good thing, that guys had tended to either let her down or play her in the past. Their loss. His gain, because he didn’t pull immature shit like that. “Okay. That works.” She eyed him with a hint of teasing suspicion. “Just as long as you don’t plan to keep being so evasive over dinner.”

She had no idea how good he was at being evasive when he wanted to. He had the best SERE training in the world to thank in part for that. There were certain things about his job that he could never tell her though, due to security clearance issues and operational security. But he didn’t have a problem telling her the basics if she really wanted to know. “I’ll think about it,” he answered, wanting to keep her interested.

Amusement glinting in her pretty eyes, she shook her head at him. “Man, you’re good.”

You bet I am, sweetheart.
She wasn’t the only one hooked though, because she’d made one hell of an impression. He definitely wanted to see her again, learn more about her. Find out what made her laugh. What those full, rosy lips tasted like.

One step at a time.

He was only going to be in town for another month or so, before he went back to Kunar Province. It wasn’t fair to start anything serious, but a few dates couldn’t hurt. Besides, he could already tell this girl was different from anyone he’d ever dated before.

And more importantly, something told him that after meeting Summer, his life would never be the same again.

Present day

Summer thought she couldn’t be any more scared than she already was, but when the truck she was in slowed, she found out differently.

Fear swelled in her chest until it felt like her heart might explode. The initial shock of the attack and kidnapping was gone, leaving nothing but the chill of fear in its wake. As a female captive she faced torture, rape, or worse.

Doors slammed and she heard footsteps approaching the back. Metal creaked, and she caught a breath of cool air through the black hood they’d plunged over her head when they’d taken her.

Terse voices speaking Arabic were close by, but a dialect she wasn’t fluent in. She caught the gist of what they were saying though.

Hurry up and put her in the truck. We don’t have much time.

Another truck? Where were these bastards taking her?

Strong hands grasped her bound feet and pulled. With her hands tied behind her, her arms were useless.

She twisted and kicked out, her bare feet hitting nothing but air. Ignoring her efforts, the man unceremoniously hauled her out of the back and tossed her over his shoulder. The top of his shoulder blade dug into her belly. She automatically arched away but he swatted the back of her head hard enough to stun her and continued walking.

He dumped her into the back of what she assumed was the truck she’d heard about, threw a heavy blanket over top of her and covered it with something crinkly and musty smelling.

An engine roared to life and the vehicle lurched away. After a minute the relatively smooth surface of the road gave way to something rougher. The tires bounced along the new terrain, jostling her with the jerky motion. The back of her head struck the metal bed she was lying on, making her curse and anger began to replace the fear.

No way was she just going to lie here and let them take her.

She tried to sit up but the man must have tied the tarp down over the bed because she didn’t have enough room to do it. After a minute she managed to struggle to her knees, her head bent forward at an awkward angle because of the tarp, but then something hard slammed into the middle of her back.

She cried out and sucked in a sharp breath, dropping to the bed of the truck once more. Pain radiated out from where she’d been hit and it took a minute for her to get her breath back. She was scraped and bruised from the ambush, but otherwise okay.

God, I can’t believe this is really happening.

One minute she’d been in the back of the SUV talking about the upcoming meeting with Jim and Mark. The next, bullets had hit the armored vehicle. Their security team had done what they could to get them out of there, but then the lead SUV had been blown up. In the confusion, the gunmen had attacked.

Somehow her security team had been caught unawares and then overwhelmed. One of them had dragged her out and tried to run her to safety but he’d been shot down within moments of exiting the vehicle. She’d grabbed for his weapon, intending to shoot whoever was firing at them but two men had swarmed her, yanking a hood over her and rendering her helpless before she could lift the weapon.

That was the last thing she’d seen. Even now she had no idea whether anyone else had survived.

The truck continued to bounce and lurch up the rough dirt road, and soon the engine took on a high-pitched whine, the driver shifting down to a lower gear as they climbed up into the hills. They’d driven for a while now, they had to be close to the border, and from the terrain she would guess they were somewhere to the north. From the swaying, back-and-forth movement, she knew they were taking a steep mountain road, probably heading for the Syrian border.

More dread coiled within her. She knew if they got across into Syria, the chances of her being rescued were minimal.

Sore from the blow to her back and afraid to move, she wasn’t sure how long she lay braced against the truck bed but eventually the vehicle slowed and made a left-hand turn. A minute after that it stopped and the engine shut off.

Every muscle in her body went rigid as she waited to see what would happen next.