Midnight Pursuits Read Free

and Trevor are on their way to Hawaii.” His wariness escalated, rivaled only by the concern tugging at his gut. “They won’t land for several more hours, but I can tell her to call you when she picks up her new phone. She left this one behind.”
    â€œNo . . . time . . . Need her now . . . Can’t reach Noelle . . . Need help.”
    Every muscle in his body went tighter than a drum. “What’s going on?” he demanded. “Are you hurt?”
    â€œBig . . . fucking . . . mess . . .” To his surprise, a wobbly sob echoed over the line. “He’s dead . . .”
    Ethan’s back went ramrod straight. “Who’s dead?”
    Another pause. “Nobody . . . Never mind . . . Please get Iz. Tell her to come.”
    â€œCome where?” When she didn’t respond, a tremor of concern rippled through him. “Juliet,” he said sternly, “tell me where you are.”
    â€œBelarus. Grenadier Hotel in Minsk . . . room . . . room two-six-four . . . no, two-four . . .” Her voice grew strained. “Two-four-six. Med kit . . . Tell her to bring a med kit. Antibiotics and . . . um . . .”
    If he didn’t know any better, he would have suspected she was high as a kite on something, but Juliet hadn’t struck him as a user. Besides, the pain in her voice was unmistakable. She was wounded. Fuck, she was wounded and alone on a whole other continent.
    â€œStay where you are,” he finally ordered. “Someone will be there soon.”
    No response. And no more breathing sounds.
    As the phone beeped in his ear, he realized Juliet had hung up.
    Shit.
    Shooting to his feet, Ethan raked a hand through his hair and quickly went over his options.
    Option one: Stay put and pass Juliet’s message along to Trevor and Isabel when they checked in hours from now.
    But that would mean ruining the couple’s honeymoon, because Isabel would hop right back on the plane to help her injured colleague. And who knew what kind of shape Juliet would be in by the time Isabel got there? Not only would Juliet have to wait for Isabel to land in Hawaii, but also for the twelve or so hours it would take Isabel to get to Europe.
    His second option was to contact Noelle, but clearly Juliet had already tried that without any success.
    Option three: Get someone else to answer the SOS. He’d call up a few contacts, arrange for a trusted medical professional to tend to Juliet, and while the doc took care of her, one of Ethan’s teammates would make his way to the wounded operative. Abby might be able to . . . No, Abby and Kane were heading up an extraction in Bolivia, he remembered.
    D was off rotation, though. Maybe . . . No, there was no point in involving the surly mercenary, especially when Ethan could easily do the job himself.
    You don’t even know the woman.
    No, he didn’t know her. In fact, he wasn’t sure he even liked her, which was damn ironic, seeing as he was about to come to her rescue.
    â€œFor Isabel’s sake,” he muttered to himself.
    Right, he would do this for Isabel. And for Trevor. The couple had gone through so much to be together. They’d earned this quality time, and he’d be damned if he interrupted their newlywed bliss.
    With a heavy breath, he glanced around the cozy living room, his gaze resting on the gorgeous stone fireplace he’d yet to make use of.
    So much for his quiet mini vacation.
    Looked like he was going to Belarus. In the dead of winter.
    Jeez
.
    It didn’t sound at all appealing, but what other choice did he have? Juliet had stepped up and helped the team when they’d needed her last year.
    The least he could do was repay the favor.

Chapter 2
    Forty-eight hours earlier
    The phone rang at three in the morning, but