Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Rescuing Pandora (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free Page B

stress of current events, but he rarely showed her his worry.
    A veteran of Iraqi politics, and a survivor of Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror, he was a gentle man who doted on their son and allowed her to be anything but a traditional woman while they were inside the home, without company. When in public or when he was forced to host functions, she played her part. That was the deal, and she’d been happy enough with it, especially while she recovered from the car bombing that almost took her life.
    “And did you meet with the man from the CIA?”
    She paused and gulped, trying not to think of Cam and failing. “Yes, he was there. And very unhappy with you for not keeping your appointment with him.”
    Mohammed shrugged. “In all our dealings together, he struck me as a man burning with the fire of vengeance. He would have taken me then and there, leaving you and Sammy alone with Aziz.”
    “He almost wouldn’t let me come back,” she said. Turning toward the connecting room, Pandora was about to go and find her son when Mohammed’s words stopped her cold.
    “Of course not, you are his wife.”
    She froze. Maybe she hadn’t heard that right. Turning her head slightly, she asked, “What did you say?”
    “The CIA think they are so secretive, but I have my own resources. I knew with whom I dealt. The man called Phantom is really Cameron Caffee, your dead husband.”
    She turned fully to face the man she’d called husband for the last five years. “You knew he was alive?” Her heart started beating faster in her chest as she fully faced Mohammed. “How long have you known?”
    “Would you have stayed with me if you’d known he was here, now, in Iraq?”
    Pandora could feel her head spin. Finding out Cam was alive had been such a shock. She hadn’t really had time to process it yet, not really. But worse, finding out that Mohammed knew was even…
    She couldn’t even go there.
    “How could you not tell me? Make me understand, Mohammed. And why now? Why make me go to this meeting when you knew about him. About us?” She wrung her hands, looking over her shoulder at the room their son slept in. She’d forgotten about him for a moment.
    “He’s in the kitchen helping prepare our meal,” Mohammed said in answer to the questioning look she’d given him. “Your other questions are harder to answer.”
    Pandora wanted to yell, to throw something, anything to force out answers to her real questions. But she knew he would tell her in his own time.
    He took a step toward the pair of chairs in the room, opposite the bed. He was tired and his limp was more pronounced.
    Without thinking, she went to him and eased her shoulder up under his to take some of the weight off his shorter leg. He refused to use a crutch or a cane, not wanting to appear weak, but when he was tired or they were alone, he gave into the pain and his limp became noticeable. “You stood too long.”
    “And you worry too much, Dora.”
    He eased into the chair with a sigh, taking the weight off his leg. Pandora settled into the chair next to him and waited. Willing him to just tell her.
    He looked at her, glancing up at her red hair. Hair that he loved to play with, teaching Sammy to braid while she laughed at them both. Then his eyes moved over her face, touching her cheeks, her lips, and finally coming to rest on her pleading eyes. “The short answer is that I love you. I didn’t want you to know about him. And I’ve only known for about six months, when I decided to meet with him.”
    “You told me that the CIA approached you about asylum in America one year ago.”
    He nodded. “But that was during an Embassy dinner and it wasn’t obvious to anyone but me. The gentleman who approached me only set up the meeting with the man they call ‘Phantom.’ It was during my research into this contact that I realized who he was—is—to you.”
    “Why did you send me tonight when you could have gone? You said because he would have taken