Tactical Deception: Silent Warrior, Book 2 Read Free Page A

help that I didn’t sleep well last night.”
    “Thinking about Neil?”
    Mari lowered her gaze, guilt eating at her. Her tears flowed less and less now. Yes, she thought about Neil. Almost every minute of the day she had to remind herself that her husband, her friend, the man who’d saved her from death in a windowless cell and had loved her despite her shame, was gone. But at night, when she was alone in Roger’s room, when she lay in Roger’s bed, it wasn’t Neil on her mind.
    Surely Allah would never forgive her. Two years ago Roger had walked into her and Neil’s house and she’d met him for the first time. His blue gaze had pierced all the way to her soul in one look and no amount of prayer had wiped him from her mind. From that moment on she’d avoided Neil’s commander as much as possible. Only Allah knew how Roger affected her.
    She truly had to be as unworthy inside as her father had believed. Otherwise, how could she love and miss Neil, yet be so deeply drawn to Roger? How could her pain-filled heart race when Roger walked into the room? How could her aching-for-Neil self want to lay her head back on Roger’s shoulder and feel his arms around her again?
    Roger had carried her to the ambulance and had held her comfortingly close after Dugar’s attack when she’d feared she was losing her baby. He’d eased her pain, reassured her that it was going to be all right, and had left her no doubt he’d protect her with his dying breath. She wanted to feel that enveloping comfort again, but she couldn’t let that happen. With her fate, it would surely sign his death warrant.
    Holly touched Mari’s shoulder. “I can’t begin to imagine how hard this is for you. I didn’t know Neil well, but he always made everyone laugh. No one has laughed since Lebanon. What happened to the teams there and the fallout from Menendez’s terrorism has everyone reeling. But you felt the effects of that firsthand when Dugar…crap… There I go bringing up things you need to forget. How about a Sonic cheeseburger and shake?”
    “Yes!” Mari latched onto the cheeseburger lifeline. She could think about food and satisfying her cravings all she wanted without guilt or sin. Stifling her thoughts of Roger, she picked up her hijab and slipped the scarf back over her head. Her pulse kicked in protest.
    It was stupid, but the fear of having a killer wrap the silken material around her throat again wouldn’t go away. This time she didn’t fold the hijab to cover part of her face. She left the ends hanging loose to her waist, allowing her whole face to show in public. The cool air felt good.
    Holly secured the rented weapons into their cases and returned them on the way out. The flat screen in the lobby showed angry protesters carrying “Give Us The Truth” signs. The volume was off, so she didn’t know where the trouble spot was, but she did know what it was about. As Roger put it, “a billionaire’s plot to exact economic and environmental justice by making the world slave to his biofuel had sent the political world into a death spiral.” Menendez had pitted the world’s major powers against each other. Country against country, West against East, Christian against Muslim, and radical against radical. He’d framed Israel and the US for the assassination of an Imam in Iran and had set up Hezbollah for the kidnapping of Ambassador James and Israeli Prime Minister Shalev’s daughters in Lebanon. Neil had died trying to rescue them. Then, with tempers at the boiling point, Menendez had destroyed the oil market. He made it look like Al Qaeda had annihilated the US’s pipelines and hubs, then had crippled Saudi’s refineries and oil fields with evidence pointing at the US and Israel. Roger, Jack and Beck had uncovered Menendez’s plot and put a stop to it, but most of the world didn’t believe the story. Conspiracy rumors were rampant.
    Mari exited the gun range into the hot, bright September sun. “How can they believe