Targeted (Firebrand Book 1) Read Free

finish it.
    She jammed her hand to her lips to keep from groaning aloud and stumbled into the hallway. Blood still oozed from the stinging cut on her neck, and she lurched toward the bathroom. She rummaged inside a drawer for the antibiotic ointment. Staring into the mirror at the thin red line that ran down the side of her throat, she dabbed the medicine on it and flinched at the sharp, tingling pain that raced down her neck.
    When she’d finished, she leaned both hands on the sink, closed her eyes, and bowed her head at the words echoing in her mind as if she’d hit some replay button that couldn’t be paused. “Tell Ash to come home.”  
    Would he come home if she asked? “Tell Ash to come home.”
    He hadn’t been back since he left eleven years ago to join a military special ops group. “Tell Ash to come home.”
    Only William Mason, the family’s lawyer, had ever had any contact with him, and it was only a short letter stating that he wanted no communication with his brother and his brother’s wife in the future and that he was renouncing any inheritance he might receive from his father’s estate. “Tell Ash to come home.”
    They hadn’t heard from him when his father died a year later, and the fact that he didn’t show up for Richard’s funeral five years ago still angered her. “Tell Ash to come home.”
    She clamped her hands over her ears as if she could silence the words and slowly raised her head to stare at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. Just minutes ago she’d been remembering things she shouldn’t and wondering how her life might have been different. She’d hardly let herself think it, but deep in her heart, she’d wished for years she could see Ash again. Had he changed? Was he still the man she’d fallen in love with? But more than needing the answers to those questions, she’d wanted him to meet Max, the son he didn’t know he had.
    Now she might get that wish, and the thought terrified her almost as much as those intruders. Richard had been there for her and Max when she needed someone, not Ash, and it was too late now for him to be a father.
    For some reason those men seemed to think she could make Ash come home. But why? Something had to be terribly wrong. 
    She pulled her hands away from her ears and trailed one finger down the cut on her neck as a tear rolled down her cheek. “Oh, Ash. Where are you? And what have you done now?”
    <><><>
    Ash DeHan hated nights like this. Lonely nights when he questioned the decision he’d made six months ago to isolate himself in this small Colorado ski area. At the time it had seemed the right choice. Drop out of the life he’d made for himself and begin something new. But if he’d expected some great plan for his future to reveal itself here, he’d been wrong. All he’d found was a lonelier existence than he’d had before.
    At first he’d been relieved to be free of planning the next mission for Firebrand. Time to relax and enjoy the scenery. But reality had quickly crashed in on him. In trying to drop out of life, he’d brought himself and all his baggage along on the trip. And that made all the difference.
    He was never going to silence the screams and wails that echoed in his head, reminding him of missions he’d carried out for Firebrand. And he was never going to forget how the two people he’d loved most in the world had betrayed him. Those were the thoughts tormenting him tonight, and they’d brought him to this all-night diner in the middle of what he hoped would be the last big snowstorm of the season to try and make some sense out of his miserable life.
    Then there were the unanswered questions about his future. What was he going to do about that? When he had joined with Reese Alexander and Colt Hanson after their military days to form the special ops group they’d named Firebrand, he’d welcomed the intrigue, the adventure, and the danger they’d lived with as undercover operatives for the CIA.
    But