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She shrugged.

He hand signaled her to ask if she was ready to go. She nodded and crawled out of the aircraft. Moving quickly now that their primary mission was accomplished, he darted to the window. A quick peek outside. Clear. Out he went. Piper landed lightly beside him. He paused just long enough to close the window and then headed for the woods. He took the lead, moving cautiously, testing for trip wires and booby traps with each step. It was slow going, but he’d learned his lesson with these guys. Better safe than sorry.

Eventually, they made it up and over the log wall, and the compound disappeared from sight in the trees behind them. He disciplined himself to continue moving carefully until they’d topped the big ridge well beyond the compound and off the PHP property.

Finally, he stopped and turned to face Piper. He had a thousand questions for her, but they still had to wait until they were completely away from here.

“We’re clear,” he said in a low voice that would only carry a few feet. “Our truck’s off to the east about a half-mile.”

“Want me to take point?” she asked.

“Nah. I’m good. Just don’t let anyone sneak up on us from behind.”

“I’ve got rear guard,” she affirmed.

Did she? Really? He had to play this thing out and wait for her to turn on him. His shoulder blades twitched ominously as he headed out.

It took nearly an hour to reach the vehicle through the brush and heavy terrain, but if she was planning to betray him, Piper had another moment in mind, apparently. He breathed a sigh of relief as he started the truck and drove off into the darkness. Once he’d put several miles between them and the PHP, he finally turned on his headlights.

They turned onto a paved road and he accelerated away from the compound, gripping the steering wheel tightly. He glanced over at Piper who was staring fixedly out her window. As tempted as he was to demand answers from her, he needed to wait until they were stopped somewhere. Somewhere he could detain her. Arrest her, even, if she gave him the wrong answers.

They drove for several hours, and he stopped only when they reached Fairchild Air Force Base on the outskirts of Spokane, Washington. He flashed his military ID and was given a visitor’s pass to the base, which was the home of Aircrew Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape Training. He headed directly for the advanced prisoner interrogation facility. It was a non-descript building on the outside. Inside, he knew it to be equipped with state-of-the-art interrogation equipment…which he prayed he would not need to use on Piper.

Frowning, she followed him into the unmarked building. He pulled the desk guard aside and had a brief, muttered conversation with the guy out of Piper’s hearing. A few phone calls were made, and in a few minutes, he and Piper were led to a soundproof room with no surveillance cameras. He ushered her inside, followed her in, and locked the door behind himself.

He said grimly, “Have a seat. We need to talk.”

14

Piper gulped. The odd acoustics of the padded walls were familiar to her. She would never forget the advanced interrogation techniques that had been part of her CIA training in Virginia. She’d known this moment was coming ever since she’d uttered the words, “Hi, Daddy.” But she couldn’t stop her knees from knocking together or her teeth from wanting to chatter.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she blurted to Ian.

He perched on the edge of the table bolted to the floor in the middle of the room, and folded his arms, studying her. “How’s that?” he asked evenly.

At least he sounded like he was willing to hear her out before he condemned her out of hand. But his eyes were cold. Closed. So unlike the open, generous lover she’d come to know over the past few weeks. Right now, he looked every inch the angry intelligence officer she knew him to be.

“I’m not one of them. I think my father and brother are more than a little crazy and in need of watching. That’s why I’ve been tracking the PHP for the past two years on my own time.”

He moved so fast she didn’t even have time to react, grabbing her shoulders, lifting her out of the chair and slamming herback against the spongy wall. He snarled in her face, “That’s exactly what you would say if you were secretly working with them, infiltrating the government intelligence apparatus to find out what was being said about them, any actions that might be planned against them.”

He looked furious. Murderously so. God knew, if he decided to kill her, she wouldn’t be able to stop him. He was right about one thing. She would never be the Special Forces soldier that he was. He had eight inches in height and sixty pounds of solid muscle on her.

She answered candidly, “If I had admitted they were my family and that I thought they were nuts, would anyone have taken me seriously?”

Ian’s gritted, “Probably not. Without a credible threat from them, you’d have been ignored.”

“Hence, I watched them myself and waited for something to change. The minute my dad and brother headed for Sudan, I reported it to my boss.”

“But you still didn’t tell him who you were, or who they were to you, did you?”

“Well, no.”

He flung her away from him and paced a restless circuit around the tiny room.

“How’d you convince André Fortinay to send you after them?” he threw at her.

She held her position carefully, not moving in any way that would provoke the tiger in him to attack her. Smart girl.