Page 6 of Forgiving His Past (Eagle’s Nest Securities #5)
Blue eyes that saw too much didn’t so much as flinch at Van’s counter.
“You can’t seriously be okay with this. Trust me, I’m just as pissed off about what happened to Hunter as you are, but…
” The computer genius gave a hard shake of his head.
“This isn’t the way we do things, and you damn well know it. ”
Maybe that’s the whole problem.
But even as the coldhearted thought entered Van’s mind, he knew his teammate was right. They may have taken their fair share of lives, but it was always a known and proven enemy. Their deaths were more than justified and always resulted in innocent lives being saved.
Whether it be back in their SEAL days or more recently, as operatives working for Eagle’s Nest, it didn’t matter. If anyone on their team took a life, it was because they’d been left with no other choice.
So, yeah. Killing in self-defense or in the process of saving an innocent life was one thing. Playing judge, jury, and executioners to a woman they suspected was involved in the ambush that killed their friend…
Van blew out a breath and ran a hand over his well-trimmed beard. Though he’d never admit it out loud, Lucky was right.
But if it turned out the intel they’d been given was right, and they proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kaamisha Dawari was the puppet master behind their team’s final mission as Navy SEALs…
I’ll hand her over to the authorities without a spec of guilt in my veins and a smile on my fucking face.
Logan exhaled loudly while shifting his stance so he was fully facing the back of the plane. “The sooner we get her to talk, the sooner we can hopefully get some answers. Guess I’ll give it the first go.”
Before his former team leader could advance, Van heard himself muttering a low, “I’ll do it.”
Lucky’s dark brows arched high, and the man didn’t bother to hide his look of surprise. “Uh…no offense, brother, but you aren’t exactly the kind of person people tend to open up to.”
“More like they turn and run in the opposite direction the first chance they get.” Chase snickered from his seat beside Van.
Lifting a hand, Van flipped them both the bird before turning and heading down the carpeted aisle. His gaze landed on the woman whose own eyes were closed, and for a moment he wondered if she hadn’t fallen asleep.
A few steps later, those long, black lashes of hers fluttered open once again.
She looked his way, her mesmerizing green eyes locking onto his. Like before, his heart thumped hard with an instant tightening in his chest, and he couldn’t deny the exotic woman was the most attractive he’d ever seen.
If she wasn’t a suspected terrorist, and they’d met under different—and less lethal—circumstances, he might have even considered asking her out for a drink. But until he and his team learned the truth about her involvement in their friend’s death…
“Is this really necessary?”
Her voice sent a rush of tingles flooding into his system, making his dick twitch behind the zipper of his jeans. Rich. Feminine. Heavily accented. And yet, he understood her words perfectly.
“Can’t have you doing something stupid like trying to bring down the plane with all of us in it.” Van came to a stop directly in front of where she sat .
A touch of humor flashed behind her gorgeous green stare.
“Do I look like someone who’s ready to die, Donovan?”
He hated that he loved the way she said his name.
“You snuck up on me in that alley and put a knife to my throat, knowing I was trained as a United States Navy SEAL. So you tell me.”
A soft smile lifted the corners of her full, luscious lips as one of her dark brows arched high.
“I think the most notable part of that statement is that I was able to sneak up on you in the first place. Perhaps you should be more concerned about that than some fictional plot to kill us all in a fiery crash.”
His back teeth clamped down as Van clenched his jaw out of silent frustration. Mostly he was pissed at himself because dammit, the woman was right.
No one had ever gotten the drop on him. Not like that.
Only her.
“Why didn’t you kill me in the alley when you had the chance?” The question had been rolling through his brain all night.
“It was never my intent to kill you, Donovan.”
A low growl nearly escaped the back of his throat. He’d thought it before, and now he was thinking it again…
He hated… truly hated…how much he loved hearing his name fall from her lips.
“Why put a knife to my throat if you had no intentions of using it, Kaamisha?”
“Please. I told you before, call me Kam. As for the knife…that was simply my way of getting your attention.” Those pretty green eyes rose up toward her bound wrists before finding their way back down to him.
“Looks like it worked. And while we’re on the subject, you clearly had every opportunity in that alley to end my life, as well. And yet…you didn’t. Why?”
Van inched his way closer to where she was sitting, stopping just shy of letting the toe of his boot touch the stained and tattered hem of her dress. Leaning down, he rested his palms on his knees as he searched her gaze for the first sign of a reaction.
“If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead,” he rumbled low.
“Then what is it you want? Because I’ve seen you and your team, and I know I’m the reason you were in Kandahar. If not to end my life, then what?—”
“Information,” he cut her question short.
“About what?”
“You.” His throat worked a hard swallow. “More specifically, I want to know the details of your involvement in the attack on our team three years ago.”
“I know what attack you’re referring to, and I am truly sorry for your team’s loss. But I can assure you, I was not involved.”
“Save your bullshit sympathy for someone else,” he bit back. “We know you’re the one who orchestrated the attack, but you obviously didn’t do it alone. So give me a name of the person you went to, and I might be able to keep you from getting the death penalty.”
Kaamisha… Kam …worked her delicate throat. But rather than offer up information on herself, she countered with a question of her own.
“What about you, Donovan?”
Sure, he’d play along.
“What about me?”
“I was led to believe you and your team were the ones who really killed my mother. That you used your government’s contacts in Afghanistan to lure the two rival Taliban extremists groups into a meeting of the minds.
Your assets fed them false information that all but guaranteed their gathering together would erupt into violence.
And it did.” A flash of emotion swirled within the greens of her eyes.
“A shootout right there, in the streets of Kandahar. Not far from the coffee shop where I found you lurking. From what I was told, it was like something out of one of those Wild West films. The perfect cover for you and your men to take out your real target…my mother.”
“Not sure who fed you that line of bullshit, sweetheart, but that version of the story couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“No? So your team wasn’t there that day?”
Did she honestly expect him to put his ass on the line by divulging classified information?
Not happening.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” Kam responded calmly after a beat.
“Whether we were or weren’t there doesn’t matter,” Van pointed out gruffly. “No matter the mission, we aren’t exactly in the business of killing innocent women.”
“Of course not. You simply drug and kidnap them, instead.”
Walked right into that one.
“Only after you tried to kill me.”
“I already told you, I wasn’t trying to end your life.”
“You also told me in the alley that you’d been looking for me and my team,” he reminded her. “If not to kill us out of revenge, then for what?”
The air between them grew silent, save for the dull roar of the jet’s engines as it propelled them through the night sky. Kam’s shoulders fell the short distance the cuffs would allow, and for the second time in as many minutes, he saw a spark of real emotion filtering through her stunning gaze.
When she’d been talking about her mother and the fictional details surrounding her death, he could’ve sworn he saw a sliver of actual, honest-to-goodness grief.
Now, however…as the woman he and his team had been hunting stared up at him from where she sat on the floor…
the only thing he found in her beseeching stare was… fear .
“I need your help, Donovan.” The words were spoken so softly he almost missed them. “Because you’re right. Someone did target you and your men.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.” She gave a quick shake of her head.
“But whoever it is, I believe they’re also responsible for my mother’s death.
Which is why I need your help. The more I looked into things once the files began to appear, the more I realized something was off about all of it.
I began asking around to those who I believed could offer some help, but soon after, I began to get the feeling I was being watched.
I have no idea who is behind this, or why, but I wholeheartedly believe if we don’t expose them to the rest of the world very soon, we are all going to wind up dead. ”