Page 81 of Secrets Beneath the Waves

The man weaved through the crowd with ease, his head constantly moving in every direction. He was also scanning for anything out of the ordinary.

Ellie stayed far enough behind to avoid drawing attention. Her disguise helped, but so did her skill. Years of training with her mother had made her a ghost in plain sight.

The man stopped at a corner, his posture tense. Ellie blended into the flow of people and pretended to examine a rack of colorful sarongs at a nearby kiosk.

A few minutes later, a blue sedan pulled up to the curb. The Middle Eastern man opened the back door and slid inside.

Ellie recognized the car. The same sedan she'd seen before when she was being hunted by the three men. Her hands instinctively moved to her waist where her gun was hidden as a chill ran down her spine.

It’s all connected. The mole. The three killers. The cruise ships.

And now, the arrival of a replacement.

Her stomach churned as the realization set in. She had eliminated one of the men, but the enemy had simply sent another. The resources they had at their disposal would be endless. She couldn’t take them all down. Not before they got to her.

Ellie watched the sedan disappear. Her instincts screamed to follow, but she stayed put, unwilling to risk her cover.

Instead, she turned and melted back into the crowd as her mind raced with possibilities. The mole was still out there and was feeding information to whoever was behind this operation.

If Ellie had any hope of surviving, she needed to stay two steps ahead. And to do that, she needed answers. She had to find the mole.

If it’s Matthew . . .

Her fists balled and anger bubbled up inside her like lava inside a boiling volcano ready to erupt. She wasn’t sure how she would control her emotions until she got him far enough away from the land to confront him.

She went back to the port and waited for more passengers to file off. It seemed like a useless endeavor in that she had seen what she needed to see that day. As expected, the rest of the unloading was uneventful.

Her stomach growled, so she went to lunch and ordered Cayman-style fish tacos with rice and fried sweet plantains. After she finished the satisfying meal, she meandered around the many tourist shops, while keeping a sharp eye on passengers who were trickling back to the ships.

The sun was still a few hours from setting, but the afternoon glow cast the docks in a warm orange. Some of the tourists waited to get on the ship and strolled along the waterfront, shopping for last-minute trinkets or sipping cocktails at beachside bars.

Ellie had changed into a different disguise. A light scarf draped over her hair and a casual sundress that swayed with the breeze. She walked with the unhurried pace of someone enjoying the island, but her mind was anything but relaxed.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar figure walking along the boardwalk toward the cruise ship.

Luke.

What?

Ellie’s breath caught in her throat as she recognized him instantly. He was still the same, intense, perpetually on edge, and carrying an air of vulnerability that made him impossible to ignore.

She saw him every Monday morning at their CIA staff meetings. Other than that, they didn’t run into each other atwork but talked almost every day. He liked to call her at night, right before bed. She often wondered if he called her at that time to make sure she wasn’t out on a date or that Mark wasn’t with her.

As to the investigation, he was somewhat off her radar even though he was on her CIA briefing list of suspects. Everyone who worked out of the office was on that list.

At first, she had suspected him but didn’t anymore. Luke had always been a little too curious, a little too eager to insert himself into situations that didn’t concern him, but his naivete made it seem like he wasn’t capable of pulling off such a ruse. Being a double agent and avoiding detection this long took great skill.

One thing still gnawed at her though and had now resurfaced.

On one of her dates with Mark, the pretty boy from the coffee shop, he casually mentioned that Luke had approached him, asked if they were dating and said he’d seen them together.

Ellie suspected that Luke had been following her.

Was it jealousy? Or was he fishing for information, playing his own game behind the scenes? She’d dismissed it at the time as an infatuation but seeing him at the port set her radar spinning.

As he got closer, Ellie could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. Ellie forced herself to stay calm, to act as if she hadn’t noticed him. She turned her attention back to the water and pretended to admire the view.

What is he doing here?