Avenged (Hostage Rescue Team Series) (Volume 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

them over the harsh terrain. When she’d finally removed the veil of her Burqa he’d been stunned to see her fair skin and gray eyes, hear the pure American accent with just a hint of the South in her voice.
    An American woman, held captive for many months by Qureshi. Married off to Hassan against her will.
    It still filled him with fury.
    The rescue op had been a total disaster, to say the least. But she’d survived. He’d worried about her afterward, thought about her way more often than he should have ever since. As incredible as it seemed, in just a few seconds he’d be seeing her face-to-face for the first time in five years.
    The door swung open to reveal Celida standing in the threshold. She was dressed in her usual business attire, signaling she was here as an investigator rather than in a security capacity—a gray pencil skirt and suit jacket. Stepping back to let him inside, she raised one dark brow, the scar from a bullet graze on her right cheek pulling slightly with the movement. “Hey. Care to tell me what this is all about?” she asked in a low voice as she shut the door behind him.
    Nate looked past her toward the back of the suite. From the entryway he couldn’t see who was there. But with Taya literally just feet away from him now, seeing her was all he could focus on.
    “Nate.”
    Celida’s tone was calm, but it was definitely a command. He wasn’t getting past her to see Taya until he explained himself. And if it had been anyone else but her, he knew he wouldn’t have even gotten inside the room, HRT member or not. He shifted his gaze to her and drew a deep breath. “I know her.”
    She nodded and folded her arms. “I gathered that. How?”
    Her not knowing surprised him. “Tuck didn’t say anything to you?”
    “No. You know how he is with that kind of thing. If he considers it someone’s private business, then that’s the way it stays.”
    Yeah, that sounded like Tuck. And that strong sense of integrity was just another reason why Nate admired the guy.
    Celida was going to find out about the botched rescue op soon anyway, once she started digging into Taya’s past more. He’d rather give her the abbreviated version in his own words. “I was part of a CSAR mission five years ago, back when I was still in the Air Force. She was one of the principals we were sent in to extract.” Sounded so tidy and benign when he worded it like that.
    She searched his eyes for a moment before speaking. “Is that it?”
    “No,” he admitted. “There’s more.” The official version was far less pretty, and if he knew Celida, she’d be looking into it as soon as she left the hotel.
    “And it’s personal,” she guessed, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
    He nodded, not bothering to deny it.
    “She must be pretty important to you, given the way you raced up here. Have you had contact with her since the op?”
    “Not really. A couple e-mails here and there for a bit. But I haven’t talked to her since I joined the FBI.” Four years ago now. He’d stopped communicating because he’d thought it was for the best, for both of them. Given the traumatic circumstances of their ordeal behind enemy lines together, he’d wanted to prevent either of them from forming an unhealthy psychological attachment to the other.
    You mean you were afraid the feelings you had for her were as fucked up as you are , a snide voice in his head whispered.
    Celida nodded thoughtfully, oblivious to his inner turmoil. Or maybe not. “Okay. So if you haven’t talked to her in years and you’re not here as part of her detail, why exactly do you want to see her?”
    Good question. He was wrestling with the answer to that himself. All he knew was that he’d never met a woman like Taya, and that no one had ever affected him as much as she had. A dozen different emotions swirled inside him as he thought of how to answer. Guilt, grief, loneliness. And…a yearning he’d failed to conquer. “I just need to see her.”
    Her