Fatal Honor: Shadow Force International Read Online Free PDF Page A

the bathroom unless she would squeeze herself down to the size of monkey to fit through the window at the top of the wall. She sat on the floor, the tile cool and sweaty, leaning her head against the wall. Definitely not Nicolae. He had the patience of a squirrel.
    The fear thrumming under her skin eased slightly. Nico’s minions were ruthless but lacked imagination. If there were only one, she could take him.
    MI6 wouldn’t kill her. They’d haul her back to Vauxhall and interrogate her. After escaping Nicolae, she’d had to lay low, but had tried contacting her old handler. He’d told her she’d been branded a traitor and MI6 had her on an internal wanted list. She had no proof she wasn’t a double agent or that she’d been held against her will by Nico, except for the scars on her body. Those wouldn’t be enough for them to grant her a pardon. She had to retrieve the video intel she’d shot back on that mountain when the scientist’s plane—and then Miles’ helo—had been shot down.
    She’d lied when she’d told him she hadn’t seen what happened with the helo. Not only had she witnessed the horrible explosion, she had most of it on video. The terrorist responsible was on that footage as well. Worse, Madeena knew the man. Knew where he hid out.
    Charlotte had no doubt Miles would kill for that information.
    The air around her shifted, causing her to stop breathing, to strain her ears. She’d heard nothing, saw no movement in the shadows, yet she felt a very distinctive presence. Close.
    Too close.
    “You going to come out of the bathroom on your own, darlin’,” a lightly accented Southern voice said from the doorway, “or am I going to have to come in there and carry y’all out?”
    That voice. A tiny thrill went through her, every cell in her body rejoicing at the sound of that deep, husky voice.
    Charlotte remembered the first time she’d heard him speak. He’d been unconscious for days, barely clinging to life, in and out of consciousness. Exhausted from caring for him and keeping her location a secret, she’d fallen asleep next to him in bed, her head lying near his. He’d touched her face with the tips of his fingers, waking her, and said, “You must be my guardian angel.”
    He’d fallen right back to sleep, but it had made her giddy that he’d woken up and spoken to her. Twenty-four hours later, he was fully awake and wanting to know what had happened.
    She was no guardian angel. Angel of death was more like it. It was her fault the scientist’s plane had been shot down in those mountains. Her fault he’d needed rescuing by the Navy SEALs.
    If Miles had found out she was the cause of all of that—the trouble that killed his teammates—no wonder he hadn’t knocked on her motel room door and kissed her silly when she opened it.
    Maybe he did want to kill her. She wouldn’t blame him.
    Tucking herself closer to the wall, she tried to see through the slit in the doorframe. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness but she couldn’t make out his whereabouts.
    She could feel him, though. Every place that he had touched, every spot he had kissed in her cabin in the mountains, was suddenly alive again. Not scarred and bruised and broken, but tingling with anticipation.
    Laying her brow against the cold metal of the gun barrel, she closed her eyes for a second. She’d been waiting for this moment, looking forward to a reunion with him. Never in all those fantasies had she envisioned herself sitting on a dirty bathroom floor, wrapped in nothing but a towel with no way out.
    In her version of the reunion, she’d planned on retrieving the video from her hidden safe first, putting Nicolae behind bars where he could never hurt anyone again, and then showing up on Miles’ door with a clean slate and the tiniest hope for the future.
    Best laid plans…
    Without warning, the door banged fully open, smacking her body and nearly knocking the gun from her hands. A shadow moved, hands grabbing her and