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

me, he’d figured out I was MI6. He took me prisoner. I escaped a few weeks ago, but he’s after me. He wants me back. Badly.”
    She forced herself not to shiver at the thought of what Nico would do to her if he ever did get hold of her again. Death would be a blessing. “You, Miles Duncan, literally hold the key to my survival.”
    After a long, quiet pause, Miles slid off of her, took her gun and stood a few feet away. She couldn’t see him without turning over and any sudden move could cause him to straddle her again. But she felt that solid, unwavering presence of his behind her. A second later, he flipped the wall switch and the bathroom flooded with light.
    Charlotte blinked, tried to right the towel as she kept her gaze on the tiles. The rough, dull cotton was askew, barely covering anything but a stripe across her buttocks. Her back and legs were completely bare.
    A growl tore from Miles’ lips, raising the hair on the back of her neck.
    The scars . He was seeing the scars that crisscrossed her back and thighs. Nico liked his leather belt, liked his sickle. The welts had left their marks. The tip of his knife as well. Her once flawless skin was now a mess of damaged and disfigured scars.
    “Jesus, darlin’.” Miles voice was low, controlled. “What the hell did he do to you?”
    Carefully sitting up, she drew the towel around her, hugging her knees and keeping her gaze pinned to the floor. “The cross I put around your neck before I left you,” she said. “Please tell me you still have it.”
    He was immobile for a moment, then moved as swift as he always did, bending down and clasping her chin with his big, warm hand.
    He lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him.
    Their eyes locked and he scanned her face, her wet hair falling in a tangle around her head. His gray eyes were sad, angry, as they searched hers for answers. He gingerly pushed a lock of hair away from her eyes.
    His free hand unzipped his jacket, dug under the vest and shirt covering the base of his neck. Her breath caught when she saw him drag out the very thing she was looking for.
    Still searching her eyes, he held up the ornate golden cross and let it rock in the air. “I have it,” he said. “It was the only thing of you I did have.”
    Light from overhead bounced off the inlaid gemstones, her future sparkling between them.

Chapter Three
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    M ILES’ G UTS C RAWLED at the scars on Sarah’s— Charlotte’s —body. She clutched the towel to her chest, trying to cover them, but he could see a fairly fresh mark on her collarbone.
    Her face was devoid of any, and even without makeup, she was quite simply beautiful.
    He saw her throat work as she swallowed, staring at the cross. She held out a hand, her gaze meeting his. “I need it back.”
    His phone vibrated inside his pants pocket. He’d shut off the ringer, but he recognized the three short pulses of the personalized tone he had for Emit Petit.
    Slipping the cross back under his shirt collar, he watched as Charlotte followed his every move. She licked her pale lips and his mind blanked out for a moment.
    The things she’d done to him with those lips, that mouth. It was enough to make him hard.
    Yet, after what she’d just told him, he had the sick, uncanny feeling she’d only been using him in some personal undercover operation to double-cross her own country.
    The phone buzzed again, insistent in his pocket. “I want to hear the whole story,” Miles said, rising and offering her a hand up. He dug the phone from his pocket with his other hand. “Put some clothes on and we’ll talk.”
    Snatching Charlotte’s gun from the vanity counter and moving a few steps back to give her room to grab her clothes, he answered the phone. “Yeah.”
    His boss’s voice sounded annoyed. “Yolanda Fernandez needs your services asap.”
    Yolanda was a West Coast security service client. A thirty-something