“It wil be the same as it is has been for months. The same as it is now. You might as wel not waste your time,” she told him.
Oran just shrugged and pasted on his look-at-me smile as he headed for the door, just in case someone outside was watching. “We’l see. One of these days you may decide you need me again.”
“When I did need you, you walked away. I’l never make that mistake again.”
Caleb had learned at a young age that he had to control his temper, because he’d always been bigger and stronger than the other kids. Without that patience and self-control, he would have hurt people, and those traits had always served him wel until today.
As he watched Oran walk away, he wished that he’d slammed his fist right into Oran’s handsome nose. Blacking both of that asshole’s eyes would have been fun.
Therapeutic.
He couldn’t believe that Oran had been stupid enough to dump Lana. And the thought of him doing it while she was stil weak and vulnerable made Caleb clench his fists against the urge to hit something.
“Does he always come around here like that?” asked Caleb.
Lana’s face was stil tight with anger, which was now aimed directly at him. Caleb had kept quiet, trying to stay out of her personal business, but he just couldn’t keep quiet any longer. Not after that.
“Eventualy, he’l get the point.”
Caleb didn’t like the idea of her hanging around with scum like Oran. Not that it was any of his concern. She was a grown woman and could make as many bad choices as she wanted. Heaven knew he’d made plenty of his own.
“He’s an ass,” said Caleb. “If it’s any consolation, you were lucky not to have been stuck with him.”
Lana let out a deep breath and looked back down at her work. “I know that now.”
But she hadn’t known it when he dumped her, was the obvious subtext.
Caleb clenched his fists again and tried to remind himself that he wasn’t here to inflict violence on Lana’s ex-fiancé, no matter how appealing the idea was.
It was time for Lana to go home, and Caleb was stil sitting there. Stacie had left a couple of hours ago, giving Lana that maternal frown that could make her feel like she was nine years old. She’d scolded Lana for working too hard and then left, saying she’d be in early in the morning.
Lana glanced over at Caleb. He’d hardly moved al day. He intervened when Oran wouldn’t leave. He ate the burgers Stacie had brought him, thanking her politely for thinking of him. He used the bathroom at the back of the office a couple times, but other than that, he hadn’t moved.
Lana felt him watching her, but every time she looked up, he was never looking her way. She wished he had been, because then she could have scolded him for that and maybe even worked up the nerve to cal the police and have him hauled off for stalking or something.
Like that would work. They’d get one glimpse of his military record and likely take him out for drinks or invite him to date their sisters. That was just the kind of thing Lana had come to expect from fate where her life was concerned.
Caleb was watching the street outside. Sometimes he’d scribble something on a little notebook he carried. She had no idea what he was doing, but it was clear that it was taking up al his concentration. She used the opportunity to just look at him.
His black hair had been a little longer in Armenia. It was stil long enough to defy military regulations, but then again, he was special. He did things like pretend to be a criminal in order to infiltrate a terrorist group. He couldn’t go around looking like GI Joe and expect to be accepted as scum by scum.
His skin was deeply tanned, with a few paler lines of scar tissue on both his hands and face that showed where his dangerous career had damaged his body.
His face wasn’t as handsome as it was simply . . . powerful. Intense. His jaw was wide and bold, covered in five-o’clock shadow that accentuated the sharp, masculine angles. His eyes were a deep, rich black. Only the faintest slivers of golden brown gave away where his pupils started and his irises ended. She remembered them in vivid detail. They were the first thing she’d seen when she’d opened her eyes in the hospital and knew she was going to live.
Lana didn’t want to like him, and she sure as hel didn’t want him sticking around, but she couldn’t keep herself from respecting him. He’d done something she wasn’t sure she could ever do. He’d held the fate of innocents in his hands and chosen who would live and who would die.
She didn’t envy him that responsibility.
“Are you sleeping here tonight?” he asked her without turning around. Night had falen outside, and he was looking at her in the mirrorlike reflection of the tinted windows.
Lana felt her face heat as she realized that he’d been watching her watch him. “No. I’m just about done. Feel free to tel your boss you tortured me, or whatever, to get me to talk, but I just didn’t have anything to say. I wouldn’t want him to think any less of you for failing.”
“Who says I’ve failed? I’m a patient man, Lana.”
Lana swalowed a vile curse by force of habit, even though Stacie wasn’t here to hear her. “I’m not letting you in tomorrow. That’s final. You want to sit outside in the parking lot and bake, that’s fine, but you’re not coming in here where it’s al cool and comfy.”
He gave her a shrug of indifference. “I’ve been hotter places than here.”
He probably had, too. He’d probably climbed frozen mountains and swum crocodile-infested rivers, and crossed scorching deserts with no water, and jumped over tal buildings in a single leap. He was a freaking hero. He’d saved hundreds of lives. He could probably walk on water if he tried.
Why couldn’t he just go away and leave her in peace? Her life was bad enough without the constant reminder of what she’d suffered.
And if any of the terrorists who had escaped justice found out he was here, they might figure out she’d seen them. Having Caleb here was like putting a giant neon sign over her head, reading, “Witness here. Come get her.”
She needed him to go. Now. Before any more attention was drawn her way.
“I’m going home. Don’t try to folow me, or I’l cal the police.”
“I have my orders,” was al he said.
“Screw your orders. Stalking is a crime, buddy.”
He looked completely unconcerned by her threat, and that’s when Lana knew the ugly truth. No matter where she went or what she did, he was going to be there. He wasn’t going away until she told him what he wanted to hear, and there was no way she was going to do that. Not if she wanted to live.
Caleb sat in his car outside Lana’s nearly deserted apartment building. He hadn’t even bothered to ask her to let him in so he could check the place out. He knew what the answer would be, and he realy didn’t want to give her the chance to scream at him.
From what he could tel from the outside, the place was run-down and badly in need of repair. Closer to the highway, several similar buildings had been polished up and remodeled, but not this one. It looked like it had been built in the seventies and not much had been done since then. There weren’t even many cars in the lot, just her Saturn, his car, and an ancient Taurus that looked like its tires had rotted into the concrete.
Trees grew up al around the apartment building, shielding it from the noise and stink of the highway. As beautiful as they were, they were also an excelent source of concealment for anyone who might want to get into Lana’s apartment. She had a ground-level unit with plenty of windows to climb through—windows that also happened to be on the side facing the thick growth of trees. It wouldn’t have taken a genius to find a way in. Hel, a kid could have done it without putting down his Game Boy.
After he was sure she was asleep, he’d get out of his car and scout the place more closely to see if his first impressions of security here were accurate, but he didn’t want to scare her by snooping around while she was stil awake to watch.
Caleb’s bely growled in hunger, but he ignored it. He had some MREs in his duffel and he’d break one out later, but not until the lights in Lana’s apartment went out. It was nearly ten, and he hoped she’d get some rest soon. She looked like she could use it.
A few minutes later, Lana’s face peeked out from between the slats of her cheap blinds. She was too far away for him to make out much more than the shape of her head, but somehow he got the feeling that she was scowling at him.
Caleb sighed. Not much he could do to change her opinion of him. As it was, she’d already shocked him by not caling the police. No matter how tough she wanted to sound, he could tel the idea of him sitting out in the heat bothered her. She didn’t want him to suffer. How ironic.
Caleb’s gut twisted in a slow rol of regret. Wishing things had been different never made them so, and even if he had to go back and live that nightmare al over again, he wouldn’t have done anything differently.
Except maybe he wouldn’t have gone to Lana’s hospital room. Seeing her suffer like that had slain something inside him—some innocent little piece of his soul that believed in fairness, justice.
Of course, had he not gone there, he’d never have been able to live with himself. There were just some things a man didn’t do, and walking away from a dying woman that he’d helped kil was one of them.
The blinds cracked open again, and a minute later, Lana came stomping out of her apartment. She carried a plate of food in one hand and a glass of water in the other. By the time she’d gotten to his car, he’d roled down the window.
Lana shoved the food at him. “Here,” was al she said.
Caleb took the food and thanked her, but she was already stomping off again. He thought he heard her mutter something about hoping he’d choke.
Caleb stared at the plate in amusement. She’d made spaghetti for him.
The door of her apartment slammed shut, and Caleb couldn’t help but smile. She didn’t like him, she had every reason to hate him, yet she couldn’t stand to let him go hungry—couldn’t stand the thought of him baking in the hot sun.
Maybe there was stil hope for this mission yet.
Caleb wolfed down the meal, grateful for real food when faced with the option of a lukewarm MRE instead. He’d had enough of those to last him a lifetime.
When he’d cleaned the last noodle from the plate, he figured he had just been handed the best excuse he could think of to get a look inside her home. He had to return her dishes.
Caleb pocketed one of his wireless mini-cams and made his way up the concrete stairs that led to the sidewalk that ran along the apartment building. One of the security lights was out, casting the trees behind her unit into deep shadows. Decorative bushes sat in thick clumps beneath her windows, and they were in desperate need of a haircut.
He was too big to make much use of a hiding place like that, but a lot of people wouldn’t be. Al they’d have to do was sit there and wait to break in after she’d left her apartment, then wait inside for her to return. She’d never even suspect she was walking into a trap.
