“I was trying to protect you but I’ve realized along the way what an asshole move that was,” he said. “I thought that if I could somehow prepare you for bad news in case that’s what we found that you’d somehow hurt less.”
“You were being honest.” She had come to understand that he was fiercely trying to protect her.
“I was underestimating you,” he countered. “You’re so much stronger than I gave credit. Before I met you, I’d convinced myself somewhere along the way that I would’ve been better off not knowing what had happened to the people I cared about. That not knowing would somehow make it hurt less. I wanted to spare you that same pain. That was stupid. Not knowing what happened to Ashlyn or if there was something you could be doing to save her seems the worst hell. I’m sorry.”
Those words were a warm blanket during a blizzard. It was a foreign feeling to allow someone to be her comfort. Being with Daniel, it felt right to trust—trust she’d never been able to give to another human being after what had happened to her.
“Thank you.” She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed him. And then she took a step back. “Where do we go first?”
“I’ve dealt with locals in these parts. You should know a few things. Getting anyone to talk isn’t going to be easy. I know I’m asking a lot here, but patience wins wars. If we talk too soon or to the wrong person the truth will be buried so deep not even I will be able to find it.” The determined look in his eyes made Clara believe he’d die trying. He had the scrapes and scars to prove he was willing to do whatever it took to get the job done.
“What do we do then?” Sitting around doing nothing wasn’t an option. She’d go stir crazy if she didn’t make some kind of progress. Do something.
“Pretend to be on vacation. Talk up the staff. We play the part right and we’ll get what we need from them. We go in too soon and they’ll play defense. Considering we’re on their soil, we’ll most likely lose and this door will close for us,” he said.
She took the warning to heart.
“We’re so close,” she said on a frustrated sigh. “She was here in this room.”
“I didn’t say this part would be easy. I said it would be worth it.” He kissed her, tenderly this time. “You have a lot on the line. I understand that. Be patient with my plan and we’ll get to the bottom of what happened. We’ll find her. I promise.”
From Clara’s experience so far, Daniel didn’t make promises that he couldn’t keep.
Would this be a first?
Chapter 14
Three nights had gone by. Every passing day made the possibility of finding Ashlyn more remote. No one was talking. Daniel wanted to tell Clara to be patient. The words died on his tongue. The simple fact was that if Ruthie was the one missing being patient would be the last thing on his mind. The suggestion would be so off base he’d laugh.
Clara sat three feet in front of him, facing the ocean and hugging her knees. A large round moon stood sentinel over the broad expanse of water.
Daniel looked up. He couldn’t count the stars there were so many. White caps crashed against the surf before being sucked back into the deep blue ocean.
“Mind company?” Daniel seemed to catch her off guard.
She shrugged, non-committal.
Daniel knew that feeling—the one that made a person want to either cocoon or lash out at the nearest person. He knew what it was like to bottle emotions up so tight that they threatened to spill over on the first person who said the wrong thing. Hell, he’d been that person for the past two years and he’d been that person to Clara when they’d first met.
His response to pain had been to remove himself from everyone and everything. Cuba had been his hideaway from the world, the place he’d gone to lick his wounds.
And he’d figured out somewhere along the way that it might’ve stopped him from killing someone with his bare hands—believe him when he said that had been a consideration at one time—but his life there kept him stuck in a cycle of self-hate. He didn’t see it that way while he was there. That revelation came with watching Clara fight so hard to stay
He took a seat next to Clara, sitting in silence for seconds that stretched out into minutes. He stared out onto the water, noticing the vastness of the ocean and how insignificant he felt. It had always had that effect on him.
The bright moon was a glowing orb, its beauty lit the night sky but was so far out of reach.
“Her name was Ruthie.” Daniel hadn’t spoken that name aloud in two years. He feared his voice would fail him when he cleared his throat and continued. “She was six-years-old.”
Clara stared into the night, just like he did, in companionable silence.
And then he glanced at her, catching the rivers stream down her cheeks.
“The reason I walked away from my old life, hell, anything that resembled a life, was because a mole published all the agents’ names and personal information on the dark net of the place I worked. Nothing I did was my wife or child’s fault but they paid the ultimate price for my actions. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I couldn’t save them.”
“I’m so sorry,” came out barely above a whisper. Her words washed over him like a tide of forgiveness he didn’t deserve.
“You know the saying what’s done in the dark always comes to light?” Daniel asked. “I could add karma’s a bitch to that too.”
Clara nodded. More rivers.
“During my service, my unit acted on bad intel. We didn’t know it at the time but when we came up on the village we knew something was off. We were given
