When he removed the gag from her mouth, she stood and immediately wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, squeezing her tighter than he ever had before.
"I'm so sorry," he said. Tears streamed down his cheeks and soaked into the back of her shirt.
"I know," Nicole replied. "I am too."
He pulled away and locked eyes with her again. "You don't have anything to be sorry about."
"I could have done better. You know, with us."
Dak shook his head. "Maybe we both could have."
Then he sighed, as if bearing a two-ton weight on his thoughts. Gripping her shoulders, he never took his eyes from hers. "I have to go. We'll get you back to Istanbul. You should be safe now. But this isn't over for me."
She puzzled at the statement. "But you just—" she faltered at the thought of what happened, how she'd seen the man she loved brutally kill another.
Dak's head shook again. "I know he's the last one of my team, but there's another threat."
He held up his phone and pressed a finger to the screen to stop the audio recording. "This will clear my name with the military. But when this goes to the higher-ups, there will be questions. Colonel Tucker will not take it well. My guess is, they'll give him some kind of an honorable discharge, but if I know Tucker, that won't stop him."
"What are you saying, Dak?" She searched his eyes for a truth that would somehow put them together again, a new life where they could live happily ever after. That fairytale ending was nowhere to be found in his jade gaze.
"It's not safe to be with me, Nicky. It never will be. Maybe I'm wrong, but the colonel doesn't strike me as the kind of guy to take losing gracefully."
"But you said you have the recording of Bo's confession. Whoever this Colonel Tucker guy is, surely he'll take that as proof you were innocent. He'll be glad. Won't he?"
"That's not how it will go down, Nicky. I've seen it before. The military is all Tucker has. Once that's gone, he will either end up at the bottom of a bottle, or he'll try to figure out a way to make me pay for the destruction of his career."
"So," she choked back a sob, "you're going to leave me again?"
He nodded. The gesture was subtle, almost unnoticeable. He didn't want to. He wanted to return to Istanbul with her and start a new life, but that couldn't happen. Not yet. Maybe Tucker would bow out and disappear. Dak doubted it. He'd already seen the lengths the colonel would go to on a few occasions.
Now, he wouldn't be shackled by the rules of the United States military, not that he was playing by those rules anyway.
"Where will you go?" Nicole asked, realizing there was no changing the course of their tattered relationship.
"I honestly don't know," he said. "I'll hop around some. I've always wanted to see the world, study some history in the places where it actually happened. Who knows?"
He could see she had a question still waiting in reserve, and he wondered why she held back.
Finally, she set it free. "Will you… kill the colonel?"
Her eyes wandered to the body on the ground below and Dak followed her gaze. "If I have to," he said. "I don't want to, though. I hope I'm wrong about Tucker, that he'll take his retirement to his grave and be happy with the life he's lived. I can't plan on that, though."
"When, then? When will you know if it's safe? I want to be with you, Dak. When can that happen?"
The pleading in her eyes as they met his again nearly broke him.
"Someday," he said. "I promise."
Twenty
Sequatchie County, Tennessee
Dak sat perfectly still. Warm breath escaped his nostrils, billowing into the cool, late fall air. He watched the forest below—unmoving, ever-patient, like a statue.
From his tree stand, he had a clear 180-degree view of the woods without having to turn his head.
While he focused on detecting even the slightest movement, his mind wandered to a city far from Tennessee. On the other side of the world, Nicole would be having a late lunch, or perhaps she'd already returned to her job. He wondered what she ate during her break. He smiled, knowing there was probably some baklava to finish off the lunch menu. She loved that stuff, especially with a little afternoon espresso or just black coffee.
He enjoyed it too, but it always tasted better when he ate it with her. It was as if her intoxicating smile sweetened everything.
Not everything, his brain reminded.
That was true. Dak and Nicole had gone through their rough spots, but they'd always worked it out, until they didn't.
His heart ached at the thought. After years apart, they'd finally reconciled, and she'd even told him she wanted to be with him.
Dak believed, or thought he believed, that Nicole didn't want to have anything to do with him. She'd put on a good show to that effect, but it turned out she loved him after all.
He couldn't risk being with her, and he knew it. He'd meant what he said when he surmised the colonel would never stop hunting him, even after his career tanked. And it did.
Dak sent the recorded message to an officer he trusted, one that wasn't under the command of Colonel Tucker. His friend delivered the audio higher up the food chain. When it was verified, the cover up began immediately.
Dak found out that Tucker had received—as predicted—an honorable exit from the military. He was even given accolades for his service, all to cover up the man's ineptitude in bringing in a rogue soldier who ended up being an innocent victim.
Tucker was, no doubt, furious. Innocent or
