and then send her on her way. Unfortunately, he didn’t believe in coincidences. Especially ones this huge.
A deluge of wintry mix pelted his face like tiny bullets and his feet were numb. “There’s no way to get your car out of here tonight.” He crooked a thumb in the direction of his SUV. “My ride’s just up there. Let’s get you warm. You’re shivering. I can come back and get whatever you need for the night and we’ll deal with the car in the morning.”
Reyna didn’t budge. He could see she didn’t trust him. Not the normal reaction of someone just rescued from almost certain death.
“We’ll be stuck up here if we stay much longer,” he added, hoping to convince her.
She hesitated another second before giving in. “You’re right. We need to get out of the storm. It’s got to be well below freezing out here.”
Try as he might, he couldn’t get a good read off her, and he didn’t like it. Not one bit. “Watch your step.”
She clutched the edge of his jacket in a vise grip as she followed close behind, slipping over the icy mess.
Davis reached for her hand to help her the last bit of the way up to the road. The touch of her hand in his sparked a sweet memory of Abby from long ago. They had slipped away for a few brief moments alone between missions. They’d climbed a snowcapped mountain in Afghanistan and spent the afternoon together, just enjoying the breathtaking view and the quiet they’d found amid a raging war.
Back then he’d still believed love was possible. That was before he’d lost Abby. He shoved that painful memory deep within the dark recesses of his broken heart.
Through the swirling storm, he located the Jeep and they trudged through deep snow the short distance. He forced open the passenger door and waited while she climbed inside.
Davis went around to the driver’s side, got in and cranked the heater up another notch. Reyna was shaking uncontrollably. He grabbed a blanket from the backseat and wrapped it around her shoulders.
For the first time she smiled and it caught him completely off guard. She had a pretty smile. It eased some of the tautness from around her mouth and eyes.
“Thank you for saving me,” she whispered. “If you hadn’t come along when you did, I—I wouldn’t have made it. With the temperature dropping so quickly and prolonged exposure to the elements, hypothermia doesn’t take long to set in...” He gave her a quizzical look and she laughed. “Sorry, I’m sure you must know all about the dangers of exposure living up here. I’m a doctor,” she explained. “Sometimes it’s hard to shut it off.”
He absorbed this new piece of information with a nod. He remembered something Eddie had said once about his wife studying to be a pediatric surgeon. That part seemed to lend credence to her story.
“My place is a couple of miles farther up the road. You can spend the night there. In the morning, I’ll see if I can get the car unstuck.” Her smile disappeared. Apparently, the thought of being alone with him made her uneasy. She glanced nervously behind them as if she was looking for someone. He had to find out what she was hiding.
“I promise you’ll be safe there,” he added somberly.
“Okay,” she finally agreed, and he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Good. Tell me what you need from the car.” He continued to analyze her reactions very carefully and came to the conclusion she wasn’t an assassin. She gave too much away. Still, the odds of Eddie’s wife showing up on his mountain without a dire reason were just too high to ignore.
Reyna sat up a little straighter in her seat. “There’s a tote bag. It was in the front seat next to me. It has...my purse and phone.”
There was something more in the bag she needed. He saw its significance before she could camouflage it.
“Why don’t you stay here where it’s warm and I’ll go get it?” He didn’t wait for her answer, mostly because he had no intention of taking her with him. He wanted to find out what was so important in the bag that couldn’t wait until morning.
Davis turned up the collar of his jacket and braced to battle the cold.
The moment he left the safety of the Jeep, a torrent bombarded him, drenching his clothing straight through to his skin. He slipped and slid his way down the side of the mountain until he finally reached the car once more. He found the bag in question lying on the floorboard of the passenger seat.
A quick search produced a prepaid phone. Why would she need one of those unless she was trying to keep her location secret? He dug further and found a small plastic bear key chain with several keys attached and a woman’s purse below that. Inside the purse were a few fast-food receipts and a wallet.
He pulled out her wallet and opened it. A Texas driver’s license with her name on it, a handful of tens and a couple of credit cards. An access ID card from Stevens Memorial Hospital confirmed what she did for a living. In the coin purse, he found another key that looked as if it could fit any storage locker. Not much to go on. Still, he didn’t like it. Three years and not a peep from his past until tonight.
The remoteness of the area was the very reason Davis had moved back to Defiance. No one from his childhood lived here anymore. The Defiance Silver Mine, the main source of employment for the area, closed down about fifteen years earlier and the town had all but dried up. When he’d left his old identity behind, Kyle had destroyed his CIA personnel file. There would be no record of his past life anywhere. Other than Kyle, no one from the Agency knew he had grown up in Defiance.
With the exception of Eddie.
It finally dawned on Davis why Reyna looked so familiar. Eddie had shown him a picture of his wife once. He was so proud of her. Eddie told him that Reyna’s parents had died when she was barely a teenager. Lots of kids would have fallen apart after losing their entire family. Not Reyna. If anything, it had made her stronger. Eddie said that after they’d gotten married she’d held down two jobs just to put herself through medical school.
Davis did a quick search of the rest of the contents of the car and found nothing out of the ordinary. A suitcase laden with clothing and toiletries indicated she’d planned for a long period away from home. She was running from someone. Eddie? It didn’t add up. Everything he knew about the man pointed to someone who wasn’t violent. Besides, she’d said she was looking for her husband’s friend, which seemed to imply Eddie had sent her.
On impulse, he dumped the contents of the suitcase on the seat and found what he was after. A small box that contained a set of dog tags. Eddie’s. There would be only one reason the tags would leave a soldier’s body. If he were killed in action.
Eddie Peterson was dead.
Shocked, Davis slumped back against the seat, covering his face with his hands. Grief and disbelief made it hard to draw air into his lungs. He couldn’t wrap his mind around the knowledge his friend was dead.
“Why, God? Why Eddie? He was an innocent,” he said in a broken tone and struggled to hold back the tears.
Eddie hadn’t been part of the original Scorpion team that was being targeted for death, so Davis had believed him safe.
Why hadn’t Kyle contacted him about Eddie? His friend knew how close he and Eddie had
