very real,” Colin replied.
“I keep expecting you to disappear and just be a figment of my imagination.”
“No vanishing act here,” Colin said.
“Let’s celebrate!” Mike exclaimed, grinning broadly. “This is fantastic! Do the others know?”
“No. I wanted to see you first,” Colin replied solemnly.
“I’m glad you did.” Isabella could see Mike studying Colin and she could see some of the sparkle go out of Mike’s eyes and concern replace it. Then Mike smiled and brightened.
“We’re going to celebrate right now!”
“It’s early in the day,” Colin remarked. “We might wait—”
“Let’s break out the champagne now,” Mike decided. He looked at Savannah and put his arm around her. “Savannah, this is Colin Garrick. Colin meet Savannah.”
“I’m so happy to meet you,” Savannah said, extending her hand to shake hands with Colin. “Mike has told me a lot about you and about the times the two of you had together when you were growing up.”
“This is our baby, Jessie, whom you’ve already met,” Mike added.
“She’s cute, Mike, but I can’t imagine you a daddy.”
“I’ll get the champagne,” Savannah offered.
When she left the room, Mike looked at Colin again. Impulsively, Mike stepped close and hugged Colin. “Damn. What happened, Colin?” He stepped away and placed his hands on his hips. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you. I’m glad to see you alive—but when that bomb went off we thought you were done for. I want to hear all about it, but let’s get the champagne. Should I call the others now or later?”
“A little later. Let’s talk first, Mike.”
Mike seemed to remember Isabella and he glanced at her. “You remember Izzie. This is great! When did you get here?”
“Last night,” Colin answered.
Mike’s gaze ran over him. “What happened to you? You look like you were in a cat fight.”
“Sort of. I surprised Isabella.”
When Mike threw back his head and laughed, Colin merely shook his head and shrugged. Mike’s eyes twinkled. “So all those tricks Boone taught you really work?”
“They seemed to,” she said.
“Have you gotten out of practice!” Mike exclaimed.
“Don’t underestimate her. Boone taught her well.”
Mike laughed. “I know Boone did. I’ve watched the workouts.”
Savannah returned with a bottle of champagne and handed it to Mike to open. As Savannah picked up Jessie to hold her, Mike poured glasses of champagne and passed each person one. “Let’s take these drinks to the family room where we can sit and talk.”
As soon as they were in the family room, Mike turned and raised his glass in a toast. “Here’s to Colin. Our survivor,” he said.
“To Colin,” Savannah added.
“To Colin,” Isabella said quietly, and Colin looked at her before they all clinked their glasses together lightly.
“Thank you all,” Colin replied gruffly, a muscle working in his jaw.
Isabella could see that he was struggling with his emotions. She sipped the pale liquid, feeling bubbles tickle her nose.
“To life and Colin being back in the land of the living,” Mike said, giving another toast.
They all touched glasses again and everyone sipped the champagne before setting down glasses.
“Sit, so we can talk,” Mike suggested.
“I’ll be right back. We need a little change here,” Savannah said, taking Jessie and leaving the room.
“I’ll leave you two,” Isabella started to say, but Mike motioned to her.
“Sit down and join us. Savannah will be back. Come on, Izzie, we’re all family.”
She sat on a straight-backed chair as Mike sat on the sofa and Colin on a brown leather chair.
“Before you start, should I call the guys so you only have to tell this once?”
“No,” Colin replied solemnly. “I wanted to talk to you first, but whatever we do, you can’t phone them and tell them. These phones could be tapped and cell phones can be easily monitored. You’ll have to get them over here for another reason. Besides, your lines are cut. I disengaged the alarm system and came in through a window. I just wanted to make certain I wasn’t being followed and I could watch my back better by sneaking around late at night.”
“So that’s when you encountered Izzie.”
“Right. I’m in hiding, Mike. I’m on the run and there’s a killer after me,” Colin explained.
“Go ahead and tell me about it,” Mike said, crossing one long leg over the other.
Isabella listened again, watching Colin and still amazed that he was alive, just as shocked by her reaction to him. She wished she could go back and see him as she had that afternoon at the fair, just as one of her brother’s friends, pleasant to be with, but just another man—who looked old to her at the time. She couldn’t view him with that casual response now. He was ruggedly handsome and something in him made her want to try to reach him, to find the carefree man he once had been.
Every time she thought about him going into seclusion in some wilderness and shutting himself off from people and real living, it saddened her.
Forget it. He’s doing what he wants and you can’t save him, she told herself.
He glanced at her and then back to Mike. “The military asked five of us—and, with one exception, we don’t know each other’s identities—to work in a stealthy, covert group to try to catch the spy. I know one because at one point I worked with him. Brett Hamilton.”
Mike shook his head. “Not anyone I ever knew.”
“When I insisted on getting out of the military, my superior asked me to continue in the operation awhile longer,” Colin explained. “They gave me a contract,” Colin revealed, telling Mike something that he had not told her.
Isabella was shocked by this new information because she hadn’t expected to hear that the military had wanted to keep him on in that manner.
“There is someone in the military who knows where I am now.”
“Adam Kowalski?” Mike guessed.
Colin nodded. “Adam—you’re on the mark.”
“Kowalski
