the only noteworthy observations she’d seen were changing of the guards. The soldiers had been relieved and replaced every hour, and that frequency proved telling. Whatever event or threat they expected hadn’t yet passed and the commander wanted the soldiers fresh, sharp and on their toes.
In the year she’d been stationed at the Nest, they’d only been on high alert once, for a practice drill in a readiness exercise that had lasted less than two hours. A string of forty-seven eighteen-wheelers had been stopped at the main facility’s outer gate. Soldiers had driven the trucks into the Nest, parked at the loading docks and unloaded boxes. The trucks were then returned to the outer gates and their drivers departed with them. The installation had been deemed ready.
Ready for what? No one, not even Madison, who analyzed delivery efficiency of the boxed contents defined only by one-word codes like Seeds or Purifier, had a clue.
But this alert was different, and two facts proved it: the absence of activity during the alert negated it being a readiness exercise drill, and the tension in the guards proved whatever initiated the alert was not ordinary.
The first signs of dawn pierced the horizon, tingeing it with a thin, pale streak that would soon thicken to daybreak. Her instincts told her to stay put, but she didn’t dare. If discovered, she’d never be in a position to expose the truth. The commander would see to that...and possibly to a lot more.
Disappointment battered her. Tonight, after the St. Valentine’s ball, she’d try again. Whatever happened here would happen at night.
The wind gusted. Madison’s eyes teared. She blinked hard and fast. If the commander and/or his vice commander had done what she suspected, she had to be vigilant and cautious. She was the only thing left standing between them and their possible actions, and those actions could not happen again. Not on her watch. No more lost ones could be sacrificed here. They must find their way home....
Tonight. Tomorrow night. Six months of nights—whatever it takes, Madison promised herself, then rose to a crouch and scanned the woods. Stealth and hyperalert, noting nothing unexpected, she moved from bush to tree through the thick woods, stepping lightly to avoid creating magnified sounds of dry leaves and twigs crunching underfoot.
With a scant fifteen minutes to spare before daylight exposed her, she left the restricted area and reached the public highway, then sprinted in the woods alongside the road to the sheltered spot where she’d parked her car to hide it from view.
Something odd was definitely going on out there. Whether or not it was connected to her case, she had no idea—yet. Bitterness filled her throat. Swallowing it, she eased into her silver Jaguar still hidden by darkness and shut the door.
“You want to explain what you’re doing out there?”
Madison’s heart rocketed. A man in her car. Oh, no. She’d been caught!
* * *
Madison squinted in the half-light, trying to identify the deeply shadowed silhouette of the man in her passenger seat. She recognized him.
Grant Deaver!
Her heart rate shot off the charts, and she inwardly groaned. Given the choice of a firing squad of the guards or this man, she’d take the firing squad. Them, she knew she couldn’t trust. But Grant? The jury was still out on him. “You want to explain how you got into my car?”
He held up a key. “I used this.”
She should have picked up on his cologne as soon as she opened the door. But she’d been so lost in thought that she’d missed it. Bad mistake. “Funny, I don’t recall giving you a key to my vehicle.”
“We’ve been dating since October, Madison,” he reminded her. “Totally plausible you did and forgot it.”
She hadn’t forgotten a thing. He’d found the spare key she stowed in a magnetic case under the back bumper. “For the record, while you’re endearing, your being here is not.” He’d scared ten years off her, though she didn’t mention it. She’d learned the hard way that exposing vulnerabilities was often interpreted as giving others a license to use them against you. Yes, they were dating. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But she strongly suspected he was under orders to spy on her and her staff. Of course, she kept him close. How else could she protect her staff or herself? That she found him attractive anyway, well, that was a challenge she just had to fight. “Why are you following me—and where’s your car?”
“No car.”
“You walked all the way out here?” It was ten miles into North Bay proper. Why would he do that? And how had he known where she’d be? Fair questions she needed answered after she got away from this facility. She cranked the engine and pulled over the deep shoulder and onto the road.
“My transportation is insignificant.” He frowned at her. “And gauging by what I’ve observed—you pulling surveillance on an off-limits, highly classified military installation—you’re hardly in a position to ask anyone questions.” He lifted an irritated hand. “Dressed in covert operation gear with greasepaint smeared all over your face.” She passed him her binoculars. “What are you doing out there at all, much less dressed like that? Are you trying to get yourself shot?”
She lowered the mask, let its strings loosely loop her neck and braked to a stop at the traffic light. The office or home?
Definitely not home. Not with him in the car. She’d shower and change at the office. It’d be hours before anyone else arrived. She hung a left and cruised past the sign to North Bay. “Since this is my car and you’re in it uninvited, I’m perfectly positioned to ask whatever questions I want.” She spared him a glance. “Why are you following me and how did you find me?”
Concern and anger feuded in his eyes, shone in the reflective light from the dash. “You were edgy all day—even more so than usual, which is saying something. You denied anything was up, so I had a friend drop me off.”
So now two people had followed her and knew where she’d gone. Oh, definitely not good. “So because I chose not to answer you, you have the right to shadow me?” She slid him a mild frown. “If I wanted to disclose, I’d disclose.” Inside, a part of her felt pleased he was concerned and wanted to protect her. Not surprising; he was a Christian, but one in an awkward position. She buried her emotional pleasure under the real facts. No way did she dare trust him. “Who brought you out here?”
“Mrs. Renault.”
Her assistant. Pins of betrayal pricked and peppered her skin. “You’re kidding me.”
“She knows the danger, Madison.”
She did. She’d been married to the former base commander. Still, telling Grant where Madison was and bringing him out there? What had Mrs. Renault been thinking?
“Don’t get knotted up at her. I was worried about you and so was she.” He paused and lowered his voice, not bothering to remove the sarcasm lacing it. “Worry. That’s something normal people do when they care about someone—in between the times they’re questioning their sanity for caring for someone as stubborn as you.”
She opened her mouth to object. Before she got out the first word, he cut her off.
“You know what? Don’t even bother. This has gone on long enough.” He sighed irritably and dragged a hand through his short brown hair. “What’s
