blood, sirens just starting to bellow
outside the window. Someone at the hotel must have heard the gunfire and called
the police. Fortunately for Ana, she’d managed to slip out the door and back
her way down the fire escape unnoticed.
Though why she was running from the police, Ana wasn’t
certain. All she had left on this bitter moonless night was her burning love
for Isabel and an instinct that told her she’d done the right thing.
Confronting the police would have somehow brought trouble. Either
to Joe or the DOS as a whole. And, despite what she’d gone through-
everything she’d gone through, including three years ago in Spain- Ana wasn’t
ready to sacrifice the top-secret intelligence organization to her personal need.
There was too much good that came from the work there, too much that was being
accomplished on such a subversive level and that even those being benefitted by
certain operations were kept effectively unaware.
Ana stared through a thicket of pines, trying
to get her bearings. She’d run from sunup to sundown, but the charcoal
winter sky had done little to dry her drenched clothing. Ana shivered and
mentally tried to calculate the distance she’d gone, hoping her sense of
direction hadn’t failed her. All she wanted to do was get home. Home to her
chalet-styled house in the woods where she’d be able to find Mark. The only one
she could trust to somehow make things right.
Ana thought again of Isabel and something agonizing twisted
inside her. She knew her baby girl was being taken care of. Mark would have
ensured it. But still, she ached to hold her, to feel that baby soft breath
upon her neck.
And Mark. What would he be thinking all this time? Had he
been contacted? Would he have been told she was dead, in accordance with the
order Joe had failed to carry out? Ana clutched herself around her middle, her
brutal two days’ hunger fleeing her in an instant. Had Mark been right to
discourage her from getting so intimately involved in DOS affairs? Because of
her own bullheadedness, had she now endangered her family?
Ana Kane was a strong woman, strong because she had to be.
The only time she’d ever allowed herself to feel weakness was when she’d been
embraced in the security of Mark Neal’s arms. She’d felt it from that very
first touch, known it from their telling walk in Santiago, when Mark, in all
his wisdom, had pulled a shattered Ana into his arms. No man had ever made her
feel so vulnerable, yet so completely at peace. She needed him and needed him
desperately. But, in these past few months, she’d given him reason to doubt
that. Given him cause to call into question the solidity of all that existed
between them.
Especially now, Ana had to believe that any troubles they’d
been experiencing were only temporary.
Ana hadn’t been lying when she’d told her father she loved
Mark. Nor had she sought to deceive when she’d claimed the feeling was mutual.
But sometimes, as she’d often heard from divorced friends, love just wasn’t
enough. When people grew, people changed, and far too often that change led to
a fork in the road rather than a continued convergence of paths.
Ana was sure now, as sure as God gave her breath, that the
course she and Mark had taken wasn’t irrevocable. Yet, that hadn’t been the
impression she’d been giving him. As of late, how could Mark have interpreted
her behavior as anything less than her having one foot out the door?
But the truth was, Ana didn’t want to go...didn’t want to
run anywhere except for straight into Mark’s arms and the promise they had once
held.
Ana turned at the sound pelting through the leaves and
realized it was raining. She needed to go on, but was weakened by hunger,
disoriented in the woods, bruised and battered from her alarming altercation
with Hay Long... And cold . Never in her entire life, had Ana felt so
very cold . And it was more than the wind and the rain and her terror. It
was in knowing she might never
outside the window. Someone at the hotel must have heard the gunfire and called
the police. Fortunately for Ana, she’d managed to slip out the door and back
her way down the fire escape unnoticed.
Though why she was running from the police, Ana wasn’t
certain. All she had left on this bitter moonless night was her burning love
for Isabel and an instinct that told her she’d done the right thing.
Confronting the police would have somehow brought trouble. Either
to Joe or the DOS as a whole. And, despite what she’d gone through-
everything she’d gone through, including three years ago in Spain- Ana wasn’t
ready to sacrifice the top-secret intelligence organization to her personal need.
There was too much good that came from the work there, too much that was being
accomplished on such a subversive level and that even those being benefitted by
certain operations were kept effectively unaware.
Ana stared through a thicket of pines, trying
to get her bearings. She’d run from sunup to sundown, but the charcoal
winter sky had done little to dry her drenched clothing. Ana shivered and
mentally tried to calculate the distance she’d gone, hoping her sense of
direction hadn’t failed her. All she wanted to do was get home. Home to her
chalet-styled house in the woods where she’d be able to find Mark. The only one
she could trust to somehow make things right.
Ana thought again of Isabel and something agonizing twisted
inside her. She knew her baby girl was being taken care of. Mark would have
ensured it. But still, she ached to hold her, to feel that baby soft breath
upon her neck.
And Mark. What would he be thinking all this time? Had he
been contacted? Would he have been told she was dead, in accordance with the
order Joe had failed to carry out? Ana clutched herself around her middle, her
brutal two days’ hunger fleeing her in an instant. Had Mark been right to
discourage her from getting so intimately involved in DOS affairs? Because of
her own bullheadedness, had she now endangered her family?
Ana Kane was a strong woman, strong because she had to be.
The only time she’d ever allowed herself to feel weakness was when she’d been
embraced in the security of Mark Neal’s arms. She’d felt it from that very
first touch, known it from their telling walk in Santiago, when Mark, in all
his wisdom, had pulled a shattered Ana into his arms. No man had ever made her
feel so vulnerable, yet so completely at peace. She needed him and needed him
desperately. But, in these past few months, she’d given him reason to doubt
that. Given him cause to call into question the solidity of all that existed
between them.
Especially now, Ana had to believe that any troubles they’d
been experiencing were only temporary.
Ana hadn’t been lying when she’d told her father she loved
Mark. Nor had she sought to deceive when she’d claimed the feeling was mutual.
But sometimes, as she’d often heard from divorced friends, love just wasn’t
enough. When people grew, people changed, and far too often that change led to
a fork in the road rather than a continued convergence of paths.
Ana was sure now, as sure as God gave her breath, that the
course she and Mark had taken wasn’t irrevocable. Yet, that hadn’t been the
impression she’d been giving him. As of late, how could Mark have interpreted
her behavior as anything less than her having one foot out the door?
But the truth was, Ana didn’t want to go...didn’t want to
run anywhere except for straight into Mark’s arms and the promise they had once
held.
Ana turned at the sound pelting through the leaves and
realized it was raining. She needed to go on, but was weakened by hunger,
disoriented in the woods, bruised and battered from her alarming altercation
with Hay Long... And cold . Never in her entire life, had Ana felt so
very cold . And it was more than the wind and the rain and her terror. It
was in knowing she might never
Similar Books
