Headed for Trouble - By Suzanne Brockmann Page 0,108

confessed. “I only saw it once, but … If I had to guess, I’d say they’re probably in the final act.”

“So it shouldn’t be too much longer.” Shane flipped to the next images—closer and closer shots of Suliman, sitting in the third row, second seat in, a big, happy smile on her goddamn, child-murdering terrorist face.

“Yeah, you don’t know Gilbert and Sullivan, do you?” Magic said. “That shit can go on and on.”

In the next slew of images, Suliman turned and leaned down, as if listening to the child—a little boy—who sat in the seat beside her. And then—again in a series of shots that showed the movement in frozen moments—she lifted the boy up so that he was sitting on her lap. With her face close to the child’s, she pointed to the stage, and the boy clapped his hands as they both laughed.

Fuck. “The report didn’t say she had kids,” Shane said tightly.

“Suliman?” Magic said. “She doesn’t. Well, she did, but not anymore. They’re all dead.”

“Maybe … nephews and nieces …?” Shane flipped back through the pictures.

“No, they were all killed,” Magic said. “Her entire family was blown to hell. That’s what makes her so fucking ruthless. She’s got no one, Commander. She’s no fear and all anger.”

Shane turned off the imager and pulled it from his face. “Don’t call me that.”

“You know you’re so there, Laughlin,” Magic said. “After this op …? Admiral Crotchkiss is gonna greet the plane himself and plant a great big wet one on you. And then he’s going to give you his niece’s hand in marriage—oh, wait. What a coincidence! He’s already done that.”

Magic was convinced that Shane’s engagement to Ashley Hotchkiss was the equivalent of an arranged marriage between members of the corporate aristocracy and a young, swiftly rising officer in the U.S. Navy. It was, he insisted, part of an insidious plan to keep the future leaders of the U.S. military securely under corporate control.

But Magic didn’t know Ashley as well as Shane did. The idea was ridiculous—that she would marry Shane merely because her father’s brother requested it …?

Vibrantly beautiful Ashley, with her gorgeous blue eyes, her classically lovely face, her willowy dancer’s body, her sharp intellect, and her keen sense of humor … She could have had any man—any man—she’d wanted, including a whole pack of powerful officers much higher up the chain of command. But she’d fallen in love with Shane. He’d made damn well sure of it.

“Your bullshit is getting old.” Shane now handed his friend the viewer. “Do something useful with your giant brain for a change and look at these images—particularly the ones toward the end. That little boy looks too much like Suliman to not be her kid.”

And that meant their job here just got even harder. Because if this boy was Suliman’s, Shane couldn’t just call in a strike on the home where she was sleeping tonight, because doing so would kill the child, too.

Meanwhile, Magic was flipping through the images. “Dude, what …? Wait … No, no, no, this isn’t her.”

Well, Shane could call it in, but he wouldn’t, and …

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked sharply.

“Jesus, you can be a load,” Magic muttered. “We’re alone out here, Ricky can’t hear us, and yet you really need to hear me call you sir just because I dissed your fancy-assed girlfriend?”

“Fancy-assed fiancée,” Shane corrected him. “And no, dickweed. I was asking because I thought I heard you say—”

“That this isn’t Rebekah Suliman? It’s not. I don’t know who the fuck this is, but it’s not her.”

“But the face recognition software—”

“Is wrong,” Magic finished for him again, still flipping through the images. “I’m gonna reset and run it again and … No, it still IDs whoever this is as Suliman, but I’m telling you, bro, it’s not her.” He shut off the viewer and handed it back to Shane. “Your royal majestic lordship sir, maybe you don’t remember this, because your soon-to-be uncle-in-law snapped his fingers and got you leave for some party—”

“Ashley’s sister’s wedding.”

“Whatever,” Magic said.

“It was a big deal,” Shane protested.

“I’m sure it was. But while you were doing the electric slide with old Aunt Edwina, I was loaned out to Team Six. I didn’t mention it before now, because it was one of those sneaky, covert, not-to-be-mentioned things. But long very-top-secret story short, I’ve seen Suliman through a rifle scope.”

“I had no idea,” Shane said. He wasn’t sure what was more surprising—the fact that Magic had gone out with Team Six