Hide and Seek - Lara Adrian Page 0,33

her.”

Particularly when he’d been too busy losing himself in her body, in her sweet smiles and tender gazes. He’d been lost in the fantasy, letting himself imagine they could ever have something real and lasting when he’d never had roots anywhere for long. Even now, he knew there was no going back to his cabin again. He was without a home, so what did he have to offer her, even if she wanted to be with him?

And what could he ever hope to do to cushion the anguish he would inflict when he had to explain that he and Alec were now hunting a personal enemy of their own in her beloved brother?

“You gotta tell her, man.” Alec’s voice was sober. “She needs to know about Kyle.”

“What do I need to know about Kyle?”

Lisa’s voice came from behind them.

Duarte’s heart sank, as cold and heavy as a stone in his chest. He pivoted around and found her standing at the crest of the beach, just off the guest room veranda where they’d made love the night before. She wore an oversized terry bathrobe, her hair twisted up in a towel as though she’d just stepped out of the shower.

Her eyes were questioning on him now. Searching and uneasy. “What do you need to tell me, John?”

12

The fact that he didn’t answer made her breath catch in her throat.

But it was the bleak look in John’s eyes as he stood up to face her—the unmistakable guilt and dread she saw in him—that made Lisa’s heart stutter, suddenly frozen in her breast.

“What’s going on?” She glanced to Alec as he got to his feet now, too, but it was John she looked to for answers. She looked to him for honesty and trust, two things that seemed missing from the unreadable expression on his face. “Do you have information on Kyle? Do you know where he is?”

“No.”

“Then what is it you need to tell me about him?” Her voice rose along with the acid of her mounting fear. “Is he hurt? Is he... oh God, is he dead?”

John shook his head. “We don’t know any of that—”

“Then what?” She couldn’t take his maddening, careful calmness. “Tell me what you do know about him, dammit!”

John swallowed and glanced at Alec, who looked equally reluctant to give her the truth. “We don’t know where he is, or if he’s alive, Lisa. But we do think there’s a chance Kyle’s working with the other side.”

The other side? It took her a second to realize what she was hearing. “Are you saying my brother is a bad guy? Because that’s not possible. It’s absurd. For crissake both of you, he’s been your best friend for more than a decade—”

“I had a vision,” Alec said, his voice grave, more sober than she’d ever heard him before. “The first time I saw the premonition was a couple of months ago. I’ve seen it half a dozen times since, and it’s always the same. I see Kyle giving up classified intel on Phoenix operatives. He’s betraying the program. The only question is, for how long?”

She shook her head. “My brother’s one of the most patriotic, devoted people I know. Just because you think you saw something in a vision, doesn’t make him guilty.”

Even so, she felt sick with the information. Miserable with the very idea, and the fact that John seemed to know about Alec’s premonition, yet hadn’t felt the need to talk to her about it.

And then, as she looked at the two men, at John in particular, a deeper concern took hold of her.

“There’s more, isn’t there?” She could see the weight of it in his somber brown eyes. She saw the other painful truth he’d been shielding her from in keeping Alec’s vision a secret. “If Kyle’s the one who betrayed Phoenix, then you intend to hunt him down. You intend to go after him like your enemy.”

John cursed, low under his breath. “Lisa, if the vision is true, then we don’t have a choice.”

“Will you use me to do it?” She barked out a raw, humorless laugh. “Have you already been using me? Letting me think you care, letting me think you were going to help me find Kyle... God, letting me throw myself at you like an idiot while you and Alec make plans behind my back—”

“It wasn’t like that at all,” John said sternly. “Don’t say it. Don’t even fucking think it.”

When he walked toward her, she backed up several paces. “When were