Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,1
feeding weapons to the terrorist organizations and that shit has to stop. This is one of the ways our guys are attempting to cut off that pipeline.”
They all knew Al Qaeda and ISIS had begun working together lately. Each organization had been hit hard by the US and their allies in the Middle East, but if they were successful in banding together, the strides that had been made against them lately might be wiped out.
“Kazarus has never been particularly stable,” Woof said.
“No, it hasn’t,” Merlin agreed. When one of its surrounding nations wasn’t controlling it, Kazarus had been rife with bloodshed and civil war.
The current government was an absolute monarchy with the king, Ehsan Barrera, at the helm with his eight sons in line for the throne. The family had been in place for the past twenty-five years and didn’t seem inclined to give up their hold on the country and the small iron and oil reserves the land boasted.
“Demir and his rebel army claim to want to put a democracy in place. Our government wants to gamble on backing them if the terms are right,” Merlin said.
Woof took the tablet Zip handed him but didn’t look down at it yet. “Demir’s group has taken hostages in the past.”
Jangles was the one to answer this time. “They have. They’re still holding two doctors and three nurses from the US, England, and France hostage. It’s a complication.”
No one said anything. It wasn’t their job to question the decisions made by the people who told them what to do. They got their orders and they followed them. The person negotiating with Demir would need to walk that tightrope since the US didn’t make concessions where hostages were concerned.
Woof looked down at the tablet and lost his breath. Lost was the wrong word. It was knocked clean the hell out of him. He looked into the serious face of a slight woman in a suit gazing back at him with challenge and determination in her eyes.
Long straight brown hair framed hazel eyes and a mouth held in a flat line as she looked into the camera. He knew those eyes. There was a time when he’d been able to bring a smile to them and a curve to that stiff mouth, and he’d reveled in doing just that. In knowing he was the one who could do that to her.
That and other things. He shifted in his seat, his body going rock hard at the memories. That was a long-damned time ago, back when they were kids and he’d been innocent enough to believe nothing could touch him. Touch them. So damned naïve.
It wasn’t a surprise it had all gone to shit.
He blinked as he processed that her name had changed and looked back at the name on the file. Eleanor Bonham.
She’d been Eleanor Duncan when he knew her.
Well, damn, if that didn’t kick him in the gut. Not that it should.
It should mean nothing to him that Nori had gotten married. He hadn’t seen her in fifteen years. Of course she’d moved on and gotten married, built a life for herself. He wouldn’t let himself wonder if she had children. If she was happy. There was no point in going there.
She was a mission and the mission was all that mattered.
Yeah. Sure. He knew bullshit when he heard it and that was all he was spouting now.
He moved his gaze back to Merlin’s. “Credible threat or standard protection detail?”
“There’s been chatter about going after her to put a stop to the meeting. Nothing concrete yet and we aren’t sure who’s focused on her, but we’ll take it seriously anyway.”
Woof nodded. Damned right they would. He felt the same deep ache in his chest he’d felt when things had ended so long ago with Eleanor. She wouldn’t be happy to see him, but he wouldn’t let that keep him from making sure she got in and out of the fractious country and back to her husband without a scratch on her.
He had failed to protect Eleanor before, but things would be different this time. He wasn’t good for much in this world, but he was damned good at what he did for the military. And he’d make sure that skill was put to good use here. If Eleanor was headed into danger, he’d be there to see her through it.
Chapter 2
Eleanor didn’t bother to stop at the baggage carousels. She had one carry-on she was rolling behind her and an overnight bag slung