Point of No Return Read Online Free Page A

already back.”
    â€œHe’s not back, Chet, that’s the point!”
    â€œBut it doesn’t mean you should go running off to Georgia! There’s still a war going on over there!”
    â€œExactly why we need to find him. What if he’s been kidnapped?”
    â€œWhat if you get kidnapped?” He took a breath and lowered his voice to something that resembled calm. “What if something happens to you?”
    â€œNothing’s going to happen to me.”
    But it would; he knew it in his gut. He’d seen the civil war between Georgia and Ossetia up close, and with Russia as Ossetia’s new comrades, one nasty misfire from the Georgian side and the entire mess could reignite. Just give the Ossetians one reason, and no amount of international tongue-clucking would keep them from unloading their Kalashnikovs right into the rag-tag Georgian defenses.
    And Mae would be caught in the middle, a beautiful redheaded American pawn, leverage for whatever terrorist group nabbed her.
    â€œPlease don’t go, Mae. It’s not safe—”
    â€œLast time I checked, I didn’t need your approval. You’re not my boss.”
    He clenched his jaw so tight he thought his molars might crack. “I can’t believe you’re doing this again! Have you learned nothing about acting on impulse?”
    He realized he was shouting when Wick glanced at him. He exhaled slowly as they turned onto Karl Liebknecht Street. The architecture in this part of old Berlin betrayed the age of the city—the dangling chandeliers that lined the streets, the colonnades of the stately former Third Reich buildings, the grandeur of the Brandenburg Gate, now silent and looming over them. “I’m sorry, Mae, that wasn’t fair—”
    â€œYou bet it wasn’t. If I hadn’t ‘acted on impulse’ and helped spring Roman out of prison, he might still be there. Or maybe not—maybe he’d be dead. I know that he wasn’t your friend, but, well, I guess it’s clear that even if he had been, you wouldn’t have lifted a finger to—”
    â€œWatch yourself, Mae.”
    â€œForget I called. Just forget it, Chet.” The phone went dead before Chet could open his mouth.
    He closed the phone, holding it in his shaking fist, gritting his teeth.
    â€œMaybe you’ll feel better if you throw it,” Wick said quietly.
    â€œI knew a woman like that once,” Luke said from the backseat. “Drove me crazy.”
    â€œI married one,” Artyom added.
    Chet shook his head, staring out the window. Crazy was going to Georgia to search for a teenager who’d probably decided to backpack around Europe. Or better yet, hooked up with a village girl and disappeared for a weekend tryst.
    â€œShe’s going to Georgia.”
    â€œIsn’t that where you—”
    â€œYep,” Chet snapped, cutting Wick off.
    â€œWhere what?” Artyom asked, leaning forward in the seat.
    Wick glanced at Chet, and when he didn’t answer, filled in the silence. “When he was a young Green Beret, Chet embedded with a group of rebels in the breakaway territory of Ossetia and helped them with equipment and supplies—”
    â€œI helped them start a civil war.” Among other things. His own words had the precision of a scalpel, the old wounds fresh and raw. His palms slicked. Carissa’s scream still echoed through the chambers of his brittle soul. He shook himself from the memory, wiping his hands on his knees.
    â€œHe did more than that,” Wick said. “The leaders in Georgia declared him an enemy of the state and put a price on his head. If he ever goes back to Georgia—”
    â€œUnofficially, I’m also wanted in the territory ofOssetia—the one that recently conspired with the Russians to invade Georgia—by a terrorist group called the Svan. Their leader, Akif Bashim, would like nothing better than to find