In the Arms of a Stranger (Entangled Ignite) Read Online Free Page A

heard the car door slam. She needed time, time to talk to Cole, to explain again. But there was no time. She took a deep breath and blinked away the tears.
    “Our secret, remember?” She held her breath, praying for Cole’s acquiescence.
    The boy nodded.
    She lifted Cole with her good arm, determined to look like everything was fine, and opened the front door. The candles flickered as the wind blew in. She closed the door behind her and pointed the flashlight at the car.
    It wasn’t a deputy, or a volunteer.
    Stunned, she stared at the man who was walking toward the porch.
    “Abby,” Brooks Andrews said, his bureaucrat’s voice easy and deep.
    She stood rooted in front of her door, unable to utter a word. Caught between his parking lights and her flashlight beam, Brooks seemed thinner, older, than the last time she’d seen him. She’d always thought he was in his fifties. Now he appeared ten years older. Perfectly dressed in a business suit he looked nothing like what he was, what she’d learned he was only last year—a master of CIA covert operations.
    He came up her porch steps, the wind pulling at his clothes. Lightning flashed behind him in the distance. “How are you?”
    She had to take another deep breath to get the words out. “Why are you here?”
    “Cole has grown.” He stepped closer, looking at her son.
    She turned sideways, effectively moving Cole away from him, and immediately felt foolish. Brooks wasn’t here to hurt Cole, or her. Wade always said there were no coincidences. There was no doubt in her mind that Brooks was here to get the man lying on her floor—his agent. To take away her last chance for answers. To ensure she never knew the truth about her late husband.
    Not this time . She’d had enough of Brooks, his lies, and his manipulative innuendo.
    “Hi, Cole,” he said, reaching a hand toward her son.
    It took every ounce of her self-control not to bat his hand away. But that would make Brooks curious. She couldn’t afford that, not when she was so close to finding out what Wade had hidden from her.
    Cole shied away as he always did when Brooks came by, and held on tighter.
    “You’re both wet,” Brooks continued, carefully looking over her son.
    “We got caught in the rain.”
    “Where’s your car?”
    “Stuck in the mud, down that way.” With a nod of her head, she indicated the back road that led the half mile through the woods to the barn. “You came in off the highway, so you wouldn’t have seen it. Why are you here, Brooks?”
    He took a step backward, as if finally aware that she was keeping herself between him and Cole. “To see how you’re doing.”
    Not in this weather, no.
    “I’m fine, just like I was three months ago.” She hoped her voice didn’t quiver. “Is something wrong?”
    He pushed his hair back from his face only to have the wind blow it around again. “No. Just thought it was time we talked again.” He paused. “Have you remembered anything Wade said, anything about work?”
    “No.” She’d told him that a million times. The lie had taken on a life of its own during the past year. There were times she almost believed it herself. That she’d only imagined the nightmare.
    “Some friends of Wade’s might come looking for him.”
    She was sure the flashlight shook in her hand. “Friends?”
    “Army buddies.”
    Not Army buddies , she wanted to correct. Not even friends. Brooks meant intelligence op buddies. Army was the term he used to keep their occupations a secret, occupations protected by the government. Hidden even from a wife.
    “Did you hear me, Abby?”
    She forced herself to take a breath. “Don’t they know?”
    “A few of the men were overseas,” he said. “They wouldn’t know about Wade unless you told them.”
    “I haven’t been in contact with anyone.” That much was true. She hadn’t known how.
    Brooks looked at her oddly, as if assessing what she wasn’t saying.
    She schooled her features into what she hoped