Page 26 of Steel Vengeance

He rolled over, pushing the sheets off. It was a hot, sticky night, and he was sweating again. All he seemed to do in this goddamn country was sweat.

Eventually, the exhaustion took over, and he sank into a restless sleep.

Soraya,laughing up at him. Her beautiful face framed by the sunlight, her kohled eyes sparkling with love and joy. Her hands cradled her swollen belly, glowing with life.

“I’m pregnant,” she whispered.

Then, without warning, flames erupted around them.

Blinding. Scorching.

The air turned to fire. Heat seared his skin. Smoke clawed its way into his lungs, choking him. He gasped for air, but the smoke filled him, suffocating him from the inside out. He spun around, desperate to find Soraya, but she was gone.

No. No! Where was she?

He yelled her name, but his voice was swallowed by the roar of the flames. The world burned around him. The walls of his home crumbled, turning to ash and embers. His heart pounded in his chest as panic gripped him.

Through the smoke, another face appeared. Sloane, untouched by the flames, smiling calmly as if the world wasn’t burning around them.

“You coming?” she asked, her hand outstretched, as if they weren’t surrounded by hell.

He hesitated, his body torn between running back into the fire to find Soraya or following Sloane into the unknown.

The heat blistered his skin, unbearable. The smoke seared his throat.

He reached for Sloane’s hand.

He woke up with a start.

What the fuck?

He was drenched in perspiration. The room was stuffy, oppressively so. He flung open the window and gasped in the warm, night air.

Please, no.

He couldn’t let Soraya’s memory fade. He had to hold onto it for all he was worth. She couldn’t leave him. He wasn’t ready.

As he whispered her name into the darkness, he knew he couldn’t wait any longer.

Tomorrow he would kill Omari.

CHAPTER 11

Why hadn’t Matthew told her Omari was a drug lord?

Now that she knew, it all made sense. Her mission made sense.

Of course they’d want to keep tabs on him and see who he was working with. That way they could stop the shipment from getting into the United States.

Didn’t he trust her?

She’d read about plausible deniability. Maybe that was it. He was trying to protect her. What she didn’t know, she couldn’t spill.

That’sifshe got caught.

And she almost had been. If it weren’t for Stitch...

She’d emailed Jeremy the video clip, like she was supposed to. As of this morning, no reply. So she figured it was business as usual.