Page 94 of Fatal Mistake
“It’s one thing to hear that. Another to believe it.”
“So,” June said. “What’s the first thing you’re going to do when your Agent Riggins comes riding in with his White Knights and saves the day?”
Tara smiled at the vision of Cal and their team on horses galloping across the field to save them, likely June’s intent.
“Maybe you should start by asking him out on a date,” June suggested.
Tara swiveled to stare at her aunt, who was grinning.
She smiled. “Come on, sweetheart. I’m old but not blind. There’s chemistry between the two of you.”
“If you got to know him better, you might not be encouraging me.”
“Whyever not?”
“He has many of the same controlling tendencies as Nolan.”
“Hogwash.” June’s chin jutted out, and Tara could see she worked hard not to move her body to express her vehemence. “He might take charge and know what he wants, but he’s nothing like Nolan.”
“You hardly know Cal. How can you be so sure of that?”
“Easy. I can read people, and I pegged Nolan for the louse he is the first time I met him.”
Tara gaped at June for a moment. “You never told me that.”
“When a woman thinks she’s in love, she doesn’t always listen, so I kept my mouth shut.”
“But I could have married him.”
June smiled. “I would have stepped in long before that happened.”
Tara shook her head and wished she could clear her mind from the immediate danger to think about Cal, but all she could envision was him walking up to the woman with a bomb like the one around June’s neck and the device exploding, taking Cal out with it.
She shuddered. “I sent him over there. To the woman with the bomb. What if it’s gone off? If he’s—”
“Now don’t even think such a thing,” June warned. “He’ll be okay. We have to believe God will watch over him.”
“You’re right,” Tara said, but despite her earlier prayer, she didn’t feel confident.
The phone chimed in her hand, and she jumped a foot from her chair.
“You ready for this?” she asked June.
“Yes,” June replied, but fear darkened her eyes for the first time.
Tara accepted the Skype call.
“Hello,” Tara answered.
“Let me see June,” Oren demanded.
Tara turned the camera to June.
“Good work, Tara,” Oren said. “I know you came alone, and my people tell me your Secret Agent Man has arrived on site and is busy trying to save Hadil.”
Hadil. That was her name. The woman. The one with the bomb that Cal was trying to save. Tara forced the image of another woman wearing one of these hideous bombs from her brain and with it went the sight of Cal in danger.
She turned the phone back to her face so she could see Oren’s expressions and judge his sincerity. “You’ll let June go now.”
