Blacklisted: Blacklist Operations Book #1 by Lauren Devane

headache.”
    “Damn it. I really fucking hate being drugged.”
    “You’ve been drugged before?” She answered his question with a glare, then they both lapsed into silence. When the music ended, Aidan reached out and twisted the dial, shutting it off.
    “Who drugged you?” Each word snapped from his lips, crisp and angry.
    “ No one,” she said. “It was just an expression.”
    He quickly glanced away from the road to check her expression. She smiled at him, wondering just how much influence the drugs he’d given her was still having on her system, because she felt okay for the first time in a long time. Sophie closed her eyes and thought of her father.
    “So how do you manage to live all over Europe on a teacher’s salary,” he asked, awkwardly trying to continue the conversation.
    “ My parents weren’t hurting for money. When they died they left most of it to us.”
    “How did they die?”
    “Car accident. They dropped me off at ballet when I was ten and I was standing outside the studio with my best friend, waiting to go in. The ground shook. I saw a fireball. They were gone.”
     
     
    He didn’t know what to say in the face of such a flat explanation, so Aidan focused on the mountains and waited for her to continue. The dark peaks mirrored his mood, put him on edge. He wasn’t sure whether he had enough left in him to drive through the night.
    Sophie spoke. “The police told me later that a gas truck driver had been drinking and ignored a stoplight. The funny thing is, his truck was fine. The problem was with my mom and dad’s car. The impact caused an explosion. Ironic, I guess, that it was with a gas truck.”
    “It must have been hard to lose them so young.” He loved his parents, though his work meant he couldn’t stay in close contact with them.
    “It was. I don’t remember it, honestly. I just remember the heat and running to the car. I knew it was them from the second the ground shook.”
    “How?”
    “I don’t know. I remember a man grabbed my shoulders and held me back, kept me from running straight into the fire. My knees were covered with blood later. Must have fallen down in the gravel. It was so hot that the metal on the car melted.”
    “Where did you go after that?” He realized that he wasn’t going to be able to continue much longer, though he hated to break the spell that made her come alive and speak to him.
    “Lyle. He took care of me. He and Dad worked together. Best friends for life kind of thing. Both Army guys.”
    “It’s hard to imagine Wells taking care of anyone.”
    Her eyes snapped to his. “If you knew him at all, you wouldn’t say that.”
    He kept his thoughts to himself, though his hands were so tight on the steering wheel that his knuckles went white.
    “Why do you hate him so much?”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “Right, Aidan. Because I haven’t already figured out from your tattoos that you were in the military. Oh, and I bet I’m too stupid to figure out that you work in intelligence. Even though you thought I was a spy or a terrorist.”
    Aidan, who was known for his silence and composure, had revealed too much to her. Something about her made him careless. Maybe it was what he’d done to her, thinking she was as much a monster as he. Remorse crept in around the edges when he started to get tired. With an internal groan, he took an exit.
    “Listen, Wells is bad news. When you get back to your real life, stay away from him. You’re not safe as long as he’s in your life.”
    “He’s not the one who took me from my hotel room.”
    “Maybe not, but I tracked his calls to Veronica and that’s how I found you. I don’t know if she’s using a cloned phone or if my information was fucked up or how I found you instead of her.”
    “No one like that would have anything to do with Lyle.”
    “You’re wrong. He doesn’t just have something to do with her. He trained her.”
    Sophie’s eyes lit with curiosity. “What makes you think