Roberts, Sarah - Action Hero Junkie [Movieland] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) by Sarah Roberts Page A

bitter.
    “I am glad you are taking this so well, Dr. Haven.”
    “I think I always knew that my time here was limited, general.” Mia glanced over at Aiden. He had been silent the whole time. When he saw her looking at him, he gave her a sad half-smile. She felt a twinge somewhere in the vicinity of her heart. But there was a spurt of anger, too. She didn’t understand it. She didn’t have any reason to be angry at Aiden. He hasn’t said anything! Why doesn’t he say something? She buried the uncomfortable feeling.
    The general rolled his unlit cigar some more. He looked at Aiden, and he swiveled his boxy head to look at Mia. There was a fierce look in his hard eyes. Then he shook his head. “All right, Smith! Let’s get back to work.”
    The two men turned to bend over the table with the maps. While Mia sipped her coffee, she brooded darkly. It so wasn’t fair. She had found this gorgeous, wonderful hunk, and she couldn’t keep him. The script sucked.
    After a while, she started paying attention to what the general and Aiden were talking about. Something about a missing spook. It sounded a whole lot more interesting than listening to her own whiny thoughts. They were debating about some of the details of the layout of the commandant’s fortress. Mia put in her two cents. “The barracks faces the west side of the courtyard. The munitions room is directly opposite the barracks.”
    The general pivoted slowly. He stared at her with his fierce eyes. “You’ve been inside the compound?”
    “Well, no.” She didn’t think it was a good idea to explain to them that she’d seen parts of the compound on a big movie screen. “But certain things I do know.”
    Mia stepped up to the blueprint on the table. She looked at it for a minute, getting oriented in her mind. She nodded to herself, satisfied that she had it straight. She pointed. “Yeah, this is the commandant’s office. See this window? It overlooks the town. He stands there sometimes. The rest of that wing, the one with the sea view, is the private quarters of the commandant.” She made a face. “It’s where he takes his women. Sometimes you can hear their screams in the courtyard. And over here” —she ran her fingertip along another side of the blueprint—“There aren’t any windows on this side of the building. This must be where prisoners are held.”
    “You can hear their screams.” Aiden repeated her words in a slow, heavy monotone.
    Mia looked up to meet Aiden’s eyes. He was gazing at her with such a cold, controlled fury that it made shivers run up and down her spine. Mia carefully trimmed the truth. “The soldiers talk in the cantina. Sometimes the women are taken to the clinic—after.”
    The general and Aiden exchanged an identical grim look. The general’s jaw worked, and his cigar jiggled wildly. He struck his hand flat against the table. The clap of sound made Mia jump. She spilled her coffee, but luckily, it had already cooled. She switched the cup to her other hand and dried her wet fingers on her pants.
    “I want this son-of-a-bitch, bad! We’ll take the bastard out if the opportunity shows itself. Our number one priority is still to free our man, but our intel is too sketchy. We can’t go in on what we’ve got. We’ve already sustained too many losses.”
    Aiden thoughtfully frowned down at the blueprint. “Sir, what we need is someone on the inside, someone who knows the layout of the compound and the routines of the guards.”
    “Uh, I might be able to help you there.” Mia found herself again the target of two pairs of narrowed, sharp eyes. “Do you know of a man called Cadero?”
    “Who is he?” The general’s voice was rough. He chomped furiously on his unlit cigar.
    “He used to be one of the commandant’s lieutenants. He hates the commandant’s guts.”
    “How do you know this Cadero can be trusted?”
    Mia drew in her breath and gave them the movie backstory. She hoped she wasn’t messing up the