He nodded. “Something like that.” He couldn’t give her more. She didn’t have the necessary security clearance, and he couldn’t risk the mission.
Ball cap lifting with her chin, she turned her piercing green eyes his way. “I know how you married-to-the-military types work. And I can’t give you what you want. So, you might as well drop me off at the next gas station.”
Nothing she’d said had come as a surprise. Still, he couldn’t have cocked his brow any higher if he tried. “First things first. If you think I’m letting you go while Victor Bodak is on the hunt for you, you’re out of your mind. He’s a dangerous man. He will find you. And he won’t hesitate to hurt you when he does. Second. You have no idea what I want from you. Third. Please explain to me what married to the military means?”
He already had a vague idea, but he wanted to hear her version.
Naturally, she rolled her eyes. “First of all, I can take care of myself. Bodak and his band of buttfucks don’t scare me. Second, you’re not hard to read. You think I have information that can help your investigation or operation or whatever the fuck you call it. I don’t. Third, you know as well as I do, married to the military means mission first. Always. People like you sacrifice everyone and everything for the love of God and country.” She shrugged. “Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Neither was she right.
The danger posed by international gun smugglers, and his mission to capture a domestic terrorist aside, he wanted a hell of a lot more from her than information. For that to happen, he needed to gain her trust. To gain her trust, he had to understand her aversion to the military. “Who was it?”
Her shoulders went back, her spine stiffening to the point of snapping. “Who was who?”
“The person who sacrificed everything.”
She hesitated, and several hand-wringing seconds passed before she decided to open up to him. “My brother.”
“Was he a marine?”
“Delta Force.” Her gaze landed back out the side window, and he took her hand, pulling it into his lap. It took her several deep breaths, but finally, her clenched fist opened, and he slid his palm into hers, entwining their fingers.
“When did he die?”
“Just over two years ago.”
“I’m sorry, Gray.”
She nodded. “Me too. But sorry doesn’t bring him back.” Laced with sorrow, her words carried the weight of her sadness.
“No. It doesn’t. But for people like him, people like me, how we live is more important than how we die. What we do? The risks we take. It’s for those we love the most.”
“That’s bullshit, Rambo.” She pulled her hand free. “You think you’re special because you’re willing to die in a conflict zone halfway around the world to protect your family? Tell that to the mother in Chicago who dies shielding her child from a gangbanger with a gun, or the teenager in Maui who drowns trying to rescue his sister from a rip current. An American flag on your uniform, an automatic rifle in your hand, and Kevlar on your chest doesn’t make you a hero. Bottom line, soldiers leave, they don’t come back, and it’s the people they leave behind who have to pick up the pieces.”
He reclaimed her hand, pulled it back into his lap, and threaded his fingers through hers. She didn’t resist, so he tightened his grip before brushing his thumb over her knuckles. “Soldiers don’t want to be dead heroes any more than protective mothers do, Gray. We’re saying the same things in different ways.”
“Are we?”
“Yes. Whether he was on American soil or not, your brother died protecting you. That mattered to him. You mattered to him. He planned to come back, baby. He never would have left you otherwise.”
She shook her head. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do. Trust me.”
She snorted, but before he could dwell on her serious lack of faith in him, her stomach growled. She’d refused the peanut butter sandwich he’d made for her earlier, and they’d left the cabin before Mutt had unloaded his supplies.
“There’s a camp store five minutes up the road. We’ll stop to grab you some food, but you have to promise you won’t try to take off.”
“I’m not promising you jack shit.”
“I’m serious, Gray. You try to ditch me, and you won’t like the results.”
“Are you threatening me?”
He gave her hand a quick squeeze. “Yep.”
