“Oh, heavens, no.” Jenna giggled. “I mean, he could be your brother. It’s as if you have two, Raven and Carter, and Carter is the black sheep of the family, but Raven is like you, a big teddy bear at heart but will turn into a grizzly if provoked.”
Shaking his head, Kane eased back onto the highway, peering through the blanket of snow. “You sayin’ I’ve got a hump on my back?”
“No, but you get… Well I was going to say mad but you never get mad.” Jenna tapped her bottom lip. “He doesn’t get mad either. Oh, you know what I mean. You can be nice as pie one second and lethal the next.”
Kane shook his head. “Raven isn’t and has never been lethal.” He slowed to a crawl and then stopped. He dropped the snowplow attachment and took off slowly. “He’s nothing like me. He was trained to help men in the field. My training was specific. I was trained to infiltrate enemy lines, either to get intelligence or eradicate a target. I’m sure he can take care of himself in a fight but he’s a doctor. I like him too but never confuse our abilities.”
“So, what happened when you met him?” Jenna looked at him as they crawled along the highway. “I know you fought in the desert somewhere—you don’t need to be specific.”
Hating to relive the missions he’d rather forget, Kane blew out a long breath. “It was bad. I’d completed a mission, and Wolfe was trying to get me to an evacuation point. The problem was, somehow the enemy knew we were coming, so someone leaked the information. A ground team had been evacuated miles from my position, but I was getting swarmed and time was running out. The only chopper that hadn’t been shot down was Raven’s medevac ride. He was overloaded but risked dropping a rope for me. I’d grabbed the rope ready to be hauled up when the chopper was hit. I fell but rolled and got to cover as the chopper went down.”
Images flashed across Kane’s mind. Bodies on fire, blackened limbs, men crying out in pain before taking their last breath, and the smell of burning flesh and hair. “It was a nightmare. I checked everyone, all but Raven died in seconds. We were taking fire and there was nothing I could do. He was out cold with a cut on his head. I tossed him over one shoulder and ran for cover before the vultures arrived.”
“The enemy was on the ground coming for you?” Jenna blinked at him and gripped his arm. “Oh, Dave, that would have been terrifying.”
Kane shook his head. He hoped Jenna would never understand the horrors of war. “Getting captured is terrifying, being under fire means that you’re still alive. It was like that twenty-four-seven. It was easier for me than some because I knew the terrain. Remember, I’d been alone there for a long time. I ran for about five miles and found cover in the sand dunes.”
“You ran with Raven on your back for five miles?” Jenna stared at him, disbelief on her face.
Shrugging, Kane nodded. “Yeah, we were expected to be able to do that before we left on a mission. We never left a man behind, and if there’d been a team with me, we’d have carried out the bodies as well and taken them back to their families.”
“From what Raven told me, he suffered PTSD after that mission.” Jenna hadn’t taken her eyes off him. “I can’t imagine what you went through.”
Glad to see the lights of town come into view, Kane nodded. “Yeah, it was bad. We almost didn’t make it. This is where we’re different, Raven and me. My specific job was to take out targets. I’m able to switch off the horror of killing someone but he can’t. I do have empathy but not for threats to our country. I don’t enjoy taking a life but sometimes to keep our country free, it’s necessary and someone has to do it.” He looked at her. “We were in the desert under fire for a long time, weeks. He was a soldier and we worked together well, but I did all the killing. I did what was necessary for us to survive.” He cleared his throat. “Like now, with serial killers. I’ll disable them before I’ll kill them, but if they’re coming at us shooting, I don’t think twice about taking them down and I don’t dwell on it afterward either. I know in my heart I made the right decision.”
“That’s good to know.” Jenna peered out the windshield and then took a deep breath. “So how did you get out?”
Not surprised she wanted the full story, Kane nodded slowly. “I had Wolfe in my ear. As you know, then like now, I was chipped. He could track me and now he still can, since thenew chip was installed. He gave us intel on the run. I’d taken Raven miles away from a friendly border because it was crawling with militants. I needed to get him mobile and safe, which I did. We were both tanned. His brown eyes and beard made him easy to disguise but some questioned my blue eyes so I wore shades. Once we’d acquired robes and headgear, I had enough language skills to deal with any factions we met along the way. We needed food and met friendlies who helped out. Everyone carried weapons, so we fit right in, apart from being bigger than most of them. Long story short, and without the grisly details, we managed to make our way along the border until Wolfe could get us a ride out of Dodge.”
“Raven remembers Junior, so you gave him your name.” Jenna turned in her seat to look at him. “Why would you do that, when you used a codename? What if he were captured and tortured?”
Raising his eyebrows in disbelief, Kane glanced at her. “Junior was safe. My codename would give them access to my command. Heck, every time I spoke to Wolfe, I needed to leave Raven alone. Speaking to Wolfe, I needed to use my codename.” He sighed. “Once I’d gotten him to safety, I was taken out of the zone and reassigned. Wolfe told me he’d been asking after me. When it was reported I died, my name was given as Junior. He heard about it and still believes I’m dead. Yeah, there is a resemblance to my old self, but I had wrinkles from being out in the desert, many scars and tattoos. I had a jagged scar down one cheek.” He pointed to his face. “The surgeon performed a miracle; they even took out the cleft in my chin. I look like I did back in college. You have the me I’d have been if I hadn’t joined the military but with all the skills.” He grinned. “They took skin from my backside for skin grafts. Think about that next time you’re kissing my cheek.”
“Oh, stop it.” Jenna grinned back. “They changed my eye shape and it’s amazing how different my eyes look. Therest of me is much the same apart from long blonde hair. Back then, I’d fit nicely into Wolfe’s family. Although I look ten years younger than I did after living with the Carlos cartel. It was a nightmare living there. I didn’t have one wrinkle when I met you.”
He smiled at her. “You don’t have any now.” He waited for their gates to struggle open against the snowdrifts and drove through. “You’re as beautiful as when I met you.” He looked at the ranch house, lights blazing a welcome. “Thank goodness, we’re home.”
FOUR
Saturday
After completing a hard workout and tending the horses with Kane, Jenna jumped into the shower. She dried her hair and dressed rapidly even though the house was toasty. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with her boys before going into the office this morning. As she stepped out into the hallway and made her way to the family room, giggling and loud shouts came from the front yard. She went to the window and peered outside. Her yard was a winter wonderland. Snow piled up all over and long icicles hung around the porch like ancient swords. She reached for her phone smiling and, walking outside, started filming. Kane and Tauri were in the middle of a snowball fight, and Jackson was doing his best to throw snow at both of them. Steam rose in the air around all of them until they finally fell laughing in a heap and became snow angels. Giggling, Jackson climbed slowly to his feet and ran to her. Big for his age, he had started walking at ten months and, now at seventeen months, was getting around everywhere without any problems and also had a good vocabulary.
“Mommy, look, snow.” Jackson pointed to the ground. His red nose and pink cheeks damp with snowflakes.
She put away her phone. “Yes, it’s lovely. Are you cold?”
“No!” Jackson giggled and pointed to his feet. “Boots on.”
“Diamond days.” Kane brushed snow from his clothes and then helped Tauri. He smiled at her. “Our time with the kids will go so fast. We need to make the most of every second. You should have seen Jackson’s face when I opened the door and told him we could play outside.”
Nodding, Jenna took in the scene and sighed. “Yeah, I wish we could stay home today but maybe working out what happened last night will only be a few hours. I took a video of the snowball fight. We have that for our files.”
“Snow, cold.” Jackson grinned at Jenna. “Yummy.” He licked snow from his red gloves.
Scooping him up, Jenna brushed the snow from his clothes and blew raspberries on his cold cheeks until he giggled. “Come on, you lot. Let’s get you dried off so Mommy and Daddy can go to work.”
She left the boys playing trains on the family room rug, with Raya watching over them. There were never any long tearful goodbyes, the children had gotten used to them leaving. It was normal for her to tell them when she needed to go to work. She always added what they’d be doing when she returned or planned something for them to look forward to if she and Kane needed to work a weekend. Most times at work, Rio would take over to give them family time. Like Kane had said, the diamond days with the kids flew by so fast—every second was precious. They would have welcomed another baby or two, but they were thankful for the two healthy boys they had. Having a big family had been a dream, but when she looked at her team, all like close family, maybe she’d gotten her wish after all.
