He shrugged. “It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s done it.”
I ignored his comment and considered it for a moment. It wasn’t the worst idea. I mean, morally, sure, it was a little gray, but when had that ever stopped me before?
I tilted my head. “Would you do it?”
His eyes flew to mine. “What?”
“If you were in my position,” I clarified. “Would you marry someone for money?”
“I wouldn’t be in your position.”
I let out a breathy laugh. “Of course you wouldn’t.”
“If you want my advice?—”
“I do,” I interrupted, which seemed to surprise him.
“You keep your head down. You play nice. You stay sober. You cut the Callahans off. If you want to go the marriage route, you make sure it’s with someone Max doesn’t have a reason to dig into.”
“And if I don’t?” I asked, tapping my fingers restlessly.
“Then you’ll be sitting in this same chair asking the same damn question a year from now.”
CHAPTER 14
MARCO
Dr. Savannah Carter was good at her job. Too good. The kind of good that meant she didn’t let things slide. She saw things she shouldn’t. She asked questions I didn’t want to answer.
She flipped through my file, the familiar creak of her office chair filling the silence.“Your shoulder is still stiff, but that’s not news. Your range of motion is about the same as last time.”
“Good to know,”I muttered.
She sighed. “Marco.”
I didn’t respond, just looked past her out the window, where the sun was bleeding through the blinds in broken lines.
“You’re still overcompensating with your right side,”she continued, crossing one leg over the other.“And don’t even get me started on your leg.”
She flipped the page, scanning whatever notes she’d scribbled last time. If I had to guess, it was the same shit she always wrote.
“Old news,” I finally murmured. And it was. Even though I’d put in the work, there was still no change. I wasn’t going back to the field.
Her mouth twitched subtly, but I caught it. “Your Chief of Operations told me you resigned.”
I looked up at her.
“Six months ago,” she continued. “You didn’t tell me that during your last visit.”
“Didn’t seem relevant.”
Her eyebrow lifted slightly, the barest sign of amusement. “You don’t think yourentire career shiftis relevant? You spent almost fifteen years in the military, Marco. Intelligence, high-risk operations—that’s not exactly something you just walk away from.”
Fifteen years.
It was a long time. I’d built myself around it. It shaped who I was, what I did, how I saw the world. The military had defined me for so long that without it I wasn’t sure what was left. Some lawyer in an overpriced suit handling other people’s messes instead of creating them.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
