But if she was going to pull Talon into it, she had to be sure. She glanced at the clock, her thoughts sliding to tonight. She’d see him again tonight and tell him her suspicions. If he saw it, then she’d know she wasn’t seeing conspiracies like her father hadclaimed. She closed her eyes. Prayed she wasn’t imagining this. She prayed this wasn’t another issue she needed to overcome.
She looked down at her plastic ID badge holder and the thumb drive she now carried behind her ID. No, that was bullshit. Thinking like that was exactly what her father wanted her to do. She hadproofshe wasn’t making this up.So, where does that leave me?
Riley shook her head and squared her shoulders. “No, that’s not the question. The question is, where does that leave my father?”
CHAPTER 15
The desert had a different kind of quiet at night. The heat bled off the hard-packed ground in slow waves, and the plywood walls of the SRF training village cast long, sharp shadows under the floodlights. The smell of sawdust from the newly constructed course, mixed with the sulfur smell of spent munitions, hung in the air, sharp and acrid.
Talon adjusted the camera angle to improve his view inside Room Two and then said on comms, “We good, Dude?”
“Roger that, Skipper. I’m recording still, right?”
“Correct. I want them to watch and identify their mistakes during their internal training later today.” He watched as the SRF squad stacked at the next breach point. Jug’s voice came over the channel, lowand steady, keeping the men focused. Jug should have his own team, but the man didn’t want it. Not yet, at least. Talon would keep after him, though. Since he and Shelly had gotten married, the man had settled into one of the best examples of a leader that Talon had the privilege of seeing. In the last year, his entire team had gelled to the point of being unbreakable. So, urging Jug out of the nest was kind of counterintuitive, but it was a step forward for him. One he’d offer and keep offering. Jug was that damn good.
Talon’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and smiled at the screen. Riley.
He checked the time—just past twenty-two hundred. He shouldn’t answer since they were balls deep in training … but he did.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said after he muted his comms.
There was a pause, just long enough for him to picture her smile on the other end. “Hey. Are you busy?”
He stepped back into the shadow of a wall, eyes still on the SRF team moving into position. “Night exercise. I’m sorry I sent you a text instead of calling. Can’t explain the particulars.” The government had shortened their training window officially and wassending another team to them at the six-week point. It was fucking irresponsible, but he wasn’t driving this training. The government of Burundu was. He’d sent a scathing email to Ronan and his dad to explain the bullshit they were dealing with and the danger of pulling the SRF team out before they were ready.
“You did, and I do understand,” she said, her voice light, but he could hear the faint thread of disappointment under it.
“I’m sorry I can’t get over there tonight. Jug’s running the stack, but I need to stay on-site.”
A soft exhale. “I knew that the second you texted. I just wanted to hear your voice. I’ve found that I’ve become addicted to it.”
He closed his eyes briefly. “I don’t like missing tonight.”
“It’s fine, Talon. You’ve got work to do. I really do understand, and I’ll see you soon.”
The casual tone didn’t fool him. He could hear something under the words, the same thing he’d heard in her voice that morning when she told him it was “nothing.”
“You sure you’re all right?”
A soft laugh came over the comms, practiced andeasy. “I’m fine. I just wanted to check in. How many recruits have you broken tonight?”
He huffed out a quiet breath. “More than half the team’s still alive. I’ll take it as progress.”
That earned a genuine laugh, warmer, but he still felt the distance.
“Tomorrow night,” he said, making it more promise than a suggestion.
“That sounds lovely,” she agreed.
The SRF team leader’s voice cut sharp over the comms, pulling Talon’s focus back to the field. “I’ve got to go, babe.”
“I know. Goodnight, Talon.”
He ended the call, slipping the phone back into his pocket, but her voice lingered. It was warm and steady on the surface, but with just enough of something beneath it to keep him thinking something was wrong.
Jug’s voice cut over comms. “Skipper, you coming back to work, or you gonna daydream over there?”
Talon unmuted his comms and looked across the room at Jug. The shit-eating grin on his face knew more than Talon would like, so he flipped his friend off and ordered, “Finish the run.”
