He swallowed hard. “We weren’t sure if my cover had been blown, so we set up the raid a few days after they were found.” Rolling to his back, he scrubbed a hand over his face. “It went ugly, fast. I took a hatchet to theknee.”
She winched and sucked in abreath.
He looked back at her. “Surgeon said if it hadn’t been dull or had gone half an inch left or right, it would have really fucked up my knee. Instead, it cut through to the kneecap. Thirty-four stitches later, I’ve got an awesome scar and a fucked-upstory.”
“I’m sorry.” There was nothing more to say. It sucked that he’d lost two agents and had been injured, but selfishly it didn’t assuage the pain at being abandoned with no word. Maybe that made her a badperson.
He rolled back to his side. “So am I. I didn’t mean to ghost. When I got the word I was going in, I was ordered to go radio silent. We have protocols in place to make sure our covers can’t be tracked to our real lives, including shutting down all forms ofcommunication.”
It was her turn to drop her gaze. “I got it.” Still didn’t make it hurt anyless.
“Denise.” His voice was soft and gravely and raised goosebumps on her arms as if he’d dragged the tips of his fingers across herskin.
“It’s alright,Chris.”
“It’snot.”
She looked up. “But it’ll probably happenagain.”
“Maybe.”
There was the problem. He couldn’t say for sure one way or the other. More than likely it would happen again. Maybe not with her, but withsomeone.
At the thought of him telling someone else he had to go, a bright, hot wave of jealousy surged through her from out of nowhere. The suddenness of her rage caught her off guard and shejerked.
A furrow appeared between his brows. “Youokay?”
She pressed her lips together. “Mmm hmm. Musclespasm.”
“Yousure?”
“Yeah. Why did you join the Army first? Why not go straight to college?” She wanted to know everything about him with an urgency she hadn’t felt before. Before had been casual and lazy—they’d had all the time in the world. Now she knew that wasn’ttrue.
“No money. My grades weren’t good enough for an academic scholarship and I wasn’t good enough at any sport to get a scholarship. Most of my high school friends were going nowhere fast. A couple O.D.’d on meth or heroin and the Army offered me a way out. What about you? Why the Army and notcollege?”
“I went for about two years before I joined, but it wasn’t for me. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I’d always had it in the back of my mind that I’d join. We were in Virginia and my dad got orders back to Bragg. I was going to community college and living at home. I did not want to do that in Fayetteville, so Ienlisted.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “And you ended up back hereanyway.”
She tucked her hands under her head. “I’d like to point out Haven Creek is a good thirty minutes away from Fayetteville,” shesaid.
“Touché. You never wanted to finish yourdegree?”
“I have a Master’s in BusinessManagement.”
“Really?”
Her eyebrows pinched together. “Why do you sound sosurprised?”
“It’s just—Well, you—I don’t have anything to say around the foot in mymouth.”
She smiled. “It’s alright. People do it all thetime.”
He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “They shouldn’t.Ishouldn’t have. I should’ve known better than to underestimateyou.”
A swarm of butterflies took flight in her stomach and her muscles felt gooey. Shit. This was what girlie felt like. It’d been so long since it’d happened, she almostforgot.
“Why sevenyears?”
