If the slack jawed expression on the spellbinding woman’s face was any indication, Kam was pretty damned surprised. As for what he was feeling…
I have no idea why I said all those things.
And now he wasn’t sure what to do next.
He almost never talked about his late wife and child. Not with his team. Not with anyone. And yet, here he was, spilling his guts to a woman he barely knew.
There was just something about Kam that made him want to open up. To share things he normally kept bottled deep inside.
She was so different than any other woman he’d ever known. Jenny, included. Whenever he was around the exotic beauty, it was as if he fell under some sort of spell.
Part of him despised how easy it was to talk to the woman his team had risked their lives to find. But the other…
Why do I feel like this when I’m around her?
For so long, the only feelings Van had been carrying around were that of anger, hate, and a guilt that seemed as though it would never go away. And now…
“What did you mean when you said your wife and son were dead because of you?”
Kam’s question tore through his spinning thoughts, and he blinked himself back to the present. Like before, she asked a question, and he found himself wanting to answer.
So, with the next beat of his aching heart, he began a story he wished like hell he could forget.
“The first SEAL unit I was with did a lot of deep cover work. This was before I joined up with Logan and the others. We had this one target, a man with known terrorist ties within the U.S. One of his plants managed to weasel his way into a job with the NSA. That guy got ahold of our team’s personal info and passed it along to our target.”
“Oh, Van.”
“It was a bomb.” He closed his eyes, thankful for the sunglasses hiding the remnants of his grief. “Middle of the day. A quick trip across town to the store.” He huffed out a disbelieving breath. “We’d only just found out we were having a boy the week before. I was overseas on an op, so she’d video called me while she was at the doctor getting the ultrasound. That way, I could still be a part of it.”
“It was nice that she could do that for you.”
“Yeah,” he grunted.
That was Jenny. Nice. Funny. Sweet.
She’d been the proverbial girl-next-door. And for a brief moment in time, Van had considered her his.
“You loved her.”
He glanced over at Kam, who was staring up at him with a shimmering gaze. It wasn’t a question but more of a quiet observation.
“Yes.” He nodded. “Or at least, I thought I did. It was all still so new, and then with the baby…”
“But you were happy, yes?”
Another slow nod. “And worried, and terrified, and all the things most new parents probably feel. But yeah. The biggest part of me was excited. And then I got the call, and just like that, it was all over.”
“Did you ever get the man responsible?”
“Put a bullet between his eyes.” He held her stare. “Shortly after, the asshole’s entire terrorist empire fell. Now they’re all either dead or locked up behind bars for the rest of their lives. That’s the kind of man I am, Kaamisha.” He needed her to know. “That’s the kind of thing I do to people who hurt the ones I love.”
“If that’s your way of warning me, there’s no need. I already told you I have no intentions of seeing you or anyone else get hurt.”
Itwasa warning, but the words he’d chosen had also been a sort of test. And when she didn’t so much as hesitate to once again reassure him she wasn’t a threat, Van’s belief that she was telling the truth seemed to grow even more.
“After the funeral, I requested a transfer of units. That’s when I was assigned to the team I’m with now.”
“You all seem very close.”
