Page 15

He shrugged. “Yep.”

“Why?”

His eyebrows rose in surprise. Well, she thought it was surprise. He was kind of staring at her like he’d never seen someone like her before.

It wasn’t the first time she’d seen that look.

“He got into trouble during combat and came close to death. I pulled him out, carried him on my back for miles. He thought he was going to die, and he made me promise to take care of you if anything ever happened to him.”

Wow. That was more than she had ever expected from Charlie, even back then. And it made her feel a bit lighter inside. At one time, it seemed like he’d loved her. She guessed, at one time, she’d loved him too.

“He never told me that,” she said.

Ammo shrugged those big shoulders. It wasn’t a big shrug. She wasn’t sure that he could move them that much, with all that muscle. “We didn’t always tell the people we cared about what happened to us when we were in combat.”

No, she guessed that was right. “Do you have people that care about you, Ammo?”

It was a personal question, but she felt like things were personal between them now.

He’d saved her husband at one stage and promised to look after her if Charlie died. And then he’d saved her as well.

Ammo didn’t answer, which was fair enough, she guessed.

“So you saved Charlie’s life, promised to look after me if he died, and now, here you are.”

“Yes. I always keep my promises.”

Charlie had made so many promises that he had never kept. To have someone keep a promise they’d given to Charlie, well, it was more than Charlie deserved.

Probably more than she deserved, too.

“I appreciate that, but there’s nothing I need.”

He glanced around the house, as though pointing out that there was plenty that she needed. She knew this place was run down. It was in a bad way and getting worse.

And then there was the outside. She just couldn’t keep up. She was working three jobs, and Charlie had never bothered to help.

“I’m sure you’ve got better things to do with your time than look after a stranger. But thanks for keeping your promise.”

Movement out the front window caught her attention, and horror filled her before she dropped to the ground. Kevin leaped out of her hair and hid in one of the many holes in the baseboards. She had a feeling some led right outside.

“Get down,” she cried at Ammo.

He stared down at her in surprise. “What?”

“Get down!”

6

Ammo stared down at Aimee in shock.

What the hell was she doing crouched on the floor?

“Ammo, get down. She’s nearly here. She’s going to see you.”

Who was going to see him? And there was no way he was crouching down like she was. She started crawling along the floor toward the window.

“Get down, get down. We’ve got to pretend we’re not here.”