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“No intimate Christmas in the mountains with Bradley?” Chase asked roughly.
I snickered. “Oh, God, no. We were both on location that year.”
“I’m sure Torie invited you to our Christmases,” Chase considered. “The three of us have had very few holidays when we weren’t in the same place for the holidays, even if we had to fly somewhere to be together.”
“Every year,” I assured him. “But I was always out of the country. I think I lost track of how important it was to be with the person who was the most important to me for the holidays. Torie is the sister I never had. Now, I regret missing those holiday celebrations with her. Tossing a gift in the mail isn’t quite the same thing as spending time together. I guess I didn’t know how blessed I was to have her until I almost lost her.”
“You were there when she really needed you, Vanna,” Chase reminded me. “Knowing how career driven you’ve been, I can’t even imagine how difficult it was to put your own career on hold after her kidnapping.”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t, really. There was absolutely no question of where I wanted to be when it happened. She’s been there for me, too, Chase.”
He chuckled. “She wasn’t happy when I told her that I was going to be your advisor, and that you’d be staying with me. The only reason she didn’t give me too much grief about it was because she lives so close. She was terrified when you went missing, Vanna. The sisterly feelings go both ways. She would have been on the rescue if she’d thought she could wheedle her way onto my jet.”
I smiled because that sounded exactly like my best friend. “I’m sure she would have. I’m grateful that we’re close enough that she noticed I wasn’t sticking to my schedule. If not for her and Last Hope, I don’t think I would have made it out of that jungle alive.”
“I’m not going to lie,” Chase replied gutturally. “I’m sure you wouldn’t have. You were already pretty septic, and the systemic infection was the most challenging part of your recovery.”
I nodded. “I don’t remember much about those first few days in the hospital. I just recall you being there every time I woke up scared. Did you get any sleep?”
“Enough,” he said, blowing off my concern for him. “I’ve never really required a ton of sleep, and I learned in the military to grab an hour or two when and where I could.”
“Do you ever miss your life in the military?” I asked curiously.
“Sometimes,” he said candidly. “There’s a comradery there that I don’t think you’ll ever find in another line of work. And there’s rarely a dull moment. Our ops had to be planned down to the second, and there was no room for error, so the shelf life in special forces out in the field isn’t generally a long one. But while I was doing it, I felt like I was part of a team doing something important. It’s hard to lose that sense of having a higher purpose like that, and that instinct to save the world is hard to shake off when you become a civilian again. I guess that’s why we all appreciate being involved in Last Hope. We’re big and spread out now, but that comradery is still there, and it gives us a chance to do what we can to help.”
“I know most of your military operations were shrouded in secrecy. You probably can’t say much about them specifically, but were they really timed down to the second?” I asked inquisitively. “The investigative journalist in me has to ask.”
“Most of them were top secret in the 160thSOAR,” he revealed. “We coordinated with and flew other special forces units like Delta Force and Navy SEALS to locations for specific objectives. Night Stalkers specialize in flying in the dark. And yes, my curious little friend, timing was everything. I never missed a target time, plus or minus thirty seconds. That was always our goal, no matter what kind of operation we were running.”
I winced. “That’s pretty brutal.”
“When lives depend on not missing a time window, you get it done,” he answered with a note of amusement in his voice. “We weren’t known as the best of the best helicopter pilots in the military for nothing.”
I smirked at his cockiness, but I supposed when someone was challenged with missions that difficult, brash confidence was probably necessary.
“So taking over Durand with Wyatt was a huge career change,” I pondered.
“Yes,” he agreed. “But business offers a different kind of challenge. There’s a certain satisfaction in a deal well made, or releasing a new product that you know is the best quality on the market.”
“Many of which were given to Santa to put under that tree,” I teased.
“Of course. He knows quality when he sees it.”
I burst out laughing because I couldn’t hold it back. “You’re obnoxious when it comes to Durand products and their quality.”
“We have to be,” he confirmed without a trace of arrogance. “Durand lines wouldn’t be half so sought after if we weren’t offering a product that will last a lifetime. Enough about me. Tell me what life is like as an investigative journalist.”
I took a deep breath, but I didn’t answer immediately.
Since Chase had always made it a point to be honest with me, I wanted to do the same thing.
Chase
“Vanna?” I prompted when she didn’t answer. “Is this something you don’t want to talk about?”
Hell, I would have nixed that question if I thought it might upset her.
She shook her head slightly before she said, “It’s not that. I’m just trying to figure out exactly how to answer. It’s not exactly the career I envisioned when I got out of college.”
