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“Why?” he said, his voice low and hard.
“They believed my CO,” she said. “Or at least my dad bough
t into the ‘good soldier’ defense and in the end it was my word against Dustin’s. He admitted we’d had an affair. With Noah’s testimony, he couldn’t skirt that issue. But Dustin claimed it was consensual.”
She listed the facts as if the trial had happened to someone else. Her tone remained calm. But one glance away from the road, and he saw the tension in her posture. She sat up straight, her shoulder blades drawn down her back. And her legs were no longer outstretched in front of her. Her feet rested on either side of her backpack.
“His defense countered that the traumatic environment altered my perception. We were on a remote base, close to what many considered the front lines of the battle. Everyone was tense all the time.” She shrugged. “My dad believed the decorated soldier, not me. And my mom followed my father’s lead.”
“They didn’t fight for you.” It was a statement, not a question.
“No. I guess in their eyes I wasn’t a good enough soldier.”
He reached over and took her hand. “I think it takes a helluva lot more courage to do what you did, to speak up against the person everyone sees as the ‘good guy’ than to stand by the lines drawn in the sand between good and bad.”
“Thank you,” she murmured.
He squeezed her hand, but kept his eyes on the road. “And I stand by my assessment from the other night. You’re more badass than any other woman I’ve ever met. And I find that so damn hot.”
She laughed. And another quick peek told him that he’d won a smile.
They drove in silence for a few minutes. But the questions lingered. And he couldn’t push them away. If they weren’t stopping to see her sister, where did she want to go?
There was only one other person he could think of from her life before she’d run away to Forever. Her rapist. And shit, that put one helluva dark spin on their third date.
“So this stop in Northern Cali. Are you planning something that might get you arrested?” he asked.
She pulled her hand free from his. “No.”
But once again there was a boatload of serious in her tone. His brothers might have been right about this little trip redefining ‘vacation.’ And he hated to let his brothers win. Ever.
“Look, I don’t have a lot of experience with road trips. In fact, this is my first time outside of Oregon.”
“You’re kidding. No family car outings as a kid?”
“My mom left when I was little. My father did his best for us. But he was a sane man. He never tried to load the four of us into a car and take us across state lines. We visited the coast once or twice for clamming, but that’s it. He worked a lot to make ends meet. There wasn’t much left over after paying the bills and trying to keep us all fed for fancy vacations. You’ve seen a lot more of the world than I have.”
She let out a brittle laugh. “I know there are beautiful places in the Middle East, in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I don’t think the US military posts are on the top sightseeing stops.”
“Probably not,” he acknowledged. “Where would you go if you could go anywhere?”
“I can’t. If I use my passport—”
He pushed away the rising need to erase ‘can’t’ from her vocabulary. He’d pull the truck over right now if he could tear down the hard limits she put on her life. He knew the complexities of her situation couldn’t be tossed out the window and abandoned on the side of the Oregon highway. “But if you could go somewhere?”
“What is the point in dreaming about something you can’t have?” she said softly.
“Situations change. One day—”
“There’s no ‘one day’ in my future. We both know that, Josh. If I try to board a plane bound for Hawaii, I’ll be arrested.”
“Why Hawaii?” he asked.
He glanced over and caught sight of her full lips pressed tight together. “You’re annoying. You know that, right?”
“My sister reminds me all the time. And you agreed to spend the next few days in a car with me.”
“Few days? It’s a nine- to ten-hour drive.”
