Page 6 of Kyle

“I can’t protect you if, when we get there you go off reservation trying to avenge a personal issue. I know what happened to you.” Anaya’s swift intake of air was painful to hear. “I’m not bringing it up to force you to talk about it. But I want you to know, I know, and to that end, some of this is personal for you. Our mission is to get those girls to safety and come home alive. There are things you don’t know about. Bribes that are being paid to the Defense Force. Amisha’s services are being used by the Minister of Justice. We need to tread carefully.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, I can’t go in and happily place a bullet between the woman’s eyes no matter how badly I want to. We go in easy, recon the area, see who’s coming and going, and figure out the best way to get the girls.”

I hadn’t taken my eyes off Anaya’s face as I waited for her to show some sign of disgust that I’d admitted to wanting to shoot the woman. But the revulsion never came. She simply nodded her head.

“I understand,” Anaya said.

“I think you understand that the rebels pose a different kind of threat than Amisha. We’ll have to stay on target and focused at all times.”

“I understand that, too.” Anaya’s bravery masked her sadness.

I wouldn’t bring up I also knew about how she’d escaped from the village she and Kalee had been staying in. I’d read her statement about hiding in a closet while the rebels had decimated the tiny mountain community and tortured the people, trying to get information from them. She’d been far luckier than most.

Her courage had outweighed her fear and it was damn impressive. Most people would never go back to the place where they’d endured the nightmare she had. Another thing that endeared me to Anaya, and I was not a man who was easy impressed or taken in by a woman. But there were so many layers to Anaya I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to peel them back. Every new bit of information I learned made me want to know more. And I certainly wasn’t the type of man who wanted to more. Yet I had an overwhelming need to know how she’d managed to pick herself up and move on. And that need had taken over all rational thought.

“I know you do, and I promise I won’t let anything happen to you,” I vowed. “But I need you to promise me, that when Dec gives an order you follow it to the letter, even if you don’t understand why he’s giving it.”

“I hate that word, order,” she grumbled, and I tried not to laugh at the way her face scrunched into a grimace. She was just as cute as she was beautiful.

“Most people do. But Declan has years of experience, he knows what he’s doing. If he didn’t, I wouldn’t trust him with my life, and certainly not yours.”

Anaya’s eyes flared at my admission, but she recovered quickly. “I don’t think he likes me.”

There was no way for me to explain Declan’s hostility about the situation without breaking confidence. Declan being separated from his twin sister Violet and then bounced around the foster system was not my story to tell.

“His attitude has nothing to do with you or the mission.” Maybe that was a white lie. His bad mood had everything to do with the mission. But not because he disagreed with rescuing the girls. “Declan’s…intense. He has to be. He’s our team leader. He makes the hard calls and his decisions may or may not end with someone dying. He takes that seriously. Dec’s former Force Recon and he spent years in the CIA. When shit hits the fan, you want Declan by your side.”

“What about you? Are you a Marine, too?”

My lips twitched and I couldn’t hide my smile at how she’d formed her question. She would’ve had to know a Marine or know something about the military to know there are no ex or former Marines. There are simply Marines. And I found it interesting she knew what Force Recon was to begin with.

“I lived with a Marine when I was a teenager,” she explained. “After…well you know, you read the background check on me. Anyway, I stayed with him and his wife for about three months, but he was changing duty stations and since they were only fostering me, I couldn’t go. It was the only place I’d ever felt safe.”

Well, that answered my question, but now I had a queasy feeling in my gut. Yes, I understood what she was referring to when she’d said “after” and it pissed me off that she’d only ever felt safe one time in her young life. But again, it brought my fascination full-circle. How could someone hold on to all the beauty she had after they’d been through hell?

“I was in the Navy,” I answered her question to avoid the other topic altogether.

“A SEAL?” she guessed.

While she was not wrong, it was interesting she’d gone there first.

“Now why would you ask that?”

“You look like one.”

So she was observant by nature or she’d been paying attention. And damn if I didn’t like the thought of her watching me closely. Normally it’d annoy the shit out of me if a woman asked if I was a SEAL. I’d run into my fair share of Frog Hogs who hunt around the bars in San Diego and Virginia gagging to get their hooks into a Special Forces Operator. And there was nothing sexy about a woman who was gagging for it, not even when she easily fell on your dick. No—especially when she did. There was not one damn thing intriguing about those women. Nothing special or unique. They were a dime a dozen and so different than all that was Anaya Baker, it wasn’t even funny.

I couldn’t picture Anaya aggressively pursuing a team guy just so she could brag she’d bagged one. Hell, I couldn’t see her aggressively going after any man. And she wouldn’t have to, not with her beauty. Men would flock, they’d pursue, they’d chase. All she’d have to do was smile and they’d be in her web. I had no doubt, because there I was trapped in the net she didn’t even know she’d cast.

“Look like one?” I smiled. “Have you been around a lot of SEALs to know what they look like?”

A stem of jealousy unexplainably took root.

“Considering I live in San Diego, I’ve seen my fair share,” she shot back. “I actually met with Rear Admiral Creasy a few times when I was with NCMEC. Two victims had been taken by boat from the beach. A witness reported the boat was seen near San Clemente Island. For obvious reasons civilians helping in the search couldn’t go onto the island. He’d personally gone out and had a BUD/s class that was there for training stop and help search.”

That sounded like Creasy. He’d recently saved us a lot of time and effort, unofficially aiding in the rescue of Thad’s wife, Emerson. He was as kind and good as he was tough and demanding.