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“I’m so sorry, Eva.”

“This isn’t your fault.”

But it was. Victor’s men had been waiting for us to make a mistake.

“Keith must not know about this.” She shifted uneasily. “He wouldn’t risk my safety.”

“He loves you.”

She nodded.

“Were you more than friends?” It was the question I couldn’t ask when we first met, and the question I didn’t really want to know the answer to.

She sat up so our faces were level. “For a time, yes.” She studied my reaction, but I guarded it.

“Why did it end?” I hoped that it had ended. Though I had no evidence to suggest she was still in love with him. I cared more about who had ended it.

She lowered the washcloth and looked at it in her lap, folding it to a fresh side. “We were young, probably drawn together by the thrill of rebelling against our families.” She pressed the cloth back to her forehead, giving me a measured look. “In 1941, I went into the nurse corps while he stayed in Baker and started seeing other people.”

The fool.

“Is he the reason you’ll never marry?” I had to ask. I needed to know.

She hesitated, confirming my suspicions without words.

“I’ll have a talk with him about Victor’s men,” I said.

“Perhaps I should.”

“I’m perfectly capable of having a rational conversation with him.”

“Your clenched fists suggest otherwise.” She looked at them pointedly.

I reached over for her nurse bag and pulled out the cleaning supplies for her wounds.

She took the iodine from my hands and gave me a teasing smile. “This is probably a job for a nurse, not an officer.”

“I’ll never live that down, will I?”

“Not anytime soon.”

My heart lifted at her light mood and our shared joke.

I wanted so much more than that, though every obstacle that stood in our way made it entirely impossible.

Twenty-Four

Eva

JUNE 22

This had to stop.

The attacks from Victor.

My propensity to end up in Warren’s arms.

All of it.