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“Nothing out of the ordinary?”
I laughed nervously.
“Now you got me thinking I missed something. Do you want to tell me anything?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re leaving on the next chopper out of here.”
“I thought you had to wait because of the Taliban or something.”
“The situation in Afghanistan is still fluid, Ms. Hart. I want you to be packed and ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Do you understand?”
“I’m not done with my story!”
“That ain’t my problem,” he said, damn near smiling.
I stood, furious at him and the rest of the male dominated world. After leaving his office, I headed to my quarters to pack my belongings.
Should I go talk with Cooper? Or maybe Max? Would one of them give me the information I needed before I got kicked off the base?
All I had brought with me was a week’s worth of clothes, my laptop, phone, and various cords and chargers for the electronic equipment.
It didn’t take long to get it all packed up. Would the CO really kick me out? Returning without a story would not go over well with the website that had hired me.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. The thought repeated itself, bouncing off the imaginary walls of my mind. It got even worse as images of Cooper and Max both popped up.
The two men were similar in some ways, both alpha males teetering on the edge of being an alpha hole or a straight up psycho. They had their differences too.
Cooper was definitely the smarter of the two. Beyond his semi-romantic picnic on top of a hill in the Afghanistan boonies, something about him made my soul smile.
On the other hand, Max was down to earth and to the point. He was dumb, but I’d never had good luck with smart men. Would the hulk of a man even want a woman like me?
What type of woman am I? The question floated past my consciousness for inspection. I toyed with it, wondering if I would ever be able to answer it completely.
Both men attracted me in one way or another, but it didn’t matter if I liked either of them. I would be going back without a story and wouldn’t talk to either of them ever again.
I placed the blame for my failing to get the story at their feet. If they hadn’t been such assholes, I might have been able to dig around enough to come up with some sort of story to save my ass.
Did the criminal conspiracy really go all the way to the top? Was I sitting on another scandal like the Iran-Contra Affair? The thought excited me. People would finally see me as a real journalist.
I closed my eyes, pleasant thoughts floating through my mind as I drifted through the land between waking and dreams. As I approached sweet sleep, I heard a knock at the door. Who could that be?
TEN
Jade
Cooper stood in front of me with an expression I recognized.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, glancing around. “I’m supposed to be leaving soon.”
“It won’t be until the morning,” he said. “Can I come in?”
“Sure…”
I stepped back. He came inside, brushing against me.
Why does he have this power over me? I asked myself as a tingle ran through my body.
“You’re all packed?” he asked, looking at the suitcases piled up near the door.
