AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And your feelings for her?”
Stiffening, Rook glared at his Unit Leader. “What feelings?”
Kyele eyed him with a knowing glint. “Feelings are involved.”
Forcing his hands to remain lax at his side, he denied the claim. “You’re wrong. I don’t have any feelings for the target.”
Kyele propped a hip on the side of the table and watched him. “I was once like you. Trust me. Emotions aren’t a bad thing but if you don’t acknowledge them you’ll make mistakes.”
“There’s nothing to acknowledge,” Rook argued, taking a step toward Kyele.
His Unit Leader arched a brow. Realizing what he’d done, he dropped back. Had he intended to attack the man who’d changed his whole life? For a woman he didn’t know?
A moment of silence ensued. At last, Kyele sighed. “I need Ghost Unit to be a united front. In order for that to happen, the Team Leader needs to be open and willing to listen. You constantly fight with Kjar. You keep Hahn at arm’s length. The only one you’re ambivalent about is Dorian.”
The summation hit Rook in a long buried place within him. A place where he guarded his deepest emotions. His desire for acceptance. If he kept others from getting too close, he didn’t have to risk their rejection.
Kyele’s words hit too close to the dent Tempest had made in the shield and he lashed out. “What do you want from me, Kyele? Do you have a complaint about my role with Ghost Unit? If so, just spit it out.”
Kyele sighed and stood. Rook tensed, anger a vibrating strum against his nerves. “You know what ERS is going to say if we can’t bring her in.”
Rook’s heartbeat raced. They would put a kill order out on Tempest and if Ghost Unit didn’t do it, ERS would.
No one was killing her, if Rook had anything to say about it. He might shake her for the risk she took with her life but no one would take her precious life from him. He kept that thought to himself. “I understand.”
***
After Rook left theconference room, Kyele cursed under his breath. Then again for good measure. He sat down and pulled his private comm from his pocket. Dialing a contact code he could recall in his sleep, he waited for the connection to go through.
“Hey, you.”
The bright voice on the other end immediately soothed the rioting emotions battering at him. Kyele exhaled softly and his gaze greedily took in the woman on the screen. His life, his heart, his Chosen. “How are things?”
Joni’s smile widened. “Good. Viktor wants to speak with you. He’s decided his time in the Spectar army is done.”
That was something Kyele already suspected. “Has he spoken to Azar?”
His papan adored his son and hoped Viktor would one day accept the role as General. Kyele knew that wasn’t going to happen. Viktor’s passion lay in another direction though Kyele didn’t apprise his Chosen or Azar of that.
Joni grimaced. “I’m not sure. He’s being cagey with me.”
Because his maman could pry his secrets from him without trying. Viktor held his maman in highest esteem and would do anything for her.
She cocked her head to the side and her gold eyes narrowed. “That’s not why you’re calling though. What’s wrong?”
Like his son, he couldn’t resist sharing his inner thoughts with the woman who made things better for him by simply breathing. “It’s the team.”
A knowing smile curved her lips and her eyes lit with laughter. “Rook?”
“Rook,” he confirmed, not understanding her humor. “After five years, I thought he’d...be closer to the team. None of them seem to have the same bond—”
“As you and Torkel’s Unit,” she cut in with a mischievous grin. “They aren’t like the guys who are our family. You had a lot more years together and were chosen straight from the Academy. The members of Ghost Unit have defensive walls ten feet high. It would shock me if they’d formed a tight knit friendship instantly. And be highly suspicious to be honest.”
She made sense but Kyele didn’t have to like it.
“You know what the problem is,” she added when he didn’t speak. “You and Rook are too much alike. Give him space. He’ll come around.”
Kyele was nothing like that stubbornebo. Instead of voicing the denial his Chosen would have leaped on and argued, he held his silence.
