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“Maybe not,” I said, “but she had to act like it when she was alone and ambushed on Friday night.”
“Step back, Prescott,” TJ said, a hard edge to his best commanding officer voice, the one meant to make soldiers fall in line.
But this wasn’t the army and I wasn’t under his command. “I kept her safe under much more hostile conditions. I can do the same during this operation, especially with the rest of your team there for backup.”
Red shot me a concerned look, not the grateful one I’d hoped to elicit.
“This isn’t the time or place for a discussion about last Friday,” TJ said. “HEAT has protocols and I’m not going to break them because you have your panties in a twist over something that doesn’t concern you.”
My pulse pounded in my throat and I jumped to my feet. “Doesn’t concern me? Is that what you’re telling yourself after you fucked up?”
I would have said the room couldn’t have gotten quieter, but somehow it did. Red laid her hand on my forearm. Her face was less readable now, at least to me.
“Drop it,” she said. “Please, for everyone’s sake.”
I wouldn’t do it for everyone’s sake, or for anyone’s except hers. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then sank back into my chair. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to make my face blank while I stared at TJ. For his part, he ignored me and carried on as though I’d never interrupted.
“We’ll start prepping this afternoon,” he told the team.
“I asked Evan to drop the subject,” Red said, “but I didn’t say I would. I’m not an operative, but neither is he.”
“Bond, he was a Green Beret,” Li said.
“And he is an operative for all intents and purposes,” TJ said. “We have a temporary contract in place with his employer. X signed off on it when she was here Monday.”
“X was here? I thought she must have canceled since she didn’t even stop by my room to say hello.” Red sank down in her chair, then glanced at me. “And you met her?”
“Just for a minute.” Which had been a minute too long for me. The woman was small, brilliant, efficient, and scary as hell. And I’d only needed the first fifteen seconds to reach that conclusion.
“She’s up to her ass in Capitol Hill alligators,” TJ said. “She couldn’t really spare the time she took to fly here, but she did it so she could see for herself you were okay. Sloane wouldn’t let her wake you, but he had to swear up and down that you were going to be fine.”
“Oh.” Red nodded and looked a little appeased, but still there was something else...something about her attitude. What was it?
Then it hit me. Jealousy. That was what had been eluding me. Her jealousy. Of what, though? My time with her team? It should be clear after the little exchange between TJ and me that my relationship with him was a charged cease-fire at best.
TJ wrapped up the meeting and the team stood, joked, and moved toward the exit. Red stayed in her seat. I stayed, too.
Jensen, following at the end of the line to leave, stopped in the doorway. “Prescott, are you coming? I need to go over our comms protocols with you.”
Red winced again when he spoke. Yep, whether it was logical or not, she was jealous. She saw herself as sidelined with me stepping in in her absence. Not to replace her, but to function in the area where she was never allowed to tread: the operations side.
“In a minute,” I told Jensen without taking my eyes off Red.
The door closed behind him and Red and I were alone. Against my better judgment and the decision I’d made to ignore my feelings for her and put our one night in perspective and the rearview, I leaned forward and laid my hand over hers. “You look tired,” I said.
“I’ve done nothing but sleep for the past three days.”
“That’s not what I mean, Red.”
She slipped her hand out from under mine. “Please don’t call me that. It’s too...”
I put my hands in my lap to resist touching her again. “I’ve tried Dr. Bond and even Doc. Neither of those feel right, either.”
“Call me Samantha.”
“Okay, Samantha, you look tired. Not from the concussion. From this place. The way you looked Saturday night. Seeing you with your team, I understand it. They’re not just colleagues or even friends. They’re like a family, and you have to take care of them.”
She sighed, then stood. “I can’t talk about this. We have to prep for the mission.”
“There’s plenty of time for that. If you need to talk—”
“I said I’m fine.”
She turned her back and walked away from me. As I followed her out the door, I realized we were right back to Saturday when I’d wanted more from her, she couldn’t give more to me, and hanging over everything was the worry that she wasn’t safe. I might never be able to reconcile the first two, but I’d be damned if I’d walk away from her without resolving the last one.
