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“No.” She wondered if he knew how to be anything other than nice. “My role was to guide the rescue—”
“Based on the information you had.” The rocker creaked. “You did that. Everyone has a bad day, falls for the bad joke. I get the impression your team never blamed you for what happened.”
She sniffled. “I can still hear the chatter of machine guns operated by people who shouldn’t have been there. They were pinned down because of me.”
“That’s where the nightmare starts?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Every time.” She shivered and hugged her knees.
“How did they get out?”
“What?”
“I know what you were doing is classified, but is it still classified how you were doing it?”
She forced herself to think. To replay that night step by step.
“The shooting surprised me. It was too early as they approached the warehouse and it took some time to assimilate the reports from each position.”
“But you did it.”
“Not without casualties.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but Special Forces soldiers know the risks that go with the job.”
“Yes. My job is—was—to minimize those risks. I got cocky and they got caught in a trap. I was so sure it was a simple, straightforward rescue.” She listed off the cues she’d missed, the paper thin trail until he stopped her.
“You’re doing it now.”
“What?”
“Spinning. Twisting the perspective. You’re skewing all the evidence to support your current theory that you suck at your job. It’s my understanding you don’t suck. That, to the contrary, you are damn good at what you do.”
“Well, yeah,” she mumbled. “I was.”
“The situation was a mess, I’m sure. But they got out. Thanks to you.”
“The hostage died.”
“Cut yourself some slack. You must’ve done something right or Mr. Morcos wouldn’t have hired you now.”
“You’re awfully confident for a guy who wasn’t there.”
“Bart was there.”
“Yeah. So?”
The rocker creaked some more, then stopped. “The man stepped in front of a bullet for you—and zip it,” he ordered, “before you say ‘maybe’.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That has a nice ring to it.”
His voice reflected the grin she knew was on his face.
“Facing Abe, dredging it all up again, is tough.”
“Even more so if you’re piling on.”
