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“Chicago. South side.”
“Oh.” She’d heard about Chicago’s south side. Rough. Dangerous. Probably a much different childhood than she’d experienced on an open ranch with her huge family. The only similarities in their respective childhood areas were low income. “Is that why you started a program to help at-risk youth?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He kept knocking down branches and plowing a trail. She could still hear the waterfall, but the sound was dampened by the thick forest. “Growing up, there wasn’t much to do in my neighborhood besides play basketball, deal drugs, and get in fights.”
Her eyes widened. “Which did you choose?”
“Fights for sure.” He glanced back at her and winked, spreading his hands and making his shoulders flex. With that machete in his hand, he was an imposing figure.
“I’d never dare fight you.”
He laughed and kept moving. “I played a lot of ball as well, but fighting kept me alive and it was good prep for the Army.”
“Mercedes said special ops, but I didn’t know if it was Army Ranger or Navy SEAL.”
“Come on. I wasn’t a grunt or a squid.” He glanced back and winked.
That wink inspired her and made her sweat, but she didn’t compute his tease about a grunt or a squid. “What special force were you with?”
“Green Beret,” he said just loud enough for her to hear.
Her eyes widened. She stared at his broad back and thick muscles. Wow. Maybe she shouldn’t be so worried about completing these quests. A Green Beret was her guard and support? Lucky, lucky her. “Aren’t they the toughest special ops force?”
“In my humble opinion?” He smiled again, and her heart skipped. “Of course.”
“I agree with your humble opinion.”
He chuckled but turned away and kept progressing slowly forward.
“Green Beret.” She whistled. “That is crazy impressive. Thank you for your service.”
“It was an honor,” he said, but he didn’t look at her. He kept whacking at and pushing branches out of the way. “That’s why I said I was a snake eater earlier.”
“I have never heard of that.”
“What?” Now he sounded offended. “A Green Beret team in the sixties survived on an op gone extremely wrong by killing and eating snakes. We’re all very proud of that term.”
“I have the highest respect for you and all Green Berets, but everything about snakes is repulsive. Eating them?” She gave an all-over body shudder.
He chuckled like that was hilarious. Then he kept plowing through the undergrowth.
What branch of the service had Mercedes’ brother served in? She remembered all the media from his death but hadn’t catalogued it besides the sadness. Who could’ve imagined she’d meet Mercedes Belle in person?
“How old are you?” she asked after half a minute of silence.
“Twenty-nine. You?”
“Twenty-six. Is twenty-nine young to retire from active duty as a Green Beret?”
He glanced sharply at her; his dark eyes looked almost wounded. What had she said wrong?
“You didn’t want to retire?” she guessed.
“No, I didn’t. I lived and breathed the military life. I had a purpose and accomplishments I never imagined growing up on the streets. My men … they were my family.”
Why had he retired, then? She didn’t know how to ask, and he didn’t volunteer anything. A few beats passed before she tried again. “Do you have family?”
He shook his head shortly. “My mom died two years ago. She tried to keep me safe and taught me to love Jesus, but she was busy working two jobs to make ends meet. I never knew my dad.”
