tough one to recover from.”
Kate set her cup down. “I think I’ll head over into the shower before it gets too late.”
“That’s a great idea,” Marion said, putting her own teacup aside. “I hate the thought of walking all that way by myself.”
“How far is it?” Kate asked. She had been looking forward to calling Chase on his beeper so that he could walk with her.
“It’s about a ten minute hike,” Jessica replied, gathering her gear together.
Realizing she had no valid reason to call Chase, Kate reluctantly pulled her toiletries out of her duffel bag, along with a clean change of clothes. It was still light outside as they set off. At the end of the road, they turned left and continued along another row of housing units, until Kate saw the shower facilities in the distance. They passed groups of soldiers, who nodded politely to them, and twice they had to stop so that Marion and Jessica could sign autographs.
While Kate waited for them, she noticed a female soldier walk past and found herself staring, mainly because she was so tall. Kate guessed the woman was close to six feet, but she walked with a feminine, athletic grace. Rather than the typical camouflage uniform, she wore a green flight suit, and something about her struck Kate as familiar. As the woman drew closer, she looked at Kate and smiled.
Kate raised a hand in greeting, recognizing the woman as the Black Hawk pilot who had flown both her and Chase from Bagram Air Base to Camp Leatherneck. She watched as Captain Larson stopped outside one of the housing units and fitted a key into the door, opening it and disappearing inside. Kate frowned, wondering if Chase knew that she was at Kandahar. She recalled the way the other woman had looked at Chase when they had boarded the helicopter, making her suspect they might be involved. She couldn’t blame the other woman for ogling Chase; he was pretty hot. But she knew she wouldn’t be the one telling him that Captain Larson was less than a stone’s throw away.
“Are you okay, hon?”
Jessica was watching Kate with a mixture of concern and curiosity.
“I’m fine,” she assured the older woman. “I thought I saw someone I knew, but I was wrong.”
“Well let’s get going. I want to be back in our own little house before it gets dark.”
Jessica was right; daylight was disappearing, and the temperatures was dropping. But the showers were private and hot, and Kate took her time under the steaming spray until she could hear the other women in the outer changing area.
Kate quickly dried herself off and got dressed, wrapping a towel around her wet hair for the walk back. When they left the shower facilities, the sun had set and the sky was beginning to darken. Kate listened to Marion and Jessica’s chatter, mostly gossip about the sitcom and who they thought would get the ax next.
As they turned the corner to the street where Captain Larson’s housing unit was located, Kate saw a familiar figure walking toward them. Chase. Her pulse kicked into overdrive in anticipation and her hand flew self-consciously to the towel wrapped around her head. He was still more than fifty feet away, and hadn’t yet seen her and her companions rounding the corner.
She couldn’t prevent a smile, and was about to call his name when he suddenly stopped and knocked lightly on Captain Larson’s door. Kate stopped, too, stunned when the pilot opened for him. Unaware that they had an audience, Captain Larson reached up and planted a lingering kiss on Chase’s mouth, before she drew him inside and closed the door quickly behind him. Although the shade in the small window was pulled down, Kate saw a shadow pass in front of it, and then another. But when the two shadows merged, there was no doubt in her mind what was happening behind that closed door, and for a moment she thought she might actually be ill.
She continued walking, her eyes glued to the silhouette of the embracing couple. As she drew alongside the unit, Kate heard the distinct sound of a man’s voice, followed by Captain Larson’s low, throaty laugh.
Both Jessica and Marion gave each other knowing looks, and Kate hoped the fading light disguised her own stricken expression. It took all her strength not to race up to the door and wrench it open.
Instead, she tipped her chin up, aware that her breathing was coming in quick, shallow pants. Her throat felt tight and her chest ached. What had he said to her just hours earlier? That he had no willpower where she was concerned? It seemed he had no willpower where Captain Larson was concerned, either. She recalled his agonized words as he’d turned away from her in the housing unit. There’s no future in it, and I can’t—I can’t—
It all made sense to Kate now.
The reason there was no future in it was because he was already committed—to Captain Larson. She nearly groaned aloud. He’d tried to tell her that they had no chance for a relationship, and she hadn’t listened. But he hadn’t put up much resistance, and he certainly hadn’t seemed overly concerned about his pilot girlfriend when he’d spent the night with Kate in her tent.
She was such an idiot. When would she ever learn?
They reached their housing unit, and Kate made a pretense of being interested in the women’s conversation until she thought she might scream.
“You know, I have a splitting headache,” she fibbed. “Would you mind if I just climbed into my bunk and went to bed?”
“Oh, honey,” Marion said in sympathy, “you go right ahead. In fact, we’ll go to bed, too, and then the light won’t disturb you.”
“Oh, no,” Kate protested. “Please don’t do that on my account. Besides, I overheard you telling Jessica how much you were looking forward to another cup of tea, so you should have one. I promise you, I’m so tired that nothing will disturb me.”
After convincing the two women to have their tea, Kate climbed up into the top bunk and pulled the blankets over her shoulders, turning her face toward the wall. She replayed the scene over and over again in her mind. At one point, she’d nearly convinced herself that it wasn’t Chase she’d seen; it had been another soldier who’d merely resembled him. But when Captain Larson had opened the door, the interior light had clearly revealed his face. There was no doubt in her mind that it had been Chase. She still couldn’t believe how well he’d hidden his feelings for the pilot when they’d flown in her helicopter. Captain Larson hadn’t hidden her interest in Chase, but he had been all business.
Kate lay curled on her side and determined that he would never know how much he’d hurt her. If he’d been honest with her and had just told her that he was already involved with someone else, she would have backed off. But he hadn’t. He’d taken full advantage of everything she’d offered. She’d been foolish enough to sleep with him, but it wouldn’t happen again. She deserved better. Tomorrow, she thought fiercely, things would change. She would be all business, and nothing Chase said or did would break through the protective barrier she was erecting around her heart.
CHASE SPENT THE NIGHT at the Special Ops headquarters office on base. He and the special-operations teams stationed at Kandahar performed many joint missions, and one of them was the hunt and capture of Al-Azir. The previously issued stand-down order was still in effect, but that didn’t prevent him and his team of commandos from gathering intelligence and planning their next move. Chase and the other team members spent hours analyzing satellite photos and images taken from their drone aircraft, which indicated a large group of men had left the village where Al-Azir had been hiding, and had moved into the nearby mountains.
Chase
