focus. No distractions. Before you transfer over, I’m going to require you to take a one-week leave. You can have more if you need it. In that time, you deal with whatever ghosts you have in your past. Once the unit is operational, you’re totally mine.”
* * *
ALESSA TOOK A breath after he left. It was hard to remain calm when he looked at her with those intense blue eyes.
She signed the papers in less than five minutes. She read them quickly, but it didn’t matter what they said. Her life already belonged to the army. There were no other options for her. She didn’t have a college degree, had enlisted the day she graduated from high school, so she wouldn’t have to spend another day at home. This unit was the only way to make sure she didn’t get squeezed out.
Expecting Lieutenant Williams back any second, she used the restroom and took a long drink of water from the faucet. She washed her face and used a paper towel to dry it. The physical exertion she’d gone through was nothing compared to the sheer relief of not having to return to Kuwait. The papers she’d signed said her transfer was effective immediately. Maybe with her gone, Aidan Connors could finally move on with his life. After the incident, she’d thought things would die down in a few months and both of them could forget about it. But that hadn’t happened. They were based at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. It was a relatively small installation with no life off the camp. The story had lingered on, grown additional arms and legs and wrapped around her and Aidan until neither one of them could escape it. She’d been warned about Williams and could see why. He had a way of pulling you in, making you feel like he was on your side. Just like Aidan.
Returning to her seat, she waited, curious to hear what secret stuff Williams had for her. Truth be told, she would’ve taken the logistics job even without the added intrigue. Since the incident, she’d been relegated to desk assignments that included mounds of paperwork. She’d lost track of how many transfers she’d applied for and been denied.
The lieutenant returned with two steaming cups of coffee in his hand. He placed one in front of her and pushed the bottle of water toward her. She picked up the coffee, eager for the caffeine.
“Before we get started, I need to know everything about you.”
Keeping her face neutral, she spread her hands. “I don’t think there’s anything the army doesn’t know about me. My file even documents the birthmark I have on my hip.”
“It also documents bones that you broke as a child.”
Her mouth went dry but she nodded, smiling disarmingly.
“It’s a lot of bones for a little girl to break” he said carefully.
“What can I say; I was always a tomboy.”
But Luke wasn’t buying it. Brows knotted, he leaned forward. “I need to know who did it to you.” His voice was hard and Alessa took a sip of her coffee, letting it burn down her throat, trying to loosen the frog lodged in it. There was only one other person she’d told. After years of serving together and becoming good friends. And that didn’t turn out so well. She hardly knew Williams. Could she trust him?
“This is just between us—it doesn’t go in the file. In order for this job to work, we need to trust each other. Right now, I need to know you can tell me the truth and you need to believe that the information won’t end up in your file.”
She searched his eyes for signs of malice but all he gave her was an intense, serious look that was completely inconsistent with his golden-blond hair and Ken-doll handsomeness.
“If you can’t trust me, this won’t work.”
She needed this transfer. I just have to say enough to appease him. But then she made the mistake of looking at him, and something told her she wouldn’t get away with a lie. “My father. He was a drunk and a hitter.”
He nodded as if it was the answer he expected. For a second, Alessa wondered whether he’d already known and was still testing her. He took a sip of his coffee and she noticed that his other hand was clenched in a fist.
“When did he stop hitting you?” His voice held the slight tremble of suppressed anger and Alessa’s heart warmed. When she’d told Aidan, he had been sympathetic and coddling. It hadn’t been the response she’d wanted.
“When I started hitting him back.”
“That’s why you got a black belt in karate.”
“And tae kwon do.”
“Is the rest of your family safe?”
It was the first time someone had asked the question and Alessa wasn’t sure how to answer. More than anything she wished it could be a simple yes. “My sister is. She’s finally decided to go to law school. I’m paying her way as much as I can so she doesn’t have to move home. My mother refuses to leave. I’ve tried to get her out.” That was the simplest response she could give.
“Would you like to pay your father a visit?”
The menace in his voice was oddly comforting, and she longed to tell him that was exactly what she wanted. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t thought about it herself, but it wasn’t her place to save her mother. She had tried several times, given her mother all the resources she needed to get out, but the woman refused. She was a devout Catholic and didn’t want to leave her husband. Alessa was tired of going home and cataloguing new bruises. It had been a year since she’d seen her mother. Five since she’d laid eyes on her father. He was getting older and weaker. That’s what her mother said, anyway, but his heart was just as dark.
Shaking her head, she locked eyes with him. “My family has been messed up for a long time. It’s not a new issue for me. I don’t need to deal with it right now—or ever, for that matter. I’m good to go. I can start tomorrow.”
“You’re not good until you have a permanent solution. I can help you.”
She placed a hand on the table. “Lieutenant, I appreciate the offer but you need to understand that this is my personal business.” His eyes hardened so she softened her tone. “Relationships are complicated. I don’t understand why my mother stays with my father, but I’ve come to accept the fact that she’d rather die than leave him.”
He flinched and she realized she’d hit a nerve. Didn’t his mother commit suicide? She remembered that fact from the news coverage of his brother’s death.
“You asked me to trust you. You’re going to have to trust me that this is not an issue. I don’t need time to go deal with it. What I really need is to get to work.” Work was the only thing that kept her sane. She needed the order in her life.
He opened his mouth, then closed it. Desperate to move on, Alessa filled the silence. “Your turn to tell me something I don’t know, perhaps starting with why you need me to be your spy.”
Leaning back, he wove his hands into his hair. The creaking of his chair was the only sound in the room for several moments.
“If this is going to work, we need to trust each other,” she repeated quietly, as much for her own sake as his.
Finally, he unlocked his hands and placed them on the table.
“My brother Ethan isn’t dead. Someone in the army is holding him captive and
