like that on her. Couldn’t stand the thought of someone hurting her that way.
“Like I said, I don’t have any details. And it may not even be accurate. But I know Dr. Parker had suggested that finding someone from her past, someone she knew before the trauma, might be the key to helping her overcome it.” Steve gestured toward Jace. “Maybe you could be that person. Help us find the real mole. Help her work through whatever is in her history.”
“What if she is the real mole?” Jace asked. He didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t believe it. But it could still be the truth. He’d known her twelve years ago and she cheated on him. Had that developed into even darker tendencies as she’d gotten older?
Steve took a step forward. “She’s not.”
Ren held his hands out in front of him in a soothing gesture. “Steve, you’re too close to this. You know you are.”
Jace jerked his chin at Steve. “You involved with Lillian?”
“No, happily married and a new father.” Steve’s eyes narrowed. “Plus, did you not just hear what I said about her not getting close to people? That particularly goes for men.”
Jace shrugged, studying Steve with hooded eyes. “Thought maybe you might be the exception to that.”
“Steve cares about the entire team,” Ren insisted. “He wants to catch Freihof and the mole more than anyone else, especially given the people they’ve lost. And the mole doesn’t know that we’re on to him. Or her, as it may be. So we want to use that to our advantage. Steve poking around will draw attention. Not to mention he’s not neutral.”
Jace sat back down in the uncomfortable chair. “And you think I am?”
Ren stared him down. “I think I would trust you with my life—and have—multiple times over. I think you have an innate situational awareness that was only honed in your years as a Ranger. I think you will be fresh eyes and able to pinpoint specifics others may have missed.”
Ren leaned back in his chair but didn’t lose eye contact as he continued. “And I think this is a chance for you to finally put your history with Lillian to rest and move on. She’s not the only one who hasn’t gotten close to anyone else in the last twelve years.”
Jace was also a loner. Lillian hadn’t had anything to do with his choice not to settle down with anyone. But that was irrelevant to the situation at hand.
Ren was right—it was time to leave Lillian Muir behind for good.
“Fine. I’ll do it. Another couple of weeks isn’t going to change my plans for the ranch. I just hope I’m able to do what you guys think I can.”
Ren nodded. “Your best has never once not been good enough.”
Jace just shrugged. That wasn’t true. They’d lost men in the line of duty whom Jace wished he could bring back. “I appreciate the sentiment.”
Steve stepped up and shook his hand. “Welcome to the team.”
Lillian had been quick and wiry her whole life. Not just fast with running, although she could average a six-minute mile for ten miles in a row, but swift with everything. Her hand movements, her body movements, how she processed info.
A lot of it probably came from early in her life, when if she wanted to eat, she’d had to steal food from the grocery store or local market. And if she wanted to sleep safely, away from her mother’s drunken wrath or boyfriends’ wandering hands, she’d learned how to move quickly and silently out the window.
Those lessons might have been hard to come by, but each of them had made her into the woman—the warrior—she was today.
Whatever didn’t kill her had better start running.
The SWAT team was sparring and doing some general workouts in the training area until the new guy got there. Another new guy. Evidently this one had a little more experience than Saul, the friendly yet trigger-happy newbie who had been filling in for the last couple of weeks. Or anybody was better than Philip Carnell, the computer whiz who had been working with them as an analyst in hostile situations for the last two months.
Carnell had a mind like a steel trap, but the personality of a horse’s ass. Which was probably an insult to the hind end of a horse. Nobody liked Philip and he had a bone to pick with everybody about seemingly every damn thing. Lillian avoided him whenever possible. Hell, everybody avoided him whenever possible, unless he was acting as Tactical Command, as he had been a couple of days ago. Carnell was great at finding fast solutions in dangerous tactical situations, but he wasn’t physically adept enough to be a part of the tactical team.
He’d only sulked about that fact and gave his opinion about “the unfairness of elitist practices” of the SWAT team about once every hour. Lillian was glad to not have to deal with him in training or in the field.
Saul wasn’t so bad. He tried to get a little too friendly, and grinned a little too much for her taste. But at least Surfer Boy didn’t make her want to lock him in a trunk, like she did with Carnell.
Right now she brought her leg around in a vicious roundhouse kick and hit the punching bag. Roman Weber, her teammate holding the bag for her, took a quick step back.
“Trying to take out all your aggression on one poor defenseless piece of canvas?” He chuckled as he grabbed the bag more firmly.
“Too many new people, Roman. I don’t like change.”
“Oh, yeah? Try finding out you’re about to be a dad. Now, that’s change.”
Lillian grinned at him. “Yeah, every time that happens to me I swear it’s not gonna happen again.”
Despite his wounds from an explosion two months ago, she knew Roman couldn’t be happier about Keira being back in his life and the baby they had on the way. Hell, it seemed like just about everybody on the SWAT team had found romance-novel-type true love within the last year.
Lillian was thrilled for them, she really was. She liked each and every one of the women her teammates had fallen for. But love and marriage weren’t in the cards for her. She’d long since accepted that. Emotional attachment just wasn’t her thing.
But she had a career she savored and kicked ass at. That was enough.
“I hear this new guy is actually qualified to be on the team. An Army Ranger. Steve Drackett vouches for him personally,” Roman said.
Lillian punched the bag again. “I just wish Liam was back in action.” Their teammate had almost been killed by a biological weapon three weeks ago.
“He’s alive and going to recover. That’s what matters.”
Omega Sector’s casualty list at Damien Freihof’s hand was getting too damn long.
Liam Goetz, SWAT team member: seriously injured via chemical inhalation. Hospitalized two weeks.
Roman Weber, SWAT team member: seriously injured via explosion.
