it all in.
The three-story brick mansion filled an entire city block. Each floor boasted rows of tall, double-glass doorways leading onto cast-iron balconies. A fence in the same ornate design ran along the perimeter of the manicured lawn, encircling tall trees and large bushes that reached halfway to the second floor.
With his gaze tracking the adjacent streets, Wolf experienced a sense of claustrophobia. There were too many trees in this part of town and the houses were too close together. He’d lived too long in the desert not to feel pinned in now.
Shivering, he blew into his cupped palms. The temperature had dropped to a sharp, bitter cold that turned his breath to frost. Clay had prepared him for the heat, with his constant griping about the Savannah humidity. But he’d said nothing about this bone-rattling cold that made Wolf’s leg ache more than usual.
A light mist swirled in the gray, depressing air. The perfect accompaniment for all the regrets he harbored in his heart. Duty was all he had left. Duty and this one goal, the fulfillment of his promise to a fallen friend.
“Might as well get this over with,” he muttered.
Gritting his teeth, Wolf set out across the street. He hid the pain in his left leg behind an even gait and stone-cold determination.
After three sharp raps of the ornate knocker the door swung open. Wolf jerked in surprise. With her dark hair, big green eyes and curvy figure, Hailey O’Brien was not the teenager he’d prepared for in his mind. She was a woman—a throat-clogging, heart-stopping, beautiful woman.
He knew he was staring. How could he not? Clay’s sister was nothing like the fuzzy graduation picture her brother had kept on the dash of their Humvee and Wolf now had in his pocket.
Wolf tried to speak. Even managed to open his mouth, but memories got in the way and he pressed his lips tightly together. His head filled with contrasting images of Clay kicking around a soccer ball with some local kids outside the forward operating base. Clay blinking up at him on the Iraqi roadside as he was bleeding out.
Clay issuing the request that had brought Wolf to this house today…
You gotta keep Hailey out of the Sandpit, Wolf-man. No mission work. Not here. Promise me you’ll stop her.
Wolf hadn’t hesitated in his response. I won’t let you down.
The memory of his own words pushed Wolf into action. “Are you Hailey O’Brien?”
She nodded. Slowly. And it finally registered that she’d been standing there speechless, just like him. Even now, she simply stared at him with her beautiful, unguarded, attentive eyes. Waiting. Watching.
“I…” Wolf cleared his throat. “I was a friend of your brother’s.”
Instant pain filled her gaze and the wall went up. Wolf hadn’t expected that.
“You knew Clay?” she asked at last, her voice deeper and throatier than he’d expected.
“I did. He asked me to—” Wolf cut off his words midsentence, realizing he couldn’t blurt out why he was here without some sort of buildup. “That is, I was with him when he died.” Which wasn’t what he’d meant to say, either.
She blinked. “You were?”
“Yes.”
She blinked again. And then…
One lone tear slid down her cheek.
Great beginning, Wolf, you made the poor woman cry.
With concentrated effort, he softened his voice. “My name is Ty. Ty Wolfson.”
“Wolf.” Her shoulders snapped back. “Yes, of course. I should have…expected this.”
“You know me?”
She nodded. “My brother mentioned you in his e-mails.”
Wolf didn’t know what to do with that information, so he redirected the conversation. “Is this a bad time?” He shifted his gaze, only just noticing the purse strapped around her shoulder and the coat slung over her arm. “You look ready to go out.”
“Oh. I… No.” She drew her bottom lip between her teeth. “I mean, I am heading out, but it can wait.”
Okay, good. He had her attention again. Now, if he could get his tongue to work properly he might be able to finish what he’d come here to do. Then he could return to his temporary housing on post and give in to his exhaustion. The forty-eight-hour journey out of Iraq was catching up with him.
“What I have to say won’t take long,” he promised. Not if he could help it. “Oh. Oh. I’m so sorry. I’m being rude, making you stand out there in the cold.” She gave him a quick, tense smile. “Please. Come in. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Wolf heard the genuine remorse in her words, saw the guilt in her eyes and felt bad for upsetting her. “No worries. I didn’t give you any warning I was coming. I’m sure this is a shock.”
Her smile turned a little watery, but she stepped aside to make room for him to pass.
Frowning at the fancy rug just inside the doorway, Wolf stomped off the week-old Iraqi desert still clinging to his boots and moved forward. The smell of furniture polish and old money had him hesitating. But only for a moment.
Shoulders back, he followed Hailey down a portrait-filled hallway. He tried to look anywhere but at Clay’s sister. Easier said than done, especially considering the confines of the tiny corridor. Each step she took was dignified and regal, the perfect blend of confidence and class that came from a life spent in country clubs and expensive schools.
Wolf shouldn’t be watching her so closely. It reeked of betrayal to his friend.
Forcing back a spurt of guilt, he focused his gaze on the wall of pictures. They were hung in a haphazard pattern that made an odd sort of sense. Some of the photographs were in large frames, some small. Some were yellowed with age, others much newer. But all had the common theme of family, stability and normalcy, things Wolf had never experienced in his thirty years of life.
His guard instantly went up.
Good thing, too, because in the next moment Hailey led him into a large room with fancy tables, ornate chairs and more photographs. Lots and lots of photographs.
He could handle the obvious wealth reflected in the expensive furnishings. But this, this shadowy sense of homecoming, left Wolf wanting things he couldn’t form into coherent thoughts.
There was something about this room that put him on edge. The comfort that radiated out of every corner was a visible reminder of everything Wolf had missed out on as a child.
Great. Nothing like being the big stinkin’ fish out of water in an already tense situation.
Hailey set her purse and coat on a chair, then turned back to face him. “Please, have a seat, uh…Lieutenant?”
“Captain,” he corrected automatically, looking for a suitable place to sit. “It’s Captain now.”
Unable
