Page 16 of Duty Bound

“Much.”

She sounded stronger. That was a good sign. Maybe they could make some progress now. They’d need to put as much distance as possible between them and the Taliban, and she’d need all the energy she could muster.

Lily crinkled the wrapper and looked around, unsure of where to put it.

He held out a hand. “Any trash we leave behind will let them know we were here and which way we went.”

She handed him the trash, her soft fingers lingering a second too long for his comfort. “I remember you now. You’re the team leader of Joe’s unit. I saw you together a couple of times in the early days.” Before she’d wrapped Joe around her little finger, and he’d stopped hanging out with the guys in his unit.

Blade wondered if they were thinking the same thing—they hadn’t taken to each other when they’d first met. He’d thought Lily, or Lilian as she was known back then, too stuck up for her own good. Definitely too smart to mix with the likes of them. She used to dismiss him with a flat glance on the rare occasions that they’d crossed paths.

“Was the leader. I left the army after...” He shrugged.

“After Joe died?” Her clear, brown-eyed gaze lingered on his face, almost as if she was trying to figure him out.

Good thing she couldn’t read minds. She’d be horrified to know what he’d been thinking—about her then and now. Lord knew he wasn’t proud of either thought, but his body seemed to have developed a mind of its own where she was concerned.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

She glanced down at the damp ground. “I heard he wasn’t the only one who lost his life that day.”

Blade swallowed over the massive lump in his throat. “I was the only one who made it home.”

After a few weeks had passed, he’d heard Stitch had taken refuge in a small Afghan village where he’d converted to Islam and integrated into the community. He hadn’t tried to make contact. If that’s what the former medical officer wanted, then who was Blade to tell him any different? They each had their own demons to live with.

“Will you tell me what happened? I know the official version from Pat, but I want to know what really happened.”

Oh, boy.

Her whisper made his heart race, though he wasn’t sure if it was the woman or the question she asked. Blade stared at the ground, wishing it would swallow him up, but he knew this wasn’t a conversation he could avoid. Coming here, facing her. It was inevitable it would come up. “The official version isn’t incorrect,” he began, willing his heart rate to return to normal. “Pat would have given it to you straight.”

She chuckled, the outburst softening her features. “That’s where you’re wrong. Pat tried to protect me, just like everybody else, but I don’t want the watered-down version. I want to know the cold, hard truth about how Joe died.”

Blade studied her as best he could in the dim light. Wide, brown eyes tilted up at the ends. Cute, button nose. Kissable, heart-shaped lips. Since he’d last seen her, she’d grown her ash blonde hair and lost the glasses—thick, black-rimmed things that did nothing for her looks. Without them, she was a knockout. Her huge eyes now held dozens of questions, and her lips pursed as she waited for answers.

How could he tell her what had happened? The details still kept him awake at night. She’d loved Spade. They’d been together forever. He didn’t want to ruin the image she had of him.

“Please. I need to know. No matter what.”

God, she was going to regret that. But he couldn’t tell her no. He took a deep breath. “We were on a goodwill mission. It wasn’t supposed to be dangerous, although every mission has the potential to blow up over here. One minute we were hiking over a mountain pass, the next we were walking straight into an ambush.”

Her eyes grew wide. “What happened?”

“Insurgents on both sides, as far as the eye could see. They opened fire. There was very little cover.” He glared up into the hills, the feeling of helplessness close to overwhelming. Anxiety made his chest pound, his body cold and clammy.

Lily watched him closely through the dark. The whites of her eyes and hardness of her gaze forced him to continue, even though guilt threatened to crush him.

“Our guide was a Taliban sympathizer and, unknown to us, had given away our location. I should have seen it coming but didn’t. He led us straight into that ambush.”

“Oh, God.” The words came through a whimper. She was probably picturing the situation, but not even the most vivid imagination could be as bad as the real thing.

Dust mixed with cordite… His men screaming… Blood on the barren path…

Blade shook his head to get rid of the visuals, but they kept coming. All he could do was narrate through the pain. “The mountain pass was surrounded by hills on either side. It was a perfect natural trap. We were completely exposed.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. It happened too fast. Spade took a bullet in the thigh and went down. I was ahead and turned around when he screamed. Blaster and Ricky had both been hit, too.” His voice broke. “There was nothing I could do to help them.”

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