Page 47 of Duty Bound

“Yeah, I was.”

“Why? He wasn’t a threat to us.”

He turned to face her, blood boiling. “Until he gets home and mentions to his buddies that he saw two foreigners up in the hills. Word gets back to the fighters, and before you know it we have an army hunting us down on this side of the river too.”

Lily paused, thinking. “He didn’t see us.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” Blade took a ragged breath, trying to calm down. Right now, he was acting like a dick. She didn’t deserve that. Lily was a civilian, not a killer like him. She didn’t understand the need for fast, aggressive action.

“You think he was pretending?”

“Anything’s possible. That’s why we can’t take chances. We're not just evading an army. Everyone in this region is hostile toward us. There are eyes and ears everywhere.”

“Violence isn’t always the answer, you know.” She glared at him. “There are other ways to resolve conflict.”

“Not out here, there aren’t.” He sheathed his knife. Even now, that goat herder could be racing back to tell his friends how close he came to getting his throat slit by an enemy soldier. It would make a good drinking story. “Do you think if we’d asked that guy nicely not to tell anyone we were here, he would have listened?”

“Maybe.” Her defensive expression belied her words.

“Don’t be naive. It would be in his best interests to tell what he saw. That way he’d ingratiate himself with the men in control of the area.”

She stood her ground. “I’m telling you, he didn’t see us.”

Blade clenched his jaw, hoping she was right. “It’s still not worth the risk. Every action has consequences here. A footprint, a discarded wrapper, a word spoken too loudly. Anything can give us away.”

“Okay, I get it. Geez.”

She pulled on her backpack, wrestling with the weight of it. Blade wanted to help but didn’t think it would be particularly welcome right now. Besides, he was still simmering with pent-up aggression. The sooner they got out of there, the better.

They marched in silence, him storming ahead trying to work out his tension, Lily several paces behind. He wanted to put as much distance between them and their last rest stop as possible. The niggling feeling the goat herder wasn’t as harmless as he’d seemed wouldn’t go away. And over the course of several ops, he’d learned to trust his gut.

That plus being out in the open in broad daylight made Blade set a grueling pace. As they ate up the miles, the forest thinned in favor of low-lying shrubs and bushes, which meant less coverage. In the valley, the lush floodplains expanded and contracted with the meanders in the river.

Blade couldn’t stop thinking about the goat herder. Something about the whole situation bothered him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Maybe it was his whistle—too contrived, too deliberate.

On the other hand, maybe he was just being paranoid, and like Lily had said, the guy was harmless.

The sun was dipping over the hills when his temper cooled. Though he still couldn’t shake his suspicions, he felt better about the distance they’d covered. He also felt bad about pushing Lily so hard. Though she hadn’t said a word, she’d been panting behind him for some time. “Let’s stop here.”

Silently, she dropped down onto a tree stump and bent over.

“You okay?”

She gave a sullen nod, either still mad at him or totally spent. Or both.

He couldn’t blame her for being angry. He hadn’t handled the situation very well. Actually, that was an understatement. He’d fucked up. Royally.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper.” He handed her a water bottle. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”

“You were just doing your job.” She took it but didn’t look up. Instead, she unscrewed the cap and took a long pull.

Her hair had gone all wispy and curled around her face, softening her features. When she finished drinking, a few droplets remained on her lips.

He fought the urge to lick them off.

“I was, but that wasn’t the way to handle it.”

She bobbed her head, the movement short and terse. “Apology accepted. I’m sorry I grabbed your hand. Actually, no, I’m not. I didn’t want to see you kill that man.”

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