Page 13 of Harry

“Sure, go ahead,” Ava said, watching the kids run off to the play equipment.

Everyone else stared at her like they wanted her to say more. “She’s great. I’ll bring her around sometime. When I moved here last year, I was thrilled because she lives here. She visited me a few times, but we’ve not seen each other as much as we wanted. She’s a good person, though.”

“That’s great that you two can see each other often,” Ava said.

“We get together about once a month. She sleeps over, and we catch up and talk about life.”

“That sounds like us,” Ava said.

“Yeah. When I moved here last year, I didn’t have any friends,” Ingrid said. “But it was impossible with my ex hunting me.”

“Oh, is he out of the picture now?” Rory asked.

“Yeah, he’s serving two life sentences,” Ingrid said. “On his drive down, he ended up killing two women he stayed with. He took their money and thought he would get away with it.”

“That’s scary.” Rory hadn’t had any serious boyfriend ever. She always kept guys at a distance because she didn’t want to get close to any of them for fear they would take over her life. Her eyes strayed to Harry, knowing he wouldn’t be like that.

“Did you move here for work?” Jessica asked.

She glanced at Harry, and he shrugged. “Yeah, I did.” She screwed her lips up to the side and noticed Wild and Jax narrow their gaze.

“She’s military,” Wild said.

“An officer,” Jax added.

“Marine,” Rory said.

“Oh, Harry,” Peach said.

“What’s wrong with that?” Ava asked.

“No fraternization between enlisted and officers,” Peach said. “It’s one of the big rules they spout.”

“We’re just friends,” Rory said.

“Sure. We believe you,” Wild said. “But not everyone will.”

“I’m not in her chain of command. She’s an instructor over at the Center.”

“Is this going to be a problem?” Ingrid asked.

Rory shook her head. “No, because we really are just friends.”

“Trust us, none of us will say anything,” Wild said. “But you two need to figure this out.”

Rory turned to Wild. “We haven’t taken it past friendship and don’t plan on doing that. We’re staying friends. I have to decide to stay in or leave in about four months.”

“You’re not planning on retirement?” Andy asked.

She shrugged. Not only was the offer from the private sector sitting out there, but the file she’d seen weighed heavy on her mind. If she left the military, she couldn’t investigate further. If she stayed, the file would bug her to no end, and she would eventually be in a position to look at more files. If she looked again, she would have to say something. There was no way she would escape unscathed.

Rory pushed away thoughts of the file and answered the question. “I have some options I’m exploring. But we’ll see.”

She had a lot of decisions to make in the next few months. Some of those decisions could put her behind bars. She didn’t want that. If anything ever came out about government officials trafficking people and anyone tied it back to her, she would be in trouble. She was damned if she took the file to the media or told someone in the chain of command above her, and she was damned if she didn’t bring it up to anyone. She needed a plan that didn’t put her in the crosshairs, but she wasn’t sure any path forward would keep her out of trouble.

Chapter 8

Harry was impressed with how easily Rory fit in with everyone. The guys liked her, and she got along easily with Ava, Jessica, and Ingrid. Now, he just had to figure out how to move forward without either of them getting in trouble.

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