Page 15 of Shadow Games

“When I first got kicked over to Team Seven, everything was fine. We trained well together, and I had a couple of friends I could talk to, I thought. Then things started going downhill. I think Blade was talking behind my back. Telling them stories. Then we went on this op. Supposed to be an easy security detail. But I went around the corner of this building and I was ambushed. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that it was Blade’s buddies that shot me. I don't know.” He scrubbed a hand over his beard. “When you learn how dirty a guy is, you start to look back at things differently.”

Rowan nodded. “I know exactly what you mean. Ken was amazing at first. Then the cracks started to show.”

“I remember him looking down at me after I had been shot. He said better luck next time, goody two shoes. And he walked away. I got shipped out to Germany and then the states. Then you came to see me and suddenly I didn't mind being shot.”

Rowan gave him a sideways smile. “I remember. Ken had messaged me and told me you'd been shot, but he didn't know what your condition was. So, I started calling around everyone I knew. It took me a bit, but I found you at the Naval Center in San Diego. I ran over as quick as I could, told them I was your sister.”

Wyatt tossed her a grin in the dimly lit vehicle. “Thank you for doing that. I never had a chance to tell you what you did for me. You dragged me out of this bad hole. And you made me look at things again. I appreciated that, more than I can tell you. My parents came out later, but you were there at the beginning.”

“I had to be there,” she said softly. “Not sure why. I felt pulled to you. In a room full of SEALs, you were the one I looked to. Not Ken or any of the others.”

Wyatt reached out and gripped her hand. “I never knew that.”

She nodded, pulling her feet up onto the seat so she could sit sideways. She leaned against the center console, still holding his hand. “Oh, yeah. I was so confused at that time.”

She squeezed his hand a little, then let him go. Wyatt felt the loss immediately. He gripped the steering wheel and stared at the never-ending lines on the Interstate. They’d just crossed over the Pennsylvania State line. The speed limit dropped, frustrating him. There was no way he was going to get pulled over now.

Rowan’s head began to bob. She had to be worn out. Echo had laid down on the back seat long ago.

Wyatt allowed his mind to wander. Switch hadn't been with him when he'd been shot, which was a blessing. That had been before they’d been paired up.

When he’d seen Rowan come through the door of his room, he thought he’d been dreaming. As ridiculous as it sounded, he’d been mooning over her from afar since the first time he’d met her. He felt giddy as he realized she was there simply for him.

When he’d been shot, he’d been wearing a shrapnel vest, but the bullet had hit just right, just under the edge of the vest, and gone through his right side. It had nicked his liver and blasted out the back, causing him to lose a huge amount of blood. He’d been told it had been hit and miss whether he was going to make it or not.

But he had, slowly. He’d been recovering for the better part of a month, and Rowan was there almost every day, chatting him up and making him laugh. Bringing him food. The woman had the most genuine, most caring soul, and he worried constantly that Ken would ruin her spirit when he returned. For two weeks she came every night after work to see him, sometimes bringing takeout or a card game, sometimes just herself. They talked and laughed, aware of the distance they had to maintain, yet drawn to each other like magnets.

One day she’d been getting ready to go, and she’d leaned down to press a kiss to his lips. It had taken him by surprise, and her blush had given him insight into what she was thinking. She’d rushed out the door without a word. He worried that she wouldn’t come the next day, but she’d breezed in bearing food, and she hadn’t said a word about what had happened.

Wyatt hadn’t either. They’d been walking a razor’s edge. He wanted her to say that she was going to break up with Ken when he returned from deployment, but he would never force her to do it. That had to be a decision she made on her own.

Neither one of them were going to cross that line, though. They were better people than that.

The team had gotten home later that week, and she only came to see him one more time. With Ken. Wyatt was sure that was when Ken realized there was an attraction between Wyatt and Rowan.

She never came to see him again.

Wyatt was released on light duty the next week. Within about three weeks he was back to regular duty. He heard through gossip that Rowan was one of the post-deployment pregnancies. There were always a handful. She and Ken had gotten married within the week, and Wyatt’s heart had been shattered.

He glanced over at her. She looked chilled, so he bumped up the heat a little and turned the vent her way. It would be nice to pull over and sleep for a while, but he wanted to get further through Pennsylvania. Then he would pick some random exit and some random hotel to disappear into.

Two hours later Wyatt stopped. He and the vehicle were both out of gas. He’d been fighting to stay awake for the past hour, pinching his leg and turning a cold vent on himself. Over the past couple of years, he’d gotten used to sleeping through the night. When he’d been in the SEALs, he’d trained to stay up late hours and catch catnaps here and there.

The hotel he pulled into was a couple miles off the interstate, near a campground. Rowan lifted her head from the center console, looking achy. She’d slept crunched up in the seat, and her bones were feeling it, he could tell.

“Back in a minute,” he told her.

There was a single room available, which was fine by him. It had two beds, so nothing to complain about. They had a complimentary breakfast in the morning. Wyatt glanced at the clock on the dash when he returned to the truck. Breakfast would be in just a few hours.

He and Echo scouted the area quick, just to be sure they were safe. No cartel minions that he could see. And no other threats. Echo seemed content, so they headed to the room.

Rowan was going through the bags of things he’d bought her. “I know there was a toothbrush in here.” She held it up triumphantly. “Mind if I use the bathroom first?”

“Go ahead,” he said, stretching out on the second bed. The sound of her making little noises in the bathroom was soothing, and within seconds he was asleep.

5

Rowan stepped out of the bathroom and stopped, her eyes on Wyatt. The big man was sound asleep, but he still had his boots on. She felt bad because she should have stayed awake and made sure he stayed awake well enough. Instead, she'd conked out.

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