Page 3 of Evening Shadows

“Okay, I’ll give you that one, but only because I think you should’ve hit my brother over the head to knock some sense into him. Because he was crazy in love with Caitlyn, Matt had taken the lead from you, and he shouldn’t have. We promised in the field that you’d lead. I’m sorry to say that with those women who have since become our wives, we haven’t lived up to that bargain. We all got a bit emotional.”

Ken raised his eyebrows and almost tossed his head back in an unexpected full belly laugh. The men had gone over the top with their women. He’d never seen the like before. Thank goodness they were all married. “A bit?”

With that, Jesse smirked and squirmed. “This isn’t about my brothers or me. This is about you. What else do you have, because I’m not seeing why you should resign unless you have a better job?” He cocked his head and quirked that damn brow again.

Something told him he already knew Ken’s answer. “No, sir.”

“You don’t like us anymore?”

If he didn’t know better, he’d think Jesse was enjoying this. “I like the team, but that’s not what this is about.”

“Hmm.”

Damn him. Maybe if he thumped Jesse over the head with his computer monitor, he’d fire him and this would be done. Ken cleared his throat and wished he’d grabbed a bottle of water for his dry mouth and parched throat. “Look, you know what happened in Kate’s case.”

“I don’t blame you for that, Ken, and neither does my wife. You shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened.”

With deep sorrow, Ken closed his eyes a moment before speaking and looked at Jesse’s blue shirt since he couldn’t look him in the eye. “Les.”

Jesse stiffened. “You weren’t even there. You went to take care of your mother after your father passed away.”

“But I should’ve been there.”

Heaving a heavy sigh, Jesse stared at Ken as if assessing him with a new eye. “This is stupid. You know things can and will go wrong, no matter how much planning and preparation goes into it. Our clients’ actions sometimes create unexpected problems. You’re doing an exceptional job with us. We’ve had hundreds of ops go well, and I attribute that to you. Don’t let the few that didn’t stay with you. You know to learn from them and move on. In fact, you’re the one who told me that when I kept trying to dwell on the team failures our ops suffered in the middle east. Listen to your own advice.”

He had said that and was surprised Jesse still remembered it—and had listened to it. In no way did he want to leave HIS. It just seemed the right thing to do. It left him conflicted about Sam, but he’d led her on that assignment that could’ve gotten her killed. That wasn’t the right way to protect her.

Of course, with Jesse not accepting his resignation, he could do one of two things—walk out without a backward glance, or stay. With everything in him, he wanted to stay, but the fear of failure rested there heavier than it ever had. And one of those times, Sam could pay the price and he couldn’t live with that.

He wasn’t due back from his medical leave for a while so he could work on controlling that emotion. His concern for Sam had gnawed at him for years, and when he’d finally been able to do something about it, he’d screwed up. She’d come to trust him and he couldn’t lose that. They couldn’t lose it. It’d become the foundation of their personal and professional relationships.

Inside, a switch flipped, as if new life had been breathed back into him. It shouldn’t be so easy to change his mind, but, dammit, he didn’t want to leave these courageous men and women. He wanted to stand by them. To fight the battles that matter.

“Okay, I’ll stay.” With those words, his heart lightened and something inside told him he’d made the right choice. He shouldn’t have allowed his despair to overwhelm him into making the wrong decision.

“Good,” Jesse agreed. “Now tell me what’s going on between you and Sam.”

Shit.She’s had my heart since the day we metdidn’t seem the appropriate answer, even though it held the truth.If I have anything to say about it, we’re about to become more than friendsprobably wasn’t the right thing to say either. No matter if he stayed or left, he’d have requested this one thing. Staying as the team leader gave him a stronger voice for it. He only hoped she’d forgive him.

Ken cleared his throat so he’d have the firmness in his voice to match the resolution he held in his statement. With a desire to see her safe, he didn’t even blink when he stated, “About that….”

2

Moving away from the toxic environment in Columbus, Georgia, had been good for Samantha. Although not free of her internal demons, she enjoyed her new life. In general, being happy and positive had become easier, except when someone tried to be overprotective or treat her as if she couldn’t hold her own. Thankfully—and unfortunately—only one person did that at HIS. Ken Patrick. The tall, brown-eyed hunk who rode a Harley and wore his longer blond hair in a low ponytail, appealed to her, more than he should.

With a heavy heart and her cell on speakerphone, Samantha Milton sliced a tomato to make a BLT sandwich. The tantalizing aroma of bacon floated through the house, making her mouth water and her stomach rumble. While she fixed her lunch, her best friend Beverly Shodun, in her heavy southern accent—Georgian to be specific—continued her rant. This time it referred to her perceived injustice of the men who’d deployed with her husband being alive while he was dead and buried. At some point during the tirade, Sam realized she could repeat the outburst word for word since she’d heard it so often.

Since Bev’s husband’s funeral, her bitterness only deepened. To this day, her friend still blamed Jesse and Ken for both of their husbands’ deaths on that ill-fated op. Worse, she wanted the army to charge and hang them. Yes, she wanted hanging as their punishment.

Over the last ten years, Sam had overcome that initial shock of seeing the army chaplain and her husband’s battalion commander walk up her drive and knock on the front door to share the news of Lance’s death while on a “training op.”Training op, my ass.Lance hadn’t broken OPSEC and told her about the op—location and threat. He’d promised to come home to her. She hadn’t expected it to be in a US flag-draped coffin.

After each seeing the two men bearing life-changing information, she and Bev grieved together. Initially, they laid the blame on anyone and everyone they could. After her mind cleared, Sam came to terms with her husband’s death as no one’s fault but the foreign renegades who’d killed him. Ken had risked his career by explaining to her what had actually happened. He’d called them “tangos,” but she used “renegades.” Ken tried to be a rock and help her through her grief—whenever she’d allow it.

Memories rushed forward, and Sam closed her eyes for a moment to absorb the force of all that had been powerful in her married life. Lance Milton had been a good husband who’d always been there for her with the right words, the perfect touch, and more love than she thought anyone could share.

Sam sniffed and closed her eyes again, but this time to ward off the tears trying to break free. Prior to his final op, Lance had told her that if he died, he didn’t want her to continue to grieve, that she had to live… and to love again. Neither of them had any idea how difficult—if not impossible—that task would be. In jest, he’d suggested she marry his best friend, Ken Patrick.

“I still can’t believe you work for them,” Bev spat.

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