Page 43 of Christmas in the Shadows

He frowned as he stared at the phone again, and then he lowered it onto the table. After a moment of thought, he lifted it again and showed her the message. “I just got this.”

She read the words there.

I know what you did in Afghanistan. I’ll tell everyone unless you do what I say.

“Someone’s trying to blackmail you?” Her question came out louder than she intended, and Tex leaned forward and shushed her.

“That’s what it appears.”

“Who would do that?” she whispered.

His expression tightened. “I’ve made a lot of enemies in my day. A lot.”

“What does this person want you to do?”

Tex glanced at the screen again and frowned. “I’m not sure yet. I’m assuming he’ll send a follow-up message to let me know.”

Chelsea stared at him another moment, and then what was perhaps the most important question of all hit her. “Tex . . . what did you do in Afghanistan?”

As soon as she asked the question, she regretted it. She wished she could take it back. Because Tex’s whole face tightened, and his body tensed.

“It’s complicated.”

“I can understand complicated.” She didn’t know if she should push or not. It probably wasn’t her business. But now that the information was out there, she wanted to know.

“Let’s just say some of my missions required me to make some morally gray decisions,” Tex finally said. “At times it came down to saving the life of the men I worked with or taking out a bad guy. One decision. Two very different outcomes. And it was never an easy choice to make. But there was never a doubt in my mind that I had to protect my team members above all else.”

Chelsea’s heart ached. She could only imagine how tough those choices had been. Taking another life—even if it was that of an enemy—should never be taken lightly. It made her respect Tex more to know that he struggled with the decisions he had to make during the unofficial war he’d been fighting overseas.

“I’m sorry you had to do all that,” she finally said, picking at the rest of her lunch.

“It was my job. We were trained to do what we were told. Looking back, there were things I would have changed knowing then what I know now. My colleagues and I became something similar to robots to the people in charge of us. I do regret that, especially since I now know their motives weren’t always pure.”

“That’s got to be a hard pill to swallow. But it sounds like you’re in a better place now.”

A stormy look passed through his gaze. “I am. But to be honest, Chelsea, I don’t really exist on paper. Sometimes I’m asked to do assignments I’m uncomfortable with. If things go wrong during those assignments, there’s no one who will take up for me. My boss likes me to be nameless and faceless. In other words, disposable.”

She wasn’t expecting the tears to press on her eyes, but they did. But she tried to pull them back, to not show Tex how much his words had affected her. Most guys didn’t want people feeling sorry for them.

And it wasn’t that Chelsea felt sorry for Tex. It was entirely more complicated than that. She only wished she could take away some of his pain.

“It’s been better lately,” he continued. “We had some come-to-Jesus moments recently, and there have been a lot of changes. But I guess I’m still trying to find myself.”

“You could walk away from your job, right? You’re not locked in to working for this agency for the rest of your life, are you?”

“No, I’m not.” He paused. “The guys on the team have become like family to me, I suppose. We’ve been through a lot together. And now that we’ve had some changes, now that leaders have been honest about several things, it’s gotten better.”

“I’m glad for that, at least.”

She licked her lips and tried to find the right words. But before anything could pass over her tongue, horns blared outside. Brakes squealed. Someone screamed.

Then people began running toward the street as if something terrible had happened.

CHAPTER 15

Tex jumped to his feet and ran outside. He pushed through the crowd until he saw what everyone was staring at.

Someone lay on the ground.

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