Page 25 of Guarded

“You should hear how he talks about her, though. She doesn’t come up often, but when she does he gets this…faraway look in his eyes and this smile on his face.” Briar wasn’t proud to admit that it made her jealous. “She was like a human sunbeam. Warm, funny, sweet, always wanted to be a mother, loved his family. The perfect wife. I bet she never argued with him.” She glanced at Trinity. “I’m none of those things.” She was Lisa’s polar opposite.

Trin stared at her in clear surprise. “Wait. Are you seriously feeling insecure about your relationship with Matt?”

Briar looked away. “I know he loves me. But he’s the kind of guy to stick with me now no matter what, even if he’s unhappy.”

“Sweetie, he’s not unhappy.”

He’d never come out and said it, but he’d sure seemed unhappy with her a lot these past few months because of her refusal to stop doing certain things. “I dunno. Sometimes I wonder if he was way happier with her than he is with me. That maybe they were a better fit.”

“Okay, I’m going to go ahead and blame all this on pregnancy hormones and a shitload of stress. Are you kidding me? Yes, he loved her. But I guarantee she wasn’t perfect. Who is? And yeah, to you she might seem like the perfect homemaker who couldn’t wait to have a dozen babies and do the stay at home mom thing, but could she handle a weapon like you? No. Could she take out a target with a headshot from a thousand meters?” Trin raised her eyebrows in silent demand. “Or go off grid behind enemy lines alone for weeks at a time to take out a target? I don’t think so.”

Briar huffed out a laugh. The comparisons sounded twice as ridiculous out loud. “That’s not even apples and oranges it’s so far out there.”

“Well, Matt thinks your apples are sexy as hell, and I have to agree. Come on, you know how much he loves it that you can shoot as well as he can.Hot.”

“I shoot better than him.” She grinned, watched her friend settle back into the chair. “I love you, you know.”

Trin smiled. “Back atcha. And see? There’s the softness and feelings you were so worried about not having. Know what else? You would never have said that to me until about two years ago unless under torture. And you also haven’t stopped stroking your belly since I walked in. You love this baby, and would do anything to protect it.”

She reached out, snagged Briar’s hand and squeezed, her deep blue eyes full of a fierce love that warmed Briar inside and out. “Everything’s gonna be fine. There’s nothing missing inside you, it’s just that bits might be…dormant. And I’ll always be here for you, no matter what.”

“Ditto.” Valkyries for life. An unbreakable bond a hundred times stronger than blood.

An unintended positive side effect that Briar would bet their handlers had never anticipated.

****

Matt was surprised when Harding picked up the phone when he called the number. “Greg. It’s Matt DeLuca. I got down here as soon as I could. Want to tell me what’s going on?”

Everyone in the mobile command center was staring at him. Tuck stood off in the far corner, the rest of Blue Team waiting outside. They were parked a block from the target house. Outside, it was getting dark already. The entire neighborhood was locked down, swarming with cops and FBI agents.

“It’s too late,” Harding said in misery. “It’s no good.”

“It’s not too late,” Matt said, watching the chief negotiator, who was analyzing every word they spoke.

Harding was becoming increasingly unstable and it seemed to be accelerating. He was on at least six different psychiatric meds, and no one knew if he’d simply stopped taking them or if something else had gone wrong. Over the past few months his mental state and marriage had deteriorated, to the point where the wife had finally decided to leave him and take the children with her.

Matt tried again. “I came all the way down here because you asked for me. Let me help.”

The negotiator nodded at him, made a circling motion with his hand to keep going.

“Sherry’s gonna leave me. She swears she won’t now but I know she’s lying.” A muffled sob came through the line. “She’s gonna fucking leave me after all we’ve been through together, and take the girls with her. She’s got somebody else, I know it. My life’s over.”

Matt’s number one priority was getting the wife and kids out unharmed. Doing the same for Harding was a distant second, history between them or not. “It’s not over, Greg, and we’re here to help. Do the right thing, let Sherry and the girls go, then come out and give yourself up so we can talk.”

Harding let out a bitter laugh. “You think I’m that stupid? That it’s that easy? You had the chance to help me years ago and you fucking walked away, left me to deal with everything on my own. We were friends, I thought I could count on you, and then you cut me out of your life.”

Matt clenched his jaw and waited a beat. He wasn’t responsible for Harding’s actions. And they’d never been friends. “Let them go, Greg, then come out and we’ll talk.”

“I don’t think so.”

It was like a switch had flipped in the guy’s brain. Matt looked at Tuck, the evil edge to Harding’s voice making the back of his neck tingle. Tuck nodded and jumped out the door to get the team in place for an assault.

“Greg. Listen to me. I can help you.”

“No, you listen tome. You think you’re a hero for making the sacrifice to show up here to save the day? That you’re the original American badass because you were a Scout/Sniper and went on to become the HRT commander? Well I know the truth.”

He didn’t like the ominous tone or the direction this was headed. As far as sacrifice, yeah, he’d made a big one in coming down here for this, leaving his wife and unborn child at an uncertain time.

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