Page 67 of Explosive Vengeance

“I can see why he’s Ty’s best friend.” She shook her head, her happiness fading beneath the heavy ache forming in her chest. “He’s…an amazing guy.”

Megan’s eyebrows rose. “Amazing? Wow.”

“I know.” There was no other way to describe him. Of course he’d have his flaws, everyone did. So far, everything that mattered was evident in his actions, and to her they spoke a million times louder than words.

Her friend frowned. “But? I feel like there’s a but.”

“But it’s just temporary. And you know why.”

Megan’s hazel eyes were thoughtful. “A few months ago, I might have agreed with that. But not now, because I’ve learned that sometimes things have a way of working out.”

Chloe shook her head and pushed out an exhalation. “Hoping for any of that right now is just too much.”

“I understand. But how about I’ll keep hoping for you, then?”

Chloe smiled through the ache. “Thanks, Itch.”

“Anytime, Twitch.”

God, it was good to have Megan back in her life. She closed the distance between them in two strides and pulled her friend into a hard hug. “Imissedyou, dammit. Thought about you all the time.” She understood why the Valkyrie instructors had taken such pains to sever bonds of friendship and make them into autonomous operatives. Still, it had been a long, lonely life of solitary service to her country.

Megan seemed startled for a moment, then returned the embrace just as fiercely. “Me too.”

****

Heath closed his hotel room door behind Megan and Ty a few minutes later and turned to face Chloe.

She was watching Heath from the adjoining doorway, and arched an eyebrow. “Up for another road trip?” She held up the keys. “I’ll even let you drive.”

Rather than answer, he crossed to her, hungry for another taste of her. “You like it when I drive,” he reminded her, making her grin as he took the keys and kissed her.

The long drive to the coast gave them a much-needed breather. Chloe slept for most of it, waking a few minutes before they arrived at their rental unit in a village fifteen minutes from the water. Everyone else was staying in the near vicinity, but spaced far enough apart to avoid possible detection. “We’ve got just over two-and-a-half hours until we meet again to go over the final plan for the Dubois op tonight,” he told her.

“Yeah.”

Now that she was awake, he could practically feel the pent-up energy pulsing off her. She needed to blow off steam and get a change of scenery. He had an idea, though he’d gone back and forth on the way here about bringing it up. “Wanna get out of here for a while?”

“Maybe. What’d you have in mind?”

“Ever seen the landing beaches?”

“No.” She eyed him. “Why, you want to go?”

“Yeah.” It was like a date, but he considered that a good thing. Everything between them had been rushed and intense so far. They had a few hours to themselves before the meeting; he wanted to slow things down and spend quality time outside the bedroom with her. Let her see part of him he would have kept hidden before. He wanted her to know him, baggage and ghosts and all.

After watching him a moment, she nodded and settled back in her seat. “Okay, then let’s go.”

Her eager acceptance made him smile. He’d originally wanted to visit the landing beaches during his leave, and now he could. He’d just never imagined doing so under these circumstances…or with this incredible woman by his side.

Twenty minutes later she stood next to him, gazing out at the massive shell craters pitting the infamous battlefield of Pointe Du Hoc. The sharp point was the highest spot between the American sector’s Omaha and Utah landing beaches, and had been heavily defended by German forces.

“Man, can you imagine what this must have looked like on D-Day? I don’t know how the hell they made it up that cliff under that kind of fire,” she said with a shake of her head.

“I know. Those Rangers were badass motherfuckers.” The cliff was a hundred feet tall, and the troops had faced withering fire long before their landing crafts had even hit the beaches in the distance.

She nodded, gazing at the scarred landscape before them, and the waves of the Atlantic rolling onto the beach below in the distance. “Ever wonder what you’d have done, if you’d been there?”

“What do you mean?”

---