Page 28 of Zero Hour

If things went sideways, he’d need to improvise. Move through hostile terrain with cartel enforcers on their heels,reaching the extraction point at the river, where a CIA helo would be waiting to get them out before reinforcements arrived.

Pat exhaled. Yeah. Nothing he can’t handle.

She handed him two glasses and he poured the wine.

“To a successful mission,” she said, holding it up.

“I’ll drink to that.”

Taking her glass, she sank onto the leather sofa. “Now, why are you really here? You checking up on me?”

He sat tentatively beside her. “Actually, there was something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.” Fuck, this was hard. “It’s about your mother?”

“Oh, really? That’s a coincidence, because I’ve been meaning to talk to you about her too.”

He was momentarily thrown.

“You have?”

“Yes, I wanted to ask how you two met? I mean, I know you go way back to before I was born, but no one’s ever told me how.” A cloud passed over her face. “She was very fond of you. I remember, you were always at our house.”

He’d spent more time at Astrid’s house than his own. Mostly, because she had Izzy, so it made more sense for him to go there. When she’d left for college, they’d behaved like man and wife. It had been tough pretending otherwise when she came home for the holidays, and it was even worse when Richard came back, and he couldn’t see them at all.

He hesitated. This wasn’t the direction he was hoping to go in, but maybe it would help soften the blow.

“We met when we were both young. I had just joined the Navy, and your mother was still modeling. It was in a bar in Virginia Beach—she was out with friends, and I was on leave, blowing off steam. The base wasn’t far, and my buddies and I were raising hell, as usual. Then I looked up… and there she was.”

He smiled at the memory. “She was breathtaking. Just walked right past me to the bar, and for the first time in my life, I was completely lost for words.”

Izzy stared at him, surprised. He could tell this wasn’t the story she’d expected, but he pushed on.

“I bought her a drink and we got talking. She was smart and funny, and we hit it off.”

“You mean romantically?” Her eyes widened.

He chuckled. “Yeah, romantically.”

“No freaking way!”

“Yeah. We spent the whole weekend together, and then?—”

“You slept with her?”

He stopped, worried by her response.

“Oh, my God. You did, didn’t you?”

He gave a slow nod.

“So, what happened? Why did you split up?”

“We didn’t split up, it was more like we never got together.”

Izzy frowned. “I don’t understand. I mean, I know you didn’t have cellphones in those days, but surely you could have made a plan?”

He laughed. “It wasn’t that simple. I left for my first tour of the Middle East. It was a six-month stint and had no way of calling her.” Special ops, active duty, behind enemy lines. There was no way he’d been able to promise her anything.

She looked disappointed. “So, you lost touch?”

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