Page 6 of Loving Leila
“Got a few more hidey-holes to cover and then make our way back, sir.”
“We’ve cleared aft and are about to head back to the rendezvous point. We can talk strategy there. Ace, you copy?”
“On our way. Meet you back there, Chief,” Blade replies.
“Loud and clear, Merlin,” I hear Ace reply.
“Get there as soon as,” Cougar answers.
I hold out a hand to help Leila up. At first, it looks like she’s going to refuse, but then she puts her small hand in mine. The moment her soft skin touches me, my synapses fire like I’ve grabbed onto a live wire.
Her head whips up, and her startled blue gaze meets mine. Yeah, I’m guessing she felt it too. Chemistry never was our problem. We never could keep our hands off each other when we were together. Some things never change, it seems.
When she’s standing, Leila stretches. Working the kinks out from being cramped in that small space, I assume. She bends over at the waist, and I about swallow my tongue. She’s tiny – barely five-two — but there is no lack of curves on her. She’s all woman.
Call me a dog, but I’ve always been an ass man. And damn, does Leila have a lush ass. I look over at Phantom to find his hot gaze locked on those fine globes and bite back a growl. I clear my throat instead, drawing his attention away from Leila and onto me. I give him a death stare. He gives me a grin.Asshole.
Straightening, she looks at Phantom and then me and blushes when she realizes what just happened. “Have they found the others yet? Are they okay?”
“Yeah, they’ve found a group of passengers in the dining room. Don’t have full details on the situation yet.”
“So, what’s the plan to get off this godforsaken boat alive and preferably in one piece?
“We’ll figure that out back at the command point once the team gets back and we can compile the data.”
Leila nods but doesn’t say anything more. Just worries at her bottom lip. She always did when something weighed on her. My girl never was one to voice her concerns or fears. Always buried it behind a stoic façade while mauling that poor bottom lip.
Hold up there, tiger. Not your girl anymore. You fucked that up a long time ago, so you don’t get to call her that now.
“What’s on your mind, sweetness?” The words are out before I can stop myself.
I watch tears well in her eyes before she quickly looks away. “Please, Kyle. Don’t. Don’t call me that,” she whispers.
I feel like such a heel for making her cry. It’s slays me. But hearing her ask me not to call her by the nickname I gave her when we were together? That shit slices me open as effectively as if she’d slashed me with a blade.
Turning to Phantom, all I can squeeze past the lump in my throat is, “Let’s go”.
By the time we get back to command center, I’ve managed to get a handle on my emotions. Emotions make you vulnerable, and that’s one of the reasons why I left. My life, the lives of my men, depend on my ability to be unemotional. And when you lose a teammate, a brother, emotion will break you if you allow it.
So you put it away and you get on with the job you signed up for. Love and family aren’t meant for guys like us. And it sure as hell isn’t fair on the ones we love.
Chapter 6
Leila
I’m pretty sure getting hit by a bus would hurt far less than the pain of hearing Kyle call me sweetness. I can’t stop the tears that well up. I’m exhausted, I’m terrified, I’m worried about my colleagues, and that was the last thing I needed on top of everything else going on in this shitshow.
As we make our way cautiously back to the rendezvous point, I’m sandwiched between Kyle and the man he calls Phantom. He must be the one who replaced Maverick on the team. Thoughts of the man who was lost flood my mind. A giant of a man with a heart to match. His wife, Sherri, had been his world. It was the most beautiful thing to see them together.
Sherri and I became best friends from the time we met at a barbeque Kyle took me to at their house. The four of us were inseparable. Until the day Maverick took a bullet to protect their asset – a US businessman kidnapped on a trip to Europe.
It about killed Sherri. But something definitely died in Kyle that day. He was a changed man when they got back from that train wreck of a mission. Two weeks later, the day we put Maverick to rest, Kyle walked out of my life. Grieving our friend and losing the man I loved, I wasn’t sure I’d survive. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
But, God bless Sherri, despite her own devastating loss, she dragged me kicking and screaming back into the land of the living. Leaning on each other, we slowly pieced ourselves back together. It hurt like a bitch the day I discovered Kyle had stayed in contact with her after everything.
Our friendship hit a rocky patch when I found out, and it took a while to come to terms with it. I learned that it was standard for teammates of fallen brothers to keep an eye over their families. Didn’t make it hurt less, but I got it.
Over the past five years, our friendship has deepened, and she’s more like my sister from another mister than merely a best friend. And I’m deeply grateful for her presence in my life over the past five years, keeping me sane. God, what I wouldn’t give to be able to call her and pour my heart out to her right this second as I reel from the blow of seeing Kyle again.
