Close Quarters by Lucy Monroe Page B

and started training to kill men with his bare hands.
    â€œNo, we’re not.” Kadin looked tired all of a sudden. “Try not to break her heart, Roman. She’s still so damn innocent.”
    â€œIt’s just sex, Kadin. I’m not going to make promises.”
    â€œIf you say so.” But the other man did not appear convinced.
    Roman ignored the small voice deep inside himself that said he wasn’t either.

C HAPTER F IVE
    T hat night at dinner, the whole security team and Ben squeezed around the table where Tanya and Fleur sat, forcing others who usually sat with them to eat elsewhere. Tanya found herself squished between Roman and Kadin. And rather than feeling overwhelmed by the men’s size and presence, she felt safe.
    After the day she’d had, safe was good. Very good.
    Fleur had surprised Tanya by responding with preoccupied silence when told about the roadblock, rather than anger or frustration at the waste of scheduling resources. She still looked less than immediately present in her seat across the table from Tanya.
    Johari sat beside the Tutsi woman, regaling her with a steady stream of school news and chatter about her friends. Fleur nodded in all the right places, but if she heard half of what her daughter said, Tanya would be shocked to know it. Johari finally wound down and started eating her dinner, leaving the adults at the table to carry the conversation.
    Fleur turned to face Roman, her expression too odd to read. “I want to thank you, for saving Tanya.”
    Roman shrugged. “I wasn’t about to tolerate a strip search of myself.”
    â€œI think we all know that if Tanya had not been in the Rover,” Fleur said, her voice laced with disgust, “no one would have insisted on anything of that nature.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Roman asked with a quality of stillness that Tanya did not understand.
    â€œTanya was at risk for something far worse than the humiliation of a strip search.”
    â€œYou think they intended to rape her?” Kadin asked with a growl.
    If Roman was right in his belief that the Zimbabwe soldiers had been there without official sanction, then the only scenario that made sense was that the roadblock had been a trap. A trap designed by predators who wanted to get their jollies hurting others. If not Tanya, then some other hapless woman. She could only hope that Roman’s call to his superiors would force the horrible men to give up their plans rather than be caught committing human rights violations that could leave at least the Americans in prison.
    â€œSoldiers believe they can hurt women that way if they want to,” Johari said in her near fluent English. “Girls too.”
    Tanya’s stomach tightened at the reminder that Johari had seen and experienced things no child should ever be forced to.
    â€œIt is a soldier’s job to protect. If someone forgets that around Roman, or any of us, we don’t have a problem reminding them,” Kadin said in a deadly voice.
    Johari smiled at the big warrior. “Good. Maybe there are more soldiers like you somewhere.”
    Tanya sighed. “There are good soldiers in Zimbabwe’s army too.”
    â€œBut not the ones who ran the roadblock today.”
    â€œNo, those ones were not good men.” She couldn’t stop the shudder that went through her at the thought of what those men could have done. A strip search would have been humiliating and traumatizing enough, but the idea of rape left her nauseated and shaken.
    She felt Roman’s hand on the small of her back, a steady, sure presence that comforted her more than it should have. “You are okay.”
    She glanced sideways at him, making no move to shift away from his touch, wanting very much to lean into it. “Thanks to you.”
    â€œI’m glad I was there.” Honest certainty laced his tone, melting barriers she’d erected around her heart when Quinton had