Lock and Load by Desiree Holt Page B

while he was away. And all that stuff about the guys she worked with being assholes, about being cautious, seemed to be just so much lip service.
    She didn’t have to tell him she was good with exclusive if she hadn’t meant it. He’d been happier if she’d just told him the truth. No expectations there.
    He slammed the cover on the laptop just as Slade lowered himself onto the bench beside him.
    “You know that’s crap, right?” the team leader said.
    “Doesn’t matter.” Beau tried for a nonchalant attitude, even as disappointment gripped him.
    “Don’t give me that shit. I know you too well. Here. Kari sent this. I think this is for you.” He handed over his cell phone with a text showing in the screen.
    Beau took it reluctantly. He was tempted to just delete it, but he knew his team leader would give him all kinds of shit so he scrolled through it.
    Slade, I’m sending this for Megan because Beau, the idiot, didn’t give her his cell number and tell her she could contact him. I’m not telling tales out of school because she shared with me that she promised to be exclusive while he was gone. (Me: What about when he gets back?) If he happens to pull up the newspaper on his laptop tell him the picture of her is with the coach at her high school. She was the guest speaker at the awards banquet. The guy’s married and has four kids. She seems to think he’d be stupid enough to take it the wrong way.
    “So.” Slade took his phone back. “Are you? That stupid?”
    Beau scrubbed at his unshaven chin. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know what I am. I guess I have to believe her if she went to all the trouble of sending this, but hell. Both of us are so gun-shy it’s like we’ve got a minefield between us.”
    “Free advice is worth the price, but I’m going to give it anyway. Kari’s been spending time with her and says she’s the real deal. She has a lot of shit to deal with in her job, which I’m sure she told you. But she also told my wife she’d promised not to be with anyone else while you were gone and she said she meant it.” Slade rose and tapped the other man’s shoulder with his fist. “So take some advice. Something good’s come your way. Take care of it and don’t fuck it up.”
    The words kept echoing in his head over and over whenever he wasn’t preparing for the mission. Even on the bumpy truck ride to the city of Kabul, he kept reliving that week in Megan’s townhouse. He didn’t have too many expectations where women were concerned, but Megan had seemed different. And he couldn’t get away from that invisible connection that tugged something deep inside him. Was he misreading the whole situation?
    Enough! Do your job. Worry about her later. Pay attention to your job now.
    Using his discipline, he blocked everything else from his mind as they drove slowly through the streets to the prearranged drop for the truck. He couldn’t afford to be distracted until the mission was complete.
    Wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River, the city of Kabul is the capital of the province of the same name and is located in the eastern part of Afghanistan. Kabul is over three and half thousand years old. Many empires have long fought over the valley for its strategic location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia . In the war on terror, focused on defeating the Taliban, it has been the scene of many suicide bombs and attacks on Americans. Tonight Delta Force Team Charlie was hoping to prevent yet another attack on a compound currently housing many Americans working for civilian defense contractors.
    Team Charlie had reviewed and analyzed the intel provided by a contact who assured them his information was reliable. A cell of ten terrorists was planning a mass suicide bombing of the compound that, if accomplished, would not only kill a huge percentage of the people housed there but also effectively destroy the construction work that had been accomplished so far.