Page 3 of Her Delta Force Protector

Kade’s teammate jogged backward. “I’m going to keep going.”

“Catch you later, man.” Kade took the leash dangling over the woman’s shoulder and hooked it to the dog’s collar, then held out his hand. “Kade Church.”

“Lieutenant Harper Jansen.”

“Nice to meet you, LT.”

He walked with her back to her house, one she shared with another woman, a civilian. After that, they’d crossed paths several times, and one day he’d invited her to a party he and his roommate were throwing.

Over time, he and the lieutenant became friends. When he learned that she loved horror and action movies, they’d started a movie night. For the next year after meeting her, they’d been best friends. Nothing more.

They were both planning to leave the Army around the same time, her a few months before him. She’d promised to come get her dog as soon as she returned home from her Peace Corps stint.

Then she’d died.

Since her promise to come get the dog ended with her death, Duke had become his. When he’d learned Harper had died, he’d wrapped his arms around her dog and cried against his fur. But she wasn’t dead, as it turned out.

He wanted answers, and he was going to get them.

Chapter Two

Two months earlier

“Why don’t we go out? Dinner and maybe a club after?” Harper had no desire to go out, but she was grasping at straws. Anything to get her roommate not to go meet her mysterious new boyfriend. “Please, Lisa. We haven’t done anything fun for a while.”

“Can’t.”

Harper leaned against the bathroom door while Lisa put on makeup. “Are you meeting...?” She waited for her friend to tell her this new guy’s name. Lisa had been seeing him for a month now, and all she had ever called him was her boyfriend. He never picked her up for their dates, never came around, and the way Lisa had changed set off alarm bells.

“What’s his name, anyway?” she said when Lisa ignored her question.

Lisa slammed the mascara tube down on the counter. “What’s with all the questions?”

“I’m worried about you. You don’t laugh anymore, and you’ve gotten really secretive. Tell me he isn’t married.” That was her biggest worry, along with the bruise on Lisa’s cheek she’d come home with last night. She claimed she’d run into a door, but Harper didn’t buy it.

“He’s not married, okay?”

“Then why doesn’t he ever come by or pick you up for your dates?”

“Stop it. Just stop with the questions.”

“I care about you, and you’re not happy anymore.”

Lisa had grown up in foster care and never landed in a home where she was wanted or loved. Because of that, she looked for love and approval in every man she dated. With her long blond hair, blue eyes, and pretty face, she had no trouble getting dates. She just rarely got asked out a second time. One date and she was ready to have the man’s babies. You’d think by now she would have figured out that was the best way to scare a man off.

“He’s the one, Harper. Why can’t you be happy for me?”

Because the alarm bells were clanging like mad. Something wasn’t right with her friend, and she couldn’t stand by and do nothing. Which was why she planned to follow Lisa tonight. “I’ll be happy when you bring whatshisname over and introduce him.”

“Why? So you can steal him away? You’re just jealous because I have a boyfriend and you don’t.”

“That right there is why I’m worried about you. You know me better than that. The old you would never have thought that.”

More worried than before their conversation, Harper went to her room. She checked her phone for a message from Kade. Still nothing. Yesterday, she’d asked him if he’d do something with her tonight but hadn’t told him she planned to follow Lisa. He’d agreed, but today, he hadn’t responded to any of her texts. That could only mean one thing. He’d been called out.

Even as close as they were, all he’d ever told her was that he was Special Forces. Being in the military herself—and hearing the whispers about Delta Force operators—how badass they were, how secretive, how they were a law unto themselves, all the way down to how many of the Army’s regulations didn’t apply to them—she’d always suspected he was Delta Force. Something none of those guys would admit to.

As a housing specialist, she helped relocated service members and their families find housing on and off the base she was assigned to. Her satisfaction and reward came from seeing a family’s eyes light up when she took them on a tour of a home she thought would be perfect for them. What she was not was a combat soldier like Kade.

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