Page 41 of Delta Force Defender

“Do I think that it’s possible that a twenty-two-year-old woman could meticulously plot to murder her entire family?” He shrugged. “Why not? Do I particularly think that Mickey Sheeran’s daughter could or would do such a thing? Without question.”

“Exactly how well did you know my father?” Caradine asked.

“Mickey made no secret of his feelings about women. The FBI takes it as fact he beat your mother, though she never pressed charges.” He regretted that, too. But she looked only vaguely bored, not hurt in any way. “He treated all of his mistresses the same, and suspicious overdoses seemed to follow them around when he was done with them. I don’t even know that I would blame a person for taking extreme measures to escape a man like that, because what must he have been like to his daughters?”

“I thought this was an ex-military tribunal, not a therapy session.”

“Is that what you did?” He wanted her, just once, totell him something of her own accord. “Did you take the nuclear option?”

Caradine smirked, and something flashed in those cool blue eyes. “Do you really think that I’m a mass murderer, Isaac? Or are you mad that I won’t date you?”

Isaac forced himself to keep his gaze on her, because the surprise wasn’t that she’d said something like that. The surprise was that she hadn’t started there. And he did not look around the room. He most especially did not look at Templeton or Jonas.

The studied nonreaction of every single person there was telling enough.

Great, he thought. But it was the least of his concerns.

“The Caradine Scott that I’ve known for five years was running from something,” he said quietly. “I would have sworn that she didn’t have murder in her. But you’re not Caradine Scott, are you?”

“No.” Her smirk took on an edge. “Caradine is a character I play. And when I leave here, I’ll create another character. And next time, I won’t be stupid enough to sleep with a clingy, dramatic stalker who doesn’t know how to let go. If anyone needs therapy, Isaac, it’s you.”

Isaac smiled. “You can’t embarrass me.” That wasn’t as true as he would have liked, but it was close enough. “I told you before, I don’t have secrets. And that’s not really the point, is it?”

“I don’t know.” Her eyes were glittering, and he braced himself, because he knew what that meant. She was taking a swipe. “I, personally, would find it difficult to take orders from a man who claims to be the biggest and the baddest around, yet found himself whipped by a woman he now thinks is a killer. But what do I know? I’m not a mercenary. Maybe it really is all about the money.”

No one made any particular noises at that, egregious as it was. But then, they didn’t need to. The tension in the room rose like a temperature.

“Does it give you pleasure to insult all these people?” Isaac asked.

Her head tilted slightly to one side. “Yes.”

And Isaac shouldn’t have been surprised to see Kate stifle a grin, back by the door, because that sounded not only honest, it sounded like Caradine.

“Okay,” Jonas broke in, which was surprising. Since generally speaking, Jonas went out of his way to avoid talking whenever possible. “Let’s try to keep this conversation productive.”

“Is this a conversation?” Caradine asked, her voice acidic. “I was under the impression I didn’t have any choice in the matter. Which makes it less a conversation and more of an interrogation, in my view. But then again, being kidnapped and forcibly restrained might have messed with my head.”

“It must have,” Isaac agreed. “Or you wouldn’t have tried to shoot me.”

There was another electric moment of silence. While all around him, Isaac was well aware, everyone was digesting that little tidbit.

Until Templeton laughed. Long, deep, and as infectious as ever.

It broke the taut, breathless thing that had Isaac and Caradine in its grip. Suddenly, there was a lot of shuffling. Shifting in chairs. And Isaac knew that his team didn’t need to release their nervous energy in that manner.

This was different. This was Caradine.

And Isaac knew that he wasn’t the only one who was already coming up with rationalizations for why she might have done this thing. Why it was okay. He couldseeEverly and Mariah looking at each other, working up a defense where they sat.

“I’m going to need to hear a whole lot more about you shooting at Isaac,” Templeton said when he finished laughing. He tipped back in the chair he was sitting in, lounging as if he were settling in to watch a movie. “Butfirst, I don’t think it would kill you to give an accounting of what happened in Boston ten years ago.”

Caradine didn’t look like she’d released any tension. “Maybe I don’t want to give an accounting of anything. Ten years ago or since.”

Templeton shrugged. “It feels like we’re past that. I know you want to keep poking at him, and I support that, but we need to know what we’re dealing with here.”

“You’re not dealing with anything,” Caradine gritted out. Maybe with the faintest hint of desperation. “I don’t want your interference. Just because Isaac doesn’t know how to take a hint, I shouldn’t be forced to—”

“I get that you don’t want to accept help from me,” Isaac threw at her, louder than necessary. Louder than he could remember being. Ever. “But for God’s sake. Accept help fromsomeone. You’ve fed every single person in this room a thousand times. Not one of us wants to think you’re capable of this. But even if you are, don’t you get it? This is a family matter.”

---