Page 49 of Delta Force Defender

Thirteen

Caradine didn’t have much to say after that.

And Isaac let her keep her silence because he knew that she might forgive him some of what had happened here, but if he made her break down and cry in front of a group of people—especially this group of people—she’d gut him in his sleep. Merrily.

She followed Oz back to his tech domain, deeper in the main building, to flesh out the file he’d compiled on her. Isaac made his way to the official command center, talking practicalities with Griffin and Rory as they walked. But once they hit command, he shifted away from this latest version of his Caradine problem and jumped back into the active operations that required his input and oversight.

It was late in the bright June evening when he was finally done handling a tricky extraction across the planet. He left the command center in capable hands and walked out of the lodge, buzzing with an energy he didn’t know what to do with. He’d been so pissed off thismorning that he’d skipped his usual workout, and that was always a mistake.

Or, anyway, he told himself that was why he was so restless tonight. The lack of decent exercise. It had nothing at all to do with the woman who was in his cabin, even now.

He knew she was in his cabin and not trying to hike up Hard Ass Pass with nothing but her stubbornness to get her over the washed-out parts. Or swimming for Juneau across the cold Inside Passage. Because he’d sent Horatio to guard her when she’d left the lodge hours earlier, and if she’d left the cabin, Horatio would have barked loud enough to bring him and most of Alaska Force running.

But his dog was nowhere to be found. He stood for a moment outside, there on the porch that overlooked the cove. It was one of those still-blue summer nights, this side of the June solstice. The sky hadn’t even gotten into its eerie stage; it was just light. It bounced off the water in the cove and made the trees seem crisper, more defined.

He ordered himself to calm down.

And disobeyed his own order.

A few moments later, Isaac sensed the approach of two heavy individuals, not that they made any sounds as they exited the lodge. It was the faint creak from the door that gave them away. In the next moment, he recognized their tread against the wood. Or lack thereof.

When Templeton and Jonas flanked him there at the rail, he wasn’t surprised. But he didn’t look at either one of them, either.

“If you could hurry up with the mockery and smug remarks, I’d appreciate it,” Isaac said mildly. “I have things to do.”

“Where to start,” Templeton drawled, sounding so entertained that an actual laugh would have put the whole thing right over the top. Not that suchconsiderations had stopped him in the past. “Where to even begin parsing what happened today.”

“You mean, when we gained a new client?”

“Alaska Force gained a client,” Templeton said. “But I’m pretty sure you gained a girlfriend.”

Jonas didn’t make a noise on Isaac’s other side. He certainly didn’t laugh. But still, Isaac had the impression that he’d done his version of tossing back his head and roaring out his merriment, Templeton-style.

“Why don’t you go tell Caradine that she’s my girlfriend,” Isaac suggested, still keeping his attention on the water out in front of him, because it would give Templeton too much satisfaction if he tried to get in his face. “Make sure you film it. I’d pay money to see how many veins she opens.”

“It would be worth bleeding,” Templeton retorted, unrepentant. “And besides, if it was untrue, she’d only smirk at me, so you’re proving my point.”

“I appreciate this conversation,” Isaac said. “Really. I had no idea that you were a twelve-year-old girl, Templeton. I figured a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl, at the youngest. Good to know you can sink even lower.”

He saw the one-fingered salute his friend made in his peripheral field of vision just fine.

“You’re the kind of man who likes to hold on,” Jonas said then, and both Isaac and Templeton fell silent at that. He flicked his dark gaze toward Isaac, no trace of laughter there now. “Or I wouldn’t be standing here.”

Neither Isaac nor Templeton jumped to dispute that, because it was true. All three of them had survived that last, horrific mission in a place they still weren’t allowed to identify. In one form or another, they’d survived. But none of them spoke of it, and not only because what had happened there was classified at the highest levels.

But then, they didn’t have to speak about it. They’d all left the service afterward, when the debriefings and the threats of court-martials gave way to the usualcommendations, medals, and requests for further engagement from all three operatives.

They’d declined. The way they continued to decline every time the U.S. military reached out again. As much to make sure they weren’t running around telling their story to any interested parties, Isaac often thought cynically, as to see whether or not they could get any of them back on board. They’d started Alaska Force instead.

But Jonas didn’t mean any of that, or not directly. What Jonas meant was that trip Isaac and Templeton had taken, at Isaac’s direction, deep into one of the most desolate stretches of Alaska’s interior. Where Jonas had gone, not intending to come back.

Because it wasn’t enough tonot die. That didn’t teach a man how to live. Not when he was used to fighting.

Like the man said himself, Isaac held on to the things he cared about.

He nodded now. Because he didn’t trust what might come out of his mouth.

“You’re trying to hold on to someone who doesn’t want to stay,” Jonas said. “Doesn’t think she can. How long can you do that?”

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