Page 63 of Delta Force Defender

Caradine could feel the plane begin its descent, as promised. But she felt buoyed by the way Isaac looked at her. She watched a silvery gleam break up some of that gray, and despite herself, she could feel that telltale, dangerous warmth spread throughout her body.

A feeling that only intensified when he smiled at her. That smile that almost felt like his hands on her.

That smile that she couldn’t help thinking really was hers.

But a moment later it was like it had never been. He was up and moving. Talking in that voice of quiet command that made Caradine feel fluttery.

It made everyone else on board sit up straighter, too, and that was good, because it reminded her that there were any number of terrible things they could discover here. Lindsay could be dead. This could be a trap. Everyone could die, including her. Or everyone coulddie, except her. There were so many bloody, horrible possibilities, and she had to prepare herself for any and all of them, not moon after a man who might very well be one of the casualties, thanks to her.

A deeply depressing thought.

Caradine made herself stare out the window instead of at Isaac. There had been nothing there for hours but blue sky, but as the plane dropped down she saw clouds. Then a very different Pacific Ocean than the one she knew, blue and green instead of gray. And then the steep green slopes of Maui.

She almost thought she was dreaming, because who didn’t grow up in the brutal Boston winters dreaming of Hawaiian islands? As the plane came in for its landing on a tiny airstrip that was very nearly in the sea itself, she saw water surging over black, volcanic rocks. Buildings with red roofs in a cluster she assumed was a town. Palm trees near the water, red earth, and the thick green jungle.

And as the wheels touched down, she acknowledged that she might not have been entirely honest with Isaac about her relationship with her sister. Or her feelings about it. Mostly because, if it were up to her, Caradine would dig out her feelings with a sharp implement and be done with them forever.

The truth was, she had no idea how Lindsay would react to seeing her, assuming she was alive and not the willing bait in a trap.

They had not parted on the best of terms. How could they have? They had been running for so long, and then everything that happened in Phoenix had been like a kick to the gut. Worse, actually. Caradine had felt restless and hunted and raw when they’d left each other, and she’d felt guilty about that for years now.

Because she loved her sister, there was no getting around that. But, God help her, she’d been relieved to finally be on her own.

What kind of person did that make her, that she’d beenrelievedto get rid of her only living family member?

She stared down at what remained of the black nail polish she had deliberately not touched up. Because Isaac had called her out on the fact she kept it black and chipped, so she was considering stepping out into a color scheme that he would find less predictable. French tips, maybe. Teal. Mustard yellow. Who knew?

Stop acting like you have a future with him,she ordered herself.You might not have the rest of the day, for all you know.

Nail polish seemed like a far safer thing to focus on than that awful thought. Or the way everyone was moving around her and exiting the plane, with that focus and intensity that made her feel a deep sense of regret at the way she’d poked at them all these years.

That was maybe overstating the case, she thought in the next moment, when Isaac’s gaze found hers. He jerked his chin, ordering her to stand up and follow them out.

It was nice to see that they weren’t a pack of overgrown frat brothers, sure. That added to the hopeful part of her. But that didn’t mean that she had to treat them any differently the next time they were in her—

The sucker punch of that hit her hard. They wouldn’t be in her café again. Because her café was gone, she wasn’t going back, and all of this was likely nothing more than a very long, military-infused wake for the life she’d once had.

She was going to need to remember that.

“Caradine.” Isaac’s voice was crisp. No hint of that roughness that had warmed her earlier. “What did we talk about?”

“You didn’t tell me it would be boot camp,” Caradine said mildly, but she got to her feet. “I didn’t realize thatexiting a planehad to be accomplished in double time while singing a jaunty marching tune.”

“The point is, you can either follow orders, or you can’t.”

“My mistake,” she said breezily. “I expected you to actually give orders, not gesture with your chin like a—”

“Caradine.”

By that point she’d reached him at the door and could feel the humid air outside, warm and ripe. And she would normally keep going. She would say something snarky to get a reaction, or touch him, ordo something, because this man had always made her want to fidget, and she’d always channeled her restlessness around him into concrete things.

But this was a wake. She wasn’t going back.

And she should never have pretended otherwise for those few days in Fool’s Cove.

“Don’t worry,” she said, and she didn’t smirk. She didn’t scowl. She didn’t pretend she was doing something other than what he’d asked her to do. “I understood you. I’ll follow your orders, Isaac.”

Another time, she might have enjoyed the way he blinked at that. But not today. Not when what had flared between them all these years belonged to a life she shouldn’t have built and couldn’t keep.

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