Page 64 of Delta Force Defender

Not when the most probable outcome here was blood, terror, and Caradine running head-on into another life to hide away in.

Today she ducked her head because she didn’t have anything sharp to say, or she had too many things to say. She moved around him without touching him and walked down the plane’s folded-out stairs, toward her past.

Her real life, and her reckoning, whether she liked it or not.

Seventeen

They’d decided on a four-man team back in Fool’s Cove. Templeton and Blue were talking about something in low voices when Caradine made it out of the plane onto the ground. And she told herself that what her heart did was her own business. No matter how much it hurt.

That’s what happens when you let yourself hope for better,she reminded herself harshly.How many times do you have to learn the same lesson?

She stood by herself and waited. Jonas was off by himself, that flinty gaze of his scanning their surroundings, which consisted of little more than a tiny building with a soda machine out front. And when Isaac followed her down from the plane, he was on his phone again.

Caradine stood there and refused to hope for anything. Instead, she found herself wishing that she had worn something different in all this humidity.

It was like another unsolicited hug, long and close. The wet, warm press of the tropical air smelled offlowers and the sea, and an earthy, rich scent of wild growth. A bird called, somewhere in the thick, surrounding jungle, and it sounded like nothing she had ever heard before.

Goose bumps prickled down her neck and made her shiver, despite the warmth all around.

People always talked about how Alaska seemed like another planet. But Hawaii was more instantly, inarguably alien than anywhere else Caradine had ever been. Alaska might kill you, it was true. But at least it wouldn’t smother you to death on contact—you’d have to go out and find an avalanche in the mountains for that.

Having never in her life understood the point of a sarong, Caradine would have killed for one now. Instead, she was dressed in what she knew Isaac would call tactical gear. A pair of tough hiking pants that were an approximation of the kind of battle-ready cargo pants the Alaska Force team members always wore. A pair of hardy hiking boots that could handle any terrain, but felt as if they were choking the life out of her feet and raising her temperature a good twenty degrees or so. And a black T-shirt in a fitted performance fabric that she figured she had to thank for not melting into a puddle where she stood.

She even had a gun strapped to her hip, which had been the topic of another debate.

Is she going to take a shot at all of us?Templeton had asked, in a voice that sounded like he was telling a joke when she could tell by his face that he wasn’t.

I wouldn’t miss if I was aiming at you, Templeton, she’d promised him.

But the debate had only truly ended when she’d pointed out that she didn’t need their permission to carry her own weapon. Or to dictate where she could aim it, either.

Caradine is always carrying at least three weaponsat any time,Isaac had drawled, looking more amused than usual as he’d led the briefing yesterday morning.I don’t really see that changing.

Are you flirting?Templeton had asked, grinning wide and unrepentant. Especially when Isaac had glared back at him.

“Okay,” Isaac said now, shoving his phone into his pocket. “Oz thinks he’s found her trail.”

He cut his gaze to Caradine, so she nodded the way everyone else did. A bit stiffly, wondering if that was how Alaska Force recruits were expected to respond when the great leader spoke.

A question she had to bite her tongue to keep from asking.

“Remember what we talked about,” he told her. Sternly. “This is neither the time nor the place for you to assert yourself.”

Temper made her even warmer, suddenly. She opened her mouth to remind him that he’d already covered this same ground on the plane—barely three minutes ago, in fact—but he knew that.

Of course he knew that.

Caradine understood in a flash that this was not for him. This was for the team. All four men stood there, gazing at her intensely, and all she could think about was what Bethan had told her in Alaska.

You’re not trained. And that means whoever’s in the field with you has to make sure to protect you as well as do their job.

“I had no idea how much I intimidated you all,” Caradine murmured, because she was still her, after all. And she might know better than to poke at Isaac when this could go so many different ways, but this was a group. Easier to poke without repercussions. “Way to give me all the power, guys.”

“Is it out of your system now?” Isaac asked, with acertain steady patience that would have been more of a slap if she didn’t know this was a performance for him, too. That didn’t make itnota slap. “You have thirty seconds. If you have something else to say that doesn’t directly relate to this mission, now’s the time.”

Caradine allowed all the anxiety and tension inside her to bubble up. She even smirked for good measure. “This feels like a test. Let me think. Okay, lock and load. Five by five. I got your six, captain. Ten-four, good buddy. Yippee-ki-yay, mother—”

“Best Christmas movie ever made,” Blue asserted.

---