Page 66 of Delta Force Defender

That Lindsay would be here? Or that she wouldn’t?

Or maybe you’re afraid that she really is the reason the Water’s Edge got hit,she told herself.That she blew up your life all over again and will blow this up, too. And hurt people you like.

That voice resonated deep inside, in that place she didn’t like to admit was there. Because it was ugly.

Deep inside, she blamed Lindsay for what happened in Phoenix. And the lives on their hands because of it, even if those lives had been removed from them. From her. She wondered things she shouldn’t, like how many seconds it had really been between the time Lindsay texted her outside the house in Boston and when it blew up. Ten years on, Caradine could no longer be sure what had actually happened versus what she’d decided must have happened, based on what came after.

Deep inside, where hope never dared penetrate, Caradine expected their father’s sins to catch up with her, every day. And she suspected everyone—especially her little sister.

Deep inside, that she loved her sister was often an afterthought.

And what would she do if Lindsay could see that on her face?

The second Caradine saw the hint of a structure through the trees, and sucked in a breath, Isaac stopped again. Or almost stopped. The SUV slowed but never quite came to a halt. Isaac nodded. And Caradine watched Templeton, a huge man who should not have been the least bit graceful, roll out as if he didn’t need to touch the ground to disappear into the jungle.

“Crawl up into the front seat,” Isaac said to her with a quick glance in the rearview mirror. His voice was the same quiet command he’d used on the others.

Caradine was moving before she really thought about it, obeying him as if it were a reflex.

Social Isaac would have commented on it. Team leader Isaac didn’t mention it.

“Is this her house?” Caradine asked, that lump in her throat making her voice scratchy.

“I think so.” He threw a glance at her. “Oz is rarely wrong.”

He navigated his way into a clearing where the house stood, and Caradine tried to take it in. It looked like all the other houses she’d seen so far in this part of Maui. A little bit ramshackle, with the living part of the house on the second floor. She realized she didn’t know the cues here. She knew how to tell the difference between scary and weathered in an Alaskan context but not in this jungle, which seemed so different from anywhere else she’d been.

Or maybe what she was having trouble with was imagining her sister in a place like this.

Isaac pulled up in front of the house, but not directly in front of the doors on the ground floor or the stairs that led up on the sides. And he parked at an angle.

“There’s movement on the second floor,” he said gruffly. “Don’t look.”

Caradine blew out a breath, finding that the hardest order to follow so far.

“We’re going to get out of the car,” he told her in the same commanding tone. “I’m going to stand by the driver’s door, looking unthreatening.”

She made a noise and his brows rose, so she made herself nod. And reminded herself that a great many people seemed to have no trouble missing the fact that he was the most threatening man around—which in Grizzly Harbor was saying something.

And Caradine absolutely refused to allow herself to think about what might happen if whoever was in this house correctly identified him as the threat he was, when they could pick him off with a single shot. Her stomach hurt, but she did her best to ignore that, too.

“You’re going to walk toward the house. Whatever happens, remember that I have eyes on you. And so does everyone else.” He paused, his head angling slightly to one side, and it took her a second to realize he was listening to something on his comm unit. “Everyone’s in position, and there’s no sign of anyone else lurking around out there. Okay?”

Caradine nodded again, because she couldn’t bring herself to speak. Because what could she say?I hope you don’t die for me because I don’t know if I can bear it?

And she was more grateful in that moment for the calm, steady way he looked at her than she would ever be able to express, because it took the clamoring, panicked racket inside her down to an almost-bearable roar.

“Then let’s go,” Isaac said.

Caradine pushed open her door. Isaac did the same, and she watched as he got out the way a normal man might. He hitched up his cargo pants, when they didn’t need hitching. He stretched, the way a regular personmight after driving such a treacherous road. He looked around like a bemused tourist.

In contrast, she threw herself out like a wild animal who expected to bolt.

Get it together, she ordered herself. Before he did.

Isaac had told her to walk toward the house, so she made herself do it. And she might not have looked to see what eyes were on her from the second floor of the house, but she felt them. Her skin prickled, like ants were marching all over her.

Caradine couldn’t tell if it was a bad feeling, or just a feeling, and this probably wasn’t the time to decide she needed to learn how to tell the difference.

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