His Woman in Command & Operations: Forbidden: His Woman in Command / Operation: Forbidden. Lindsay McKenna
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way—our base camp where you’re assigned isn’t that far away. We have BJS here with Apache helos to help us out if we’re attacked. We know you gals will hightail it in our direction and drop the goods on the Taliban so we’ll survive to fight them another day.”
“I have never met such an optimist,” Nike said.
“I don’t like the other possibility. Do you?” Gavin asked. He watched the clouds reflect pinkish light across the valley. In the background, he could hear the bleating of sheep and goats from their pens within the village. At dusk, boys tending the herds brought them into the village to protect them against wild animals and roving Taliban. Both two- and four-legged predators were always hungry for village meat.
Feeling uneasy and caring too much for Gavin even though she didn’t want to, Nike said, “No, I don’t like the alternative. This is a dangerous mission.”
“Yeah, it is. We’re out in the wilderness and the bad guys are right over that mountain to the east of us.” He lifted his gloved hand to point at the darkened peaks. Bringing his hand down, he wrapped his arms around her once more. “Don’t worry, we know our job, Nike. We’ve already survived a year here.”
“And you’re on your second tour.”
Hearing the flatness in her tone, Gavin nodded. “We’re slowly making a difference. I’d give my right arm to find bin Laden. All of us would. It would change the tempo of this war against the terrorists.”
Nike understood army hunter-killer teams were all about finding terrorists and Taliban. “So, how are you feeling about this more peaceful assignment of working in this village as an ambassador of goodwill?”
“I like it.”
“But it takes you off the front lines.”
“Not really.” Gavin looked to the north of the village. Kerosene lamps were lit and the mud and stone homes that had windows glowed golden. He liked dusk, even though from a wartime perspective, it was a killing time, when the enemy sneaked up and took lives. “With General Chapman coming here to Afghanistan, the priority has shifted to focus on these boundary villages. If we can get these people to trust us, they will let us know when Taliban are coming through. The villagers could be our eyes and ears. If we can stop the Taliban’s advancement into this country, that’s a good thing for everyone. In the end, it will save a lot of lives.”
“I like your general’s philosophy.”
“So do I. If I could, I’d have world peace. As it is, there’s world war.”
Nike shook her head. “I grew up in a peaceful Greece.”
“And yet, Greece has had its fair share of revolutions, too.”
“Granted.” Nike observed the pinkish sky, now fading. Darkness began to encroach across the narrow valley. “I wish for the day when there are no more wars anywhere. No more killing. I’ve seen enough of it. All people want to do is live in peace and get on with their lives.”
“It’s the same here,” Gavin acknowledged. “Abbas was saying that all he wanted for his people was to be left alone to eke out their survival in this valley. He’s grown old before his time because of the Russians and now the Taliban intrusion.”
“Afghanistan needs decades of peaceful downtime,” Nike agreed. But there had been none for them.
A wonderful sense of happiness bubbled up within her but it warred with sadness at her loss of Antonio. Suddenly bothered by her proximity to Gavin, she frowned. “I don’t know what’s going on between us,” she admitted quietly.
Gavin gazed down at Nike. Even in the semidarkness he could see the worry register in her face. “Why try to decipher it? Why not just let it be natural and flow?”
Her stomach was filled with those butterflies. The only other man to make her feel this way had been Antonio. “It’s not that simple,” she told him.
“When I first saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Most of all, I liked your gold eyes,” Gavin confided softly. “You have the look of a lioness.”
Her heart beat a little harder. Gavin was sincere. Or at least, he sounded sincere. That meant she had to take his compliment seriously. Antonio had been so much like him: a gentle warrior, a man of philosophy, of much greater depth and breadth than most men. “Thank you. My grandmother had the same color eyes. They run in the women of our family.”
“You’re feeling tense. Why?”
Nike pulled out of his arms and faced him. Oh, she didn’t want to do that, but if she remained in the protection of Gavin’s arms, she would lose all reason. Did this man realize the mesmerizing power he had over her? She searched his hooded blue eyes. The shadows of the night made his face dark and fierce-looking. “Look, I’ve got a lot of past history, Gavin, and I don’t want you to think the wrong things about us.”
Hearing the desperation in her tone, he nodded. “What happened to make you feel this way?”
It was the right question. Again, Nike squirmed inwardly. She’d talked to no one about the loss of her beloved Antonio nearly two years ago. Only Dallas, who had been executive officer of BJS in Peru, knew the full story. She had been her confidante, her healer up to a point. A heaviness settled into Nike’s chest and once more she felt old grief discharging from her wound. Opening her gloved hands, Nike said, “I fell in love with a Peruvian army officer whose job it was to locate and capture drug-runners.” The next words were so hard to say, but Nike felt driven to give Gavin the truth. “Antonio was an incredible person. He had graduated from Lima’s university in archaeology, but the men in his family all had served in the army. So he went in and I met him when he was a captain. He loved his country and he saw what the drug-running was doing to it. Without fail, he would volunteer for the most dangerous missions to eradicate the dealers.”
“He sounds like a fine man,” Gavin said. “Courageous.”
“Yes, well, that courage got him killed,” Nike bit out. Looking down at the dark, muddy ground, she added, “I told him that he was going to get killed if he kept it up. But he wouldn’t listen. And then…it happened. Two years ago.”
Gavin measured the look in her wounded eyes and heard the hurt in her husky voice. Reaching out, he placed his hand gently upon her drooping shoulders and whispered, “I’m sorry. He must have been one hell of a man to get your attention.”
Tiny ripples of heat radiated from where his hand had momentarily rested on her shoulder. Looking up, Nike searched Gavin’s narrowed, intense blue eyes and shook her head. “Listen, I learned the hard way—in our business if you fall in love with a military person, you’re going to lose him.”
“That’s not always true.”
“Yes, it is.”
Gavin heard the stubbornness in her tone. Looking into Nike’s eyes for some hint that it wasn’t the truth she really believed, he felt a sinking sensation in his gut. Something hopeful and newly born shattered in his chest. After all, he had been burned but good by Laurie Braverman a year ago. Gavin had sworn off military women for another reason. He hadn’t lost someone he loved to death. He had lost her because they simply could not compromise with one another.
“Maybe you just need time,” Gavin counseled gently, removing his hand. He ached to kiss Nike. The set of her full lips, the way the corners of her mouth were drawn in, told him the pain she still carried over the death of the Peruvian captain.
“No,” Nike said grimly, “time isn’t going to change my mind.” She stared up at him, her voice firm. “You need to know the truth. I shouldn’t have led you on. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not sorry at all, Nike. Look, we all need someone at some time.”
His mouth was so beautifully sculpted. Good thing he couldn’t read her mind. He had the lips of Apollo, the sun god. And wasn’t Gavin a bit of sunshine