Hot Zone (Elite Force 2)

“Getting naked—or almost naked—together does take away certain boundaries.” And just that fast the air crackled between them, the awkwardness that he’d caused last night finally—thank God, finally—easing.

“I was thinking more of the life-and-death thing, but whatever.”

“Ah, that’s right. The sex meant so much to you that you walked away before I could pull up my pants.” That stung now even more than before.

Her hand fell on his arm, soft and cool against his sunburned skin. “That wasn’t very nice of me. I’m sorry again.” She reached past to tickle the chin of the kid squirming in the pack. “I don’t do so well with relationships these days. The past has a way of dogging a person, you know.”

That he did. He reached back to pat the wriggling kid’s shoulder. “You would blame all men because your ex was a jerk?”

“Are you really sure you want to have this kind of conversation?” Her feet slowed, her smile fading. “I got the impression this morning that you want to keep things lighter…”

That he did.

He grasped the shift in conversation with both hands and settled on the first topic that came to mind. Easy enough, with the kid grabbing hold of his ears tightly. “Your parents must be excited about their first grandchild.”

The air went thick, heavy with more than humidity. He ducked under a branch.

Her hand slid from her nephew and she stepped over a turtle lumbering across their path. “My mother doesn’t speak to my brother and me anymore.”

Surprise slowed his stride for a step. “And your father?”

“Is dead,” she said unemotionally, smoothing a hand over her pulled-back hair as if to restore… composure?

“I’m so very sorry.” He wasn’t sure what to read into her flat tone, her stiff spine. Her ponytail barely moved she was so in control of her every movement. “You must miss him…”

“All the more because I’m not close to my mom? If only it could be that simple. There’s no easy way to put this. My issues with men go back further than my ex-husband. My father was a convicted criminal… statutory rape was the charge… I have another far worse term for him.” She scraped a hand over her pulled-back hair again. “He killed himself rather than go to prison.”

Hugh tried to wrap his brain around what she’d said, definitely not where he’d been expecting this conversation to go. He searched for the right thing to say… and came up dry. Emotional stuff? Not his forte. He absently patted the toddler’s leg to keep him content, to give Amelia the quiet to gather her thoughts.

“He was caught with my brother’s girlfriend. She was fourteen, and she was not anywhere close to consenting.” She swept ahead of her with her walking stick, drawing semicircles in the sand ahead of them. “Dear old dad was going to cut a deal with the prosecution. He would get out after five years. He and Mom would move to the Keys afterward and start a new life away from the scandal. Away from others who might come forward to accuse him.”

“Your mother stayed with him?” Where had their children been in all of this? Defensiveness for the child Amelia had been seared through him.

“She vowed my brother and his girlfriend set him up, but I knew better.” Her upper lip curled. “I was the witness.”

The realization of how things unfolded struck him deep in his gut. He felt her pain, wanted to fix a wrong for her already over a decade old. “And your mother didn’t believe you?”

“She explained that away, as well. Said I was upset over not being Daddy’s little girl…” She rolled her eyes. “If he hadn’t killed himself, she would be with him now, starting off with her morning mimosa.”

“So you became the incorruptible lawyer.” Her quest for justice fell into place. What career would she have chosen with a different kind of childhood, a different father?

“And my brother is a surgeon with a specialty in genetics. Spends his spare time traveling for programs like Doctors Without Borders and Operation Smile, fixing the smiles of kids with cleft palates. Fixing children’s smiles… there’s symbolism there if ever I saw it.” She whacked a tree, sending a flock of birds flying.

He grabbed her shoulders, stopping her there under the sprawling branches. “You don’t have to pay for what your father did. It’s okay to live your life.”

“You’re one to preach about moving on with life,” she snapped.

Her words struck home. Hard. He should have followed his first instinct and stayed away from deep conversation and soul-searching today. But he couldn’t simply walk away from her. Maybe if he just… hugged her? He tugged her closer.

Her eyes went wide and he had to admit he was glad to have surprised her. Maybe that meant he was on the right track. She reached toward him…

Past him?

She shoved him aside with one hand and fell past him. Her push was surprisingly strong and he stumbled once before realizing she held a snake in her fist.

Shit.

She threw it away as he drew his gun and shot the head off.