Strategic Engagement (Wingmen Warriors 5)

"Good, then you'll be processed through the base. In the meantime, you have to stay somewhere. With your parents or me?" Daniel leaned closer, bay rum obliterating hydraulic fluid in a sensory tidal wave. "It's your call to make, and quite frankly, I need you more right now."

Chapter 3

"You need me?" Mary Elise enunciated slowly.

Daniel watched her brows pull together over confused green eyes. He wasn't feeling much steadier himself.He braced a hand against the bulkhead and planted both boots for balance. Where the hell had his words come from?

There were probably a hundred different services he could call to help at a moment's notice. He knew at least a dozen women who would enjoy nothing more than mothering the boys as a way to entice him into being "emotionally available."

And none of them were Mary Elise.

He tried to tell himself his motives for keeping her close were rooted in protectiveness. That long-ago connection had kicked into overdrive in the past few minutes. Right about the time he'd mentioned calling Savannah.

He didn't consider himself an intuitive guy, a fact reinforced by his double-digit tally of breakups. But even he could sense something was wrong here. Her edginess should be easing with every mile they put between themselves and Rubistan.

Should be.

But wasn't.

Eleven years of distance between them didn't matter. He owed this woman, and until her frown smoothed, he wouldn't back off.

He was doing this for her. And for the boys. Not because he wanted to find out if the freckles dotting her smooth creamy skin had faded with age. "I need your help with stuff like asthma meds and nut allergies. At this rate, the boys won't make it through the week with me.">"We are talking." Her spine pulled straighter—which exposed a tempting patch of graceful neck.

He nodded toward his brothers. "Away from them so they can't read your body language. I need to know more about what happened in Rubistan if I'm going to keep them safe."

Tension rippled through her.

He resisted the urge to stroke her arm, cup her shoulder and pull her to him. Worse than wanting to palm her breast, he wanted Mary Elise to fling her arms around his neck like so many times before.

Damn, he'd missed her. Missed their easy friendship. No surprise he'd screwed it up. A slew of failed relationships since with casserole-cooking and uniform-ironing women hammered home his shortcomings in the relationship department. The latest to walk had deemed him "emotionally unavailable."

Whatever the hell that meant.

Sure, he was sorry when each relationship self-destructed. But not one of them had left a hole in his life. Except Mary Elise.

His grip tightened as if he could somehow reinvent the past by holding tighter. She winced.

He raised his hands, backing away. "Sorry."

For so many damned things he wouldn't do any differently now. Emotionally unavailable worked well for him.

"Let me get the boys settled, Danny. We can talk once they're asleep."

At least she didn't argue or pretend they could ignore the fact that she stood in his plane in place of the boys' nanny from Florida.

He didn't know why she was here. Didn't know why it mattered so damned much to him. But he did owe her. "Thanks for getting them out of there."

"I'd do it for anyone."

Yes, she would. But she hadn't done it for anyone. She'd done it for him. And just as when she'd passed him that Ho-Ho twenty-two years ago, he couldn't walk away.

Mary Elise sagged into the seat across from the two crew bunks in the Spartan sleeping cubicle behind the cockpit. Trey tangled in the covers on the top, slack-jawed with exhaustion. On the bottom, Austin clutched his ragged sailboat quilt, sucking on a corner as if he could somehow taste home.

How much would the little guy remember of the ordeal, the crate, the escape?Would he remember his parents?

Franklin Baker hadn't been the best of fathers to Daniel, but he'd been trying to compensate with Trey and Austin. Their mother may have been a dim bulb, but she'd loved her boys. They'd loved her.

Trey and Austin had been shuffled so much in their short lives—born in the States, moving a couple of years ago, now back again. And the turmoil wasn't over yet. A new home. A guardian they didn't even know.