Mantis (K19 Security Solutions 4)

Dutch shrugged. “It’s complicated. Her surgery…you. She says it’s over, but I know she still loves you.”

“I’m serious, Dutch. I can’t be who she needs.”

“That’s what she says.”

“Then why did you ask? Why are you making this complicated? It doesn’t sound like there’s any problem other than the one you’re creating.”

“I love her enough to want her to be happy.”

“Do what it takes to make her so.”

—:—

“They’re on their way to Mogadishu,” Onyx told Alegria, setting down his phone after another call with Doc.

“What’s their ETA?”

“A little over two hours. Their signal is spotty. Dutch told Doc he’d check in again once they reached the city. That’s all I know for now, ma’am.”

“Thank God,” she murmured. “Onyx, you don’t have to call me ma’am. We’re equal partners in K19.”

He smiled and shook his head. “Habit. It’s the same with Doc. He always says he isn’t the boss, but even Gunner, Razor, and Mercer think of him that way.”

What Onyx said was true. Kade “Doc” Butler was the sometimes-reluctant head of K19 Security Solutions even though there were three other founding partners—Tabon “Razor” Sharp, Gunner Godet, and Mercer “Eighty-eight” Bryant. Doc’s wife, Merrigan, was the fifth to be considered a “senior” partner and was also the official managing director.

Besides Alegria and Onyx, there were three other former operatives that had recently joined the firm as “junior” partners—Dutch, Griffin “Striker” Ellis, and Rhys “Monk” Perrin. Alegria had heard that an offer was extended to Mantis, but he hadn’t accepted. She wondered if he’d declined because of her and Dutch’s relationship.

Every partner, whether junior or senior, had served in at least one branch of the military and had also worked for the CIA, where most of their contracted work came from. The K19 team specialized in black and clandestine ops, asset protection, interrogation, and when necessary—assassination. Thus, extracting one of their own from a hostage situation before their true identity became known was always paramount.

“You should get some rest, ma’am,” suggested Onyx, once again using the unnecessary honorific.

She could probably do as he suggested now that she knew both of the men who had been part of her life since she was a teenager were safe.

She had been fresh off a plane from France and about to enter the United States Air Force Academy as a French foreign exchange cadet when she met them.

At the time, she’d had every intention of returning to her home country after she graduated, but when the Air Force offered her a pilot training slot, she knew she’d spend her life in the country that was willing to make her dreams of being a fighter pilot come true.

There had been another reason she didn’t return to France—Gehring “Mantis” Cassman. For a long time, she believed they’d spend their lives together. They’d get married, have a family, leave the military, and maybe become commercial airline pilots.

The deeper they got into the covert activities of the CIA after they both retired from the Air Force, the less she believed that dream would ever come true. The separate missions they were assigned kept them apart for months at a time.

Their relationship suffered the most after they’d both returned from different six-month ops. Alegria had planned a vacation to France for them, but within days of being home, Mantis informed her that he was deploying again. She’d been as livid as she was disappointed, and when she’d told him so, they broke up for the first time in what would become many.

“It’s never been a secret that I take my duty very seriously,” he’d said.

“And I don’t?”

“It isn’t the same for you.”

“What does that mean?” She’d had to prod him to continue, and finally, he suggested that because s

he hadn’t been born in the United States, she couldn’t possibly have the same level of commitment to service that he had. She’d slapped his face.

The roller coaster ride of missing each other so much after being apart for weeks or months, getting back together, and then breaking up again, continued for years. Until one day, she’d had enough and climbed off.

She’d never stopped loving him, though. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she hoped he’d realize she was more important to him than his duty, but so far that hadn’t happened. And even if it did, it was too late. She was with Dutch now.

“Ma’am,” she heard Onyx say from the other side of the closed door.