Strategic Engagement (Wingmen Warriors 5)

Psychological warfare on the home front.

He'd studied and experienced the power of mental mind games in the POW phase of military survival training. And for her, the propaganda crap had come from someone she had every right to trust, someone who'd vowed to love and cherish her.

When had anyone cherished this woman?

Damn straight he didn't agree with her decisions, but he understood how she'd arrived there. She'd been betrayed by her husband and her parents. Why should she trust him, someone who'd already let her down before?

Yet even as he saw the wounded pieces of her, he couldn't mistake the grit. Hell, yeah, she may not have made his kind of choices, but she'd kept right on moving.

He'd seen bravery and cowardice in a hundred different forms. And, God, was he ever in awe of this woman right now.

She inched her hair from between his fingers. "Are we clear? I'm leaving, and I'll be careful. I'm going to find a private investigator and try to put an end to this. But I can't let it touch you and the boys anymore. I only told you this much so you're aware and can be careful for their sakes. I did not tell you so you could launch into a commando protector and solve my problems for me. I am leaving."

Like hell.

She wasn't taking one step out that door without him five steps in front of her, between her and whatever waited. Daniel shook off the sentimental fog, emotional crap that would distract him, get her hurt. She could make this easy. Or she could make it tough.

Mary Elise picked up her suitcase.

Okay, so it would be tough.

Ducking a shoulder into her stomach, Danny hefted her up. She gasped, deep. Damn. She was gonna get vocal.

Planting a hand on her bottom—ah, hell—he forestalled her with, "Shout and you'll upset the boys."

"Danny," she threatened through gritted teeth. "Put me down." Her suitcase thumped his leg.

Deliberate? Or accidental.

Ow, damn it. Deliberate.

Daniel flung her on the sofa. On her back. Already she arched up.

Something snapped in her eyes. All that Mary Elise calm and restraint unraveled into a tangle as convoluted as her hair twisting through her hoop earrings. Any minute she would lose it, and he couldn't let that happen, for her or his brothers.

Daniel dropped, flattened her fast. His body pinned hers in a full-length press to the sofa. "You're not going anywhere."

She bucked under him. "I'm damned tired of people controlling my life.">The guilt had torn her. She'd chosen to marry Kent, after all. She owed him better than she'd given him, half of herself. Now from the clearer perspective of distance, she wondered if he'd somehow sensed her feelings and manipulated them all the more to persuade her to give him whatever he wanted.

Daniel shoved to his feet, pacing enough to wear tread marks in the carpet with his boots. "We'll get another restraining order. I'm here to help keep space between you and the jerk before things turn violent. Mary Elise, you can't just keep running."

"It's too late for that. I know this may be difficult to take in. There are certainly plenty of people out there who think I'm only out to tarnish his reputation. But Kent went off the deep end when I left him." She closed her eyes and sucked in air to keep her voice steady. What would she do if Danny didn't accept her story?

Mary Elise rose to her feet. She didn't have a choice but to make him believe her. He stood with his back to her, which seemed the perfect time to tell him. She wouldn't have to see his skepticism. Not right away.

"Danny, I moved to Rubistan because Kent hired a hit man to kill me." Even the words chilled her. She tamped down the images and concentrated on reading Daniel.

Tension rippled the muscles along his shoulders in visible waves under his flight suit, but still he didn't turn. Thank God, because she wasn't sure she could keep talking if she found disbelief on his face. But she would talk, had to. Damn Kent straight to hell, she wasn't the wounded woman who ran to Rubistan anymore.

"Shortly after I left him, I suspected I was being followed, but I thought it was just Kent and more of his hurtful messages, like the bottle or the plant. Then a man with a gun caught me getting out of my car in front of my apartment. He planned to fake my suicide." The remembered cold press of the gun to her temple pushed through her concentration. "He told me Kent had sent him. Even gave me a message from Kent no one else could have known."

Her secret name for their last child, a name she hadn't dared share with anyone except Kent because she couldn't take the hesitant looks from people if she dared be hopeful.

"I realize it sounds crazy. God knows the cops and even my parents were skeptics." She winced. Great. Way to go giving him the idea if he hadn't already thought of it himself. "I never dreamed something like that could happen to me. It seems the sort of story you only hear about from celebrities or in tabloids. But it happens. It happened to me."

She waited.

And waited, reassuring herself that no matter what his reaction, she would hang tough. She would be strong and walk out the door today despite Danny's offer to help. The time had come for her to deal with the shambles Kent had made of her life, but she couldn't do it here. She'd leave to protect the boys. To protect Danny.