“We aren’t going anywhere until you tell me where the hell the man I’ve known since we were eighteen years old disappeared to, cuz I’ll tell you what, I don’t know you at all.”
“You’re full of shit. Just because you—”
“This has nothing to do with me. What happened in Afghanistan?”
Mantis scrubbed his face with this hand. “Nothing.”
“Wrong answer. Something happened.”
“I hunted down the target, and I killed him. End of story.”
“What about Alegria?”
“The woman you couldn’t keep your fucking hands off? What about her, Dutch?”
“You want her back?”
“Fuck you.”
“If you do, I’ll make it happen.”
Mantis wasn’t sure which he wanted to do more: get out of the SUV in the middle of the goddamn desert or kill Dutch with his bare hands. The way he saw it, those were his only two choices.
“If you want to try to make it work with her, I’ll walk away.”
“You think it’s that simple? What is she, a thing to be passed back and forth between us? Nice. Real nice, Dutch. And you say you love her.” Mantis shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about Afghanistan, and he sure as hell didn’t want to talk about Alegria. Particularly with the man she was currently sleeping with.
“Either you want her back or you don’t. It isn’t complicated.”
“You’re a bastard.”
Dutch put the vehicle into gear and pulled away from the side of the road. “If you want her back, just say so. How hard can that be?”
Of course he did; she was the love of his life. No woman could ever mean as much to him as Alegria did, but what he wanted didn’t matter. When he came back from the armpit of the world, namely Afghanistan, she wanted nothing to do with him.
The tone of Dutch’s voice changed. “What happened between you two?”
“I can’t be the man she needs me to be.”
“According to who? You or her?”
“When I came back, I had every intention of telling her I wanted to try to make it work between us.”
“And?”
“She said no.”
“Wait. You had every intention of telling her means you didn’t, so how could she say no?”
“She wasn’t interested in talking to me.”
“What are you saying, exactly?”
“I’m saying she isn’t interested. End of this story too. You’re with her. You should know this.”
Dutch nodded but didn’t say anything.
“You two are together, right?”