Mantis (K19 Security Solutions 4)
She was as smart or smarter than any professor at the Air Force Academy, more beautiful than a super model, stubborn, prideful, independent, feisty, funny, and sexy as hell. She was warm and caring but could be as aloof and cold as the Arctic. She was demanding of others, but equally of herself.
And then there was the side of her that was insecure, doubtful of her worth in life, needy, clingy, and petulant.
“I don’t know if I can narrow what I know about Alegria to five things.”
“Think about her as Manon, then.”
He smiled at his mother’s insight. They all hid behind their call signs from time to time.
“That isn’t much easier.”
“It should be.”
He decided to test the water. “Smart, stubborn, independent…”
“Keep going. Two more.”
“Sexy as hell.”
His mother looked around and smiled.
“You didn’t tell me to edit.”
“And I don’t want you to. One more.”
He thought for several minutes about what final word he would use to describe her, weighing all the things he’d thought of. “Insecure,” he finally settled on.
“One would wonder what kind of wars wage inside of a woman like that.”
He smiled. “Would one?”
She smiled too and nodded. “Think about it, Gehring.”
He didn’t need to. He understood what his mother was trying to get him to recognize for himself.
“What’s the worse that can happen if you go to Boston?” she asked.
“She could refuse to see me, rip my heart out, and leave me a shell of the man I once was.”
“Hasn’t she already done most of that?”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“I’m serious, Gehring. Haven’t you already experienced all of that and lived through it?”
“Doesn’t mean I want to again.”
“No? You’re saying she isn’t worth it?”
“Is that what I’m saying?”
“More than my other two sons, you’re the one I’ve always believed would never give up. You’ll fight for what you believe in until the bitter end, and then, you’ll fight again to keep it that way. Don’t give up, Gehring. Keep fighting—not just for what you believe in—for the woman you love.”
“What if I can’t do both?”
She shook her head. “You can do both and pile another ten things on top of them, and you know it.”
“You have such faith in me.”