"You gonna fill us in on the woman?" asked Caleb. "All we know is you came back to Delta for one last mission. Is she it?"
David nodded. "She has to stay alive, no matter what."
"That goes without saying," said Caleb evenly. "She's a woman."
"No, it's bigger than just the fact that she's a woman. A few weeks ago, some of our guys took down a group of men they suspected of selling weapons. They weren't just any group, they were the Swarm."
"So how does she fit in?" asked Grant.
"She's smart. Really smart. Monroe tracked me down and pulled me back in to protect her. She's the only surviving person who has any chance at all of cracking this old code. It contains the location of a cache of stolen warheads.
Needless to say, the Swarm wants it for themselves, which means they also want her."
"Oh, God," whispered Grant, his golden eyes going wide with fear.
Caleb's face darkened with anger, his nostrils flaring.
David looked from one horrified buddy to the other, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. "You gonna share why you're both so freaked out?"
Caleb swallowed hard before he spoke. "We also intercepted a communication talking about how some U.S.
scientist is selling off plans for the production of unmanned aerial weapons deployment vehicles. The new ones designed to be undetectable by radar, with enough range to reach anywhere within a couple of hundred miles inland.
We weren't too worried because there'd been no chatter about bioweapons, which was our biggest concern."
"But if they get their hands on those nukes..." concluded David, feeling his stomach sink to his boots.
"Then they'll have everything they need to wipe out any major U.S. coastal city of their choice," finished Caleb.
David's buddies both looked at him as if hoping he'd tell them they were wrong. He wished to God he could. "We can't let that happen."
"How close is she to breaking the code?" asked Grant.
"I don't know. Close, I think, but I don't want her knowing about this. She's already under too much pressure."
Both men nodded in agreement.
"What can we do to help?" asked Grant.
David took a deep breath before he was able to speak. Things were quickly becoming more complicated than he liked. "Did you bring any gear? Perimeter alarms, communications equipment?"
"No. We just barely managed to get here at all. We figured they wouldn't look for us for a while, considering our op, but missing equipment... that'd be spotted right away."
David spat out a violent curse. "This place isn't secure."
"No, it's not," said Caleb. "I built it to be private, not necessarily defensible. I can usually take care of myself no matter where I am."
"I don't mean to insult your cabin, man. I just don't! know where else to take her."
"A safe house?" suggested Grant. David grunted. "Not so safe. The last two we were at were attacked. Someone on the inside leaked her location the first time. The second time I did it myself so I could take them out."
The buddies shared a look that promised violence if they found the person responsible for leaking classified information.
"So, how do you want to play this, Captain?" asked Grant, his gold eyes glinting with eagerness.
David shook his head. "We stay here until she's finished cracking the damn code. Once we know what it says, we may know what to do next. Until then, I'm open to suggestions."
Caleb's black eyes narrowed in thought as he scanned the tree line. "There are only a couple of ways up this mountain and only one road that comes all the way up here. Grant and I can keep watch there while you stick by her side."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea," said David. "I'm not sure she really wants me around."
"I'll stay with her," volunteered Grant, waggling his blond brows.
David gave him an order that would have been anatomically impossible to obey.
Grant just smiled.
Caleb shook his head like a father over bickering boys. "I'll stay with her if you want, and you know I'd never touch another man's woman, but I think if you ask her, she'll want you instead."
"A man can dream," said David.
"You two go get that coffee," said Caleb. "I'll go get our gear."
"Want some help?" offered Grant.
"No. I know you're dying to talk to David about something, so now's your chance to gossip like an old lady."
Grant blinked in surprise but said nothing as Caleb logged off with long, powerful strides.
"What's he talking about?" asked David.
Grant rubbed the back of his neck as if it ached. "I thought I was being subtle. All I did was say how nice it would be to find you and get to talk to a man on the outside who understood what it was like to be part of Delta. I didn't think Caleb would figure out I wanted to talk to you alone."
"About what?"
Grant pressed his lips together in a thin line. "I'm thinking about getting out. Leaving the military."
David tried not to show his surprise. Grant loved his job—or at least he had for as long as David had known him, which had been since basic training. "Why?"
Grant's golden eyes closed. "It's starting to get to me." He swallowed and David could see his friend straining to hold back some unnamed emotion. "Last month, we took out a camp of hostiles that were involved in gathering some serious firepower. It wasn't anything new, except these were ... kids. God, some of them couldn't have even been teenagers yet."
David was glad he had no idea what killing a child felt like. At least that was one sin he'd never committed.
"That doesn't make them any less deadly," said David.
Grant nodded, but didn't open his eyes. "I know. We lost a good man that night in the firefight. Like me, Evans hesitated when he saw they were just kids. It cost him his life."
"And you're worried the same thing might happen for you."
Grant looked at him then, a frantic, painful gaze that begged for help. "Or one of the other men. If anything happened to Caleb because of me ..."
David tried to shut down his reaction to the thought of either of his friends getting killed, but it was too late. That worry had already taken root and started to grow, piling right on top of his already respectable pile of worries. "He can take care of himself," said David, trying to convince himself that was all there was to it.
Grant gave a humorless grunt. "And everyone around him, apparently. But we're partners. We cover each other's backs. Now that you're gone, I hate to leave him."
David felt a stab of guilt once again for leaving his friends behind. He should have been a stronger man—should have been strong enough to put his grief aside and keep fighting. "What does he say?"
Grant's mouth lifted in a grin. "He says I need to get married and give him some kids to play with. His brothers aren't doing their procreative duty fast enough to suit him."
"Is that what you want?"
Grant was quiet for a while, staring out at the surrounding forest. "Yeah. It's what I've wanted for a long time. We visited Caleb's brother, Saul, last year. He's having some trouble with the ranch back home. Saul could use a hand and I have two good ones."
"So what's holding you back?"
"Caleb. He's ... scaring me lately. Something happened a few months ago. An op went bad and he blames himself.
He's taking chances he shouldn't." Grant pinned David with a hard stare. "You know what I mean."
David felt his gut give a sickening twist. Caleb's guilt was making him take risks he shouldn't. Making him not care whether or not he lived through an op. When guilt got too big to bear, oblivion looked like a good solution. David knew all too well. "Yeah, I know."
"So you see why I can't just leave. No one else knows Caleb like we do. He needs me to keep him steady so he doesn't do anything stupid."
"Does he want out, too?" Getting out of Delta was what saved David's life and those of his buddies. He'd gotten careless in a job where that flaw could easily have been fatal.
Grant shook his head. "Not a chance."
David sighed. He didn't like this at all. Grant and Caleb were his closest friends, and even though he hadn't been able to keep in touch with them for a long time, it was like no time had passed at all. Being with them again was as natural as breathing. He had to figure out some way to keep them both safe.
"What about reassignment to something safer? Intel? Training? Would Caleb go for that?"
"I don't know. He might if it comes as less of a suggestion than an order."
"You want me to talk to Monroe?" asked David.
Grant heaved out a weary sigh. "He'd kill me if he j knew I'd put you up to it. He'd kill you for doing it."
"He'll kill himself if we don't."
"I've been thinking about asking him to come with me to his family's ranch. You know, an extended leave without actually making a commitment."
"What good is that going to do?"
"It would give him a taste of life on the outside for a while. He has a great family—four brothers and a baby sister.
They're all hardheaded, but they welcome him home with so much love it's hard to believe he'd be able to leave them again, especially since he's needed there. Who knows, he might even catch himself a woman and change his mind about going back."
David thought of Noelle. He hadn't known her for very long, but already, he wondered just how much he'd willingly give up if he thought he had even a slim chance of keeping her. "It could work."
"I have to try something, Captain. I can't let him keep nsking his life like this. He's saved me a hundred times over.
The least I can do is try to save him this once."
"I'll talk to Monroe about an extended leave, assuming you both aren't kicked out completely for coming to help me." Part of him hoped they were. At least then his friends would be safe. Maybe not happy, but safe.
Grant gave a sheepish grin. "Caleb would do damn near anything for you. The fact that there was a woman in I rouble only sweetened the deal."
"He's a good man."
"One of the best," agreed Grant. "Which is why I have to keep his ass out of trouble. I could never stand to face his family if I let him get himself killed."
David knew that facing Caleb's family would be the least of Grant's problems if Caleb died. He'd have to learn lo live with the guilt of knowing he couldn't bring Caleb hack. That was a hell of a lot worse—something David knew from experience. "God willing, you won't have to. One way or another, we'll protect Caleb, even if it means getting him kicked out."
Owen frowned at the arrival of David's men. He liked a challenge, but the odds were quickly being stacked against him. That simply wouldn't do.
He wasn't foolish enough to risk losing the girl, which meant he was going to have to call for backup, and not some snot-nosed punk like Brian. Real backup—men he'd trained himself—men who knew the price of failure.
Owen slid silently back out of sight. The big guy they called Caleb kept looking his way, and even though Owen knew he couldn't be seen, those black eyes of Caleb's were still disconcerting. He was going to have to do something about that man before things got out of hand. He was far too dangerous to leave alive.