“She makes me want things I never thought I’d want. Makes me think about a future that doesn’t involve jumping out of planes and getting shot at for a living.” He met Con’s eyes. “There is no ‘I guess.’ I’msure.”
“Sure enough to risk everything? We can’t afford to lose another man on Charlie team. Denver’s replacement is in the works, but we’re still a man down.”
He gave his CO a brisk nod. “Sure enough to do whatever it takes to keep her alive.”
Con nodded slowly, but his expression remained troubled. “All right. But if you lose your objectivity—if you put the mission or the team at risk because you can’t think past your feelings for her, I’ll pull you from the op. Are we clear?”
“Crystal.”
Steele was almost to the door when he heard Dante’s voice in the hallway, low and concerned.
“—questioning whether this is a good idea,” Dante was saying to someone. “Steele’s normally got nerves of steel, but now? He’s like TNT waiting for a spark.”
“I know,” Mason replied from outside the door.
“Can we trust him?”
Steele paused, waiting for his teammate’s response.
“Do you want him here losing his shit while we try to run a complex operation?”
“Fair point.” Dante’s tone was thoughtful. “I always knew he needed to meet someone who could shake him up. I just hope none of us end up as collateral damage when it happens.”
“What do you mean?” Mason pitched his voice lower, but there was nothing wrong with Steele’s hearing. Each word echoed inside him.
Dante went on, “We’ve always liked that he’s predictable. We need him to be the steady one, the guy who doesn’t let emotions cloud his judgment. If he’s compromised…”
“Then we adapt,” Mason said firmly. “Same as we always do.”
Steele forced himself to move, to push open the door and step out into the hallway as if he hadn’t heard every damn word. He walked straight past his brothers-in-arms. Hell, hisbrothers.The only family he had left in the world.
Family whose words echoed in his head with uncomfortable accuracy.
They were right to be concerned. He was compromised, had been from the moment Izzy looked at him across that poker table and smiled like she’d found something worth winning.
The steady, predictable operative they’d relied on for years was gone, replaced by someone who would burn down the world to keep one woman safe.
The question was whether that made him a liability or an even more dangerous asset.
He supposed they were all about to find out.
* * * * *
“I can’t believe you still made me wear this damn hood even though I know where the base is.” Izzy’s voice was muffled from the depths of the blackout hood.
When Hudson just continued to drive, not bothering to respond to her, she folded her arms over her chest and tapped her foot on the car floor.
“Well?” she demanded.
“Well what?” Was that a smile she heard in his voice? Damn the irritating man.
Even though she couldn’t see him, she whipped toward him. “Why am I wearing the hood?”
“Because we never know who is watching, Izzy.”
A sliver of fear zigzagged down her spine. “Like?”
“CIA, FBI. Not to mention about a thousand cameras that can follow a man who’s supposed to be dead and a woman who has a target on her back through the city.”
