LITMIR.BIZ

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been on a few years ago, he’d been interested in everything she had to say, asking questions and talking for hours when they met for their first interview two days ago. He’d been the one to ask her to meet him for dinner instead of at her office, so the water was a little muddy when it came to what to call tonight. Especially since he kept disappearing with his phone, more distracted every time he returned to the table until she’d cut him loose.

      “At least you won’t have to restart your story.”

      “Thankfully.” Casey had already conducted interviews with two soldiers and had several more in-person and telephone interviews lined up... All except the one she’d rather not schedule at all. If she’d lost all her work, had lost her contacts or her calendar... She let her eyes drift shut, focusing on the averted technology disaster over the averted physical one. “The laptop’s locked, so everything’s safe, but still, the idea somebody has my stuff...”

      “It’s violating. I know. I felt the same way when someone broke into my car and stole my keys last year. Even after I changed the locks, it still felt like somebody was creeping around in the dark corners of my house.”

      “Well, they were.”

      “Yeah, but—”

      On the coffee table, Casey’s phone vibrated on the glass. Kristin reached for it and glanced at the screen, then turned it toward Casey. “Travis is calling you.”

      “Let it ring.” Right now, she was too vulnerable, too willing to let her fear and overwrought emotions fool her into thinking he was the one who got away, that everything would be so much better if she had him beside her right now, holding her close while she leaned on his strong shoulder the way he’d let her at the crime scene.

      Kristin dropped the phone onto the coffee table with a clatter. “If you don’t answer, he’s coming over here. You know how he is. He was worried enough when he called Lucas.”

      “Text him and tell him you’re here and all is well.”

      “Casey...”

      “Just do it. I can’t talk to him right now.”

      Kristin fired off a text, clearly irritated, then shoved the device onto the table beside Casey’s. “He’s a good guy. No matter what’s happened between you in the past, you owe him a thank-you for being there tonight.”

      Casey begged to differ about him being a good guy, but yeah, she did owe him a thank-you for being a hero if nothing else. But when it came to forgiving him? It would take a whole lot more than him playing superhero.

      * * *

      Travis dropped his cell phone to the desk and stared out the window at the small strip of trees standing guard behind his apartment building. He missed the beach, the deep darkness over water where the only light came from the moon and stars. Living in a landlocked town might allow him to be close to post, but it didn’t give him a whole lot of opportunities to indulge his appreciation for nature.

      He should have joined the navy, then he’d have had all the water he ever wanted. Whole oceans of it.

      But he wouldn’t have been in place to help Lucas when he stared down danger in February. And he wouldn’t have been in place tonight to save Casey Jordan from a man who may have wanted money or something more. He still wasn’t sure which. All he could see when he closed his eyes was the gun, pointed unwaveringly at both of them.

      He’d seen the aftermath of violence before. Had watched a good soldier and a better friend take the hit right in front of him, an image that overlaid tonight’s near-tragedy in rivers of blood. Sergeant Neil Aiken had been one of the best, and he’d died right in front of Travis, leaving a wife and two little ones behind to face the world without him.

      And he’d still be here today if it hadn’t been for Travis’s foolish mistake.

      Travis’s arms still bore scars from the shrapnel, but he’d survived. Had he been at the head of his team like he should have been, he’d have been the one to plant a boot in the wrong place.

      Pulse pounding, Travis jerked the cord on the blinds and shut out the world. In a couple of weeks, he’d pack his bags and go to selection, then on to training for the Special Missions Unit that would take him far away from here.

      And far away from Casey Jordan. For a few months with her, he’d let himself believe he could hold her close without getting attached. Then one day, the danger of such a belief hit him from the left. He’d been at her apartment, sitting on the couch with her snuggled beside him, watching some silly rom-com, his fingers toying with the ends of her hair... In the perfect peace of the moment, he’d known a depth of emotion he’d never felt before. It quaked something inside him, and when he’d kissed her goodbye he’d felt a kind of desperate, indefinable something that made him want to cling to her forever.

      That night, his nightmares had amped their intensity, walking him again and again through the horrible day he’d been injured and Neil Aiken had died. He’d paced the floor in a desperate blend of guilt and fear that had made him want to claw at his own skin. He couldn’t love a woman like Casey. Couldn’t let her take over his life. He had too much to pay for sending one of his men ahead of him to die.

      The next morning he’d texted Casey to tell her they were finished, full of lame excuses, aware such disrespect was the coward’s way out but knowing he could never go through with it if he heard her voice.

      Now she’d reappeared in time to bring a deluge of memories with her.

      In time to remind him of everything he’d lost when he walked away from her. If anything, she was more beautiful than he remembered. Casey’s gray eyes still had the ability to stop him where he stood, those same eyes that had made other men look twice when they saw her, something she never seemed to notice. Her blond hair had grown longer, though it still didn’t quite touch her shoulders. Shoulders that came to his chest, a fit he’d never known before or since.

      But the fit had been all wrong.

      Adrenaline and memories wouldn’t let him sleep anytime soon—if at all—so Travis poured a tall glass of soda and only wished for a second he had something stronger to mix in. He’d been down that road after Neil Aiken died, hard and heavy. Drinking hadn’t solved anything, hadn’t brought anybody back from the dead. It had made the memories worse and his thoughts exponentially more morbid.

      So instead of wallowing in the past, he’d tried to call Casey. After seeing death charge her this evening, all he wanted was to hear her voice one more time, to reassure himself he’d succeeded in saving her. If he knew she was okay, he could put all of this to rest again and go on with his life without her.

      But she wasn’t answering her phone, having Kristin text him instead of doing it herself. It shouldn’t cut, but it did.

      She was probably upset with him for going behind her back to call Kristin, but that was fine. It wasn’t like things between them could get worse. She hadn’t spoken to him in months anyway. Not that she should. He’d been the one to walk away. He’d had to, and he couldn’t give her an explanation without making everything harder than it already was.

      Travis took a long draw from his Pepsi and eyed the TV. Noise. Distraction. Anything would be better than the racket inside his own head.

      His phone screamed from the desk, and he set the drink beside it, answering the call right before it went to voice mail. Casey. Desperate to know she was really still there, he didn’t even bother with a hello. “You doing okay?”

      The question stopped whatever she’d planned to say. She stuttered, then fell silent before she spoke. “Yeah, I am now. I wanted to thank you for stepping in.” Her voice was uncharacteristically subdued. “You could have been shot.”

      “So could you.” The thought brought those same fears he’d felt the night he’d left her. His leg muscles tensed, and he fought to relax. She really was safe. Things had worked out...this time. “Just the simple actions of your everyday superhero, ma’am.”

      She

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