Page 4 of Unintended Love

“Oh, my little tiger, you couldn’t have saved her. Not with a shot there.”

Well, damn. Here he was trying to comfort her. She was supposed to be comforting him.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Ashlin redirected the conversation, knowing it was a secure connection.

“We were on surveillance. Everyone in the camp below was passed-out drunk.” He looked at the floor. “We checked for lookouts. We were vigilant, with three-hundred-and-sixty-degree sweeps every few minutes.” He raised his eyes to look at her and pleaded, “I have no idea where the son of a bitch came from. I swear, I had just checked down the mountain behind us,” Clint sniffed. “He came out of nowhere, sneaking up behind Javier…” He took a swig from another bottle of beer, obviously reinforcing his voice. “And cut his throat.”

“Oh, Clint. I’m so sorry.”

“I snaked over and killed the motherfucker.” There was such resolve in his voice, his justification couldn’t be denied.

“Good!” Ashlin felt joy in his success, the same way she would have if her own teammate had taken out a target. “Then what did you do?”

“I scooped up Javier and called for a chopper.” His dark blue eyes met hers. “He’d lost too much blood by the time I got him to the landing zone.” His eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I couldn’t save him. I tried to…but I just couldn’t stop the bleeding.” He looked down again and wiped his eyes.

Ashlin watched his shoulders rise as he inhaled deeply and let the breath out slowly before he lifted his gaze back to hers. He raked his fingers through his long, dark hair hanging to his shoulders. She grinned inwardly at the flash of gold from his wedding ring. She wore hers on a titanium chain around her neck, like Piper and many members of Team 1 had done.

It was a few seconds before Clint spoke again. “I can’t tell his wife that,” he said, moving his head slowly from side to side.

“No, you can’t,” Ashlin agreed. “But you can tell her that he was killed in action, serving honorably.” She remembered similar words from the brief training they had on being a casualty assistance call officer (CACO).

“That sounds really good.” Clint took a sip from his new beer. “What else should I say?”

Because he sounded genuinely in need, she continued, “Don’t give her any of the details you just told me. Be short.” More details of being CACO popped into her mind. “You have to deal with the business of death. What’s going to happen to his body? What happens to her now? Is she living there in Ethiopia or here in the States?”

Clint quickly answered, “They have a house here on the compound.”

Ashlin suddenly felt worse for him. He had to do this in person rather than by phone. “Do you guys have any insurance on him for situations like this?”

“Yeah.” Clint was perking up more with each suggestion. “Because we recruit from active-duty military, we offer them a little bit more than the standard US military’s Servicemember’s Group Life Insurance.”

Ashlin was quite familiar with SGLI. The military currently carried half a million dollars on her as an Air Force Captain. During her last annual review, she had changed her beneficiary to Clint.

“Good, you need to be prepared to talk to her about that.” Her smart watch started to buzz. Damnit. Fifteen minutes had gone so fast. “I’m so sorry you lost your friend tonight. I’d love to sit here and help you come up with the best words to tell his widow, but I need to go. Literally. We’re heading out in just a few minutes.” Ashlin wished she could tell Clint that she was heading to Africa, not far from Ethiopia. But she couldn’t. Even though their conversations were encrypted end-to-end, operational security was priority one. No one could know where the Black Swan Team was headed.

Clint’s whole demeanor changed. “I guess, then, I’ll talk to you when you’re back. Thanks for helping me through some of the shit tonight.”

“I’m glad I was here for you,” she said in all sincerity.

“Stay safe,” he recited their typical last words.

“Good luck talking with the widow.” Ashlin was afraid he was going to need it. “You stay safe, too.” As she went to sign off, she took a good look at the man she’d married. “Hey, Clint. Shower and put on some clean clothes before you go to see the new widow. You’ll scare her to death wearing that.”

He smiled. “More good advice from my lovely wife.”

Ashlin kissed her fingers and put them over the camera as she repeated, “Stay safe.”

Chapter 2

In their customary ending, Clint kissed his fingers and put them over his computer camera, repeating his previous words, “Stay safe.” This time, those two simple words carried extra meaning. The last several hours had been a mortality check for him. He’d been hospitalized before as a consequence of a gunshot and again for being stabbed severely, but neither was a near-death experience.

While in the Army, he’d lost people. Some had served directly under him; only two had served at his side. No one had been as close to him as Javier, though. As he and Ashlin ended their call moments ago, it hit Clint like a building falling on top of him…her job was just as dangerous as his. He could lose her. She could be gone from his life just as fast as Javier.

“No!” he shrieked at the computer screen as his balled fists slammed on the desk.

Van came running into his brother’s rooms and threw his arms around Clint’s shoulders from behind. Van dropped his head, so his lips were next to Clint’s ear. “Let it out. Scream at the injustice. It’s all part of the grief cycle. You’ll get through this.”

Clint’s hand automatically went to his younger brother’s forearm, which was draped across his chest. He couldn’t correct his misconception. At that moment, Clint wasn’t agonizing over Javier’s death but the possibility of Ashlin getting killed. Van didn’t know Clint was married. No one in his family knew.