by Stewart, Anna J. ; Sasson, Sophia; Carpenter, Beth; Jensen, Muriel
“Congresswoman Kat Driscoll-Santiago, soon to be Senator Driscoll-Santiago,” Luke clarified.
Alessa’s eyes widened. Luke had talked about the congresswoman, how he had met her in Iraq before she got elected and how they’d become fast friends.
“Kat’s been doing some work with Syrian refugees and she stopped by to see if she can pull any strings with the embassy to get Reza and Amine asylum.”
Alessa’s heart swelled. She should have known Luke would never leave Reza and Amine to fend for themselves. “How is Amine? Has she had the baby yet?”
Kat shook her head. “Not yet, but any day now. Anna is looking her over.” Anna?
“Anna Atao is the doctor I told you about, who I met in Guam,” Luke explained, anticipating her question.
Reza had come outside to see what the commotion was. When he saw Alessa he stepped up to her and clasped her hands. “Bhabi-jaan, thanks be to you and Luke for all you have done for us.”
Alessa looked at Luke. Bhabi-jaan was a term of endearment used for a brother’s wife, or the wife of a good friend. No one else bothered to correct Reza, so Alessa let it go and followed him inside.
Amine was in the bedroom. A woman about Alessa’s age, with brown hair tucked back in a ponytail, was bent over her, stethoscope in hand. She smiled when Alessa entered. “Hi, I’m Anna.” Amine reached out her hand and Alessa took it.
“I am so thankful to you and Luke for bringing the good doctor here.”
“Please, call me Anna.” The doctor turned to Alessa. “Luke has told me so much about you. I’m glad we’re getting a chance to meet.”
Alessa didn’t know what to make of all this.
“Okay, I didn’t find anyone on the south side of the house.” A tall man with dark hair and olive-toned skin entered the room. His eyes connected with Anna’s and she smiled and wiggled her eyebrows.
“We found our intruder,” Anna said.
“Is this…?”
Anna nodded.
The man stepped forward and extended his hand. “You’re all Luke has talked about for months—I’d recognize you anywhere. I’m Nico, Anna’s husband.” His brown eyes were warm and Alessa shook his hand, bewildered at everyone who was here.
“Is it supposed to be so much pain?” Amine wailed, bringing everyone’s attention back to her. Anna patted the woman’s hand. “You’re only slightly dilated. It’ll be a while before the baby comes.”
“I will surely die by then.” Amine wailed.
Anna smiled sympathetically. “When I had my little girl, Teresa, I thought the same thing.”
“How old is your daughter now?” Alessa asked.
“Teresa is two and a half going on twenty.”
“She takes after her mother,” Nico added, his voice deadpan. Anna punched him playfully.
“Where is she now?”
“We are blessed to have my mother-in-law and sister living close by in the States, so they help me when we need to travel,” Anna said.
“Do you do that a lot?” Alessa knew she was being nosy, but she was curious about these people who were special to Luke. While she’d heard of them, she had never expected to actually meet them.
“We will be now. Didn’t Luke tell you?”
Tell me what?
Another moan from Amine pulled everyone’s attention and then Anna shooed everyone out of the room so Amine could get some rest.
They all gathered in the living room, where Reza had made tea. The scent of cardamom filled the air, and as she sank into the couch, Alessa realized that she was emotionally overwhelmed. She’d been razor-focused when she got here, but she’d never expected to find Luke and his friends. Yet she wasn’t surprised.
“You must be Alessa.” She looked up to see another man, broad-chested with intense dark eyes, had entered the room. She stood to shake his hand. “I’m Alex Santiago, Kat’s husband.”
Luke took a seat beside her and she turned to see him grinning at her. “Alex works for a nonprofit that’s doing some work here. He’s going to help Amine and Reza get to India safely while we wait for their asylum application to be approved.”
“Thank you,” Alessa said quietly to Luke as everyone talked around them.
“What for?”
“For helping Amine and Reza.”
“I’m just sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. I was afraid I wouldn’t beat you here.”
“You knew I’d come?”
“The minute we left them here, I was certain you’d be back.”
Alessa had a thousand questions, but the group was getting excited about something and they were all staring at Luke expectantly.
“I haven’t run it by her yet,” Luke said.
Run what by me?
Luke stood and held his hand out to her. She took it, eager to touch him, to know that what she’d felt between them was not just a figment of her imagination. The fission of heat that flew up her arm was proof that it wasn’t.
She followed him outside to the backyard garden. There was a swing there, and he motioned for her to take a seat next to him.
“What is going on?”
He shook his head. “What I’m about to tell you is highly classified. Only one other unit member knows and that’s because he is neck deep in this. I wouldn’t be court-martialed for telling you this—I’d be sent to Gitmo.”
She sat up straight. Of course she’d keep his confidence. That he was telling her such sensitive information warmed her heart. He trusted her.
“My father was the traitor we were trying to find.”
Alessa gasped.
“He was the one who asked Rodgers to keep an eye on the unit and report back to him,” Luke continued. “Rodgers had no idea he was a traitor. That’s why I had to accept the unit command position and promise Boots I’d keep my distance from you. And let me tell you, that guy watched me like a hawk.”
She smiled. That sounded like Boots. The two of them had gotten close, like brother and sister. By unspoken agreement, they didn’t talk about Luke, but they’d gotten together for lunch and beers a couple of times since the mission.
“I needed the cover of the unit to set a trap for my father and prove he was really a traitor. I caught him hook, line and sinker. Turns out he got into some gambling debts and exploited an opportunity to earn some easy cash when he was in Afghanistan by stealing a few bars of gold from the national treasury. Our target helped him, and then blackmailed him for information. When it started getting hot, they took Ethan to make sure my father kept the information flowing.”
“Why did he start the unit?”
Luke shrugged. “Ethan thinks it was out of some sense of guilt. If he could be turned, so could others. At his core, he’s still a patriotic man. He put Ethan, and then me, in charge thinking he could keep an eye on us. It was some sixth sense that got Ethan to pick the very mission that would incriminate our father. Ethan thinks at some level he might’ve suspected it all along but just couldn’t bring himself to admit it.”
Alessa could hardly believe any of this. “You turned your father in?” She would have expected nothing less from him. Luke was a man of honor.
“Ethan helped trap him, too. What’s wrong is wrong—he doesn’t get a free pass just because he’s our father. Maybe especially not because he’s our father. He taught us a code of honor.”
“All those meetings at the Pentagon,” she murmured. She had assumed he’d been lobbying to get command of the unit, fighting for the very thing that would keep them apart.
“Briefings on the evidence I collected on my father. They want him to go away quietly. The army can’t afford a scandal like this. He’s a high-profile figure.”
“So he gets away with it?”
“I wouldn’t say that. He won’t get his pension, and he has to
live someplace that isn’t exactly a tourist destination. And he’s lost me and Ethan.”
“What will this do to your career?”
“Nothing. I resigned from the army two days ago, right before I came here.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “But I thought you liked running the unit.”
“Oh, I did. But I can find other things to do with my life. Love, on the other hand, is not something I can find elsewhere.” He held her gaze, and her stomach fluttered. He had been swinging them gently but stopped. “Listen, there is something I need to ask you.”
Everything stopped. She sucked in a breath and her heart beat wildly in her chest.
“Alex’s nonprofit is looking for a company to do some work for them. It’s a combination of social work and rescue. They work quite a bit in the Middle East and sometimes need a special-ops-type force to go in and get something done.”
“Like bringing Reza and Amine to safety.”
He nodded.
“We have a mission that needs a woman. I’m wondering if you’d be willing to come with us.”
“Us?”
“Rodgers and Boots quit the unit to start this new force with me.”
“How does Rodgers feel about me working with you?”
“It won’t matter in this job. It’s not army. No rules. And no command. We each take turns being team lead for a mission. We’re partners.”
She blinked at him. That was what he wanted to ask her? “So you want me to help you out on this mission.”
He nodded. “We leave out tomorrow. I’ll explain more later.”
A week with Luke. Doing what she loved. She shook her head. “I can’t.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
RODGERS SHOOK HIS HEAD. “No, I’m done. We’ve tried out eighteen people, and I can’t take it anymore. At least seven of those guys were really good. You’re not going to find what you’re looking for.”
Luke glanced up from the stack of files he had in front of him. “I want the best.”
“You want Parrino,” Rodgers said. “I’ve done three tryouts this week alone. You take the next one.”
He stormed off and Luke stared after him, almost wishing they were back in the army. Then he’d order Rodgers to do what he said. But Rodgers was the lead for the next mission, so Luke was stuck trying out the next candidate.
So far it was still just him, Boots and Rodgers, but the work was coming in at such a fast pace that they desperately needed to triple the size of their unit just to keep up. In addition to the actual mission, Luke was handling the business operations, Rodgers was doing logistics and Boots was invoicing so they could pay themselves. They were all run ragged and he knew the guys were frustrated with him for vetoing every new candidate.
Maybe Rodgers was right; he was looking for Alessa. She’d left Pakistan shortly after Amine had her baby, a little girl she named Parisa, the Afghan word for angel, though the resonance with Parrino wasn’t lost on Luke. Reza and Amine were now settled with family in India waiting for their asylum application to come through.
Alessa had cried when she held the baby, and Luke’s heart had broken into a million pieces. That’s when he knew why she didn’t want to come on the mission with him. He had hoped to talk her into leaving the army and working with him on the new unit after she tried out that first mission. They’d be partners. Work together. But in hindsight, that had been a foolish thought. He’d never stop worrying about her when she was out. If they were on the same unit, he’d give her the safe assignments and she’d fight him every step of the way. He’d never forget how she stole a motorbike to go after Amine’s kidnappers.
He stood. The next candidate was in the training pit waiting for him. Rodgers hadn’t even given him a file, so he had no idea who it was.
His pulse kicked up a notch as he approached the training pit. Her back was to him, hair scraped back into a ponytail, gray sweats. She turned when he entered the cube and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly, teasing him, daring him to come closer.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to try out for the unit. Rodgers said you have a few openings.”
“Alessa.” He had no desire to fight her. Especially not after what happened the last time they’d been in a training pit together.
“Come on, Luke, I’ve been up since five o’clock this morning and Rodgers put me on a plane to California and back yesterday. I’m not leaving until I’ve had my chance.”
Then she came at him, jabbing with her left fist. He blocked her but she kept advancing, and he realized she was pinning him into a corner. He pivoted to kick her legs out from under her, but she was too quick. She crouched low and swung her leg, literally sweeping him off his feet. He fell onto the soft mat on his back but before he could rise, she was on top of him and all of the air left his chest. She sat on his stomach, her arm across his throat. He could have bucked with his hips and thrown her off, but the look in her eyes told him that they were done sparring.
“Do you know why I turned you down in Pakistan?”
“Because it’ll never work between us.”
“That’s not why I turned you down, but you’re right, it’ll never work between us unless…”
Her cheeks were tinged red and he wanted nothing more than to pull her head down and kiss her, to tell her that he would give up everything in the world just to have her.
“Alessa.” There was a plea in his voice. He didn’t have to say the words for her to understand what was in his heart. She knew him better than he knew himself.
“Unless we make it work between us,” she said. “You and me, together. That means if I join this unit, you don’t give me pansy tasks to keep me safe. And I won’t take unnecessary risks. I’m also going back to school to get a degree in social work. That means when I have exams and the like, you’ll be making dinner. When I get pregnant, you’ll suck it up and do admin work so you’re not in theatre while I’m cleaning dirty diapers. And if we end up with a few brats, maybe we both stay stateside and find new jobs.”
He blinked at her, his heart swelling. “Deal. So why did you turn me down?”
“I turned you down because I expected you to ask me to marry you,” she said.
This time he lifted his hips and threw her off him, then rolled on top of her, positioning his arms beside her shoulders so his weight was off her but she was pinned to the mat. She could easily kick him in any number of places to get him off her, but she lay still, a smile tugging at her lips.
“Parrino, you put me through three months of hell because I didn’t ask you to marry me?”
Her face broke into a brilliant, mischievous smile that made him go boneless.
“Alessa Parrino. Will you marry me?”
“Woohoo!” The pounding on the walls and the muted scream came from Boots and Rodgers, who were standing by the glass door holding a bottle of champagne and some glasses.
“She hasn’t said yes yet,” Luke hollered back, waving to the guys to go away. They caught the hint. He looked at Alessa. “I’ll beg if you want me to.”
“Luke, I don’t know how I’ve lived these last few months. There is only one thing I need and it’s you.”
“I promise you a life of love,” he said, his voice thick.
She pulled his head down and he kissed her with everything he had, promising her his heart.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781488012341
The Sergeant’s Temptation
Copyright © 2017 by Sophia Sasson
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