A Soldier's Heart Read online

  “Think he’s going to take it badly when he learns you’ll be leaving soon?”

  If she was moving on, that is. An unsettling question to ponder. With Callie’s mad computer skills, she could find a permanent job almost anywhere.

  When she didn’t immediately answer, he prodded, “Are you thinking about staying?”

  She nibbled on her lower lip for a couple of seconds before she finally answered his question. “No, not really. But I almost feel as if I should. He’s a nice guy, the kind most women would jump at the chance to date.”

  But not her. She hadn’t said the words, but the thought had crossed her expressive face. His mood did an immediate about face.

  “If he gives you any grief, tell him that I’ll be coming home soon. Flash my picture at him and mention my marksmanship awards. And, oh, by the way, how much I enjoy target practice. That should do the trick.”

  She laughed. “You are so bad. I appreciate the offer, but I’m sure it won’t come to that. Besides, what can he do when I do my usual disappearing act? After I send back all the furniture to the rental company and pack up my few possessions, I’ll simply skulk off in the night.”

  “In other words, you’ll head back to Snowberry Creek to see your folks.”

  Callie gave a dramatic sigh and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “Such is the mysterious and exciting life of an intrepid security specialist.”

  He laughed. “Tell your folks hi for me, and thank your mom again for her help in keeping me in a steady supply of goodies. I live with two of the biggest sugar thieves in the whole U.S. Army. I’d have them brought up on charges, but they always eat the evidence. Besides, thanks to your generous efforts, I usually get to eat a cookie or two before they manage to steal the rest.”

  A pillow came sailing at Spence’s head courtesy of Leif, and now Nick was up and about. He managed to grab the laptop away from Spence. “Hi, ma’am. I’m Nick, Spence’s sergeant. I regret to inform you that he’s a man of low moral character and has been lying to you. On my honor, he bet the last shipment of your most excellent cookies on a game of horse and lost.”

  Spence had jumped to his feet intending to retrieve the computer in time to see Callie’s reaction to Nick’s sudden appearance. Her eyes widened and she jerked back as if he’d startled her, but it would take more than that to throw Callie off her game.

  “I see, Sergeant. I am, of course, shocked and horrified by these events. It is obvious that Spence has been corrupted by his time with you and that other guy. Leif, isn’t it? Certainly, the noble young man I grew up with would never have indulged in such evil practices. My family doesn’t approve of gambling or any similar vices. Please tell Spence I’m sorry, but I know my parents will forbid me to see him again after this.”

  Her expression had changed to one of grave concern, and she gave a convincing sniff as if fighting tears. Spence didn’t buy her act for a minute. Nick, on the other hand, fell for it.

  His teasing smile faded into real worry. “Look, Callie, I’m sorry. We were just jerking Spence’s chain. Please don’t—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Callie lost it, her laughter sounding bright and sunny. Spence joined in as Nick, who had a WTF look on his face, surrendered the computer.

  Spence resumed his position on the bunk. “Callie, my friend, I wish you could see the expression on Nick’s face right now.”

  Before he could turn the screen in that direction, Nick dove facedown onto his own bunk.

  “Never mind. Normally he would have seen right through your act, but he hasn’t had his morning gallon of coffee yet. Besides, he wasn’t lying. I did bet the cookies and lost. What he didn’t tell you was that he was the one who beat me at basketball. He had me at an unfair advantage, too, having taken his team to the state championship back in the day.”

  Callie shook her head. “Tsk, tsk, big guy. Shouldn’t risk what you can’t afford to lose. And if I really am going to be packing up around here, it might be awhile before I can bake you any more.”

  Okay, now that was bad news. Tragic even. He tried to be brave about it. “I understand. Let me know when you’ll be moving and where. Think you’ll live someplace long enough for me to crash with you for a visit when I get home?”

  “If I’m between jobs, I’ll be at the folks’.”

  And Spence owned the house next door to theirs, not that he much enjoyed spending time in it. Too many good memories and even more bad ones. “Sounds like a plan. Keep me posted, especially if that guy gives you any grief. Hey, I forgot. What did you say his name was?”

  Callie rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say. No way I want you tracking him down. It would be an unfair fight even with you parked over there in the middle of nowhere.”

  She knew him too well. At the very least Spence would have done some checking into the guy’s background. And he wouldn’t mind seeing his picture just to see what kind of guy Callie was interested in dating even on a casual basis.

  “The offer still stands. No guy is good enough for you, you know.”

  Except maybe him, but now wasn’t the time for that conversation. “I’d better get moving. My sergeant can be a real hard-ass if I’m late for anything.”

  The last shade of humor disappeared from Callie’s pretty face. “You stay safe, Spence. Nick and Leif, too. I’d like to meet them when you all come home.”

  Home. That sound good to him, especially knowing she’d be there.

  “I’ll tell them. You take care, too, lady. I worry about you all alone in the big city.”

  She did the eye thing again. “That coming from a man who wears body armor to breakfast.”

  “It’s not that bad.” At least not usually. “Same time next week?”

  “Tuesday or Wednesday should work, and before we disconnect, there’s one more thing, big guy. Knowing I might be finishing up here, I baked extra batches of cookies and froze them. Tell your sugar-thieving buddies that there won’t be any interruption in the service.”

  Bless the woman. Those packages gave him something to look forward to besides the daily grind of patrols. “I should have known you wouldn’t cut me off cold turkey with no warning. Thanks, Cal.”

  “You’re welcome. I miss you, Spence. We’re all counting the days until you come home.”

  All meaning her and maybe her folks. Nobody else gave a damn, but he kept that to himself.

  Nick was back, sticking his face in front of the camera again. “Thanks for keeping the cookies coming, Callie. And I’ll keep an eye on our boy Spence for you.”

  “Thanks, Nick. ’Bye, guys.”

  Then her picture winked out of sight, taking Spence’s good mood with it.

  • • •

  An hour later, the three of them walked out of the mess. Leif split off in the other direction to get his arm looked at again while Nick and Spence headed back toward their quarters.

  They’d just had coffee with their breakfast, so it surprised Spence when Nick headed for the coffee shop tucked into a corner of one of the buildings. “My treat.”

  Which was also out of character for him, but Spence didn’t question Nick’s motivation until they’d gotten their iced coffees and headed back outside. The silence didn’t worry Spence, but it was hard to get a solid read on Nick’s mood with his eyes hidden by sunglasses.

  They stopped to watch a heavily armed patrol rolling out of the gate, heading out into the countryside to check for IEDs. Spence wished them luck and crossed his fingers they’d all come back in one piece. The bastards who planted those roadside surprises had honed their skills over the years.

  “Does she know?”

  It took Spence a few seconds to shift gears from thinking about the war to figure out who Nick was talking about. “Who, Callie? Does she know what?”

  Nick pulled his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose to give S
pence a clear look at his dark eyes. “Does she know that you’re harboring some pretty heavy duty feelings for her?”

  Damn, he’d thought he’d done a better job of hiding his thoughts on the subject. “Why would you ask that? We’re friends, have been since we were kids.”

  The sunglasses were back in place. “Ever been friends with benefits?”

  “Hell no, not that it’s any of your business. What’s with the twenty questions, anyway?”

  They’d resumed walking, faster this time. Spence hoped the increased speed would keep Nick from wanting to continue the conversation. No such luck.

  After sipping his coffee again, Nick stared out at the horizon. “I’ve only asked three questions so far, which gives me seventeen more to go. So again, does she know?”

  Spence wanted to dump his own drink over his friend’s head. “This is not a conversation I want to have.”

  He injected enough temper into the words to make sure Nick knew he meant it. “Callie is my friend. That’s all you—or she—needs to know.”

  Nick started walking again. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Spence. She clearly considers you a friend but nothing more, especially since she’s been dating someone else.”

  “So?” Not that Spence had liked finding out about her having some other guy in her life.

  “It was hard not to notice she didn’t tell you about it until she was ready to break up with the guy. Any reason she thought she needed to keep the fact she was dating someone secret from you?”

  “Where are you going with this, Nick?”

  “I don’t want to see you hurt, Spence. If all she can offer you is a box of cookies now and again, you’d be better off without her.”

  What was Spence supposed to say to that? He couldn’t imagine his life without Callie in it. His parents had died in a car accident when he’d been fourteen. Callie had convinced her parents to let him stay with them rather than face foster care until his mother’s older brother could be found.

  She’d also talked him into finishing high school when he’d been on the verge of taking off to get away from his uncle’s abuse. In turn, Spence had played the role of big brother in her life as the two of them weathered the ups and downs all teenagers suffered through.

  When he’d made the decision to enlist, she hadn’t tried to talk him out of it. Instead, she’d offered him a mock salute and told him she was proud of him. Looking back, she and her folks were the reason he’d made something of himself. He was proud of the man he’d become. If he’d listened to the hatred his uncle had spewed about Spence’s questionable parentage because he’d been adopted, he would have probably crawled inside a bottle and stayed there.

  Finally, Spence gave Nick the only answer he could, accompanied with a shove for emphasis. “She’s my friend, Nick. I’m here for her, no matter what, and she feels the same about me.”

  Nick backed away. “Okay, okay. I just don’t want you getting your head twisted all in a knot by a woman who doesn’t appreciate what’s she got.”

  So that’s what this was about. “Callie isn’t Valerie, Nick. Now can we drop this conversation?”

  But, no, his friend was like a dog with a favorite bone. “If you say so, but I’m serious, Wheels. If you are feeling more for her than that friendship you keep yapping about, tell her. Otherwise you’re leaving yourself wide open for a world of hurt.”

  Then he walked away. Spence stared after him feeling pissed off and not sure if it was because Nick was dead wrong or if deep down inside, Spence was afraid he was right.

  Chapter 6

  Five days later, Spence walked outside, needing a break from his friends. Leif was playing some stupid video game, determined to break his own record again. He wasn’t sure which was worse: Leif’s angry grumbling when he lost or his victory howls. Nick was plugged into his MP3 player, although Spence was pretty sure it was really just his way of shutting out the rest of the world, including him and Leif. Maybe especially him and Leif.

  The three of them were still tight, but Nick’s continuing bouts of gloom and doom were getting pretty damn old. Obviously talking about what had happened with Valerie hadn’t gotten it out of the poor bastard’s system. Having him accuse Callie of being just like her hadn’t helped.

  The only bright spot was that their deployment was slowly winding down. He wished that made him happier than it did. Yeah, he couldn’t wait to shake the dust of Afghanistan off his boots again. Only a complete idiot would feel any other way. The only drawback was that he’d have some heavy duty decisions to make when he got stateside, ones he wasn’t in any hurry to have to face. At the top of the list was whether or not he’d reenlist again. He liked the Army and the sense of purpose it gave him. This wasn’t just a job to him, but something he was honored to do for his country.

  Since he was single, he didn’t have all the complications to deal with that those with families did. But he couldn’t make that particular decision until he came to terms with the one complication he did have: Callie. Nick hadn’t been wrong about Spence’s feelings for her, at least not completely. Spence wasn’t ready to put a name to them, not from this far away and after so much time apart. He definitely wouldn’t bring up the subject with Callie until he’d had a chance to spend some one-on-one time with her.

  He hoped like hell she had another job lined up somewhere far away from the small town where they’d both grown up when the time came. He’d rather explore a new city with her than walk the familiar streets of Snowberry Creek where everybody still saw him as that wild kid he’d been in high school.

  Besides, privacy was a rare commodity when she visited her parents. Granted the two of them were adults, but he figured her parents wouldn’t appreciate him sneaking into Callie’s room at night. The two of them hooking up in the old Victorian he owned next door to her childhood home wasn’t much better.

  And maybe he was making too big of a deal out of all of this. What if he was like Nick and just missing something he wanted to have?

  It all made his brain hurt.

  The door behind him opened. Leif poked his head out and yelled, “Hey, Wheels, we just got a call. We’re needed out on patrol.”

  “I’m on my way!”

  Just another day in paradise.

  They hadn’t been scheduled to go out, so something was up. Spence grabbed his gear, and ten minutes later they roared out of camp along with the rest of their platoon.

  Nick had to shout over the combined noise of engines and a few helicopters flying overhead.

  “Headquarters picked up chatter about some unsavory activity on the outskirts of town. This morning’s patrols caught a couple of guys armed to the teeth. One of them tried to bargain for his freedom with information about some attack his buddies have planned.”

  Spence shot his friend an amused look. “So how did that go for him?”

  Nick kept scanning the surrounding area. “He’s alive and ought to be damn grateful for that much. A couple of our guys took hits before they got him and his buddy cornered like the vermin they are. Anyway, they figure he was lying through his teeth.”

  Leif leaned down. “So what are we supposed to be doing?”

  “Well, on the off chance he was telling the truth, we’re supposed to make our presence felt on the fine streets of this lovely place. One of the convoys came under fire once they crossed into town. No one was killed, but another convoy is due to arrive soon. We’ll be sweeping the streets for any signs of trouble and then providing extra cover for the convoy when it gets here. Until then, keep your eyes peeled. Sounds like things are heating up again.”

  That might be true, but the shiver of fear that danced up and down Spence’s spine felt damn cold. Crossing his fingers that it was only his overactive imagination at work, he planned to keep his eyes open and his gun handy.

  • • •

  The streets of the town ec
hoed with a rough chorus of gunfire and screams of pain. Spence hoped like hell it wasn’t his fellow soldiers he was hearing. He gritted his teeth and continued on, leap-frogging down the street with Leif and Nick. It was an ugly game they’d been playing for months. A couple of the shooters had been seen running this way, and Spence’s patrol had been assigned to hunt them down.

  So far, they’d made their way up and down half a dozen streets that were nearly indistinguishable from each other: all dusty, narrow, and reeking of poverty. It was a stark contrast to the lush green of the Pacific Northwest where he’d grown up. Snowberry Creek wasn’t perfect, but still he dreamed at night of its tall fir trees and snow-covered mountains.

  But now wasn’t the time to get lost in his past. His life depended on his ability to maintain hyperawareness when the enemy could be waiting a few feet away with his finger on the trigger or ready to pull the pin on a hand grenade. A short distance ahead, there was something lying on the ground. Spence carefully skirted it and continued moving forward.

  It was probably nothing, most likely a piece of trash dropped by one of the locals in a rush to seek shelter when the bullets started flying. On the other hand, some of those bastards had a real talent for turning the most innocent object into an IED. Some could be triggered remotely, while others went off the second the ground around them was disturbed.

  Nick whistled softly. Leif nodded and ran ahead another few feet, stopping short of the next doorway. Spence followed in the dance, risking a quick look inside the front window before continuing on. Nick brought up the rear this time while Leif continued on taking point. Six more members of their platoon mirrored their actions on the opposite side of the street.

  Spence caught up with Nick. “How much longer are we supposed to chase this ghost?”

  Nick definitely had his game face on, his eyes cold and hard. “Until we find him.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  They paused to study the street ahead. “How positive are we that they came this way?”