Before either Greg or Drew responded, Kristine spoke up. “You know, sirs, I haven’t taken a leave for a long time now. I realize that Lt. Parran is too new a recruit to be entitled to one, but … well, I think he and I both need to take some time off. Maybe even take a trip. To Maine. And if we happen to end up in Bar Harbor just for the fun of it, who knows what we might uncover?”
General Yarrow’s laugh was a bark of humor. “I wasn’t exactly going to approach it that way, but I had something similar in mind.” He looked toward Drew. “What do you think, Major? Could you give these two Alpha Forcers a little time off to have some … fun on their own?”
“Sounds like a workable situation to me,” Drew said.
“Can our leave start tomorrow?” Kristine asked. “I just can’t wait to take my vacation as soon as possible.”
“Ditto that, sirs,” Quinn said. Was he laying it on too thick?
Most likely, there was no such thing.
“Then you’ve got it,” Drew said. “Although your leave will have to be short. We need answers fast, and we’ll have to disavow any knowledge of what you’re up to. And you’d better not plan on a military transport to Maine.”
“No, sir,” Kristine said. “For this leave, we’re going to go civilian all the way.”
“But you’ll still report to me,” Drew said.
“Absolutely, sir.”
And Quinn forced himself to imitate Kristine’s smart salute without a grimace.
Chapter 3
“We need to plan this.”
Kristine walked at Quinn’s side after the meeting, working hard to keep up with him. He hurried along one of the walkways at Ft. Lukman that led away from the building where the meeting had just been held. His stride was purposeful, his face grim.
Two other soldiers, also dressed in camo, approached from the opposite direction. They must have seen something in Quinn’s expression, too, since both seemed to do double takes before hurrying past.
Kristine didn’t slow down. She wondered what Quinn was thinking. Well, he needed to tell her, at least some of it.
“We have to figure out where and when we’re going,” she continued, trying not to sound out of breath. “How we’ll get there, how we’ll play it when we’re there, how—”
“Yeah, I get it,” Quinn finally grumbled. “In fact, I’m working on it.”
“How?” she demanded. “I need to know. I’m in on it, too.”
He stopped dead beside her and she had to make an effort to stop alongside him. “You don’t need to be,” he said in a tone that edged too close to threatening. “I can handle this myself.”
“Sure you can.” She leaned closer, looking up so her chin edged belligerently toward him. She kept her voice low but equally gruff. “You’ll be trying to figure out what happened. Maybe shifting. Maybe needing to shift by using the elixir you just tried for the first time. Without help? Maybe, but I don’t think so. Besides …”
She let her voice trail off, staring straight into those harsh golden eyes. Lord, but the guy was good-looking, even when he appeared grim and determined and angry.
He reacted the way she wanted him to, at least. “Besides what?” he demanded.
“Your new sister-in-law, Grace, is not just my commanding officer. She’s my friend. I intend to help her. Period.”
She continued to stand her ground and glare straight into his return glower.
He was the one to flinch. Well, not flinch, exactly. He smiled. And if she’d thought his rugged features to be a turn-on before, now he was absolutely the hottest man she had ever seen.
Her recollection of seeing him naked only reinforced the current of heat that passed through her. But she shrugged that off. She had to.
“Okay,” he said. “And you’re right. I’m sure I can use the help. But I want to think this through before we rush up there. And we are going to rush up there. No later than tomorrow.”
“I’m game,” Kristine said. “Let’s find somewhere private to discuss this.”
They crossed a wide driveway, passing the main gate into Ft. Lukman.
Quinn was leading Kristine to someplace they probably shouldn’t go: his apartment in the Bachelor Officers Quarters. If anyone saw them inside the building, it might appear as if they were fraternizing, and that was a military no-no. She wasn’t a commissioned officer. He was.
In a world where things were fair, their roles should be reversed. She had told him she was career military and had planned it that way forever. She had trained to become a nurse, then had enlisted. She had been in the service for a few years and was now a staff sergeant.
She should be his superior officer.
He was the newcomer, and yet because of who he was—no, what he became when he shifted—he’d come into the service as a ready-made officer, outranking her.
As a result of all that, she could be his aide but not—officially, at least—his date. Let alone someone he snuck into his quarters. Not that he gave a damn about that kind of prohibition, but she would.
And she was right. He needed her help—as much as he hated to admit it, even to himself.
“Glad to see things are quiet around here,” Kristine remarked as they started up the sidewalk in the direction of the BOQ. He glanced down at her. She’d slowed a bit, and he figured she, too, was thinking about the military taboo they might be about to violate.
Fraternizing. That suggested more than holding a meeting to plan their approach to Bar Harbor and learning what happened to Simon and Grace.
Not that he intended to seduce Kristine—although the idea was far from repulsive. Instead, while alone in his quarters, they would discuss what they’d do to help find Simon and Grace.
To start with, Quinn needed to do some more online research, using some of the resources already programmed into the laptop computer in his room.
“Here we are,” he told her softly, using a key to open the BOQ’s side door nearest his apartment. Good thing they could get in through a side door that was relatively remote and sheltered by its nearness to the next-door parking garage. They would definitely give the appearance of fraternizing later, if the plan that had been forming in his mind reached fruition. But it would be worse if they were caught around here, where others could see.
Soon, they were inside his unit with the door closed. As far as he knew, no one had seen them.
He had an urge to take the lovely, determined Kristine into his arms and kiss her. Only out of relief, of course.
But that was a bad idea. And she was already checking out his place. It was filled with government-issue furniture and not much else. He hadn’t been there long. He’d never been sure how long he would stay in the military, even if he hadn’t been about to undertake this unofficial mission. A lot depended on whether his appreciation for the shifting elixir outweighed his unease at being a soldier and following orders.
But one thing he did know. They would head to Bar Harbor tomorrow—and before they left, he had a lot of online investigating to do.
Kristine pulled a chair from the kitchen into the well-lighted alcove that Quinn used as an office in his small apartment.
She had been in BOQ units before—mostly Grace’s. It was larger than this. But Grace had been in Alpha Force for a while, had proven herself as excellent military, as well as a shapeshifter. She’d clearly been entitled to a comfortable