“How did you get a job here, Cass?”
“Well,” he said, giving her a wink, “I knew Talon from our days as operators. He was a SEAL and I was in Special Forces, but we often worked together out in the field in Afghanistan. He saved my ass a couple of times, and I saved his. Of course, he had his combat assault dog, Zeke, so he was double-barrel trouble to the enemy.”
Kai warmed to the man. “My run-ins with spec ops guys was like running into you,” she admitted, giving him a shy smile. “I always like the Special Forces A-teams. They were really friendly and outgoing compared to the Delta guys and the SEALs.”
Cass drawled, giving her a wink, “Our jobs were a lot different from SEALs and Delta Force types. We speak the language, go into a village, try getting them some organization, help, education and medical support. We aren’t the game-face types like Gil and Talon are. Although—” he brightened “—Talon is really working on opening up. I think a lot has to do with him being recently married to Cat. You’ll meet her in about an hour,” he said, looking at his watch. “The guy’s completely smitten by her. Talk about a SEAL biting the dust,” he said, and chuckled. “All good, though. Talon’s learning to lighten up, be a little more accessible than SEALs usually are. Love is a good thing, you know?”
Kai nodded, feeling an ache center in her heart. She thought she knew what love was with Sam Morrison. But she hit a brick wall with her husband emotionally, and she was with him only three months out of every year of the three years they were married. If he wasn’t in direct combat for six months, he was out training somewhere on the globe for another three months. And then, they had three months with each other. It had never been enough for her. “I was married once,” she admitted to Cass. He was someone who inspired immediate trust. And she liked his openness and warmth. He was like sunshine. Gil was like a damned dark moon. So closed up. Full of secrets. Full of toxic emotions he’d never unloaded, just like Sam. Why couldn’t she have been drawn to someone like Cass? He was an open book in comparison.
“You said you were in the Army,” Cass said. “Are you divorced?” And then he held up his hands as he slowed to a stop at the first pipe-rail corral. “Hey, if I’m getting too personal or nosey, just tell me it’s none of my business.”
Kai nodded. She moved her fingers lightly across the rust on the top pipe rail. It flaked off, dropping on her boots below. “I don’t mind confiding in you,” she said, looking up at him. He was now serious and she felt his full attention on her. “I was married three years to Sam Morrison. He was a Delta Force sergeant.” Her voice got a little choked up. “He was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan.” She saw his eyes go kind with sympathy. Shrugging a little, she said, “For the most part, I’m over it.”
Placing his hand on her shoulder, he said, “I’m very sorry, Kai. That’s rough.”
“Yeah...it was for a while,” she admitted, needing his kindness. After hitting a wall with Hanford, some of her hurt and fear dissolved beneath Cass’s warm care. Now Kai saw why Sandy Holt was responding so well. Cass was sunlight and he just seemed to have a knack for penetrating her darkness, her grief and pain. She looked up at him. “Were you a medic?”
“Yeah,” he said wryly, removing his hand. “I was a great mechanic in my team, which was one of my skills, but my official MOS was as an 18 Delta combat corpsman.”
“You have a nice bedside manner,” Kai admitted.
“I’d like to think I do,” Cass said. He gestured to the corrals. “Let me give you an idea of our work week. Every Monday morning we sit down in the kitchen with Gil and Talon. They hand out our assignments for the week. That way, everyone stays on the same page and we’re like a well-oiled, coordinated team. I think next week Gil is looking to start wire brushing this rusted pipe. Once the rust is removed, we’ll move on to a metal paint to coat it and then a second coat over it.”
Wrinkling her nose, Kai said, “I sure hope I’m sent to fix machinery,” and she grinned. Wire brushing was labor intensive on the wrangler’s part. It was hard on shoulders, joints, arms and hands. She heard Cass chuckle.
“I’ll bet you are. Come on, let’s go over to the green barn. That’s where all the equipment is kept. None of it is working, by the way.”
Rubbing her hands together, Kai grinned. “Good, that means Talon will let me do what I’m best at—being a mechanic.”
“Gil’s the one who decides,” Cass said, walking her around one corral.
“Once he gives out assignments, can you get him to change his mind?”
Cass shrugged. “He’s a pretty set dude. Even Talon can’t get him to do some things. But, hey, he’s the foreman for a reason. Right? And he came from a big Montana ranch near Billings, so he knows what he’s doing.”
There was so little Kai knew about Gil. Oh, she knew his body, but God, they didn’t talk about much during those five incredible lust-filled days. They had come together like two lost souls, hurting, full of grief, lonely and needing love. Maybe not love, Kai self-corrected. Maybe just horny as hell after no sex for a year after Sam’s death. And she knew for men, at least most of them, when they had sex, it did not equal emotion or love, like it did for a woman. Each gender came to the bedroom with different perspectives, expectations and realities, and suffered from different outcomes. That’s why Gil had walked away. For him, it was just sex. Relieving himself. For her, it was an entirely different experience; there were emotions and heart involved with him that she’d never realized until that moment. Kai wondered if she lived a life with blinders on all the time.
She pulled herself out of her rumination as Cass pushed hard and the huge hanging door grudgingly slid open. He walked in and turned on the overhead lights. What she saw was farm and ranch equipment with a lot of dust on it.
“Uh-oh,” Cass teased, leaning against the door opening, arms across his massive chest. “I see that look in your eye. Mechanics get a gleam that’s unmistakable. I’ll bet you’re just dying to get your hands on these metal monsters.” He chuckled, his grin widening.
She walked over to the John Deere tractor. All four tires were flat. Kai had a keen eye and swept over it from stem to stern. “You’re right,” she confessed with a laugh. Cass made a lot of her fear over what Gil might do to get rid of her dissolve. Once she started to work on these machines and showed Talon how quick and good she was, it wouldn’t matter what Gil said. Talon would keep her over any protests he made.
Remembering Gil’s face, that hurt that had crossed it when she’d accused him of trying to get rid of her, made Kai hesitate in her cruel judgment of him. He had always been a man of impeccable morals and values when she knew him. He was always respectful toward her, protective when Sam was away on a special mission and she was stationed at Bagram. If Gil and the rest of his team came in for a brief R & R between missions, he would always come to see her. Ask how she was. Did she need anything? That was how Delta brothers took care of their own. Not that many wives of a Delta operator were at Bagram. She was the only one.
Gil would escort her to the chow hall; they’d eat, talk about Sam and herself. Gil never once talked about himself. Kai had thought he was a closed book to the outside world. She was sure within the Delta Force brotherhood, he was much more open and forthcoming. Never once did Gil let on he was attracted to her. And then, Kai grimaced, Gil had clearly shown her, without a doubt, that all he wanted from her was sex. Instead of a one-night stand, it had developed into a five-night stand. How could she have been so blind? So stupid?
“Hey,” Cass called from the door, “I need to get back to the house. About time to set the table and start getting stuff ready for our 1800 chow hall.”
She grinned, liking his dropping into military lingo. “Everything in the kitchen smelled so good when I first arrived, I can hardly wait to eat tonight.”
Cass let his arms fall to his sides. “Don’t come late. It’s a food fight every night,” he warned her with a wicked grin.
She