He just gave her a look.
“It’s embarrassing. So old-fashioned.”
“It’s cute, like the rest of you. Now, go get dressed.”
She would have found it more of a compliment if he wasn’t barking at her like a drill sergeant.
She saluted smartly and scurried from the room. He caught up with her halfway down the hall. He spun her around and slammed his mouth down on hers.
He didn’t kiss her long, but when he finished, she was gasping and dazed. “Brat.”
She nodded before she realized what she was agreeing to and then shrugged. “If you’re good at something . . .” She left the rest unsaid.
“I’m good at killing people.”
This time she knew exactly why she was nodding.
“I was MARSOC.”
“Marines special forces.”
“Yes.”
“Sniper or assassin?”
“Does it matter? I was and am a human weapon.”
“Maybe it’s time for a career change.”
“Maybe it’s not.” There was a question in his words, but she wasn’t sure he was even aware it was there.
She just leaned up and kissed him softly. “I’ll get dressed.”
CHAPTER 7
They made the six-hour drive in five and still managed to talk nearly nonstop the whole time. Danusia told Max about what it was like to grow up out of sync with her peers and in a family of such loving, overprotective and yet distant siblings.
Max told her about growing up on the fringe of his middle-class schoolmates with a long-haul trucker for a father. His mother hadn’t handled the separations well. When Max told her he’d never heard the woman laugh until several months after his father’s death, when she’d started seeing a widowed schoolteacher, Danusia had felt tears burn her eyes.
“You think no woman could handle a relationship filled with absences.”
“No woman should have to.”
“Military wives do it all the time. Other long-haul truckers have happy marriages.”
“The divorce rate in the military, especially any special forces branch, is significantly higher than national averages. Same for long-haul trucking.”
“It’s still possible.”
He’d changed the subject, but she was beginning to see how a man who based most of his excuses for not getting involved on stuff that would only matter in a relationship could say he was only interested in casual sex.
Max looked for anyone or anything out of the ordinary as he walked slightly to the side and behind Danusia into her apartment building. There were security cameras in the parking lot and the entrance.
If the perps hadn’t been caught on them, that meant one of two things: lucky or professional. He knew which one he was leaning toward.
Danusia lived on the third floor and her apartment was at the end of the hall. Again, the fact she was the farthest from the elevator and stairwell increased the perps’ chances of being seen.
“No news on who broke in?” he asked, pretty sure he knew the answer already.