And I take that moment to snatch the envelope out of her hand.

Pulling back, I flash her a cocky smile, but she’s not looking at me. Her head is still thrown back and it appears she has no clue I stole it from her or that I’ve backed off. A low chuckle rumbles in my chest at her complete oblivion. She peels her eyes open, her mouth dropping when I wave the envelope in her face.

“Close your mouth, sweetheart. That’s what you get for being a little tease.” I wink at her and walk back to the couch as I snicker to myself.

“That’s—that’s just playing dirty, Alex.” Glancing over my shoulder, she has her hands on her hips and looks to be on the verge of a tantrum. She’s so damn adorable.

“I never claimed to fight fair.” Opening it up, there’s a wad of cash inside. I’ll have to make sure Turner gets a Christmas card this year. He thought of everything.

“What’s in it?” she asks, leaning over the back of the couch.

“A little money to get us by until I get everything worked out.” I still have no idea how that’s going to happen. Whenever I talk to Turner, it doesn’t seem like there’s ever any progress. And now that I’m on the run, everything has changed.

She comes around the couch and sits down beside me. “What’s the plan?”

I sigh. “Right now, I don’t know.” That’s the truth, too. I don’t have a clue and that worries me. It’s rare I don’t have some kind of idea on what to do next. It’s a foreign feeling and I hate it.

We’re both silent for a few minutes. “Let’s play a game,” she says suddenly with excitement in her voice.

“A game where you get naked?” I wiggle my eyebrows up and down at her suggestively. She responds by smacking me in the arm and I rub it, pretending that it hurt.

“Is that all you think about?” She acts like she’s offended, but I know she loves it.

I shrug. “I’m a guy.”

She rolls her eyes. “Let’s play twenty questions. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know you like I should. I know how I feel about you, but I want to know all the small details too.”

“Are you sure you want to know more about me? There might be some deep, dark secrets hidden away. You might not like what you find out.” I’m only half teasing her when I say this. I am keeping a secret from her, and it’s pretty big. She knows the important parts about me, but she might not see it that way when she realizes I’ve been lying to her since the day we met. Hell, she doesn’t even know my real name.

She squints at me and sizes me up. “I’ll take my chances and go first,” she replies. I hope she doesn’t ask me anything I have to blatantly lie to her about. “Chocolate or Vanilla?”

“Vanilla. Least favorite activity?”

Her lips purse together and she taps them with her finger. “Paintball,” she says decisively with a nod of her head.

“You didn’t think that was fun?” I thought we had a great time.

“Uh, no. I don’t consider getting shot in the ass fun. I was bruised for a week.” I wince slightly remembering the purple bruise on her ass cheek. I still kind of feel bad about it. “If you weren’t doing private security, what would you be doing?”

“FBI.” That’s not a lie technically. “What about you?”

“I’d be a teacher. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll be able to teach and put my degree to use.” She gets a faraway look in her eyes and I know this is something she’s passionate about. Once the dust settles, one of my goals will be to push her to pursue it. “Have you ever been in love?” Her question catches me off guard. I’m not sure why. I knew we’d have this conversation eventually, I just wasn’t expecting it to be now.

“Before you, I thought I was in love once.” In the past whenever I’d think about this, I used to get upset and angry. Angry that I wasted so much of myself on someone who threw it all away. Now, I thank God it didn’t work out because it ultimately led me to Elizabeth.

“And?” she prompts.

“Nope, it’s my turn.” She scowls at me, causing me to laugh. “Where do you see yourself in twenty years?”

She leans her head back against the couch and takes in a deep breath. “If you had asked me that question five months ago, the answer would’ve been easy. Now? I have absolutely no idea. It’s terrifying, but also so liberating. I feel like for once I can make choices that make me happy.” Her attention comes back down to me and her left eyebrow arches. “What happened with you and that girl?”

“You really want to talk about this?” I groan.

“Yes, you’re not getting off the hook that easy. You know about my past with relationships. It’s only fair I know a little about yours.”

“Fine,” I sigh. “I met her in high school. She was a year younger than me. When 9/11 happened, I knew I wanted to join the Army. She wasn’t exactly thrilled, but I went and enlisted anyway. She found the enlistment papers in my jacket pocket one night. To say it didn’t go over well is an understatement.” I can still hear her yelling at me when she realized what she was holding. “She told me I was selfish and was super pissed that I went off and did this.”

“She said you were selfish?” Her eyes are wide in disbelief. I’m sure it was the same reaction I had when she said it to me too. Once the shock wore off though, I felt nothing but resentment toward her.

“Yep. I should’ve known then that it wasn’t going to work out, but I was either too dumb or too young to realize it. I went off to basic training and got stationed close to home once I graduated. Everything was fine until I got deployed. I’d been gone for about seven months and was coming up on my two-week leave. She kept telling me how excited she was and how she couldn’t wait to see me. She picked me up from the airport and was real quiet on the way home. I made a joke and said something like, ‘What? Did someone fill my shoes while I was gone?’ And she just started crying. Then I knew what was going on. Turns out she had been cheating on me for most of the deployment.”

Her hand goes to her mouth. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“Eh, it happens. The bad thing was I was planning to propose to her while I was home.” I let out a humorless laugh. “Dodged a bullet on that one.” After that, I focused on nothing but my job. I never thought I’d trust a woman again after that kind of betrayal. Sure there were other women in my life, but only on a very casual level. I definitely never thought I’d fall for someone, especially while I was undercover.

“Wow, no kidding.” I half expect to see pity on her face, but I don’t. There’s nothing but understanding and compassion there. Maybe it’s because she knows what it’s like when things don’t go as you plan, but I’m thankful for it. The last thing I want is for her to feel sorry for me. I got enough of that when she dropped me off at home and I had to tell my family why she wasn’t with me. Then there were the stares and looks of sympathy from my guys when I went back overseas. I not only hated my ex for what she did to me, but also for the way her actions made everyone treat me. Every time one of my guys looked at me differently, or a family member told me how sorry they were, it would bring the hurt and betrayal back to the surface. Which would immediately be replaced by disgust and anger.

“My turn,” I announce after a minute of silence. “Missionary or doggy style?” Enough with this serious shit.

AT TWENTY YEARS old, you never expect to see the things you do when in combat. But here I am, fresh out of basic and shipped overseas to help fight the war on terror. I knew what I was signing up for when I requested the infantry, and I don’t regret it. I take pride in serving my country, but it doesn’t make it any easier to sleep sometimes.

It’s another day, another patrol. Our deployment keeps getting extended. What started out as twelve months has now turned into eighteen.