“First, are you hungry?”
“I couldn’t keep anything down. I’d just like it if you’d talk.”
Daisy nodded and pulled up the chair.
15
“What crawled up your ass?” Cullen asked. “I’m the one who’s going to have to explain to my wife that I let myself get injured. She’s going to be pissed.”
Leo looked down at the same page he’d been staring at for the last hour, ignoring Cullen. They’d been on the transport plane for five hours, and for three of them, members of the team had tried to engage him in conversation. Everybody but Max. He knew better.
Max had known that Daisy would be pressuring Leo for information about her father, and Leo would have to keep his mouth shut. That meant that he couldn’t have contact with her. It killed him. He knew proper channels were going to inform her that her father was fine, but she wouldn’t be able to see him for a while, which would go over like a lead balloon.
He should have known she’d push like a pit bull. And he’d admired the hell out of her. But he hated the hell out of it when she’d turned that fierce fire on him. He’d wished she’d just believed in him, but he’d known. He’d known why she couldn’t have faith. After so many broken promises in her life, it was going to be up to him to take the time to help her build that trust.
“You haven’t turned a page for at least an hour. Come on, talk to me. I’m a great listener,” Cullen coaxed.
Leo snorted. “You’re a great talker, is what you are.”
“See, same thing. You listen, I talk. What’s the difference? You need a good talking-to.”
“Oh really?” Leo said sarcastically. “Just what sort of advice are you going to give me?”
“Well, it’s easy. You don’t have job worries. You don’t live above your means. Your family couldn’t be any more perfect. So it’s woman troubles. Since you were fine before the mission, then you had to go get info from Ms. Squires—who I Googled, by the way—she’s your problem. How am I doing so far?”
Shit, shit, shit. Why didn’t they hire stupid men to become SEALs?
“You might have hit on something, but maybe I’m just worried about her because they’re not reuniting her with her father right away.”
“Sure…that’s what has your dick in a twist. I believe you.” Cullen clearly didn’t.
Leo looked around the transport plane to see who else was listening in on their conversation. It was really loud in the back of the plane, but then so was Cullen Lyons. He saw Raiden with a half-smile on his face beside Cullen. But, hell, he didn’t mind if Raiden knew his business; he kept his own counsel.
“Yes, it’s Daisy,” he admitted slowly. “And what the hell is up with us meeting women on missions? That’s just plain wrong.”
Cullen chuckled, then winced.
“Serves you right,” Leo laughed. He knew that Cullen had gotten cut with a knife along his side, not deep enough to need surgery, but enough that he’d ended up with a fuck ton of stitches.
“Hey, be nice to the wounded. I’m being nice to the lovelorn. I’m going to give you advice and everything.”
“Okay, I’ll bite, what’s the advice?”
“Grovel.”
Leo sat up straighter. This had the ring of truth. “I’m listening.”
“I don’t know what happened, but assume it is your fault, and grovel.”
“It is my fault,” Leo said quietly. “I had to leave. I ghosted her calls because I knew she’d push me for information on her father that I couldn’t answer. Then when she showed up at the base, I told her she needed to leave. I promised her I would call her when I was stateside, but she didn’t believe me.”
“This is bad, Dude. Groveling isn’t going to be enough. Flowers sure as hell won’t cut it. You’re going to have to track her down when we get home and grovel in person. Take her out.”
“She’s not going to want to see me.”
“Where’s that Perez charm? You usually have to shake them off with a stick.”
“Daisy’s different.”
“They always are when they’re important. Anyway, you’re going to have to figure out a way for the two of you to talk. You can do this. Then you grovel. Take it from a man who knows, this works.”
Raiden snorted.
Cullen turned to him. “Wait until it’s your turn.”
Again, Raiden just smiled and shook his head. Then he leaned forward. “I wish you luck, Perez.”
“I’ll take it.”
16
It was worse than she’d been told. It was always worse. The little girl held her hand for all she was worth, which wasn’t much. Daisy could tell that she didn’t have much strength. It was obvious she was tired and undernourished. She was pulling Daisy toward her home within the internally displaced person camp here in Aden, the fourth largest city in Yemen.
“Come, come. You will meet my mother and brothers and sisters and cousins.” Abia had been talking non-stop in Arabic since Daisy had first met her. Daisy was only understanding every third word, but it was enough. She realized that there was only her mother, no father, no aunts or uncles. This was exactly the type of woman she wanted to talk to.
The girl looked maybe three years old, but the aid worker explained she was extremely malnourished and was in fact five years old. There was a lot of good work being done by some of the different international aid organizations here in Yemen, but it was like trying to stop a
