“Sure.” He took off the St. Christopher necklace and tried to hand it to her.
“No, you keep it. I want you to give it to Abia. I’ll have you record a video of me on your phone for her.”
“Jesus, Daisy, are you sure you want to do it this way?”
“Positive.”
“And me? Do I get a video kiss-off too?”
Her mouth fell open. “That’s not what you want, is it?”
“No way, not this time. You tell me what you’re doing. Tell me what you want. I keep walking out on the ledge, now it’s your turn.”
She tried to lift both hands up to touch his chest and gasped in pain.
“Without hurting yourself. That’s the caveat—tell me what you want without hurting yourself.”
“Maybe I’m leaving you before you can leave me.”
“Daisy—”
“No. I got you shot. How could you want to stay with me?”
“We’ve been over this, and you know I’m not going anywhere. I promised. Now tell me what you really want.”
He looked into her eyes and finally saw her take down the walls. “I want to spend time with you back in the States. A lot of time. But I don’t know how. I don’t even know where you live.”
“I know where you live, your headquarters are in D.C., and coincidentally I live in Virginia Beach.”
Her eyes got huge. “Really?”
“You really want to spend a lot of time with me when we’re back in the States? No more blowing off my calls and texts?”
“I was told by a very domineering man that there were new rules that stated I had to return the texts and answer the calls. I agreed to those terms, don’t you remember?” Her smile was pure sin.
“I vaguely remember. The problem is, you were naked at the time, so my memory is addled.” He traced the line of her jaw, and she stretched so that he was soon touching her cheek.
“My plane doesn’t leave for five hours.” Her invitation was obvious.
“Then you just have time to go talk to your team and take a real nap. You need to rest, Daisy. Please say you’re not traveling coach.”
“Of course I am.”
“Not when you’re injured.”
“I refuse to spend money willy-nilly.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Leo pulled out his cell phone and tapped out Doug Prentiss’ number. He explained the situation. Doug promised to pull the other members of the team together for a meeting before Daisy left for the airport. He also said he would get Daisy upgraded to business class.
“I can’t believe you just did that.”
“Believe it,” Leo said with a fierce grin. He went over to the house phone and called down for ice, and almost a repeat of the food he’d ordered a few days before. “But bring the ice as soon as you can. Thank you.”
“Who said you could come in and take over my life?” Daisy was smiling so Leo knew he didn’t have to worry.
“Never would I try to take over your life. Share it? Yes. How does that sound?” he asked softly.
He saw her throat moving but no words came out.
“What, Honey?” he asked as he went closer to her and gently put his arms around her. He tilted her chin up so she was looking at him.
“It sounds scary-wonderful.”
“Which part more? Scary or wonderful?”
“I’m pretty sure wonderful, with scary sprinkles on top.” But there were no tears, just glittery determination in her eyes.
24
Leo had called Daisy every day when he was still in Yemen, and by some strange miracle, she answered each and every one of his calls. He sure as hell wished he could go straight to D.C. and spend time with her, but duty literally called. He’d had all the playtime he’d put in for, and had to show up at Little Creek. Max was not going to be happy to find out he’d been shot while on leave.
He’d called and left a message on Max’s phone so that he’d have more than a minute to digest the news before showing up in his office on Monday.
“Come in.” Max’s voice sounded ominous.
Leo went into the small office and found Max and Kane waiting for him. Max was glowering and if Leo had to guess, Kane was smothering a bit of a smile.
“I want to hear every little detail of how in the hell it came about that you spent your leave in Yemen of all fucking places. What’s more, how in the hell did you end up saving Dr. Ethan Squires’ daughter’s life? Would you mind telling me this? Because this picture is not in focus for me, and I don’t like it when things aren’t in focus.”
“I told you, Max—” Kane started
“Shut it, McNamara, I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Now tell me.”
“Maybe he should sit down, seeing as how he was shot in the leg and all,” Kane said.
Yep, Kane was enjoying the hell out of this.
“If he were gut shot, I’d think about letting him sit down. Think about it. Now, in nice, small-syllable words, explain yourself, Perez.”
“There’s a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. I went there to help.”
“Humanitarian is not a small word,” Kane said.
“Shut up, Kane,” Max growled.
“What made you decide they needed your help?” Max demanded to know.
Leo hated this. He didn’t know what answer Max wanted; did he need him to give him cover for the brass, or did he want the truth?
“I want the truth,” Max shot out.
Great, now my boss can read my mind.
“I got to know Daisy while we were in Afghanistan. I followed her to Yemen. I offered my skills as a security consultant for the internally displaced
