Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

Mark

L aughing, I slapped my hand on Junior's shoulder and stood up. I turned, eyes falling on the spot Jen had been sitting. A frown marred my face as I realized she'd left.

"What the fuck?" I muttered. The woman was driving me bat shit crazy. I'd never had this much trouble in the past with women, not that there'd been too many. Most women were more like Karolyn and that just wasn't my type. Playing hard to get was sexy, but the vanishing act was a whole new level.

"Apparently you like the type that disappears the minute you turn your back," I told myself.

"Talking to yourself, Shep?" Ty materialized at my side and I wondered how much of that he'd just heard. He answered that question pretty quickly. "Can't seem to nail down your girl, can you?" He tilted his head at me, a wicked grin on his face.

"Fuck off," I told him, tone grim. She was a mystery. I had to admit, her running off every chance she got was making some primal instinct inside of me wake up. I wanted to chase her down. Take what we both wanted. It wasn't doing much to help keep my hands off her, that was for sure. I'd been dying to shift my hand over while I'd been talking to her. Let my fingertips trail up the inside of her leg. She wouldn't feel too much through her uniform pants, but it would have been enough. I was dying to watch her gulp in breaths as I brought her to the edge of pleasure, only to back off, then start all over again.

"What seems to be the problem?"

I glanced over at Ty. The man was the type never to have issues with women. It didn't surprise me that he looked confused. All he had to do was smooth down that beard and flash a pretty smile at a woman and she'd jump into bed with him. Shaking my head in amusement, I answered, "Told my guys hands off. Can't very well go doing what I want if I'm keeping a tight rein on them."

Ty snorted out a laugh. "Sure you can." At my questioning look, he sighed. "Look, Shep. Everyone knows your boys and how they…are. They need to be kept on a tight leash. But there's no sense in strangling yourself with that same leash. You don't chase ass…at all." He met my gaze. "You're allowed to have a good time if you want, because you'll never allow it to get out of control. Never allow it to affect the mission. It's not who you are."

"I'd listen to him, Shep," Brady said, walking up with Artie. Brady was carrying a loaf of bread in his hand, taking bites straight from it as he explained. "You've been watching Walker since she first got here-"

"Dude, thought you were going to cut some slices for the rest of us." Artie said, eyeing the bread. It smelled of garlic and cheese.

"I was." He took another bite. "But then I decided…fuck you."

Artie punched him before Brady stalked off. "Fucker, go make more." He turned his attention to me."Thought you were going to do something stupid up there in Bagram," Artie admitted. "Looked like you wanted to take the head off that guy who was grabbing onto her."

He and Ty both looked at me in bemusement as I all but growled in displeasure. I prided myself on my control. On being a dutiful soldier who always did the right thing. But Artie was right. I'd wanted to pummel that fucker and I hadn't even known him. Shit. I hadn't even known her at the time. My caveman brain saw a pretty woman and lost it.

"He was holding up the flight," I said. Even I knew it was a weak explanation.

Artie grinned in an ‘I'm not buying it' way. "Yeah, sure. Perfectly normal for you to knock random pilots on their ass for delaying your flights."

"Actually, that isn't that unusual for him. Certainly not with staff officers." Brady chimed in from across the room.

"Bread," Artie snapped.

Brady's eyes narrowed, but he disappeared to whatever secret cave he had where he seemingly magically baked bread.

"That was only one time, and the fucker was trying to argue about paperwork," I conceded.

"One time this deployment," Artie corrected.

Brady came back, second loaf of bread in hand. He handed it to Artie.

"How in the fuck did you do that?" he asked, grabbing the fresh loaf.

"Trade secrets. But back to the topic at hand. That dude didn't have any paperwork in hand, all he had was your woman in hand."

"Not my woman," I told him. Yet.

"Yet," they all said in unison.

They were right, of course. From the moment I saw her on the flightline I had decided she was mine. A smart man, a patient man would wait until the deployment was over to pursue her. Fuck that. But how was I supposed to get her past this running away stage?

I thought about tying her to my bed. That would solve more than one problem. As fun as it would be, it was a less than practical solution.

"I ever tell you my ‘be a creep' theory?" Brady asked.

"No." We were back to speaking as one. "No one wants to hear one of your theories, Brady. Ever," I explained.

"Hey, fine. I'm not the one with a vanishing woman." He took another bite of bread and gave me a malicious grin.

"I live across the street from you. I've seen women run naked out of your house more times than I can count," Artie mocked.

"Yeah, but that's after. They never run from me before I…"

"Enough Brady, no one wants you to finish that sentence," I told him.

"Your call."

Ignoring Brady, I gave my attention back to Ty. "I can't wrap my mind around it. She will barrel into a firefight and pick up the wounded with no hesitation. But sit next to a man for more than five minutes and she's running away at full speed."

"Well, however you decide to handle this, you won't get any drama from around here. You know that your guys, and my guys, will keep their mouths shut. I already told them to keep their distance."

"Good," I growled. I'd hate to have to get into it with someone on Ty's team because they were getting too close to her. Somehow I doubted they go down as easily as the asshole in Bagram.

More importantly, Ty telling me that his team would keep their mouths shut was huge. Warrant Officers and Captains are not supposed to date. Not to mention that her life would be a lot harder if people were spreading rumors about us.

With that said, I was running out of excuses not to flat out chase her down.

"Seems to me you need to go to a source close to the target," Ty said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Get a better source of intel."

My lips twitched. The Beards often spoke in code, even in normal conversations. I arched a brow his way.

Understanding the question, Ty pointed across the room toward Laura. "She'd be able to tell you why her friend keeps bolting."

"Are they allowed to do that?" I asked.

"Yeah. Wouldn't girl code prevent them from spilling the beans on their buddies?" Artie added.

"How the fuck would I know?" Ty asked with a chuckle. "I don't pursue flighty women, too much work. But that's what we do when we need actionable intel. We find someone close to the target and pump information from them."

"Couldn't hurt," Brady suggested.

Something told me it could, but I wasn't sure what else to do at this point. Leaving them staring after me, I crossed the room. "Hey," I said to Laura as I approached.

"You done talking to the amateurs?" She grinned.

I sighed. "How much did you hear?"

"All of it. This room is the size of a shoe box. Brady and Ty only talk in shouts. No volume control whatsoever."

"True enough." I said. "So right to the point then, what's her deal? And how do I keep her from bolting?" I grabbed a chair, set it down next to her and sat.

Laura laughed, not her usual loud belly laugh, but more of a sympathetic laugh. "Her deal is, as the boys would put it, ‘girl code' and not my place to say. She has trust issues, that's already more than I should say. But how do you keep her from bolting? That's easy. Ish. You need to hold her accountable and call her on her nonsense. Just, tactfully. If you're too aggressive she'll keep running. Be persistent, let her see that you're not going to get bored and wander off. And don't lie to her. Not that you're the type to lie. This is one case where your brutal honesty will work."

I blinked a few times before trying to respond. "I'm sure that made sense to you, or in girl code. But in man's world you just contradicted yourself several times."

"So you do get it!" This time she punctuated it with her belly laugh. The walls were echoing it back to us. It was almost a super power.

"Thanks. That was almost helpful." I stood up and found my way to an empty desk where I could think to myself. Not lying would be easy enough, what would be the point. But how the hell do you be persistent without being too aggressive? How do you pursue a woman at all without being aggressive? It didn't make any sense at all.

I decided I'd have to get to the bottom of her trust issues. That was the only real bit of useful information that Laura had given me.