Honor by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online Page A

scrubbed away her tears and focused hard on the screen as her friend typed.
     
I’m sorry, Kenzie. I saw his name on the casualty list for the region and I thought you knew—it was a few days ago.
     
    Linc understood. Those lists got read all over the world, wherever there were service members. You never knew. A buddy could be on it. You prayed your friends wouldn’t be—and you prayed for the men and women you didn’t know who were.
     
Heck, I just got beeped. Back in a bit.
     
    Kenzie didn’t reply, just sat where she was for a little while. Eventually the screensaver appeared, a moving design that made her blink. She clicked on a key to get the page back, staring at the message space as if she could will Donna to come back.
    For a few seconds, Linc rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder and was surprised that she didn’t brush it off. He could feel her pulse racing faintly under her silken skin.
    Suddenly more words appeared. Unconsciously, Kenzie turned the laptop away from him, hiding her grief as best she could.
     
    She had moved to her desk to sit in a swivel chair. With a touch to the keys, she shut down the laptop after the silent conversation was over.
    Kenzie heaved a raw sigh, then pressed her lips together before she spoke again. “Apparently Frank had more than one wound.” She swallowed hard before she summed it up for him. “Handguns, close range. Could have been more than one shooter. They cleared out. The two soldiers with him did what they could to help.”
    He nodded.
    “The body armor’s supposed to be better than it was in Iraq. But it makes you wonder.”
    “Sounds like the odds weren’t on his side.”
    “No. They couldn’t save him. The field surgeon found a rifle bullet in his chest too. Most likely from a Dragunov. Does that mean anything to you?” She fell silent.
    “That’s a sniper weapon. Russian design, probably made somewhere in China, popular in Afghanistan. Depending on the bullet, it can kill from a mile away.”
    She shrugged. “Nobody knows exactly which shot killed him. Casualty of war, no more, no less. Not the subject of an official investigation.”
    Something in her tone made him ask more. “But he could be.”
    Kenzie paused. “Donna knows a medic on his evac team who told her the vest was shredded, looked like bad gear. Maybe Frank didn’t have to die.”
    The thought rocked her. She sat very still, as if she would fall to pieces if she breathed.
    “Are you all right, Kenzie?”
    “Right now I’m just numb. First Christine and now this.”
    Linc forced himself to keep his distance, guessing that reaching out to hold her wasn’t something she wanted.
    She cleared her throat. “Linc, I know you wanted to come with me, but I’m going to postpone the meeting with the lieutenant. Right now I just want to be alone.”
    He hesitated. “I can make that call for you.”
    “Thanks. No.”
    She rose from the swivel chair she’d been sitting in and grabbed a brush she kept on the desk, using it to scrape her hair back into a tight ponytail. That, and the white T and the baggy canvas pants she wore made her look like she was headed back to boot camp.
    The suck-it-up toughness she’d learned there was about to trip her up, in his opinion.
    “You shouldn’t be by yourself,” he said. “Not at a time like this.”
    “I have to think. And I can’t do that with you around being helpful and nice and solving problems for me.” She moved away from him, rubbing her upper arms as if she felt a chill. “I’ll be fine. What about you?” she asked absently. “Don’t you have to check in with your office or something?”
    “I did already, at the motel. I got an okay to come and go from my department chief and CO. Right now, I’m officially gone.”
    “Okay.” She wandered away from him and came back when he gathered up the few things he’d had with him and headed for the door. “You leaving?” she asked distractedly.
    “You just asked me to.” He