It's Always Been You by Jessica Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

neatly on side tabs. Fifteen names. He’d be damned if he’d ask Marshall a single question about any of them. The soldiers and NCOs would help him figure it out.
    Wouldn’t they? The way everyone had appeared incredibly busy when he’d walked through gave him pause. How bad were things down here in Bandit country?
    He was going to have his work cut out for him. He’d never taken over for someone who’d destroyed the utter soul of an organization.
    Fifteen soldiers out of a company of one hundred plus facing pending legal actions. That didn’t even count those already under investigation for a myriad of offenses, or the ones Ben didn’t even know about yet.
    Ben sighed and sat down at his computer and laid his head on his desk.
    Escoberra. Zittoro. Dear God, what the hell had happened to the warriors he’d known?
    He needed to call Escoberra’s wife and check on her. Carmen Escoberra had put up with a lot over the years but something had to have changed.
    The woman who’d sent them care packages every week to make sure they had food couldn’t have changed so much that she would have called Child Protective Services.
    Why hadn’t she called Ben?
    He sat up, rubbing his hands over his face. Because Ben hadn’t been part of their lives for years now. Not since the army had held Escoberra responsible for a bad attack and Ben had failed to defend him.
    Ben stared into the distance. Escoberra would never put his hands on his family. That much Ben knew.
    So what the hell had happened?
    Grabbing his hat, he knew there was only one way to find out.
    He hoped Carmen was home.
    * * *
    “Ma’am?”
    Olivia looked up from the pile of paperwork on her desk and saw a young woman standing in her doorway. Definitely not a soldier, judging by the civilian clothes and the youthful fullness of her cheeks. “Can I help you?”
    Her eyes were wary. Guarded. “My name is Hailey Escoberra, ma’am. I was wondering if you were the person I needed to talk to about my dad?”
    Olivia noticed Hailey favored her left arm, cradling it against her abdomen in a very subtle movement that Olivia might have missed if she hadn’t been paying attention.
    “Sure. Come in and have a seat.”
    On the spectrum of strange things, a visit from a soldier’s family member wasn’t unusual—except that it wasn’t normally kids that came to visit her. Usually she met with spouses, begging for their husbands.
    Sometimes, things ended up working out. Other times, far too often, they ended badly. Olivia blinked rapidly; the sight of this young woman in front of her mixed with memories of a little girl. They were not the same.
    She took a deep breath, centering herself. “What can I do for you?”
    “I want you to leave my dad alone,” Hailey said quietly. Her voice was soft yet filled with iron.
    What had made this little girl so strong? Hell, she wasn’t a little girl. She was fifteen, if Olivia remembered the reports correctly.
    She gripped the pen on her desk. “I’m not doing anything to your dad,” Olivia said quietly. There was never a good response to something like this.
    Never.
    Because no matter what she did or said, the person in the seat across from her would want something Olivia could not give them.
    “He didn’t mean to hurt me. It was an accident and he’s sorry. Just leave him alone so he can go back to work and do his job.” Her voice wavered a little, just a little. Nothing more.
    “Sometimes, the people in our lives don’t mean to hurt us,” Olivia said. “But that doesn’t make the pain any less real.”
    Hailey’s dark eyes flashed. “I’m not stupid. Who do I need to tell to get the army to leave my dad alone?” Her voice edged up a notch. Just a little, but it was enough to make Olivia’s stomach twist with nerves.
    “Hailey, maybe you should talk to someone about your dad? I’m not really the right person…”
    “They said you were the lawyer. They said you could make this go away.”
    Olivia clicked the