Match Play by Merline Lovelace Read Free Book Online Page B

keep him from complicating the sensitive op more than he already had.
    â€œMike and I work together on special projects for the government. You don’t need to know the specific project that brought us to St. Andrews. Suffice to say, your detachment’s presence at RAF Leuchars was a complication we had to deal with. We couldn’t take the chance that…”
    â€œSo you got me transferred out of my unit,” he interrupted, his hazel eyes as hard as granite.
    â€œYes, but…”
    â€œDo you have any appreciation of the impact my abrupt move will have on the other pilots? Guys like Dweeb and Gabe and Alan Parks?”
    â€œI have a general idea.”
    â€œAnd it doesn’t bother you that you’ve just doubled their cockpit hours, not to mention their exposure to the surface-to-air missiles surrounding the targets we go after?”
    Dayna could count on the fingers of one hand the number of men she’d allowed to get this close or this hostile.
    â€œBack off, Harper! I have my orders. You have yours.”
    â€œYeah, well, I suggest you give me a little more detail on just what your orders entail so I don’t blow it the next time a reporter shoves a mike at me.”
    â€œI’ve told you all you need to know.”
    â€œWrong.”
    â€œDon’t push me, Harper. I can’t think of anything I would enjoy more than seriously rearranging your pretty face.”
    A sardonic glint worked its way through Luke’s bristling antagonism. “Seems I recall you wanting to rearrange more than my pretty face, Pud.”
    â€œDon’t call me that!”
    â€œYou used to like it.”
    â€œI used to like a lot of things. That includes you.”
    She regretted the childish retort as soon as it was out. They both had too much at stake to indulge in this kind of petty sniping. Disgusted with herself, she turned to Hawk.
    â€œSorry. You didn’t need to hear us slinging around this old baggage.”
    â€œWe all collect baggage.”
    His quiet admission acted like a sprinkler system on the firestorm of emotions Luke had churned up. Dayna had worked a number of ops with Mike Callahan yet knew so little about the man behind the marksmanship badge. He never talked about his past and she knew better than to ask.
    She’d heard rumors about a woman. A DEA agent who’d died in a firefight deep in the jungles of Colombia. Some said she’d gone bad. Some said Hawk had been sent in to uncover the truth. If so, whatever had happened in that steamy green darkness would go to the grave with him.
    Unless Gillian Ridgeway pried it out of him. Dayna wouldn’t bet on that happening. Then again, Jilly was the daughter of two of OMEGA’s most skilled operatives.
    Callahan could handle that problem when and if it ever arose. He—and Dayna—had other issues to tackle right now. One of which was standing a few feet away.
    â€œI know you don’t want to hear this,” Hawk said, breaking into her thoughts, “but Captain Harper has a point. After that photo this morning, the media is going to be on him like crows on road kill.”
    â€œThey already are,” she admitted. “He had as many cameras aimed in his direction out on the course as I did.”
    â€œThen you need to hammer out a coordinated response to the barrage you know is going to follow.” His glance cut from Dayna to Luke and back again. “I’ll let you decide how much to tell him. Brief me when you’re through.”
    When the door closed behind him, Dayna’s mouth settled into a thin line. Damned if Luke Harper hadn’t wormed his way back into her life.
    Temporarily.
    He’d be out again as soon as she hustled Wu Kim Li and her father onto a plane. With that thought firmly in mind, she forced a show of civility.
    â€œWould you like a drink?”
    The stiff set to his shoulders relaxed a little. “Sounds good.”
    â€œBeer,