Warrior Mine by Megan Mitcham Read Free Book Online Page B

consumed his thoughts like no other woman had. Not since Ellie.
    Two women had never been created more opposite. Ellie had been light in every way. Soft, slight curves topped with short, straight hair that appeared nearly white in its blondness. She was the party life threw in celebration of all things pure and lovely, always quick with a smile and those brilliant blue eyes. Ready with a song or dance to brighten even the dreariest times.
    Carmen was the funeral of life’s let-downs, the embodiment of all things that could have been, but never would be. Her long black spirals and eyes a deep, swirling torrent of darkness sucked him in, whirled him about, and refused to let him catch a breath. The ever-present sneers and scowls warded off the barest inclination of a red-blooded man, but her ample contours raised even the most unlikely flags. And the proof tented his hospital issue gown.

8
    “ I don’t know how the hell I let you talk me into this in the first place. I bloody well hate the cold and we both get plenty enough adventure with our jobs.”
    “This isn’t about adventure, Zeke. It’s about slowing down, living off the land, becoming a part of nature,” Khani cajoled, craning her neck toward the hands-free microphone, as if those few inches would help her case. An express delivery truck wedged between her Mercedes and the cab she’d been tailing for four miserable miles like it were no bigger than a Vespa. “Fuck you too, bastard.”
    “Well, hell, sister. You’re abandoning me on a vacation I didn’t want in the first place. You don’t have to cuss me too.”
    “Oh, shut up. You know I wasn’t talking about you.”
    “Ah, hoped not, but you never know.”
    “I haven't cursed you since the day you took that stupid job of yours and left me in your dust halfway across the world,” she reminded.
    “Did it ever occur to you that I moved to get away from you?”
    “No.”
    “Figures.”
    “I still don’t know why you wouldn't take the job I offered. It pays well, you’d love the work, but it’s more than that. You’d be doing good. For the good guys.”
    “I’m doing good, Khani.”
    The growl in his voice should have warned her off this beaten path, but she plowed ahead anyway. “For private sector asshats who only worry about lining their pockets, not for honor or duty.”
    “Before you’re left talking to a vacant line, why don’t you explain to me again the reason you’re abandoning me, your only flesh and blood worth a damn, to traipse around a barren wasteland, get frostbitten, and die at the mouths of hungry wolves all by myself .”
    “Even as a child you were dramatic. Not much has changed, has it?” But neither of them commented on her ill-chosen words. Their lives were night and day to what they’d been. Though they each saw unimaginable things and did unimaginable things in their work, these days were the light, the good.
    “My superior was gunned down in our secure facility. It’s my duty to take over his post until his return, but it’s my desire to catch whoever did it and bury them under the slab.”
    “So, he will return?”
    “Yeah. It’ll take a while, but he won’t even let a gut shot slow him down for long.”
    “Bet that hurt.”
    “You should know.” She sang the words.

    “ L ower obliques aren’t considered the gut, thank you.”
    Damn she missed him and all his smart-ass ways. She weaved around the truck, sped in front of a mini-van, and made the exit to the private hospital. “I am very sorry to have to cancel. I know he’ll want to take over in two weeks. Hell’s bells, he wants to take over now, but he won’t be ready by the time our flight leaves.”
    “Let’s reschedule,” Zeke suggested.
    “And when exactly are you going to have leave again? Next year?”
    “So? What good will it do to stare at my toes as they fall off? It’d be much more fun to watch yours fall off instead.”
    “You’re sick.”
    “Your