Conrad hadn’t slept worth a shit. His eyes were gritty and his temper was far from even keel. He just wanted someone to look at him wrong so he could take out his frustration physically. He was consumed with too many emotions to name. Not that he truly understood any emotion that wasn’t hair-raising fear, anger, or anxiety.
What he wouldn’t give to dial the clock back forty-eight hours. Everything was fucked to hell now. Missy had totally bought the endless women he made up. Of course, he only started lying about the women to make excuses for why he never went to social events with her. Then they’d joked about the number of women he pretended he’d slept with, and then it became his schtick. Stupid, stupid move. And how did you ever tell anyone that you’d been lying to them for two years?
He left his room and went to the lobby. There were loads of people in civvies, milling around, talking in low voices.
He saw a pilot he’d been on patrolling sorties with on the Korean peninsula. “Hey. What’s going on?”
The Animal—as he was always known—shook his hand. Unusually for him, he looked somber. “I’m arranging a…” He paused to search for the right word.
“Posse,” another pilot suggested.
“Yeah, I’m organizing a posse to go out and look for Eleanor and Dex. You heard, right? Of course you did. We decided last night—”
“In the bar,” the other pilot added.
“Look, who’s telling this story, man?” The Animal was an American-raised Korean national who was a legend at Red Flag, He was the guy who put everything on the line every time he took off and left nothing on the field when he landed.
The pilot grinned and held up both hands. His cell phone rang as soon as he did, and he took the call.
The Animal nodded. “Okay, we were in the bar, but where else do I get my great ideas?”
“It’s a mystery to us all,” Conrad replied with a patience he definitely wasn’t feeling.
“We don’t trust TGO. Too many people have too many stories about various fuck-ups they’ve had downrange. You know? Ones that don’t make the official reports.”
Really? So maybe Missy and he were right to think that this all revolved around TGO.
“I hadn’t heard that,” he said, leaning against one of the armchairs.
“It seems as if you have to be directly involved to know what happened, because as I said, none of the incidents make it to the reports.” The Animal was tapping his fingers against his leg and was clearly amped up. “I hear that TGO has deep connections to your government. Like entrenched for many years.”
“I hope you’re not saying my government is corrupt?” Conrad frowned.
“No more than mine. But power and money corrupt individuals. And that’s where the shit hits the fan. Anyway, none of us feels real comfortable leaving Eleanor and Dex’s rescue to TGO. You want in?”
“Sure I do. But the base is on lockdown.”
“I think I have someone who can help me with that,” he said. “Someone on the inside.”
“Okay, I’ll help if I can, but I can’t come with you. My weapons officer—Major Malden—is under house arrest, and I feel like they’re trying to pin the accident on her.”
The Animal’s eyebrows rose. “Dude, if you think TGO has her in their sights, I’d keep a real close eye on her.” He put his hand on Conrad’s arm. “Seriously. I’d give anything to be able to pin this shit storm on them. They deal with my government, too, and it’s only a matter of time before they fuck up over there too. And I don’t want to see that. The stakes are too damn high in my neck of the woods.”
“I’ll let you know if I find anything. Thanks, brother.”
They shook hands. As Conrad left, he heard the other pilot say that he’d rented a van from Hertz. God only knew what exactly they were planning. He had a flash image of a Mad Max–style convoy of multinational forces, storming the desert to find their missing troops. It brought a smile to his face, and he would have given nearly anything to be a part of it.
But he wasn’t going to leave Missy alone, even if she begged him to. Even if she was pissed off to hell with him. He had this unnerving feeling that if he walked away, everyone else would turn a blind eye. And he wasn’t about to let that happen.
He marched over to Colonel Cameron’s office, ready to confess his sins and explain what he thought TGO was up to. To see if Cameron would step up and help Missy.
Only then could he try to figure out a way to keep her in his life. If she’d have him. And for the life of him he couldn’t think of a good reason why she should. He knew knee-trembling, earth-shattering sex wouldn’t be enough to make her love him. He didn’t even really want to think about what a prick he’d been to her.
A good officer would have at least asked what her career goals were and ensured that she was put in a position where she would get the relevant experience to achieve them. He hadn’t. Hell, he knew more about the Animal than he did his own weapons officer. He’d never asked her anything about herself. He wondered why. No, he didn’t wonder why. He knew why. He was just scared to acknowledge it.
God only knew how he could fix all this, but he did know that the key to everything was getting her away from TGO and out of house arrest.