Luscious - Lexi Blake Page 0,60
fiancé to her. He was the target.
“I’d like to hear an explanation,” Adam said, his voice cutting through the dreadfully heavy silence. “Macon asked me to locate Private First Class Rowe’s family. I could only come up with his mother, Carla, who died a few months back. When I dug deeper, I discovered a woman named Sarah Allyson Jones had been living with her at the time of her death. Imagine my surprise when I got your records. It might have been better if you’d at least tried. Next time dye your hair or change up your look.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide,” she said. She took a step toward Macon.
He nearly tripped trying to get away from her. He couldn’t let her touch him. If she touched him, he would melt like butter. He wouldn’t give a damn that she’d lied. He’d tell himself anything so he could keep her. He’d already made a damn fool of himself. What would a gorgeous girl like Allyson want with his pathetic ass?
Sarah. Her name was Sarah.
She stepped back, her face pale. Her eyes wouldn’t quite meet his. “You wouldn’t answer me. After Ronnie died, my foster mom went a little crazy. She didn’t believe the reports on his death. She said Ronnie would never have taken off his helmet or his body armor. He wouldn’t have not been wearing it.”
No. They were right about that. Ronnie had religiously worn his body armor and his helmet when they were in the field. He’d been wearing it when the Humvee had exploded and the world had gone to shit. It was only after the firefight that they’d been left alone with the sun. Ronnie hadn’t been the only one who struggled to survive the intense heat. He could almost feel it now.
He could definitely feel the same hollowness he’d felt that day. He’d looked down and realized he couldn’t save himself. He’d been pinned down by the Humvee, his right leg caught. He’d known even if he’d managed to lift the heavy piece off of him, he’d bleed out. The medic had taken one look at him and put his hands up in defeat. The only thing stopping the bleed was the damn metal deep in his thigh.
The whole day was chaos. A few moments after proclaiming Macon would have to wait, the medic—an older man named Johnson—had been shot right through the forehead.
Macon had lain near Johnson’s dead body for nearly three days.
He looked at Allyson with new eyes. She’d done a lot for the truth. “I should have answered your calls.”
“Macon, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
He calmed. There would be time for anger later, but right now all he could manage was a cold resignation. She’d likely thought he’d left her no other recourse. “I wasn’t sure what to tell you.”
“I know you weren’t involved,” she said quickly. “At the time, we didn’t understand the reports and my mom was so sick. She was my foster mom, but I called her Mom. She and Ronnie were my family.”
And she was loyal to them. It was a good thing to be. He couldn’t compete with her family. “You’re wrong, unfortunately. I’m the reason he’s dead.”
“You are not, Macon,” his brother said fiercely.
Macon kind of wished his brother wasn’t here to witness this new humiliation, but he deserved it. He’d been a shit to his brother most of his life. He’d chosen the wrong people to believe in. He still did since he’d really believed he had a chance with Ally. Elise had only cared about his father’s money. No woman had ever loved him for who he was.
Who was he, anyway? The serious soldier or the pastry chef? The man who’d thrown his brother under the bus because his wife wanted him to or the man who would stand by his brother no matter what?
He wanted to be the man Ally had fallen for. The trouble was Ally didn’t exist. The very least he could give her was the truth. She would know what kind of man he was then and she could be satisfied.
“We were out on an assignment. I don’t even know everything we were supposed to do. We were going to be told when we got where we were going. We were soldiers. We followed orders. Even as an officer, I was trained to follow the orders of my superiors. They wanted it quiet, I would be quiet. We were meeting someone in a small village outside the desert but to