Anything, Anywhere, Anytime Read Online Free PDF Page B

boy's club in action, huh?" She yanked out a clothespin. "You can rescue my sister. Blake can help his old girlfriend. But I'm supposed to sit back and wait when she's my own flesh and blood."
    "It's dangerous." And Gardner was in his own personal hell over not being able to stop Sydney from going.
    A hell Jack had no interest in visiting because of Monica.
    Stalking back to the refrigerator, she snapped the clip on his cereal bag and closed the box lid so damned predictably he wanted to laugh. It sure as shit beat shouting.
    "Get real, Jack. Are you going to follow me around for the rest of my Air Force career—and make no mistake, this is a career for me. Are you going to work your Korba magic and charm all my superiors into slotting me on only the safe missions? Step out of the Dark Ages and join the modern world."
    Her eyes narrowed, jade depths just as intense and potentially hazardous as those NVG views. "What's really going on here? You've never had a problem with my job before. Quit pulling this smoke-and-mirrors garbage and talk to me."
    "We're married," he repeated.
    "So? Husbands and wives can't work together? Sure I'm not supposed to fly over on your plane since we're married. Not that anyone knows to call you on it. But I'll ride on one of the other jets, anyway."
    He stepped closer until his dominant Greek nose almost touched the pert tip of hers. "I don't want you there."
    Pain flashed for a whole second—a damned tidal wave of emotion from Monica—before she doused the spark. Well, fine. He hurt, too. Not that it stopped him from wanting to wipe away her worry.
    "I can understand that, Jack, but you know how damned scared I've been for my sister these past months."
    Ah, shit. If she went soft on him, he was toast. His easygoing pop may not have taught him much, but his father had been rock-firm on one point. A man never hurt a woman. "I'm doing my best to end that fear for you."
    "I know. But I don't understand why you kept this nugget of hope from me. You've never been a petty man."
    She shamed him, but damn it, he had reasons— good ones. Like security. And not raising her hopes for them to fall.
    He wouldn't fail. "If it had been as simple as just telling you, then hell, yeah, I'd have let you know. Except you would have insisted on a slot from the start—just like you're doing now." The truth pushed through, good thing since nothing else gained him ground. "Shit, Mon, after what went down between us in Vegas...
    I can't spend the next week dancing around land mines." He stepped closer. "You know how it is whenever we're in the same room."
    She stilled. The air conditioner hummed in the silence between them, need riding the breeze and dulling the edges of pain until the pull between them increased. Swelled. Demanded attention. He could have her. He knew it. The defensiveness in her eyes broadcast she knew it, too.
    He couldn't allow himself to take that step forward, a move that would hurt her, both of them, even more.
    "Don't push this. Plans are in place. Don't. Push."
    "I have to. You'll figure out how to work with me around the same way I'll manage to work with you every day after the divorce is final." Her hand fell to his arm, hotter than the flaming immunization site. "Jack, for three and a half months I've tried not to think about what could be happening to Sydney. But still, possibilities smoke through my brain in this toxic black cloud." Her fingers tightened. "You know what these people are capable of. We all know what Ammar al-Khayr is capable of."
    Vulnerability from the strongest woman he knew leveled his defenses faster than a SCUD missile. That her younger sister had to be there at all blasted everything else inside him to dust. He studied the floor, his bare feet, anything but Monica's eyes.
    "I know you'll get her out of that hellhole, Jack."
    Her faith rang clear. She might doubt him in other arenas, but not here at least. Of course he couldn't fault her for questioning him in the