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allow anyone to uncover the true cause of that accident. He would skate by and live to fly another day.
    But he didn’t intend to leave it to luck.
    He’d worked too hard to achieve all he had in his career field. People had underestimated him when he was a kid, but that had just made him stronger. He hadn’t been the fastest or the strongest, so he’d simply outsmarted them. Now, he just needed to get past this unfortunate incident, shift people’s focus long enough to bury the evidence deeper. Most of all, he needed to shift Berg and Campbell’s attention.
    And he’d learned something vital from the testing accident. The best way to rattle people?
    Target a kid.
    *    *    *
    David needed to get home to his daughter, Haley Rose, and no doubt Sophie must be ready to see her kid.
    He checked the wall clock in the ER waiting room while Sophie signed the release papers. Spine rigid, she stood as if in the middle of a court negotiation rather thanfinishing up treatment for a concussion. Head bleeding and uniform askew, she still maintained an air of control, freeze-dried energy. A warrior in her own right. He couldn’t think of a woman less in need of help, yet the lingering rush of protectiveness still coursed through him.
    Protectiveness? Is that what you’re calling it these days?
    David winced. He couldn’t suppress the nightmarish image of how bad it could have gone in a real-time war scenario rather than some practice run. He’d seen more than his share of dead in uniform—men and women. The list never ended and neither did the memories.
    But something different was going on here. He hadn’t dated much since his divorce, and they’d all been civilian women. Other than Sophie, he’d never faced the frustration of attraction in the workplace.
    Sure, there was nothing keeping him from asking her out. They weren’t in the same chain of command and there were no rank issues to consider. Although she was investigating someone in his unit, which could be sticky. He worried about the impact a potential relationship could have on the case, a case crucial to his career and peace of mind.
    Shit.
    When had he gone from being attracted to her to thinking about asking her out to dinner and just…
    Shit.
    Once he drove Sophie home, he would have his life back in order and could focus on work, on finding out what the hell had gone wrong with that gun turret, so Caleb Tate’s file could be cleared. No matter what the prior test records indicated, there had to be a flaw in the product—which meant more than Tate counted on him.Everyone who would be using that technology in combat depended on him. Time was damn short, though, to figure out exactly what went wrong before Caleb’s trial ended and the new modification was used in battle.
    Maybe he could wrangle some conversation with Sophie about the trial during their ride to her house, just to see the case from a different angle.
    Her heels clicking closer snapped his focus back to the present. Her sharp, efficient walk gave him all of ten seconds to prep himself for the latest assault on his senses.
    “Berg,” she fished her cell phone out of her purse, “you really didn’t have to wait around. I’m going to call a cab.”
    God, she was argumentative. “Is it my aftershave?”
    “What?”
    “I gargled this morning.” David lifted each arm slightly in turn. “I’m a firm advocate of deodorant, especially in this ‘air you can wear’ hot weather.” He lowered his arms. “So?”
    She gawked at him as if he were a couple of bullets short of a full magazine. “Thanks for the update. But I think I gathered more than enough info on your daily hygiene back in the courtroom.”
    “What can I say? I couldn’t let it pass when you fed me the perfect opening with that bathroom line.” He appreciated a good challenge, and Sophie made a worthy adversary. If she hadn’t attacked his professional reputation, a fact that still made his jaw clench, he might have