Sacrifice Love: Saints Protection & Investigations Read Online Free PDF Page B

became friends. Her office was not in the same location as theirs, but she lived close enough for them to hang out whenever they could.
    Turning her face up to the sun, she remembered the day Chad told her he was going to take a six-month overseas assignment. Sighing, the crushing weight of the day he left, as though it was yesterday, pressed down on her.
    Taking him to the airport that morning, my heart ached. Six months! Why did that seem like forever? He turned and smiled, giving me that endearing expression of his. I cared for him as a good friend. As a fellow ATF agent. And more? Yeah, I wish there was more. Sometimes I would look at him and be almost certain he felt something for me as well. But Chad was so goddamn cautious. At least emotionally. The first to put his life on the line in his job with ATF…but not his heart.
    Just before moving on to his transport, he turned and looked at me, his blue eyes capturing my complete attention. It was as though there was something on his mind. Something he wanted to say. I hoped. I waited, desperate for him to tell me he cared. To ask me to wait for him. Please, anything to give me an indication that he wanted more than friendship. But nothing. Not a word.
    Pulling me in tightly he kissed me on the head and said, “I’ll see you in six months. Then…well, then…maybe—”
    The announcement for his flight interrupted what he was saying and he just smiled and walked away. I stood watching until I could no longer see his large body moving away from me. The cold seeped into my soul, not knowing if I would ever see him again. My heart broke, watching the man I love leave.
    Dani startled as her mother walked into the sunroom, a plate with a grilled cheese sandwich in her hand. “I know you’re twenty-seven years old, hardly a child, and the last thing you need is an overbearing mom. I just thought some comfort food might taste good.”
    Dani had to admit the smell of the food made her stomach rumble and not in a bad way. Smiling, she took the plate from her mom’s hands. “You’re right, mom, this’ll be perfect. I guess I was hungry after all.”
    Her mom sat on the lounger opposite of the glider and looked out over the yard. “The flowers should be blooming in another month. That’ll be nice. I love the color and it gets your father out of the house and tinkering in the shed.”
    The two women shared a chuckle at the thought of her father putzing in his shed with his tools. Usually something needed working on, whether it was the mower, blower, chainsaw, or some other garden implement.
    The sandwich was quickly devoured and Dani laid the plate on the glass-topped, end table beside the glider. She and her mother continued to sit in companionable silence for a few minutes.
    “Do you want to talk about anything?” her mother asked, worry lacing her features. An older version of Dani, she and her daughter had always been close. But the past several months Dani had distanced herself from her family.
    Dani smiled wanly, taking a deep breath. “Mom, things are so messed up right now, I don’t even know what to do.” Her parents had been at the wake, but left with Adam’s parents right before the disaster. She had not explained anything that occurred after that. They were curious, but willing to wait.
    Dani’s father wandered out to the sunroom, seeing his daughter and wife sitting there. He had heard the last thing Dani said and sat down quietly, ready to listen…and support.
    “I knew Adam had his issues when we married, but I believed him when said he cared for me. That I was good for him. That we could have the life I envisioned. I was wrong. He was wrong. At the wake, I found out that he was very much the same as before we married…which should not surprise me. I think I’m more disappointed in myself for believing that things would be different.”
    Dani’s parents sat, neither saying a word, just glad their daughter was finally talking.
    “I was angry and