All rights reserved. No
part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including
internet usage, without written permission from the author, except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

These are works of
fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the
author’s imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, business establishments or locales is entirely
coincidental.

Cover Design: Dar
Albert, Wicked Smart Designs

DEDICATION:

For
my family—Mom and Dad Pellizzi, Mom and Dad Mizera, Kevin,

Nick
and Max—who always have my back and let me follow my dreams.

I
love you all more than I can ever express.

Prologue

Afghanistan

August,
2010

Erin Gentry wiped the
sweat off her forehead and leaned into the shot. She might not be six feet tall
like the guys in her unit, but she could still sink a basketball. With a grunt,
she left her feet and tossed the ball, putting it right into the basket. She
let out a whoop of triumph as she glanced over at her teammates who were all
raising their hands for high fives.

“Girl, you showed them
how it’s
done
!” Her friend and bunkmate, Olivia Mitchell, gave her a
grin.

“Lucky shot!” Her
commanding officer and brother-in-law, Shay Gentry, folded his arms across his
bare, massive chest and gave her a smirk.

She gave him the finger
and walked off with Olivia, laughing.

Being stationed in
Afghanistan was not nearly as hard as she’d thought it would be, having good
friends and her brother-in-law with her in her unit. She and Shay had been best
friends all through college until she’d married his twin brother and he’d
shipped off to Iraq. After that, they barely saw each other, though he’d
written to her from wherever he was.

Last year, they’d wound
up stationed together at Quantico and then moved to a special unit in
Arlington. Though her husband, Clay, was not happy about her moving into a unit
that was bound to deploy, she’d known she would never make First Lieutenant
without deploying, and Shay had been about to be promoted to Captain. Working
under him would be a dream-come-true for her because he had moved up the ranks
quickly after leaving college and the ROTC, and was a highly respected officer.
He’d been through combat and would be the perfect person to be with her on her
first deployment. Clay, busy with his high profile law career and political
aspirations, didn’t think combat was a fitting place for his wife, but they’d
agreed she would spend ten years in the military. If at that time his career
took precedence over hers, she would leave.

The truth, however, was
that she didn’t want to quit. She couldn’t imagine being a stay-at-home
socialite like the wives of all of his friends. Although she did want children
eventually, she wasn’t ready for that now, and Clay was nowhere near ready to
give a child the kind of attention he or she deserved.

“Mail call!” Olivia
nudged her, handing her an envelope. “Looks like it’s from Dickhead.”

“Would you stop calling
him that?” Erin glared at her friend. Liv didn’t like Clay at all; none of her
friends did. She ripped open the letter, feeling irritated. “Why on earth would
he write me a letter? We talk every week.” She glanced down and began to read.
Slowly her mouth dropped open and then she let out a little squawk of surprise
and anger.

“What’s it say?” Olivia
demanded, reading over her shoulder.

“Sonofabitch!” She held
up the offending piece of paper. “I can’t believe it!”

“He wants a divorce?”
Liv was gaping at her as she read, her large caramel-colored eyes filled with
compassion. “Oh, girl, I’m sorry.”

“I knew it!” Erin
crumpled the paper into a tight ball. “I knew he was going to do something like
this to get me to leave the Marines. I knew it!”

“You think this is a
game?”

“Well, he didn’t serve
me with papers—he just wrote a damn letter.” Erin pursed her lips. “I’m going
to find Shay. I’ll see you later!” She stalked off in the direction of Shay’s
office. Throwing open the door, she yelled, “Your brother is a no-good—” She
cut off abruptly as she realized he was with several higher-ranking officers
looking serious. “I apologize, sir

. I thought you were
alone.”

“My brother okay?” he
asked, frowning.

“It can wait, sir. I’ll
just—”

“No, stay, Lieutenant.”
Shay motioned her over. “We have a problem.”

“What’s going on?”

“There’s movement in
the hills,” he pointed to a spot on a map on the wall about 20 miles from the
base. “Drones spotted something that could be nuclear.”

“What?!” She gaped at
him. “A nuke?
Here
? These people don’t have that kind of money or
technology.” She stared at the maps with concern. Though her primary function
was communications, they were getting ready to close this base down, so she was
also in charge of security—she had high security clearance and that was one of
the reasons she’d been chosen for this mission. They all did whatever was
necessary to get everything done, and the possibility of nuclear weapons meant
they couldn’t wait for more units to arrive or continue closing the base. This
could be a serious problem.

“Gather a team,” Shay
said, his blue eyes darkening as he put together a plan in his head. “You, me,
Mitchell, Lopez, Garrison and Marshall—we’ll take two Hummers and go on a
little hunting expedition. We’ll leave Hathaway and Faulk on communications and
Major Burke will be running point from here.” He turned back to the map and
Erin saluted quickly before hurrying out to change and get the group together.

She and Olivia changed
quickly, not really talking much as they gathered up their gear. It was at
least a hundred degrees and wearing so much gear was hot as hell, but better
than getting burned or shot. There hadn’t been any fatalities or serious
injuries at this base the entire time it had been open, but that didn’t mean it
couldn’t happen. Erin tried not to think about that as she grabbed her M16 and
turned to her friend.

“Ready to go?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Liv
saluted smartly, causing Erin to roll her eyes. Liv was always cracking jokes
and making fun of Erin’s higher ranking. Only in private, of course, which was
part of what made them such good friends. Liv was smart and quick on her feet;
Erin liked and respected her.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go.”

They walked out
together and found Eric Lopez and Ronnie Marshall pulling up in the two
Hummers. Shay and Mark Garrison walked around the corner just as Louie Faulk
met them to make sure he knew their destination. They gathered around the
vehicles as Shay pulled out a map.

“Here.” He pointed.
“We’ll take the back road and stop about a half mile from where the heat
signatures were found.” He explained the rest of his plan and then turned to
Erin. “You’re with me—you can tell me what my dickhead of a brother wrote in
that letter you balled up!” He gave her a grin as she snorted.

“Good thing he’s not
here,” she patted her M16.

“Uh-oh,” Faulk laughed,
his white teeth glistening against his dark skin. “That’s why I ain’t never
getting married.”

“That’s a double
negative,” Liv corrected him, giving him a shove for good measure. “Which means
you
are
getting married, dumbass.” Their laughter and bickering ended as
she got into the car and he waved as he headed back to the communications
trailer.

“We’ll ride with them
so you can talk shit about your family,” Lopez said as he and Garrison

followed Liv.

Erin got into the
driver’s seat and started up the Hummer. They drove slowly out of camp, Shay
and Erin in the lead. They were quiet for a while, each lost in their own
thoughts.

“So, what’d he do?”
Shay asked, glancing at her with his incredible blue eyes. Even after all these
years, Erin had to force herself not to be mesmerized by them; he was just so
good-looking. She’d had to use every ounce of her training and self-control not
to let him see how she felt about him, even though she knew he still did.

She sighed and leaned
her head back against the seat. “He doesn’t know that I’m done with him, and is
still trying to manipulate me into quitting the Marines.”

“What this time?”

“Divorce.”

“What?! Are you fucking
kidding me?!”

“Nope. He said it
didn’t appear that our lifestyles are going to meld. He feels my getting
deployed and moving every few years was going to be impossible now that he is
being considered for partner at the firm. It would be funny if it wasn’t so
insulting.”

“Ambitious little
shit.” Shay scowled. Clay was his twin brother, but God, he could be such an
asshole. He sure as hell had never deserved Erin, and letting her marry him was
Shay’s biggest regret in life. He just didn’t know how to tell her that yet.

They were quiet again
and he glanced at her. “You’re really going to leave him? You don’t seem
particularly upset.”

“I’m more concerned
about finding a nuclear fucking bomb in the middle of nowhere, Afghanistan.”

“But that’s not what
you’re thinking about right now,” he said knowingly. “Just tell me.”

“He’s right,” she said
at last. “I mean, I love the Marines. I don’t want to be a politician’s wife.
It just pisses me off that he’s doing this now that I’ve finally decided to
leave him!”

“You don’t think he
knows about—” He stopped, unwilling to put their complicated relationship into
words while they were on a mission.

“I don’t fucking know!”
she hissed. “I don’t know anything anymore! I think—”

The explosion was much
louder than anything she’d ever heard in training. The Hummer flew into the air
and landed hard. Erin felt something burning as the car came to a stop. She
heard a buzzing in her ears and voices that seemed far away. Her training
finally kicked in and she twisted, unsnapping the seat belt and trying to feel her
way through the smoke.

“Shay?” She felt for
him but his seat was empty. In fact, there was no seat, just gaping holes in
the metal and burning pieces of the cushion. Clawing through the pain, she
managed to lift herself out of the burning car. She could hear Olivia’s voice
somewhere.

“Erin! Come on, Erin,
the car’s gonna blow! Erin!” Hands were grabbing at her as she crawled out and
hit the ground.

“Shay?” She looked
around.

“Erin, you’re on fire,”
Liv was rolling her over on the dusty road.

“Where’s Shay?” Erin
was trying to focus through the pain as Liv continued to roll her over and
over.

Shots were fired and
she heard Mark yelling, “Insurgents in the hills, six o’clock! We’ve got to get
out of here!”

“Where the fuck is
Shay?” Erin sat up, struggling to see through the blood dripping in her eyes.
She swiped at her face and then she saw him. For a moment, everything stopped.
He’d been thrown a good ten feet from the Hummer. His body was soaked in blood,
mangled, and she could only see one boot. Where was his other boot, she wondered,
as she crawled towards him.

“Erin, no,” Liv grabbed
at her. “We’ve got to go. He’s gone, honey.”

“No!” With strength she
didn’t know she had, she wrenched herself free and threw herself the final few
feet to reach Shay. “Shay? Shay, baby, come on, look at me…”

“Hey, babe.” His
beautiful blue eyes opened slowly as he focused on her.

“We’re taking heavy
fire!” Garrison yelled.

“Come on,” Erin tugged
at Shay’s arm. “We have to go.”

He was six feet three
inches of solid muscle, and there was no way she could move him. “Liv! Help me,
dammit!” Her hands were slippery from all the blood and she fought desperately
to wipe them on her pants.

“Go,” Shay whispered.
“You can’t save me. Go!”

“No man left behind!”
She tugged at him again.

“You’re bleeding.” He
reached out a hand to touch her cheek, but his eyes were closing.

“Tell him!” Liv hissed
in her ear. “Dammit, Erin, we have to go—tell him!”

“Tell me what?” Shay’s
eyes opened and for a moment she saw the mischievous glint that had stolen her
heart the moment she first met him during freshman orientation in college.

“I love you,” she whispered.
“I’ve always loved
you
, not Clay. Please don’t leave me.” She collapsed
against him.

“Oh, baby.” One arm
closed around her neck as her bloodied body sank against his. “I love you too.
I’m sorry I let you marry him. Forgive me.”

“Shay…” She fought the
darkness closing in as she rested her head on his chest and heard his slowing
heartbeat.

There were more
gunshots and shouting. She knew Liv was still trying to pull her away from him.

“Take these.” He
fingered his dog tags. “Only for you—not my parents or Clay. Just you.”

She felt them slide
over her head before the blackness threatened to overcome her. “Shay…”

“There’s money,” he
whispered. “For you to get away from him.”

“Shay, you have to try
to get up,” Erin felt herself slipping away.

“Take her,” he
whispered to Liv. “That’s an order, Marine.”

“Yes, sir,” Liv
whispered back, tears streaming down her face as she lifted her friend and put
her over her shoulder.

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