The Woman Left Behind: A Novel Read online

  Voodoo popped a fry into his mouth. “Let this be a lesson,” he commented. “She’s a lightweight.”

  She leaned around Levi to shoot him a bird. Levi slapped her hand down and continued talking to her mom. “Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am. She’s had a drink and a half. We fed her first, but—you got that right. Yes, ma’am. I’ll have her call you when she’s safely home. I’ll send you a text right now. Good night, ma’am.”

  He pulled his own phone out, his face grim, and looked at the contact info on Jina’s phone while he thumbed in a text.

  “What’re you doing?” she demanded, grabbing for her phone. “Give me that. I want to talk to my mom.”

  “She’s already hung up. As for what I’m doing—” He shook his head. “I just texted your mother my contact info, because she’s holding me personally responsible if anything happens to you.”

  There was dead silence around the table, then Snake said, “That’s a first.”

  Twelve

  Her mother called first thing in the morning—really first thing, meaning five-thirty. It wasn’t even daylight yet. With the hours of daylight so short now, Jina had barely rolled out of bed and hadn’t made it to the kitchen for the first cup of coffee. “Hi, Mom,” she said around a yawn. “You’re up early.”

  “Thank goodness you sound all right,” her mother said grimly. “Your daddy and I were prepared to be called to D.C. to identify your body.”

  “Oh.” She yawned again. “I won’t say there was nothing to be worried about, because I guess if I was a mother I’d have been worried, too.” Even half asleep, Jina was too smart to dismiss her mother’s concerns. The woman had eyes in the back of her head, spies everywhere, and a built-in lie detector somewhere in her belly, close to her uterus.

  “Well—” Momentarily taken aback, her mother rallied. “That was not a great situation for you to be in.”

  “I had seven companions, two of whom are married, and their wives—”

  “Oh, thank goodness,” her mother said fervently, not letting Jina finish her sentence, which had been that the wives had given their okay. “Because it sounded like all men.”

  Jina didn’t correct the assumption that the wives had been there, because she wasn’t that sleepy or that stupid. Thinking back, she remembered seeing a number of women in the bar, so she didn’t have to lie. “Not even close. Anyway, I’m the first one to finish training, so they took me out to celebrate. Kind of. Hamburger and fries, nothing fancy.”

  “And alcohol.”

  “And alcohol. I had one and a half lemon drop martinis.”

  That earned a chuckle. “Your celebration drink.”

  “I don’t even have a headache this morning, so I didn’t drink that much, though I was a little happy when you called.”

  “Your boss was reassuring. Thank him for me, for understanding that I was worried.”

  “The funny thing is, when you called, he’d just finished running off some guy who asked me to dance.”

  “Good for him. Tipsy women shouldn’t dance. No good can come of it.”

  “I thought that was how you met Daddy.”

  “And I have five kids. Point made.”

  “Which ones of us would you give back?”

  “There have been times in the lives of each one of you that I’d have jumped at the chance. I’m just glad last night wasn’t one of your nights.”

  “Love you, too, Mom. Before I forget—unless there’s an emergency, it looks as if I’ll be able to come home for Thanksgiving. While I was still in the training program I was nailed down, but now I can probably wiggle free for a few days.”

  “Hallelujah!” Delight warmed her mother’s tone. “It’s been too long. If you hadn’t been able to come, I was planning on making a trip the next weekend to see you.”

  Wow, talk about dodging a bullet. Jina could just imagine marching to Levi’s orders and trying to entertain her parents at the same time, because there weren’t enough hours in the day.

  “I’ll send you my flight information. I won’t have time to drive down, that would use up half of my time off.”

  “I’ll have your favorite cake waiting.”

  German chocolate! Jina’s salivary glands activated. “I’ve been working out like crazy, just to buy myself some leeway for the holidays. I love it when a plan comes together.”

  Jina thought about that cake while she was drinking the all-important first cup of coffee and making herself a small protein smoothie, followed by a small bowl of oatmeal for the warm and homey feeling. After yesterday, she needed some comfort food, and there wasn’t any meatloaf available. To have that cake, she’d have to run even more miles. Heck, she’d have to run whether she had cake or not, because that was how this gig worked: stay in shape, or else.

  Because she had time, she got on the computer and checked flight times. She lucked out and found a single seat on a Wednesday night flight out of Reagan to Atlanta, then she checked for an available seat to either Albany or Brunswick, her family home being about equidistant between the two. Then, on second thought, she arranged for a rental car, so she’d have her own wheels while she was there, in case the team got sent out on a mission and she had to leave in the middle of the night.

  Pride filled her at the realization she’d really done it: she was a member of a GO-Team now. She not only had an important job where she could make a difference, she’d lasted through some tough training. A couple of the other trainees had gotten hurt, but even more of them had washed out. She hadn’t washed out, she was still standing at the end.

  As an official part of the team, she should do what the guys did and keep a bag packed and in her car so she could leave at a minute’s notice.

  There was a plan. Unfortunately, packing a bag with a couple of changes of clothes and some necessities didn’t require a lot of brainpower, and she found herself thinking about Levi, whether she wanted to or not. Yesterday had been so traumatic that she hadn’t been able to analyze anything; she’d simply tried to live through the day. Last night, she’d been tipsy. This morning, there was nothing to ward him off.

  He’d kissed her, damn him. Focusing on that helped her not focus on the fact that his hand had been under her shirt and he’d been between her legs, and that even with their clothes on he’d made her come. She didn’t know how to act, and most of all she really wanted to avoid him now. After everything he’d said, he was the one who hadn’t toed the line. She felt resentful about almost all of yesterday—last night had been fun—but in retrospect she was most resentful about that. Kissing her was dirty pool.

  In the months she’d known him, she had watched how he pulled this string to get that effect, how he shifted and balanced and analyzed in his role as team leader; given that, she had to consider the possibility that he’d kissed her as an emotional prompt to quit the team—make her think they’d have something, become a couple, if she just quit her job. Maybe some women would have done exactly that. Maybe most women would have made that call, depending on the depth of their own emotional involvement. Jina wasn’t one of those women. Being physically attracted to Levi wasn’t the same as being in love with him, and she didn’t confuse the two.

  He was known for being ruthless in his pursuit of the mission, whatever any particular mission might be. It stood to reason that if—if—he thought she was a weakness that could endanger the team, he’d have booted her out of training. On the other hand, she was the only woman trainee, and there might have been political pressure for him to “help” her succeed. She didn’t think so, because Axel MacNamara wasn’t exactly known for his political correctness; rather, the exact opposite. Still, the small possibility existed, and that made her angry. She wanted to succeed because she could do the job, not because someone gave her a pass because of her sex.

  Damn it, there was no way to sort out all the variables and possibilities, including the one that Levi might, just might, truly be attracted to her. He hadn’t been faking the huge erection in his pants, b