Disavowed Read Free Page B

she’d done in the navy. She always said she was some kind of paper-pusher.
    It hadn’t taken Neil long to find out.
    “She’s intel,” Neil had said. “Analyst. Pretty damn smart by the looks of her confidential record.”
    “Confidential record?” asked Cal.
    Neil nodded. “Just like the special Ops guys. Looks like your girlfriend’s been involved in more high level ops than you.”
    Neil had really gotten a kick out of that little morsel, chuckling as Cal snatched the file out of his friend’s hand.
    But Diane’s former occupation meant more headaches for Cal. As the de facto leader of The Jefferson Group, Cal was sanctioned by President Zimmer himself. There was no one else that he answered to. If that fact was ever made public…well, it couldn’t happen. He had to be careful with what he said around Diane.
    “I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone,” said Cal, watching to see Diane’s reaction.
    She reached out and grabbed his hand. It was warm, comforting.
    “No more stitches, okay?” she said with a grin.
    Cal nodded. This was getting complicated.
     
    +++
     
    Diane waved goodbye and made her way toward the Rotunda. Her next class started in ten minutes.
    As she walked, thoughts filtered, still absorbing the lunch with Cal. She wasn’t stupid. She knew Cal wasn’t a consultant. There were thousands of consultants in the D.C. area, and Diane had met her fair share. Her time in Naval Intelligence had introduced her to the world of spy versus spy around the nation’s capital.
    She remembered the moment she’d checked into her first duty station and her commanding officer told her not to come to work again unless she was armed. From that day forward she had a Sig P239 no more than an arm’s reach away. An expert shot, Diane had grown up in a military family. Her brothers had all served. As the baby sister, she’d gone along for the ride.
    While Diane could hold her own in a military and familial establishment filled with men, she held no illusions that she could ever be a field operator. That wasn’t what she wanted. Her prospects within the enlisted ranks were limited. She’d left the Navy only after applying for a ROTC scholarship and being accepted to the University of Virginia. Her dream was to be a Naval Intelligence officer. As an officer, she’d have the opportunity to have her own team, maybe even be assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) or Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
    With an easy command of multiple languages, Diane’s prospects were high. She had the experience and the brains that the Navy was looking for. Now that the Zimmer Doctrine was filtering through the federal branches, there would be an increasing need for beefed up intelligence assets. They were taking the battle to the enemy and Diane wanted to be part of it.
    As luck would have it, Cal had been the proverbial wrench thrown into her well-thought-out plan. She hadn’t been looking. It had just happened. But she knew that she loved him. It was the easiest of things. Under his sometimes gruff exterior lived a loving man who was loyal and kind. A born leader. She saw how he was with his friends. Guys like the enormous MSgt Trent and the crafty Gaucho deferred to Cal even when they joked with him.
    Diane knew there was more to Cal than he was telling her, but she didn’t push. He would tell her when the time was right.
     
    +++
     
    Cal had similar feelings as he walked away from lunch. He’d loved a girl once before. She’d been taken from him in the most horrific way possible: murdered right in front of him. The thought still made his heart drop, the years having done little to lessen the sting of Jessica’s brutal death.
    That was one of the reasons he hesitated with Diane. Besides the fact that what he did for a living was highly classified, he didn’t want her to get hurt. Deep down, in a place that never saw the light of day, Cal still blamed himself for his fiancé’s death. He’d replayed