Into the Fire Read Free Page A

apparently, Gillman had dealt with at least a portion of his despair over the fact that Sophia wouldn’t do him by spending some quality time with this extremely healthy member of Colbert Nation.
    “I haven’t talked to Danny in months,” the girl continued, which immediately blew up Izzy’s theory. Which was a fairly common occurrence with him and wild speculation, and perfectly fine, because it meant that he’d just move on to salacious theory number two. “I wasn’t even sure if he was OCONUS or…”
    “No, he’s Stateside,” Izzy said, and got another heavy dose of relief, crossed with a dollop of “you’re my hero” from her bottomless eyes. Damn, she had
the
prettiest brown eyes…
    Okay, focus. What had he just learned here besides the fact that Gillman’s relationship with this girl had—allegedly—happened months ago? OCONUS. Whoever she was, she knew at least a little Navy-Speak. So…
    “Are you Susan?” Izzy asked her.
    Back before Sophia had appeared and eclipsed all other women on the planet and possibly on Omicron Ceti III as well, Gillman had dated a Susan. A college student at San Diego State. Lopez, who usually didn’t drool over his friends’ girlfriends, had described Susan as hhhhhot. But, he’d told Izzy with a sad sigh, she was a total SEAL groupie. Oh, and heads up, all y’all—she was completely insane, to boot.
    As Maybe-Susan sat beside Izzy in the Bug, her eyes shifted slightly as she opened her mouth to answer what should have been a simple yes-no question.
Are you Susan?
According to the Body Language of Hot Babes Manual, that slight eye movement was a strong yet unconsciously made signal that an untruth was about to follow.
    Gather ’round, kids—it’s storytime!
    But the bartender interrupted them before she could fabricate her answer. “I’m serious, girlie. I need you outa here. Don’t make me call the bouncer.”
    “Come on, Kev,” Izzy said as mildly as he could manage, considering the man was a certified dickhead. “We’re just having a conversation. She’s looking for Dan Gillman—”
    “She’s underage—she can look for him outside.”
    “I’m happy to go outside to talk to her, but I’m not quite done with my beer.”
    “Yeah, well, ’f I turn back around and she’s not gone…” The dickhead left the threat unspoken, so of course Izzy had to respond with a silent but very clear
Oh, yeah? And then what?
by taking his good ol’ time finishing up his beer.
    Meanwhile, M-Susan was looking from him to the Kevster and back. She was still solidly planted on her barstool, clearly intrigued, waiting to see what was going to go down next. Izzy smiled at her, and she smiled back, and his heart did a slow flip in his chest, because damn, he liked a woman with a heavy dose of rebel in her soul.
    Too many of the women he’d met were rule-followers. When harshly scolded by the voice of alleged authority, they’d slink away, tails between their legs.
    Either that, or they spoke a completely different language from Izzy. Oh, it sounded like American English coming out of their mouths, but nearly every word had an entirely different meaning. And most of the time, his somewhat-sideways sense of humor didn’t translate well.
    This woman, however, just waited and watched, and—on a certain level—enjoyed. Which may have, in Lopez and Gillman’s book, made her completely insane.
    But not to Izzy.
    He took his time with his last mouthful of beer, waiting to swallow until Kevin did, in fact, turn around. At which point Izzy slowly and carefully put the glass on the bar, all the while holding the dickhead’s less-than-happy gaze.
    And it was only then, when Kevin didn’t do more than stand there and glare—a silent but strongly implied
then I’ll go home and bite my pillow
—that Izzy took out his cell phone and lifted his ass offa that barstool. Smiling again at Maybe-Sue, he gestured with his head toward the door. “Step into my office. I’ll give