Tactical Deception: Silent Warrior, Book 2 Read Free Page B

the American government was involved with what Menendez did?”
    Holly rolled her eyes as she took the driver’s seat and buckled. “There are crazies who will turn any event into a government conspiracy. That said, if I hadn’t been there when the Lt. Col., Jack and Beck cracked the plot wide open and heard how Menendez’s mercenaries pulled off terrorist attacks, I’d think there had to be more than one man behind everything that had happened.”
    Mari adjusted her seat belt and waited until Holly was on the highway before responding. “Okay, I can understand a person from another country, especially one of my faith believing America guilty, but her own citizens are doing so. Why is the government allowing it? It doesn’t seem right. But on the other hand, in my village if you spoke against authority, severe punishment or death would follow and that is completely wrong. It’s so complicated.”
    “I look at it this way, and please don’t take this as an offense against your culture. There’re good, bad, ugly and just pure-evil things in the world. Free speech gives you good and bad things. Total suppression is ugly, but with a death penalty attached, it becomes pure evil.”
    “Maybe. I’ll have to think about it when I’m not starving for that cheeseburger.” Mari let the subject drop.
    Holly smiled. “Sounds like cheeseburgers will be your thing. My sister’s had two kids. For her it was French fries and pizza.”
    “Those sound good too. And chocolate shakes and cupcakes and truffles and—”
    “Stop now before you get me started or we’ll never make it back home. I’ll be driving all over North Carolina just to satisfy my cravings.”
    “Okay. I won’t mention rocky road fudge then.” Mari shut her eyes and relaxed against the seat, smiling at Holly’s groan.
    She’d let the good, bad, ugly and evil subject drop not because she was afraid to disagree with Holly, but because in order to make her friend understand, Mari would have to share her shame and she couldn’t do that. Besides her family and the men who’d violated her, only Neil had known.
    What Holly was calling evil, Mari didn’t think was. Dugar was evil. The men who’d attacked her in her village were evil, but to call laws and punishments evil wasn’t right, was it? It was…what?
    Justice? It hadn’t been justice in her case, though.
    Was it deserved punishment then? Maybe—
    No! her inner heart shouted. She hadn’t deserved what had happened to her, had she? Yes, she’d been unwise years ago and had foolishly left home unaccompanied to retrieve her necklace. Then men had found her alone and had attacked her.
    And yes, last month she had purposely gone to a store she’d never been to before when she’d encountered Dugar. She’d been trying to avoid painful reminders of Neil at the usual grocery store. It hadn’t worked, though. She’d broken down in tears and had rushed for the privacy of her car. That’s when she’d hit Dugar with the glass door, cutting his head. The unbalanced man had flown into a murderous rage and the fallout from that had landed her in Roger’s apartment on post.
    Dugar had tried to kill her twice now. And both times Roger had placed himself in harm’s way to save her. He’d gone out of his way to protect her reputation and her sensibilities too, but she couldn’t let that keep happening. Now that she’d healed from her injuries and the danger of losing her baby had passed, she had some hard decisions to make.
    She couldn’t endanger Roger again and she couldn’t lose Neil in her growing attraction to Roger. Though Roger slept in a different apartment, she still saw him every day—multiple times a day. Coupling that with sleeping in his bed and it was destroying her peace of mind. It wasn’t his fault, but the more she saw of Roger, the more ghostlike Neil became.
    Neil had loved her and she had to do whatever she could to keep his memory alive for their baby. She had to leave.
    Holly