“Are you ready to give it a shot?” she asked, forcing a smile to her lips.
“Absolutely.” He mounted Black Out, the gorgeous specimen of a black gelding that had been one of the first offspring of Phantom’s stallion. Standing over seventeen hands, the horse had a midnight-black coat that seemed to shimmer in the sunlight. Tall for a quarter horse, Black Out moved with grace.
Elena stepped forward and tried to clear her mind as she grabbed ahold of Phantom’s leg and tipped his toe up slightly, forcing his heel down. She adjusted the stirrup on each side, breathing deeply through her nose to try to calm her nerves. Just being near him made her stomach tie into knots. No, nope, this is not going to happen. I’m not going to obsess over this man.
She cleared her throat and shaded her eyes as she looked up at him. Yes, the black gelding was the perfect horse for him to ride. With Phantom’s height, he needed a large horse. “Now, roll your hips slightly. Just a little bit so that you… There, that’s it. You’ve got the posture and stirrups down. Now let’s see if you can get him to respond to your cues.”
For over an hour they worked in the arena as Phantom and Black Out came to know each other. By that point, Elena had expected Phantom to be getting frustrated. The heat of the day beat down on them as they worked and Elena felt sweat trickle down her back as she instructed him. Black Out was one of her finest trained horses, more sensitive to body cues than any of the others. To his credit, Phantom hadn’t complained once, even though it was taking a long time for man and horse to sync together.
“That’s good for today. You both need a break. I’ll get Strawberry ready for you to practice the showmanship routine.”
Phantom dismounted with grace and began to walk to the barn with Black Out, but Elena quickly intercepted him. “Go get some water. I’ll take care of Black Out. That’s part of my job.”
His eyes searched her face for several long moments, and he looked like he wanted to say something. She held her breath. In the end, though, he just nodded and handed her the reins. Elena sighed heavily as he walked off, almost relieved. Calling the new vibe tension seemed like an understatement.
She worked quickly to take off the saddle and brush down Black Out, before grabbing a halter for Strawberry from the tack room. The showmanship division of quarter horse shows required learning the delicate balance between a person on the ground—instead of in the saddle—and the horse on a lead line.
She had just stepped out of the barn and back into the blazing sunlight, leading Strawberry, when she saw a plume of dust on the road leading up to the ranch. Moving rapidly in front of the dust was a large, nice-looking truck.
“I’ll need to take a rain check on the showmanship training for today,” Phantom said softly from behind her.
Her heart nearly leapt into her throat. How could a man as big as him move so silently? And how had she not even seen him when she came out of the barn? She strongly suspected she knew how he had earned his nickname.
She turned to face him, forcing herself to smile. “I totally understand. You don’t usually get visitors to the ranch, so this will be a nice change of pace for you.”
His face was unreadable. “This isn’t a visitor. This is a new part owner of the ranch. He’s moving in today.”
“Oh. Wow…I didn’t know y’all were still expanding. That’s a good thing.”
Phantom didn’t reply. Instead, his eyes were fixed on the approaching truck. Finally, he glanced back at Elena. “I’ll see you Wednesday, then?”
“Same as always,” she replied, but doubted he even heard her, since he was already walking toward the area where they had parked their trucks.
The new truck sported a deep maroon color and had a small lift kit, a mean-looking grill guard, and mud flaps behind the dually wheels. The driver backed the truck up next to the others, between them and the road, and Elena wondered if he was preparing himself for a quick escape. If he had met the rough group of men that ran the ranch, he probably had good reason to be ready to take off.
Phantom walked up to the truck as another man stepped down. He looked pale compared to Phantom, but his skin still carried a smooth caramel color that looked flawless from where Elena stood. He looked young, and Elena guessed he could be around the same age as Snap. While not quite as tall as Phantom, he exuded strength, with defined muscles outlined in his T-shirt and jeans. He almost made Phantom appear trim—though she knew firsthand he had enough muscles to make her weak in the knees.
His dark-brown hair was slicked back, and he sported a pair of Wrangler jeans and scuffed-up boots to go along with his casual T-shirt. From the way he moved and carried himself, he had “cowboy” written all over him. He grinned broadly and extended his hand to Phantom, who took it and gave it a firm handshake.
And then Elena saw her. She bounced down from the other side of the truck, her long, pale hair blowing in the breeze. It reminded Elena of a commercial—someone somewhere had cued the fans at the perfect time for the woman to shake out her beautiful hair and come sliding around the front of the truck.
She was tall compared to Elena. Hell, anyone was tall compared to Elena. But she had incredibly long legs that were displayed to advantage by the cropped shorts and cowboy boots she wore, and Elena could only dream of being able to move so gracefully. Her excited laughter floated on the air as she launched herself at Phantom, and Elena couldn’t tear her eyes away.
The beautiful woman threw herself into Phantom’s outstretched arms, wrapping hers around his neck. Phantom’s laugh hit Elena like a punch in the gut. That was her laugh. Somehow, she had come to believe that his laughter belonged to her. Yet this incredible beauty had earned the laughter as well. Elena swallowed hard as Phantom’s arms wrapped around his visitor while she planted kisses all over his face.
The little bit of food that Elena had eaten earlier in the day was suddenly burning at the back of her throat, and she worried she was going to be terribly ill. This was the real woman he wanted. This was the woman he craved and desired. No wonder he had rejected Elena’s advances. He already had a woman to fulfill his needs.
She felt like she was watching a tragedy, and her sense of morbid curiosity wouldn’t let her look away. Phantom patted the beauty’s back, and she slowly untangled herself from him but slid her hand into his and interlocked their fingers. She smiled up at him and, from the looks of it, talked a mile a minute.
Suddenly, as if sensing Elena watching him, Phantom turned slightly and looked over at her. She tried to look away but she wasn’t fast enough, and she saw the remnants of the smile on his face quickly fade. Then he turned and began to walk the two newcomers into the house.
Elena felt as if someone had just cracked open her chest and beat violently on her heart. She turned toward the arena, Strawberry in tow, and focused on breathing in and out. She suddenly felt every ounce of exhaustion from her lack of sleep the night before. She wanted nothing more than to go home and forget the entire day had ever happened.
* * *
“Admiral Haslett seems to think great things about you.” Stryker sat at his usual place at the head of the table with the rest of the team placed around the sides. Unlike at their usual team briefings, Anya sat to Stryker’s left, watching the newcomer with curiosity.
Damian “Lobo” Almeda met Stryker’s gaze with pale eyes. Despite his young age, he already had a light feathering of gray hairs mixed with the slicked-back dark brown. That and his angular features almost made him look like the wolf of his nickname.
“To be honest with you, sir, I don’t know Admiral Haslett that well. I’d heard of him, of course. I doubt there’s a SEAL in the service who doesn’t know about him.” His eyes darted over to Anya, then slid back to Stryker. “He tapped me on the shoulder and told me I was being pulled for a new assignment, and that you run the command. Then he gave me the folder and told me I needed to be here today and no later.”
Stryker was silent for several moments. “And your thoughts?” he finally asked.
Lobo leaned back in his chair, and his gaze scanned the faces watching him silently. “On paper, it sure sounds like a great operation.”
“On paper.” Phantom’s expression didn’t change as he repeated Lobo’s words. Phantom’s comment wasn’t a statement or a question. It was a judgment.
Lobo leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “On paper just about anything can look great. But reality can be a shit show. You all have already been here for some time, have already run a mission together. You’ve had time to get to know each other enough to read each other’s body language blindfolded.”
“Sailor, you know that you have to learn those things coming on to any new operation.” Brusco spoke, his voice rough as always.
“I do know that. The question was asked about my thoughts, and I’m shooting straight with you. I want to make an impact with this team in all the missions that come our way.”
“Just because your role might not be breaching a stronghold every mission doesn’t make it any less important.” Snap was chewing on a toothpick as if it were the tastiest thing he’d found in years.
Lobo was silent for several moments, his face as expressionless as the rest of the team’s. “You asked my thoughts. I want to be here. I want to be a part of taking down the machine that’s crippling the relationships we need with our neighbors to the south. And I’m ready, willing, and able to perform whatever role it takes to help with that.”
“Even if it means you’re going to be my babysitter?” Anya spoke up, her voice wavering slightly. “Knowing that you’re going to be with me while some of the team runs critical missions that I am unable to know anything about?”
“I don’t like to talk about my missions much, ma’am. But some of the most rewarding ones have been the ones where I was protecting someone from all the bad shi—excuse me, bad stuff—that came their way through no fault of their own.”
Stryker’s lips twitched. “I think you’ll fit in here just fine. Welcome to the team, Lobo.”
* * *
“How are you even here?”
“It has been far too long since I’ve seen you. Given that the admiral owed me a favor or two…”
Phantom waved his hands back and forth and shook his head. “Wait, wait, wait. Exactly how does Haslett owe you a favor?”
“You know, big brother, for someone who knows so much and has seen so much, you sure can be clueless.” Amber sat down on his bed cross-legged, watching him with a large smile plastered on her face.
“You know how much I hate it when you play these guessing games with me. And why the hell did you dye your hair?”
“When you were sent on your last mission, I…um…I left home.”
“You—I’m sorry, what did you just say? You just graduated from high school! What happened to going to Texas Tech?”
“I enlisted.”
Phantom’s stomach flipped violently, and the room suddenly felt very, very small. He drew in his breath slowly—in through the nose, out through the mouth. One breath at a time, he had to swallow down the bile. He really needed something to punch. He latched onto a thread of hope that burst into his mind.
“How long ago? It isn’t too late to back out of this. If you need me to pull some strings, I can just make a few calls—”
“Enrique. Enrique! I’ve already completed boot camp. I’ve started my first assignment.”
He concentrated on breathing. Just breathe. This is all just one horrific nightmare. His sweet, innocent baby sister was not in the military. She couldn’t be. It wasn’t right. She was supposed to be getting her degree at Texas Tech, living her dreams. He wanted to go to the gym in the other wing of the house and punch something. His two-hour workout that morning seemed like nothing compared to the steam he needed to blow off now.
“Where are you stationed?”
“Corpus. I’m working for Admiral Haslett.”
“You’re… Okay, Amber. This has been a fun little joke, but you can cut it out now. I don’t want to hear any more of this insanity.”
Amber’s face fell and she stared at him, brown eyes wide. “I-I thought you would be proud of me. I worked hard for this! I work with several others managing all the correspondence and schedules for Admiral Haslett and his staff. I’ve done a few small things that impressed him. So, when I told him that I needed to see you, he put me with Lobo to head out here, just to see you. I thought you could take me back tomorrow, if you don’t mind. As you know, the navy doesn’t really hand out leave easily.”
“Good grief, Amber! You’re in the fucking navy? What the hell possessed you? You know your orders could change at any time. You could be on a fucking ship tomorrow headed overseas to who knows where!”
“There’s no reason to raise your voice at me,” she snapped, standing up, her fists clenched by her sides. “You left us, Enrique. You made the choice to go into the navy. To become a fucking SEAL, no less!”
“You better watch your mouth, Amber. If Dad heard you talking like that—”
“I’m a fucking sailor, now, Enrique. I can say whatever the fuck I want, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about—mpf!”
Phantom’s hand clamped down over her mouth. “Stop it, Amber. Just stop it!” He released her and stepped back, shaking his head. “You didn’t have anything to worry about. As soon as you graduated, the account that Mom and Dad set up for you kicked in and all your expenses were covered. They were there to support you with anything you wanted—”
“They still are. Unlike you, they’re proud of me. I wanted you to be at my graduation from boot camp, but you were on another one of your missions. You’ve been gone a long time, Enrique. I’m not the same little sister you left behind. And I haven’t lost my dreams either. I’m going to school through the navy. I want to become an officer.”
Phantom ran a hand down his face and stepped away from her, sitting down heavily in her spot on his bed. Amber had always been his ray of sunshine. While his father had been so occupied with the business and his mother so consumed with being the perfect wife, Phantom had found himself taking care of Amber more often than not. He had resented the responsibility of looking after a kid nearly ten years younger than him at first. But Amber had quickly wrapped him around her little finger and always found a way to make him laugh, to bring joy no matter how tough the day had been.
That had continued when he went into the navy. Whenever he had leave, she always wanted to be with him and hear his stories about the crazy antics of the men he worked with. He never told her the horrors that he’d seen or the truth about what he’d done. But he always brought her gifts. And he always made sure that he had new stories for her.
Shit.
It was his fault. He had given her an impression of the navy that was far from the truth. She thought she was signing up for something fun while she went about getting her degree. If anything happened to her…
“Say something. Please.”
He looked up at her and felt as if he had been punched in the gut. Large tears streaked her beautiful face. “I-I’m sorry, Amber. I am proud of you. I’m always proud of you. You’ve just dropped a lot on me. I never expected to see you, let alone hear this from you.”
He stood and used his thumbs to wipe at the tears that lingered on her cheeks. “I haven’t told you what this life is really like. I only told you about the good times. If anything ever happens to you because you didn’t realize what you were getting yourself into…because you listened to the stupid stories I told to make you laugh…I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I can’t—”
“You give me very little credit, Enrique. You think I didn’t know what you were doing all these years? You think I wasn’t aware that you’ve been protecting me…that you’ve always been protecting me? I watch th
e news. I read the paper. I know what’s going on in the world. I know that the men you work with call you ‘Phantom,’ and that it isn’t just part of that old joke from high school. I’ve watched you change over the years. I can guess what you’ve had to do to earn that name. I went into this with open eyes. And I’m happy. I know I made the right choice.”
Phantom swallowed hard and pulled her into his arms, holding her tight. He was supposed to keep her from the scary things in the world. Instead, she was running directly into a military life that could send her into the seething fury of their crazy world. As long as he could, though, he would make sure she stayed safe in the office.
Haslett. The son of a bitch had him by the balls now. He was fairly certain it was no accident that Amber had been selected to work as part of his large office machine. It was another way for Haslett to keep Phantom under his thumb.
He finally pulled back from Amber and gave her the best smile he could muster. “So, can you get any information on Haslett for me to use to my advantage?”
She chuckled and gave him a watery smile. She had changed. She wasn’t his baby sister anymore. She had grown into a woman while he had traveled the world.
“Who was the woman you were with when we got here?” Amber asked, drawing his mind away from the dark memories of previous operations that constantly haunted him.
Elena. Just the thought of her conjured up the scent of wildflowers. Another woman he had hurt without intending to. “She’s… That’s Elena. She’s the horse trainer.”
One of Amber’s sleek eyebrows arched dramatically. “Since when do you need a horse trainer? Or are you just keeping her around because she’s so beautiful?”
Phantom schooled his features, stepping back into the guarded role he had built and maintained over many years. “Quarter horses are a bit different from racehorses. She’s helping me make this ranch profitable.”
Amber’s lips twitched. “You’ve been using that face on me since you were a teenager. And all it tells me is that there’s more to this than you want to let on. But that’s okay. I can always do my own investigating. You aren’t the only one who has hidden talents, you know.”
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