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“But?”
Pressing her lips together, Holly shrugged. “But it’s also what we wanted before, and look what happened.” She shook her head. “And in eight years, the reason we’re no longer together hasn’t changed.”
“We’vechanged, Holly. Grown up. Matured. Already seen what our lives are like without the other one in it.”
Yes, they had. But even that didn’t change the reason for their breakup.
Chace took Holly’s other hand. “What happened to Sloane was tragic. I would never dispute that or diminish his death's effect on those he left behind.” He swallowed hard. “But those incidents don’t happen to every soldier, Holly.”
“It happened to Sean.”
“And he survived and will make a full recovery.”
“Physically,” Holly conceded. “But what about mentally or emotionally?”
“That’s a crap shoot for anyone in the military. Even those lucky enough to escape physical injury.”
Holly understood that.
But still.
“What if he hadn’t made it, Chace?” Her heart hurt just thinking about the possibility.
His massive chest expanded as he pulled a deep breath into his lungs. “I don’t know, Holly. All Icantell you is that we can’t live our lives based on what-ifs. Not when walking across the street—or hell, even going to school can be just as dangerous as going off to war these days.”
If he meant to hit her right where she lived, he’d more than succeeded, especially with the amount and senselessness of mass shootings occurring worldwide. Many of them targeting innocent children and educational staff in schools across the country.
“Besides all that, I’m not in the military anymore.”
“You might as well be, working for the Steele brothers.” She pulled her hands free as she remembered telling her sister that she wouldn’t bet SSI wasn’t somehow on the government’s payroll.
“It’s nowhere near the same.”
“Really?” She pinned him with her gaze. “Then why were you in Cairo?”
“Heading up a security detail for an American dignitary.”
“Because he was in danger?” She phrased it as a question.
“Like I said before, everyone is in danger these days, Holly,” he countered. “In his case, he was also traveling with his family.”
“And your job was to protect all of them? Which tells me that if their lives were in danger, so was yours.”
Chace scrubbed a hand down his face. “Hiring SSI was a protective measure. No threats had been made against our client. But considering his position and the areas where he was scheduled to travel, he wanted to ensure his family's safety.”
“Sounds like he felt threatened in some way, doesn’t it? What other reason would he have to hire a private security detail?”
“I can’t answer for him specifically, but he’s one of many who avail themselves of SSI’s security services. Some have been threatened; others just want the peace of mind.”
“Yet regardless of why, if you encountered even a hint of trouble or danger, you still wouldn’t give a second thought to jumping in front of a bullet to protect them. Am I right?”
“That’s one of the reasons people hire us, Holly. But no matter the circumstances or the client, we take every precaution to keep things from escalating to that point. Most of the time, I’m not directly involved in the day-to-day security because I coordinate and set everything up for the other specialists to implement.”
“But for this particular case, youwerea member of the team providing the actual security straight through the holidays, though, weren’t you? From Thanksgiving till the end of January.”
“How do you know that?”
Holly swung her feet to the floor and put a foot of physical distance between them. “I told you Alex keeps me informed.”
