Armed Response

“Lily, hold up.”

He smiled as he saw her shoulders stiffen at the name. Her curt instructions on the sparring mat not to call her anything but Lillian had just spurred his desire to call her by her old nickname.

But it was her whispered words as they had left the sparring area that had really caught his attention.

Don’t say anything about who we were.

Jace wasn’t sure if that meant their personal history or the gang-related activities they’d participated in during their youth. She might not have ever told anyone about that, especially the latter. Since she had never been arrested, nor had he, it wasn’t in either of their permanent records. She didn’t have to worry about him spilling her secret. Not that one anyway.

Working with her today, fighting with her, seeing how everyone else interacted with her... Jace couldn’t help being impressed. She had taken all the natural physical skills she’d had as a teenager—speed, flexibility, sheer grit—and had formed herself into nothing short of a warrior.

He’d known it from the first punch she’d thrown in the sparring ring. She’d always been feisty, but now she was deadly. Small but fierce.

She’d been the only woman in the room or on the field, and that hadn’t seemed to bother her at all. The men hadn’t treated her any differently than they treated each other. Even with their limitations because of injuries, the team members had relied on and functioned around each other’s strengths.

No point in Lillian being the one on the bottom hoisting her teammates up the fifteen-foot wall that was part of the obstacle course. Could she have done it if she needed to? Jace had no doubt. But it wasn’t her specialty, so instead the team had sent her up and over first. Nobody in this close-knit group played politics: you weren’t given an assignment just because you were a man or a woman, you were given an assignment because of your strengths and talents.

Part of the course had also involved an underground tube, which there was no way in hell Jace was ever going to fit through. Neither were most of the men on the team. But Lillian had no problem. So she was sent.

Again, nothing to do with gender, everything to do with what was best for the team.

The men respected her, she respected them. Even the outsiders, the couple of guys besides Jace who obviously weren’t regular members of the team, respected her.

And Jace would bet his next paycheck that everything Steve Drackett had said was true. Lillian had not been intimate with any of these men. There was no flash of recognition, no secret smiles...

No nicknames that had been only for them twelve years before. Like Jace had just said to her again.

“I told you, it’s Lillian now. Not Lily. Nobody ever called me that but you anyway. And definitely not Tiger Lily.”

He jogged the rest of the way to catch up with her. “Old habits. You know how it is.”

“It’s not like you’ve been saying my name very often in the past twelve years, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to make the change.”

“I’ll do my best.” He held his hand up with his fingers open in Mr. Spock’s Vulcan V symbol. “Scout’s honor.”

She thawed minutely. “Jackass.” She shook her head. “You were never a Boy Scout or a Vulcan.”

And he wasn’t going to stop calling her Lily, either.

They reached her car, a gray Honda Civic. About as unflashy a vehicle that was made. She opened the trunk and set her duffel bag inside. Then turned to him.

“Why are you here, Jace?”

Giving her as much truth as he could was probably his best option. “Ren McClement asked me. He and I served in the army together for a few years. You know him?”

She shrugged. “Not personally. But everyone knows of him. He’s pretty much an Omega Sector legend.”

“Steve Drackett and Ren said the team needed someone with experience who could jump right in. To help with this LESS Summit thing.” Jace looked over to where some of the others were coming out of the building. “No offense, but your team is a little shaky right now. And the two new guys are not exactly anything to write home about.”

Lillian rubbed her fingers against her forehead. “That’s for damn sure.”

“Carnell doesn’t play well with anyone. And that guy Saul Poniard is a little too flippant for my taste. That could be disastrous in a lot of situations.”

“I agree. Steve recognizes it, too, but right now we don’t have a lot of options.”

He took a slight step closer to her, unable to stop himself. “Exactly. Ren knows me and knows he can trust me. And you guys needed someone with my skill set.”

Talking coming from the parking lot caught their attention and Jace took a step back. They both waved to the other members of the team as they got in their vehicles one by one.

“And did you know I would be here when you said yes to Ren?” Lillian finally asked as her teammates drove away.

This was a much trickier question to answer. He knew he shouldn’t have any qualms about lying to her. After all, she had been the completely dishonest one all those years ago. But he found the thought of telling her lies to be more difficult than he expected.

“Ren mentioned there was someone else here from Tulsa. A Lillian. But I couldn’t be one-hundred-percent sure that it was you. You were impressive out there today, Tiger Lily.”

She glared at him but didn’t press the nickname issue. “Thanks.”

“Seriously. You can handle yourself. I mean, you’ve always been able to handle yourself, but this was so much more than that.”

Lillian leaned back against her car but didn’t meet his eyes. “Thanks. You, too. Of course, I’m not surprised or anything. You were always built like a military man. Physically and mentally. I guess you just honed that over the years. So you got out?”

He nodded. “Yeah. For almost a year now. I loved the army, but it was time.”

“Moving back to Tulsa?”

“No. Nothing for me there anymore. I actually bought some land here in Colorado. I’m opening a ranch of sorts.”

Her brown eyes got big. “A ranch? I didn’t know you had any interest in animals.”

“I didn’t, really, not when you knew me before. Not that there was much space for animals in downtown Tulsa anyway. But we had bomb dogs when I served over in the Middle East. Really found I had a love for them. So I’ll be raising them and some other animals. Working with vets, too.”

Hopefully providing people with PTSD a place to come and heal for a little while when things got to be too much.

“That sounds amazing. I’m glad your experience in the military was a good one.”

“You would’ve done well in the military, too.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Lillian should’ve gone into the military with him. That had been their plan. The military had catered to both of their strengths.

Now she really wouldn’t look at him. “Yeah. I always thought so.”

He had to decide right now whether to battle this out—what had happened between her and his brother—or leave it alone. He didn’t want to fight with her the entire time he was here—that would be counterproductive to his ultimate mission of getting closer to her—but he didn’t want to leave Daryl as the elephant constantly in the room between them.

He leaned in just slightly closer to her. “Twelve years was a long time ago. I think it’s safe to let bygones be bygones, right?”

Now her brown eyes peered up at him. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s true.”

“And if it means anything, I’m sorry Daryl passed away so soon after the two of you got together. I don’t know if it would’ve lasted or whatever, but I’m sorry you didn’t get the chance to find out.”

Jace had never seen the blood drain from someone’s face so quickly. Lillian’s slight weight fell back more heavily against her car. Jace couldn’t help himself. He reached toward her. “Are you okay?”