Dangerous Alliance

Libby stood up. “Boys! He told me the same thing four months ago! I didn’t buy it then, and I don’t buy it now.”

Dan held up his hand. “He promised my sergeant that he’d post one of his men at the stable for the next seven nights and catch them.” Looking up, he saw Libby’s disgust and agitation. “Isn’t that enough?”

“Oh, I don’t know. My gut feeling tells me it isn’t a bunch of rowdy dependents looking for a good time.”

Sitting back, Dan absorbed her fiery beauty. She had the most beautiful green eyes he’d ever seen—like emeralds held up to sunlight. Right now, they were narrowed, reflecting her agitation. “Listen, I haven’t even had lunch yet. How about I take you over to the Officers’ Club and we’ll grab a bite to eat and discuss this issue further?” Dan suggested, as surprised as she apparently was that he’d asked her out. After grieving for the loss of his marriage, he’d carefully avoided any kind of relationship—until now. He noted the way her lovely eyes had gone wide at his invitation, a pink flush delicately tinting her freckled cheekbones.

Was it Libby who had aroused this sudden change in him? Or was it the fact that he was finally starting to come out of his long tunnel of grief? Dan digested the possibilities, acutely attuned to her reaction.

She motioned to his desk. “What’s that on your desk, Captain?”

“Er…oh, that.” He grinned sheepishly. “Just an old beef sandwich. Something I threw together this morning. I’m not much of a cook,” he offered. He’d forgotten that it had been sitting at his elbow all along. Not a very smart move, Ramsey. Not smart at all. He hoped Libby would buy his explanation.

“I doubt very seriously we would have anything to discuss about this investigation that would take up a whole lunch hour,” Libby said, her words clipped.

She was angry. Why? “I just thought that if there was any background information you didn’t fill me in on that might help this case, we could do it over lunch.” Dan was damned if he was going to let go of the opportunity and back down. He wanted to know Libby a hell of a lot better.

Squirming, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her breeches. “Captain, I don’t date marines over issues of business or for pleasure,” she rattled in a low, off-key voice. “And I don’t like you trying to take advantage of the situation to maneuver me into going to lunch with you.”

Dan felt heat rushing to his face. Was he blushing? Maybe he ought to be, under the circumstances. “I just thought that—”

“Captain, I don’t date marines. Is that clear?”

“Sure is.” He cocked his head, holding her furious gaze. “My invitation just kinda slipped out.”

“I don’t know whether to be insulted or complimented,” she admitted.

“It was a compliment, believe me.”

Libby avoided the warmth in his voice and eyes. “Never mind, Captain. I’ve got a short fuse about the topic of marines, that’s all.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that if you didn’t go to lunch with me, the investigation would be dropped. It won’t be, I promise.”

“I know, I know. I’ve just got some touchy spots in my life regarding the Marine Corps,” Libby muttered. The frightening thing was, a part of her did want to go to lunch with Dan. She couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t married. Perhaps he was divorced? Libby told herself she shouldn’t care one way or another.

“Mind if I ask why?”

Hurt rose in Libby at the softness in Dan’s voice. Then tears unexpectedly stung her eyes. She turned away so he wouldn’t see them. “Captain Ramsey, I won’t discuss my personal life with you or anyone else. I just want whoever is riding those horses caught!” If she stayed one more minute, she was going to break down and tell Dan everything. Worse, she wanted to walk into the safety of his arms and be held. Just be held… In desperation, Libby walked out the door.

Dan looked down at his uneaten sandwich. He began to wrap it up again, his appetite gone. The tears in Libby’s eyes had torn at him. “Sometimes, Ramsey, you can be a first-class jerk. Do you know that?”

“What?”

Dan looked up. Rose was at the door again.

“Nothing. What’s wrong now, Rose?”

She grinned. “You’re catching on fast, Captain. When I show up, you know trouble ain’t far behind.”

Dan sighed. “Come in and shut the door.” What he wanted to do was follow Libby to the parking lot and make an apology—somehow patch up the trust he’d broken between them. It was too late now. What a hell of a welcome to Reed.

Rose sat down with a file on her large lap. “You’ve got a new brig chaser under your command, Captain.”

“Let’s dispense with formality, Rose. Call me Dan when we’re alone, okay?”

“Fine. Anyway, this new kid is only eighteen and really green. He’s a potential problem, as I see it. His name is PFC David Shaw.”

Dan put the sandwich in the drawer and closed it. “Go on.”

Rose frowned. “This morning he was to escort a murderer by the name of Coughman from the brig up to Treasure Island on the other side of the San Francisco Bay. He’s driving the prisoner up right now. Just in case you don’t know it, TI is a major prison for military men who’ve committed serious crimes.”

Dan smiled to himself. “I’ve sent a few of them there, Rose. What else?”

“Well, when Shaw came up to me to get the paperwork this morning on this prisoner, he started acting real funny with the set of orders I prepared for him. I showed him what to read and where to sign his name. Shaw got real uneasy and started asking me a lot of questions, so I told him to read the orders. I mean, they were right in front of him, for heaven’s sake. He kinda did, but then he went over to Joe Donnally and started asking the same questions of him that I refused to answer.”

“Maybe the kid’s just nervous, Rose. You know—double-checking before making the drive up the coast with a prisoner. Being responsible for a prisoner isn’t easy, and if it’s his first time, some of his actions might be understandable.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe you’re right, Dan.” She tapped the file. “There’s something funny going on with the kid. He’s real tall and skinny and built like a rail.” She grinned. “If only that would have happened to me. Anyway, he’s not the brig-guard type of guy, if you know what I mean.”

Dan nodded. Brig chasers were usually big, strapping marines, even tougher and meaner than the criminals they had to guard and move from one brig or correctional place to another. “Keep an eye on him, Rose, but give him a chance. He was probably just intimidated by Coughman’s reputation.”

With a laugh, Rose got up. “You’re probably right. But if you’re going to square this office away, things like this need to be reported to you, Dan.”

“No argument from me, Rose. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.”

She hesitated at the door, giving him a coy look over her bifocals. “I saw Libby Tyler hurrying out of here. Looked like she was going to cry….”

Dan refused to take the bait. “She was a little upset,” he answered shortly.

Rose nodded. “I see.”

“I’m sure you do, Rose.”

She smiled. “Pretty lady, isn’t she?”

“Sure is.”

“She’s a widow, did you know that?”

Dan frowned and looked over at his secretary. “No, I didn’t.”

“Yeah, her husband was a marine helicopter pilot, a real fine officer here at Reed. Three years ago he was with his squad in a helicopter for a night patrol, and they crashed in the hills. Word is that the copilot was flying at the time and wearing those new night goggles. He flew the chopper into some power lines. All twelve men on board died instantly, including Captain Tyler.”

“Damn…”

“Libby really forced the hand of the crash investigators to find out why her husband had been killed. They hid the facts from her at first, but when she threatened a civilian lawsuit, they leveled with her. It was a problem with the night goggles.”

What a jerk he’d been. No wonder his lunch suggestion had proven painful to Libby. Chances were, Dan surmised, she didn’t want a damn thing to do with marines ever again. “They’ve had a lot of problems with those goggles,” he agreed quietly. He owed Libby a genuine apology.