“Of course. But crime in Sinful used to be limited to poaching and drunks and the occasional assault charge. Even the deaths were garden-variety—natural causes or accidental drownings and the like.”
“That’s not exactly correct,” I said. “Marie’s husband was murdered years ago. You just didn’t know about it until this summer. And that’s not the only crime that went back in time. Maybe Sinful isn’t as peaceful as you believed.”
He stared at the wall behind me for a bit, then nodded. “That’s probably true, and crime has gotten worse overall everywhere. I guess it was foolish to think it wouldn’t escalate here as well. Still, this situation with Gail is one I didn’t expect. A domestic dispute gone bad, I could see, but this?”
“I think everyone is surprised and shocked. You’re not in the minority.”
“I don’t suppose I am.” He looked directly at me. “Anyway, it looks like my reasons for returning to Sinful have been rendered useless. I’m right in the thick of the kind of tragedies I’d hoped to avoid.”
“A big city would be worse.”
“Yeah, but it probably wouldn’t be personal.”
I nodded, completely understanding his viewpoint. Until I came to Sinful, none of my missions had been personal, which made them easy from a mental standpoint. Get in. Do the job. Get out. But in Sinful, I’d made friends. There were people who mattered, and when they’d been at risk, I had been unprepared for the overwhelming emotions that came over me. I couldn’t imagine how much harder it was for Carter, having known most of the people here all of his life.
“I can appreciate that,” I said. “My work is, well, my work, but the things I’ve gotten mixed up with here were because the people mattered to me. Not because it was the next assignment.”
He gave me a small smile. “You’ve certainly done your share of getting mixed up in things. I think back about how worried I was that you were going to get yourself hurt or killed. I should have been worried about everyone else you came in contact with.”
The smile remained in place so I knew he meant it to be funny and a compliment. But it was still a harsh reminder of the position I’d put him in, and I still felt guilty for all the worry Carter had endured over my safety.
“I’m sorry you worried about me,” I said before I could change my mind. “I mean, I’m not going to say it wasn’t nice to have someone worrying about me—that’s sort of a new thing in my life—but I wish I could have informed you better so that you wouldn’t have worried quite as much.”
“I appreciate the apology, but honestly, I don’t think it would have mattered if I’d known, not if I’d already developed feelings for you. In fact, I worry about you more now that I know why you’re here and the risks you’re willing to take because of who you are.”
I frowned. I hadn’t thought about it that way, but perhaps he was right. An amateur poking their nose into police business could get caught in the cross fire, but after so many years with the CIA, the very nature of my existence was risky. Ahmad was the biggest threat, but I’d made more than one enemy.
“That’s part of what I wanted to explain,” he said. “I’ve never told anyone what I’m about to share with you, not even my mother, so I’d appreciate it if you kept it between the two of us.”
“Of course,” I said, a bit surprised by his admission. What in the world could be so horrible that he hadn’t shared it with a single other person until now?
“You know I served in Iraq with the Marine Corps,” he said. “What you don’t know is that I was Force Recon.”
My eyes widened a little. I figured Carter had done his time in a special unit—he had the demeanor of someone with advanced training and experience—but Force Recon was an elite group of reconnaissance marines. In short, they were the most badass of the badasses. The few times I’d worked with a unit, I’d been blown away by their efficiency and reaction time.
“Wow,” I said. “That explains why you desperately needed some downtime after you got out.”
He nodded. “I saw my share of things, that’s for sure. But the one that did me in happened right before my time was up. It’s the main reason I didn’t reenlist.”
He looked down at the table, took a deep breath, then blew it out. “We were on a joint mission with three Mossad agents. I can’t tell you the details, of course, but we’d been working with them for six months collecting intelligence for a strike. One of the agents was a young woman—your age and just as deadly.”
He looked back up when he delivered the last sentence and without even hearing the rest of the story, I knew where it was going. He’d fallen for the woman. I could see it all in his sad and wistful expression. And she’d died. I was sure of it.
“You fell in love with her,” I said simply.
“Yes, maybe. Given the emotional high of our situation, it’s hard for me to know for sure, but I cared for her. I cared for her more than I ever had anyone else before.”