Radclyffe - Oath of Honor

Wes Masters. Cord is an oceanographer and an environmental medical

specialist.”

Cord said, “Good to meet you.”

“Same here,” Wes said. “What came first—medicine or the sea?”

“Medicine—then I saw the light.” Cord grinned and shepherded

them toward the vehicle. “Glad the flight was on time for a change—

we’ve got a lot planned. Weather report says breezy and unseasonably

warm, but a cold front is moving up the coast. Good conditions for

riptides.”

Evyn grinned. “Sounds perfect.”

“Does that mean no riptides?” Wes asked as she climbed into the

back after Evyn. Gary rode shotgun.

“No, it generally means strong ones.”

“Perfect all right,” Wes muttered, and Evyn laughed softly.

The cargo space behind Wes was filled with gear smelling faintly

of salt and sea—wetsuits, fins, personal flotation devices, a buoy with

a short length of rope attached. Evyn saw her checking it out and her

eyes twinkled.

“I love water exercises,” Evyn said.

• 131 •

RADCLY f FE

“You’ve been here before, obviously.”

Evyn nodded. “Gary and I are both water-rescue certified. Cord is

the supervisor for the training. We all train down here with her.”

“You’ve probably checked my file—I’m pretty good at advanced

lifesaving techniques.”

Evyn laughed. “I don’t doubt it. But when POTUS is in the water,

we will be too. He likes to snorkel. If we need to evacuate from the

water, that’s a little bit different than what you’re used to on shore.”

“Hence all the water gear. You weren’t kidding when you said

water exercises.”

“No. You’re going to get wet today.”

“Sounds like fun.” Wes settled back and closed her eyes. “Sixty

degrees is cold.”

“We’ll just have to make sure you work hard enough to stay

warm.”

Wes smiled. “Never doubted it.”

v

Blair grasped Cam’s hand as they walked along the shoreline. The

wind blew through Cam’s hair, the mist from the water curling the ends

as they lay on her neck, softening the sharp edge of her jaw, making her

look younger, more vulnerable. Blair’s chest tightened. She couldn’t

remember a time when she hadn’t been with Cam—no, she didn’t want

to remember a time when she hadn’t been with her. Before Cam, she’d

thought she was as happy as anyone in her situation could be. She’d had

moments of professional satisfaction, friends—Diane and Tanner—she

cherished, but at the very core of her had been a seething sense of

restlessness, of never quite fitting, of unsettled searching discontent.

Cameron Roberts, someone so much like her father, was the last

woman in the world she would’ve chosen. She adored her father but

had spent much of her life angry with him. Cam and her father were

both so dedicated to their jobs, guided by goals and principles that were

so clear to them, and both so willing to ignore their own needs. What

she hadn’t appreciated when she was young and had only learned after

being with Cam was the personal cost that living by those goals and

principles exacted from her father and Cam and others like them. What

• 132 •

Oath Of hOnOr

she had seen as selfishness had been exactly the opposite. Cam, like her

father, was willing to forgo personal happiness, was willing to risk her

life for what she believed. As much as Blair loved Cam, she couldn’t

bring herself to give Cam that one thing—her permission to sacrifice

herself for Blair or her father or her country. She needed Cam to be

more selfish than that. She was not willing to sacrifice her, no matter

the cost.

“I love being here alone with you,” Blair said. “You know that,

don’t you?”

“I know,” Cam said, lightly swinging Blair’s arm between them.

“And I love you more than you think.”

Blair caught her breath. “What are you talking about?” She

couldn’t imagine that Cam didn’t know how much her love meant to

her. How precious it was. How she woke up every morning a little bit

in awe of how her life had changed, of how much more there was to

cherish than she had ever imagined. If she had failed to let Cam know

that, she’d failed the most important challenge of her life. “I know you

love me. Your love means every—”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Cam lifted Blair’s hand to

her mouth, brushed her lips over the top of Blair’s hand.

Her lips were warm, reminding Blair that she often didn’t know

she was cold until Cam’s touch warmed her deeper than flesh. “Then

what?”

“I won’t do anything to destroy what we have, not even for my

country. I took the job with Homeland Security because I thought I

could make a difference there, that I could contribute something. But

there was another reason—a more personal one.” Cam smiled. “You.

I know how pissed you’d be if I stayed on protection and put myself

between a bullet and a protectee. I really hate it when you’re pissed at

me.” “Are you angry at me because I don’t want you to die for someone

else?”“No.” Cam faced ahead, her expression growing remote, and Blair

knew she was looking back. Maybe as far back as her father’s death,

when she’d watched him die and hadn’t been able to stop it. She wished

she could go back to that time, to hold the twelve-year-old Cam, to

comfort her as she’d never quite been able to comfort the adult woman

• 133 •

RADCLY f FE

she loved. But as much as she wished for that, she couldn’t go back in

time and erase the pain and abolish the disappointment. She could only

go forward and love, and hope it made a difference.

“I’m a lot more selfish than you,” Blair said. “I don’t mind

admitting I’m glad you’re not doing protection anymore. I don’t want

to lose you. Couldn’t bear to lose you.”

“You know it’s one in a—”

“Yes,” Blair said sharply, “I know it’s one in a million. And you

know, if you’re the one, that million doesn’t matter.”

Cam laughed softly. “We’ve been down this road before, and we

don’t need to re-travel it.”

Blair sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to ruin our time together.”

“Baby,” Cam murmured, releasing Blair’s hand and sliding her

arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. “Nothing can ruin our

time together. Are you worried about your father?”

Blair rested her cheek against Cam’s shoulder. “Yes. It’s hard,

wanting him to be safe and not wanting you to be the one responsible

for it.”“I’m not. That’s Tom’s job, and the rest of your father’s detail.

That’s a big reason why I’m not doing protection anymore. I don’t

want you to have to choose between your father’s safety or your own,

and mine. I get that. But what Luce asked me to do isn’t the same

thing. I won’t be primarily protection.” Cam stopped, put her arms

around Blair’s waist, and kissed her softly. “All I’m going to do is tag

along, keep my eyes and ears open, try to find out who has access to

the information that’s getting out. I’m looking for leaks, holes in the

security network, I’m not doing security. You don’t have to choose

between us, Blair. I would never do that to you.”

“I’m sorry,” Blair said softly. “I know, I do, really.”

“I know you’re worried about your father. Nothing’s going to

happen to him. He’s got the best people in the world around him. He’ll

be fine, so will we.”

Blair threaded her arms around Cam’s neck and kissed her. Her

protective detail was somewhere nearby, pretending not to watch them

while keeping them in sight, pretending they didn’t see their private

moments, while seeing everything in their path. Right now, she was

more grateful for those agents than she’d ever been. Where she’d

• 134 •

Oath Of hOnOr

once thought they imprisoned her, she now understood they gave her

freedom. “Sometimes, I feel like a selfish shit.”

“Nothing could be further from the truth. You know what I think?”

Cam said.

“What?”

“I think we should go back to DC a little bit earlier than we’d

planned. Weather reports say another big storm is moving up the coast.

We won’t have to worry about flights if we leave tomorrow.”

“You’re sure? I mean, it’s our honeymoon, sort of.”

“We can have a sort of honeymoon in DC. I’m not sleeping at the

White House, though.”

“Oh, really? And I so love being there with the press corps, and

the valets, and the officers in the halls.”

Cam grasped Blair’s hand and resumed walking. “I’m sorry, baby.

There are some things I just can’t give you.”

Laughing, Blair fell into step. “That’s okay, darling. I still adore

you.”

• 135 •

RADCLY f FE

chapter seventeen

Cord hadn’t been kidding when she’d said there would be

currents. Wes was a strong swimmer, but in a wetsuit and

gear, pulling an inert body through the water against the swirling tides

that wanted to drag her under took all her strength and concentration.

The instructor assigned to play POTUS wasn’t as big as Gary, but he

was heavy. The third time she pulled him from beneath the surface,

hooked an arm around his shoulder and over his chest, and kept him

afloat while a Coast Guard helicopter dropped a rescue basket, her arms

and legs were trembling and her heart hammered in her ears. Evyn

circled in a dinghy nearby, waiting to assist in the transfer to the lift

basket. When they got the patient secured, the helicopter lifted off, the

churning wash from its rotors blasting her with icy froth. After the first

time she’d gotten a faceful and nearly choked up a lung, she’d learned

to turn her head away and keep her mouth closed. Wearily, she fought

the water’s relentless pull, threatening to carry her out to sea.

“How you doing?” Evyn called.

“Great!” She caught a wave wrong and coughed out a mouthful

of brine.

“Head in. Take a break.”

“Roger.” Wes stroked toward shore while Evyn docked the dinghy

on Cord’s boat. When she made it in close enough, she stood up and

waited for the rest of the team, letting the blue-green ocean swirl around

her calves. Despite the painful trembling in her shoulders and thighs,

she felt great. She’d managed to keep her patient alive, gotten him

transferred to the medevac chopper, and avoided drowning. Not once

but three times. She considered that a damn good day.

• 136 •

Oath Of hOnOr

“Looked pretty good out there.” Evyn jumped out of the boat

into the surf beside her. She unzipped the neck of the wetsuit, and Wes

caught a glimpse of smooth pale skin framed between her breasts.

“I feel like I’ve just run twenty miles with a full pack.”

“Tough work. You did a lot better than a lot of first-timers.”