“Why?”
Dean looked toward the locked door.
“Because he knew they were starting again.”
Hart stared at her son’s name.
For four years she had believed Andrew simply wanted another life.
Now she was holding evidence that something inside her own command might have driven him away.
She looked at Dean.
“Who is ‘they’?”
His face changed.
Footsteps stopped outside the door.
Someone tried the handle.
Then came a familiar voice.
“Colonel Hart?”
Evelyn recognized it immediately.
Her closest deputy.
Dean turned white.
Hart slowly stood.
Because judging by the fear on the young soldier’s face, the man standing outside her door might already be the answer to the question she had just asked. 👇
Evelyn did not answer the door immediately.
Dean’s eyes stayed fixed on it.
The handle moved again.
“Colonel Hart?” the voice called. “It’s Lieutenant Colonel Voss.”
Evelyn looked down at the notebook in her hand.
Marcus Voss had been her deputy for nearly three years. He had briefed her before inspections, sat beside her during casualty notifications, covered meetings when her father was hospitalized, and known exactly how she took her coffee.
Dean was afraid of him.
That fact mattered more than thirty-two years of familiarity.
Evelyn crossed the room and opened the door only wide enough to stand in it.
Voss looked past her immediately.
“Everything all right?”
“Yes.”
