Rules of Engagement

He cocked his head, his dark eyes set in an even darker face, fixed on her.

“Better you don’t know what I’m saying.”

Molly wriggled her smaller red-tan body in between Hector and Tess.

Tess hugged the dog, then set her down. “Don’t be jealous. I love you both.”

They trotted beside her as she entered the kitchen, dumping her purse and the laptop on the counter. “How about a carrot, guys?”

This was a word they both recognized and loved. Setting Molly down, Tess fished in the vegetable drawer of the fridge for the package of baby carrots. She gave them each one and they peeled out in separate directions to enjoy the treat. Tess uncapped a bottle of ginseng-in-fused tea, then glanced at the computer.

After flipping open the cover, she plugged in the unit, browsing through the directory. Within a few minutes, she saw that the hard drive hadn’t been cleaned by the previous owner.

Designs, Schematics, Financials. Nothing there that interested her. Pausing at a subdirectory entitled “Letters,” Tess frowned. What kind of letters? Dull, boring business ones, no doubt.

Pulling up a stool, Tess settled at the bar, scrolling through until one file caught her attention. Deceptively simple, it was entitled “Home.” Letters home.

Instantly she thought of David, the last words from him.

And she clicked on the file. A letter appeared on the screen, full-blown.

As Tess began to read, she found she couldn’t pull herself away.

The days are still full 24/7. I’m so wiped out by night that my cot actually looks good. It’d be like sleeping on a saggy lawn chair if I could feel anything by that point. I come to in the morning and then the day’s gone before I can blink. But the weeks and the months, they crawl.

I lost another man today. Specialist Dixon. Michael Dixon. Twenty-two years old, had a girlfriend in Louisiana. He was quiet, but you always knew you could count on him. I wish I’d gotten to know him better, but sometimes that just makes it worse. My unit’s feeling the loss. You have to keep on, put it out of your mind, but when it’s quiet, you remember. And I think about his parents, the woman he planned to marry. How they’ll go on, too.

Tess’s breath shortened.

Tell Mom that the First Lady visited the main camp. No fashion updates, though. She was wearing camouflage fatigues. Reporters ate it up. Beats showing what’s really going on over here.

It was simply signed “Cole”

Shaken, Tess sat back. This soldier reported a slice of military service unlike anything her brother ever sent. David’s letters had been cheerful, mostly full of newsy chatter.

Unexpectedly connected to the author of the letters, Tess opened a second file. This letter was also disturbingly real, expressing the soldier’s feelings about the military engagement and the people in the country where he was serving.

Unable to stop, Tess read his anguish for home and family, the liberty he was fighting for, the loss he experienced for the men under his command who’d been killed or wounded.

David had apparently been shielding her from how bad it actually was, which was so much like him. These letters were a window into that world. David’s last reality.

And Tess absorbed each detail. This soldier was a person of deep convictions and loyalty. So much so, she was compelled to read the next letter…and the one after that. Time forgotten, Tess continued reading and reacting. And building a link to a stranger who might not have survived the place she now read about.

BY DAWN, Tess’s shoulders and back were stiff from crouching over the laptop all night. She forced her eyes, gritty from lack of sleep, to focus until she’d read the final letter. It was as though she’d met Captain Cole Harrington, had spent the night talking with him about his deepest thoughts.

Closing the lid on the computer, she was bereft that there were no more letters. In the space of an evening she knew more about this stranger than she did her closest friends.

And there was the undeniable connection to David.

Her brother had also been a man of ideas and passion. Absurdly, she felt cheated. They had shared everything. David should have shared the final chapter in his life, too. Had he been frightened? Had he experienced any premonition of his own fate?

Tess pushed past the growing lump in her throat as she traced the edges of the computer. She felt terrible about keeping it. The rules of the auction house may have said it was hers, but it belonged to this soldier. The letters were so revealing, she couldn’t imagine the owner wishing them to be read.

She bit down on her bottom lip as the worst possibility pushed to the front of her thoughts. If he hadn’t survived, perhaps the laptop had been discarded.

Tess made an instant decision. She would find the owner, or at least his family. They should have his computer.

Tess knew that trying to get any sleep now was pointless. So she brewed some fresh coffee, then took the dogs for their morning walk. After showering and dressing she packed up the laptop and drove to the restaurant. Settled at her desk, she phoned the auction house. According to their records, the lot she’d purchased had come from Harrington Engineering. Harrington. Captain Cole Harrington.

Was he a husband, son…brother?

Tess picked up a phone book. All morning she’d been preoccupied by his fate. Now she felt a personal stake in the outcome.

Harrington Engineering was listed, but she paused as she reached for the phone. This wasn’t the sort of thing you talked about over the telephone.

She scribbled down the address. It was midweek, traffic was light and Tess made the trip quickly. Too quickly.

She’d rehearsed what she would say during the drive, but now, parked in a visitor’s spot at the front of the parking lot, she still wasn’t sure.

CHAPTER TWO

NOW THAT HIS TEAM was searching for the designs, Cole felt marginally better. But they had to show up soon or the bid to Landry Industries would be closed. He’d begun work on the bid when Landry was still debating the new lines, before they’d secured their financing. Now that Landry had gone public, they had deep wells of cash. And Cole wanted some of it to bail out Harrington.

He glanced at the mariner clock. But the hands hung uselessly ever since he’d slammed the desk the day before. He regretted the impulse. His employees had given it to him as a gift to celebrate their first year in business. He wasn’t a particularly sentimental man, but he viewed the clock as a good luck token. He’d get it fixed. No sense pissing off the Fates.

He logged on to the network computer. His e-mail in-box was already full. Hopefully some of it was good news.

Dan stuck his head in Cole’s open door. “Do you know where Mark is?”

“Haven’t seen him this morning.”

The finance officer frowned and, obviously in a hurry, ducked back out and was on his way before Cole could question him.

The bank of phones that connected reception to the line supervisors in the plant were ringing incessantly. Then the outside lines started ringing as well.

“Marcia?” Cole called for the receptionist as he strode down the corridor. Couldn’t anyone be bothered to answer the damn phones?

The reception area was empty except for a woman he didn’t recognize, and the phone lines buzzed out of control. This wasn’t like Marcia. Ignoring the visitor, he walked behind the counter, and took over the switchboard.

“Can I help you?” he asked, once there was a pause in the phone calls.

“Actually, I—”

The phone rang again. “Just a minute.”

She pulled a card from her purse and laid it on the counter.

Finally, the board quieted. “Sorry about that. The receptionist is supposed to have been here by now.”