Undercover Hunter(53)

                “What happened to you, DeeJay?”

                She stiffened. “What the hell do you mean?”

                “I don’t know. I mean, I get that your CO screwed you royally, and I can’t imagine that would make you very fond of men in general, but there was more, wasn’t there? What turned you into a caped crusader until you got yourself into trouble?”

                “I don’t know what you mean.”

                “I’m sure you do.”

                For an instant, she hated him. Really hated him. But that passed in a flash as she realized it wasn’t true. “Soul-baring time?” she finally said tightly. “Maybe you wanna tell me why you didn’t want to work with me. Was it just because I was new, or because I was a woman?”

                He gave a low whistle. “Wow. You do have a thing about men.”

                “And you’ve got one about women.”

                “Only as partners.” He hesitated. “And it’s nothing to do with you. I was partnered with a woman once before. It became a heavy-duty problem. She wanted to take it beyond the professional. I wasn’t interested. So she made some accusations. Lucky for me, Internal Affairs put us under a microscope without telling either of us. They dismissed her complaint as unfounded. She had to look for another job.”

                DeeJay looked down at her hands, lying side by side on the table. “I’m sorry,” she said.

                “I got through it, although for a while I was mad enough to chew iron and spit nails. I wouldn’t treat a partner that way.”

                Remembering the quick way he had withdrawn from their kiss on the mountain, she believed him. Not good, he had said.

                “I shouldn’t have kissed you this morning,” he went on. “And if anyone should know better than to do that, it’s me.”

                “It just happened,” she said quietly. “I’m not holding it against you. I didn’t exactly stop you. So don’t worry about it.”

                He shook his head quickly. “Actually, I’m not. I’ve already figured out one thing about you.”

                “What’s that?”

                “You may be a prickly pear cactus, but you’re an honest one. You wouldn’t lie. Hell, it keeps bugging you that we’re undercover so you have to lie.”

                “It doesn’t bother you?”

                “It’s necessary. We’re trying to save lives here.”

                She nodded but still couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She felt she owed him equal honesty but didn’t know if she could force the words out.

                “DeeJay?”

                The words burst from her as if driven by irresistible force. “I was raped.”

                Silence greeted her words, followed by some quiet cussing from Cade. Then he said, “So you set about to right the world’s wrongs?”

                “As much as I could,” she admitted, blinking to hold back unwanted and rare tears. “What really pissed me about the whole thing, though...it wasn’t just the rape. It’s what happened when I reported it. I heard all about the good of the unit, and damaging an excellent soldier’s career, ruining my own... Oh, I heard it all.”