Mad Love (A Nolan Brothers Novel Book 4) by Amy Olle

Author:Amy Olle [Olle, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amy Olle
Published: 2017-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Four years earlier

He fell in love with her that first day. She, however, took more convincing, and it wasn’t until that first assignment ended and they’d returned home to Boston that she gave in to his needling.

Fourteen days. That’s how long it took her to admit she was in love with him, too.

Three months later, when the network sent her back to the region, Leo demanded he be assigned to her security detail. Going forward, he would always demand it. After all, he couldn’t sit back and let her, his heart, walk into a war zone alone and unprotected by him.

But the situation in the country had changed drastically in those months, spiraling into a full-fledged civil war. She struggled with the realities of combat.

At the end of their first few days in Damascus, the conditions worsened and had Leo on the phone with his supervisor in Arlington.

“We need more men.”

“How many?”

“Two, at least,” Leo said. “Four would be better.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

But when, the next day, Jim called with the decision, Leo exploded. “What the hell do you mean the request is denied? This isn’t up for debate. We can’t keep these people safe without the extra men.”

The day before, a crackdown on protesters by the authoritarian regime had erupted in chaos and now, outside their hotel’s security gates, bodies littered the streets.

“Then you’ll need to come home,” Jim said. “Mr. King was clear—the priority right now is not civilian security. With the new contract in Afghanistan—”

The stream of expletives coming from Leo drowned out the bullshit Jim was shoveling, and it marked the beginning of the end of Leo’s employment with Blackstone.

After the call, he returned to the hotel room he shared with Lauren.

Her eyes glassy and her cheeks flushed with her emotion, she stared blankly ahead.

He set a tumbler of whiskey in front of her.

She drank, and though she rarely consumed liquor, she didn’t flinch or show any reaction when the fiery liquid slid down her throat.

Her voice when she spoke sounded strained and hoarse. “No one ever talks about the smell.”

“I was warned about the smell,” Leo admitted. “But the dogs surprised me.”

Her eyes moved to his face. “Where do they all come from?”

He didn’t know if they were wild animals or pets that lost their civility right along with the humans, but they always seemed to appear to scavenge when the body count started to rise.

For a week, up until that day, she’d reported the chaos and despair of the escalating war dutifully and professionally before the TV cameras. But back in their hotel room that night, she’d reached her breaking point. He’d never seen her so upset. So heartbroken. It was the boy. Seeing his small body discarded along with the others had sent her to a dark, terrifying place.

“I’m so sick of war,” she whispered. “I’m so sick of reporting about that horrible man and everything he’s doing. No one is going to stop him. They don’t care that he’s killing his own people.

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