Operation Unleashed. Justine Davis

she knew of it, it likely didn’t have the impact it had for him.

      “That was the terrorist attack, the passenger jet?” she asked.

      Quinn nodded. “They were both on board.”

      “My God,” Alyssa breathed. “How awful. I’m so sorry. You must have been very young.”

      Again the empathy fairly glowed from her, as if it were a tangible thing between her and the person she was feeling it for. He wasn’t used to that kind of introspection, he just went along day by day doing what had to be done. Alyssa sometimes unnerved him with her observations, leaving him wondering how she knew such things about people, things they never said.

      And wondering whether to be hurt or thankful she didn’t seem to ever turn that capacity on him.

      “I was ten,” Quinn answered.

      “And alone?”

      “I had my sister. She was four years older and practically raised me from then on. Our uncle really tried, but he wasn’t cut out for kids.”

      “Is that why you joined the military?” Alyssa asked.

      “Mostly,” Quinn said.

      “And then the bomber got released in a backroom deal,” Hayley said. “That’s why Foxworth does what it does. Quinn didn’t ever want anyone to feel as helpless and wronged as they did when that happened.”

      “So you used your parents’ insurance money to set up Foxworth?” Drew asked. “Must have been a nice inheritance.”

      “It helps that my sister turned out to be a financial genius,” Quinn said with a grin. “Thanks to her we have facilities in all four corners of the country, plus headquarters in St. Louis.”

      “Does each one have its own helipad?” Drew asked; he’d noticed the windsock next to the square of concrete outside the warehouse beside the green, three story building they were in now.

      “Not all, not yet,” Quinn said. “We’re working on that.”

      “And is every Foxworth building unmarked?”

      Quinn’s gaze sharpened once more. He leaned back in his chair, and again gave Drew a nod of approval. “You noticed that.”

      “Hard to miss.”

      “Not for some,” Quinn said. “Let’s just say some of the people we help have enemies who aren’t too happy about it.”

      “Why do I get the feeling your help isn’t limited to just avoiding domestic situations and tracking down released ex-cons?”

      “Because you’re a smart guy?” Quinn suggested. He studied Drew for a moment. “You ex-military? Law enforcement?”

      “No,” Drew said, then added with a crooked grin, “I was a Boy Scout once.”

      “You still are,” Alyssa said.

      Drew’s head snapped around. There hadn’t been a hint of a dig in her tone, although he knew there was a time when there would have been. Back when Doug had used it as an insult. My brother the Boy Scout, he’d said constantly.

      I’ve got no chance of matching you in the good little boy department, so maybe I’ll just have to go for the bad instead.

      The laughing statement that had haunted him for years now echoed in his head. Nothing else Doug had said or done had hit him quite the way that had. For a long time he’d felt almost responsible for his little brother’s twisted mindset. As if he’d set an impossible standard to live up to. He’d never felt he was anything special, he’d just tried to do his best, make their parents proud, but apparently in the process he’d somehow made Doug feel inferior.

      But Alyssa was smiling at him.

      He felt the strongest urge to call this all off. To go back, to try and hang on to the mood of the last week. It had been, on the surface, the life he’d dreamed of with her. And if they could hold on to that, maybe he could work on the rest, maybe someday she might actually look at him the way she’d once looked at Doug.

      He tried to scoff himself out of that silly idea, but it clung stubbornly to the edges of his consciousness. But now he knew he had to decide, and decide now. For so long he’d wanted her to see the truth, wanted her to see the real man—or rather, boy—his brother had been. And on that day he’d realized he loved her, he knew he’d wanted her to see Doug differently in the hope that she would then be free to see him differently.

      But now he wondered if it would be worth it. How would she react if he destroyed that rose-colored image she had?

      If he let this go on, and Foxworth somehow found the answers and proved him right, what would he be left with?