Page 4 of The Press Secretary's Passion

“Nine years ago, Cara and I were married,” Rick says to the room. Grace and Jake’s faces are both carefully blank. They obviously knew the big secret.

“What?” The word falls from my lips before I can stop it, and I feel my eyes go wide at this news. Holy shit. I look back, over my shoulder, and my eyes land on Ryan.

“And nine years ago, Cara left me when Jake and I were deployed.” Ryan’s eyes narrow on Cara for a split second. His judgement is evident, and he’s clearly not impressed with the way she treated a brother in arms.

“Ouch,” Grace whispers.

“She was blackmailed,” Rick adds.

“What?” Jake barks out.

“I was sent pictures of Rick overseas and told that if I didn’t leave him, he would die by friendly fire that night,” she answers quietly. Oh shit shit. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing in that situation to protect someone I loved. My respect for Cara ratchets up more than a few notches.

“So you left,” Jake adds.

“Yes.”

“To protect Donovan,” Ryan adds, and I can see by the way his face softens that he’s changed his opinion of her.

“Yes,” she confirms his assumptions.

“When was this?” Jake asks.

“March,” Rick and Cara reply at the same time.

“About when we were assigned to the cartel op?” Jake asks with a raised brow.

“The one and the same,” Rick growls.

“Well,” Jake says, steepling his fingers together. “That is interesting.”

“That’s what I thought,” Rick says casually, making Captain Black lose his patience.

“Care to share with the fucking class?” Ryan barks.

“Yes,” Jake says with a smile, clearly enjoying riling up his aide. “As you know, Rick and I were on the same SEAL team. On one deployment, we were presented with an off-the-books mission. It seemed…off. But we were young and dumb and weren’t necessarily in the market to question orders that came from way above our pay grade.”

“Or we would have, if I hadn’t been on a one-man suicide mission,” Rick adds, making Cara let out a pained gasp.

“No,” she whispers.

“I was pretty messed up after my wife left me,” he says. “I jumped at any mission they gave me. It didn’t matter how dangerous. And if it seemed like a one-way ticket, even better.”

“Rick—” she starts, but they aren’t going to give her the time to fall into her own pit of despair.

“And I was there for my brother,” Jakes inserts. “And I had no intention of running for office when my dad retired.”

“But this one was different,” Rick finishes.

“Different, how?” Ryan asks.

“It didn’t go as planned and people died,” Rick admits.

“And you think this mission is connected?” he asks Rick and Jake.

“Yes,” they both say in unison.

“Why?”