The air seemed to grow thicker the closer she got to the infirmary. A medic walked out of a room looking somewhere between cowed and irritated, a sure sign the general was close by and his mood hadn’t improved since his arrival. She couldn’t blame him. Operation Ripley had blown up in their faces spectacularly. Young’s troops had taken heavy losses, and not because of the armor system. Young himself had been taken hostage, jumped out of a moving car, and slammed up against a light pole. There was going to be hell to pay and she was about to volunteer for a first taste.

“General Young?” she asked the medic, mostly to stall for a little more time.

“Get your ass in here, Lieutenant,” a deep voice bellowed from the inside of the room.

The medic gave her a pitying look. “Good luck, ma’am,” he murmured, and then he saluted and made tracks.

Leandra straightened her shoulders and pushed open the door. The general was sitting sideways on a gurney, still mostly dressed in his black combat fatigues and scowling darkly as he picked at the bandage around his head. Even smelling faintly of sweat and smoke, bloodied and tired, the man cut an imposing figure. Part of it was that he was built like a tank and the lack of a uniform jacket helped drive that point home. Mostly, though, it was the force of his will, almost tangible now that he was too focused on the hunt to rein himself in and let others breathe. The result was that Leandra was extremely aware she was about to face down the huge, hurt, ill-tempered head of SOCOM who was, understandably, carrying a grudge.

Too late to run, she thought, and strode through the doorway with her head held high and her face carefully blank. Medical branch or not, she was a soldier. Her posture was flawless. Her salute perfect. If her pulse was elevated, she didn’t acknowledge it.

“Sir!”

Young gave her a dirty look and tugged on the wrappings again. “You take a wrong turn somewhere, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, sir!”

Her answer must’ve surprised him, because Young stopped what he was doing and raised one blood-crusted eyebrow. “You did?”

It was now or never, so Leandra took a deep breath and stared resolutely at the wall two inches from the general’s head. Time to try and salvage this situation… and her career.

“Yes, sir. When I went over your head, sir. Wrong decision, sir. I came to apologize.”

There. She hadn’t even choked on it. Her mama would’ve been proud.

Icy blue eyes tried to drill holes into her composure, but Lieutenant Dr. Leandra Butler was a tougher nut to crack than most people. She stood her ground stoically, didn’t allow herself a single twitch of nerves.

Apparently she passed muster, because Young grunted grumpily and went back to disassembling his bandage.