“Or your mother will be humiliated, because the press will see you and stir everything up again. This is what I’m calling your soft launch back into the world. I love you and I’m trying to make it easier for you.”

Her teeth ached as she clenched her jaw and focused her gaze on the mansion that came into view. It housed the president who ran a country from his elaborate home while villages without electricity or plumbing or even basic medical needs were terrorized by rebels. If it wasn’t for the mission groups who came in and dug wells, inoculated children, and installed generators, then those children would never have been inoculated and villagers still wouldn’t have clean water.

But her father was a clever man. First, she’d never do anything to humiliate her mother. She’d seen too many children in her parents’ circles who manipulated and connived and embarrassed on a regular basis. That would never be her.

Second, this would work as a soft launch. It would put her in the sights of the press without the framework of the northern Virginia/Washington, DC, society. It would put her in a position of authority on her father’s arm in lieu of her mother.

“Fine,” she spat.

The car slid to a halt, and a man in an emerald-green uniform with gold adornment opened the door. As she got out of the car, she thanked him in French and stood to the side to wait for her father.

Rick sat back in his chair at the head of the table and laughed at a joke that Swanson made. He took a drink of sparkling water and looked at his team. They’d invited Waller to join them in the hotel restaurant. Rick had done some checking up on the young medic and decided he fit perfectly. He thanked God for bringing him to the team. He hated to lose Ozzy, but this would end up as a good thing for his unit.

He thought about the way Cynthia had looked tonight. Maybe if he’d known he would encounter her dressed like that, he would have had more control of his reaction. She’d taken his breath away until his mind fogged up and everything around him stilled. It amazed him that he’d even had the faculty to speak.

Swanson held up a piece of meat on his fork. “I don’t know what this is, but it’s amazing.”

Peña laughed. “It’s probably hippo.”

Rick shook his head. “It’s goat. Staple meat here.”

Swanson put it in his mouth and spoke around it. “I’m good with that.”

“Beats an MRE any day.” Fisher took a bite of his own food.