“Safe is boring,” I said.

Zeke laughed. “Yes. Yes, it is. Try explaining that to my family. What does yours think about it? I guess since you’re a Marine this sets their mind at ease a little?”

“My dad would be disappointed in me if I wasn’t somewhere saving the world with my rifle. Militia kids spend a lot of time in drills or mock combat. Being serious and lethal is how we get attention from our parents.”

Zeke seemed surprised and impressed at the same time. “I don’t even own a gun.”

“But you have an axe. And whatever that weird thing was you were carrying.”

“A rhino? Pretty cool that you noticed.”

“I notice everything.”

“I noticed your team. It seems like you’d all known each other for years. I know Trex was your husband’s best friend before, right?”

“After Matt died, I joined up. I worked my ass off and pulled some strings to get into Trex’s special unit. His is one of the best. They’re my brothers. I go where they go.”

“Like black ops type of shit?”

“We went all over the world, and if we were caught or killed, no one would claim us.”

“Whoa.”

“I couldn’t save Matt, so I promised to do everything I could to save his friends. Matt sacrificed himself for them, and so would I.”

“Matt was a Marine?”

I hesitated. “Yeah.”

“Trex is a Marine?”

I sighed. “Yes, but, Zeke, you need to keep that between us.”

His brows pulled in. “Okay. So Matt took a bullet or…”

“He fell on a grenade.”

“Whoa,” he said again.

“This is a lot more than I usually talk about, and probably a more intense conversation than you bargained for.”

“Not really. I want to get to know you better.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, perching my elbow on the top of the sofa cushion and leaning my chin on my fist. “What about you? What’s your story?”

“Uh, my foster mom’s name is Jenn. My foster dad is Brad.”

“Foster?”

“Yeah, I worded that weird, I guess. They’re both my foster parents. They’re married. There’s a bunch of us, it’s nuts.”

I smiled. “Brad. Such a dad name.”

“It is.” He chuckled. “I have eleven brothers and sisters from that home. Kendra and Sam are biologically Brad and Jenn’s, Allison, Kara, Charlize, and Oliver were adopted. The rest were just foster kids like me during the time I lived there.”

“You weren’t adopted?”

“They asked. I said no.”

“Were they cool?” I asked.

“Brad and Jenn? Yeah, they were cool. It was just a lot, you know. She was a teacher, he was a firefighter. They struggled. It wasn’t fair to expect them to adopt every child who came through their door.”

“What about your real parents?”