Free Off Limits by Lindsay McKenna Page B

something about me?” Alex demanded softly. “Please, trust me enough to tell me what happened to you.”
    The pleading quality of her voice sheared through him. Jim felt his heart mushroom with agony and guilt—and the overwhelming need to tell someone. Slowly he lifted his chin to meet her beautiful dove-gray gaze. “I’m telling you,” he rasped unsteadily, “you’ll hate me when I’m done.”
    Adamantly, Alex shook her head. She gripped his shirtfront with her fingers. “Trust me, Jim.”
    Tipping his head back, he shut his eyes tightly and gripped the hand resting against his chest. “Sweet God in heaven,” he said rawly. Jim cared what Alex thought of him. She was the woman of his dreams. And when he held her in his arms like this, he knew he was as close to heaven as he was ever going to get. Because he was surely destined for hell. His time with Alex was severely limited, he realized, hopelessness dashing his dreams. The stupid dreams of a boy, not a man, he decided sadly. He was falling deeply in love with Alex, but it could never be reciprocated. She was a congressman’s daughter, a woman of letters already far more educated than he ever could be.
    His mouth growing dry, he released a long, shuddering breath. “Okay, I’ll tell you,” he said heavily. And after he did, Alex would hate him as much as he hated himself.

CHAPTER FIVE
    J im didn’t know where to begin. He could only gather Alex into his embrace and feel a trembling begin deep inside him. The taste in his mouth was bitter. Finally, he forced the words out.
    â€œThere’s a village deep in VC territory that always hid us for a day or two when we came through that area. We’d made friends with the chief and his family. He had a granddaughter—about six years old—who took a shine to me. I always called her Kim, although that wasn’t her real name. My uncle has a daughter that age. Her name is Kimberly, and we always called her Kim. Anyway, every time we came to the village, this little girl would single me out, climb into my arms, follow me around. When her ma would come to get her, Kim would start cryin’ and want to stay with me. It was the darndest thing. She knew where I hid candy bars, and I’d pack extra for her every time we went on a mission in that area.
    â€œWe swung through the area on that last mission about a month ago. But when we got to the edge of the village, somethin’ didn’t feel right, so our team hung back.” Jim shook his head and stared blankly at the tunnel wall opposite him. “It was just a feeling, an ugly feeling. Lieutenant Breckenridge sensed something was wrong—we all did, but none of us could put our finger on what it was. We remained hidden, and no one knew we were there.
    â€œA couple of men we didn’t recognize walked through the village during those hours. We caught sight of Kim and her mother. They looked unhappy, but they were going about their business at one of the cooking fires. I wondered if the strangers were VC.” Jim shook his head. “None of us knew, but we’d been out on the mission for five days and we were hungry. We’d planned to stop at the village, pick up information the chief had promised us, eat and leave the next morning. One of our men—Stein, our radioman—had injured himself pretty badly, and Lieutenant Breckenridge wanted to get him some care. We knew we could get it at this friendly village.
    â€œFinally, the lieutenant gave the signal for us to split up. He decided we’d stay hidden at the edge of the jungle and try to get the attention of some of the people we knew were on our side, to find out if it was safe to enter the village. It was a good plan. I got the job of trying to reach the chief.” His arms tightened around Alex momentarily.
    â€œThen, all hell broke loose. Stein was discovered by one of the strangers at the edge