Her Sensual Protector: A Navy SEAL Romance (Night Storm Book 5), Caitlyn O'Leary [uplifting book club books TXT] 📗

winced when the dumbass snarled at me. He must have been his superior. I’d say dick-boy is going to get an earful today.”

Leo let out a laugh. “Yep, that’s how I read it too. The blue suit is Tom Ludlum; he’s a good guy. I would be surprised if he doesn’t send that young guy back to the States. I don’t think he’s salvageable.” Leo stopped talking as the waiter set down their food in front of them. It looked fantastic and smelled even better.

Daisy smirked.

“What?” Leo asked.

“Mine’s better than yours. Check it out, I got a side of braised pumpkin with yogurt.”

Leo looked. “You might be right. Are you a vegetarian?”

“Nope, just in the mood for eggplant.” She started in on her food, and Leo followed suit. It gave him a chance to figure out what he wanted to ask next. He needed to find out exactly why Dr. Squires might have been targeted by the Haqqani Network. Any additional information he and his team could find out would really help before starting a mission to get him the hell out of their hands.

“You’re looking at me funny,” she said as she started in on the pumpkin side dish. “Just spit out whatever you have to say.”

“Can you think of anything that your dad might have been doing besides inoculating children for polio, that might have pissed off the Haqqani Network?”

Daisy set down her fork and pressed her napkin against her clean lips. “My father could have done damn near anything. Let’s begin with all the stupid moves he made in Pakistan. Dr. Williams was incensed that he had put their entire project in danger by his foolhardy moves. Seriously, polio is this close,” she put her thumb and forefinger together up to her face. “This close to being eradicated in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These are the last two countries where it is endemic. Until men and women like Dr. Williams, and all of the local villagers who are working with him, can disrupt the transmission of this virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, all other countries are at risk of importing polio into their country, especially those countries that are vulnerable.”

“Which ones are vulnerable?”

“Those with poor immunization plans or poor health and public services. This is vitally important. And Ethan Squires is letting his impatience put it all at risk. He never cares about long-term repercussions. He just plows ahead, because his ego demands an immediate reward.”

Leo heard the bitterness in her voice. It sounded deeply personal and filled with pain. What had her dad done to her to deserve those thoughts from such a compassionate woman?

“So he’s done this before?”

“Oh yeah, he has. It doesn’t matter whose life he puts at risk, as long as he gets that adrenaline high of being the medical God of the moment.”

“Who else has he harmed?” Leo asked gently.

“You name it. The great doctor dragged our family to Swaziland in 1991 to help combat the measles outbreak. This was when the vaccines were available, but cases were surging. My mom didn’t want to go. But she was young and tired, and really didn’t know just how dangerous it was. He took them into the thick of things. Karen was ten and Brian was eight when they both contracted the disease. Karen almost died, and Brian was left sterile. To this day I don’t know why she stayed with him after that.”

“But she did, because you’re here,” Leo nodded to her to keep eating. She moved some of her food around on her plate.

“Yes, she did,” Daisy admitted reluctantly. “I was a surprise baby. After the measles outbreak, Mom mostly stayed in the States, but she agreed one last time to go overseas. She said my father guilted her into it because he hadn’t had a chance to spend much time with me. He promised it would be safe.” Her voice trailed off.

Leo saw how her fist clenched on the table and he wanted to console her, but it wasn’t his place.

“Was it safe?” Leo asked after the waiter left.

She shook her head. “This time it wasn’t a disease. Mom got pregnant again. We were in the Brazilian rain forest. He had left us in a village that only spoke Portuguese, Mom and I didn’t. She ended up having a miscarriage. I remember her crying in pain and me trying to give her food and water, trying to fix her, but she was too delirious to take in food or water. I kept kissing her forehead like she always did to me when I was sick, thinking that was something that would make her better, but it didn’t. Finally, I went to the neighbors next door begging for help. They didn’t understand me. There was no ambulance, nothing like that. A woman came to help Mom. They took me away from her,” her hand dropped from the table to clutch her stomach. “It seemed like forever that I was at the neighbor’s house. I thought she was dead. When my father eventually found me, I was inconsolable. He didn’t tell me anything, he just left me at the neighbors for a long time, until finally, he brought me to see my mom.” She rested her fist back up on the table.

“How old were you?”

“Four.”

Leo pictured everything in vivid detail. The idea of Daisy, practically a baby, going through that horror, made his blood boil. How could a real man have done that to his wife and child?

This time when he saw the knuckles on her fist turn bone-white he couldn’t help himself, he reached out and put his hand over hers, his