“It sounds terrible.” The compassion in her voice wasn’t sympathy, it was empathy. He could hear it in her voice, and see it in her eyes.
“Yeah, well, it was a long time ago.”
“Is that why…why you do what you do?”
“No. If I’d wanted to spend my life sniffing out drug dealers, I would have become a cop, a narc. At first, I didn’t know why I wanted to be a SEAL so bad. Looking back, I think I saw how dedicated my dad was to his job, how much it defined who he was, and I wanted something to define me like that. I wanted to be part of something I believed in so much that I’d lay down my life without hesitation.”
“Oh.” She was expecting some sentiment about ridding the world of drug-dealing scum, righting the wrong done to his childhood friend. But now, her thoughts turned inward. She was
