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bit her lip, her stomach hurting. “Not really. While I was growing up, she said you were a super-spy for the government who could never contact us.” The dreams Piper had spun of her hero of a father showing up to be in her life, to take care of her flighty mother, had never quite died. She looked around the secured room. “Which was actually the truth.” So why did the truth hurt so badly? “I just wish she would’ve let you decide whether or not to be in our lives.”
    He tapped long-tapered fingers on his immaculate desk. “Well, you can’t blame her too much. I do live a dangerous life, and her job was to protect you. She did so admirably.”
    True, but now it was time to let Piper make her own decisions. At her lowest point, sitting in a jail with reality smashing her in the face, her father had swept in and rescued her. The government had dismissed the hacking charges, and from that day forward, she’d wanted to please him. To make him proud, even though her mother had argued vehemently against any relationship. “I feel like we have an opportunity to get to know each other now.”
    He eyed her. “I thought that’s what we were doing.”
    Most men failed at the emotional aspects of relationships, a fact she’d learned the hard way with boyfriends and a disastrous engagement that ended with her fiancé sleeping with not one, but two, of her bridesmaids. At the same time.
    Finally, she was in the same place as the commander, and this might be her only chance to get to know him in person. To prove she was worthy and that he could trust her. Her mom rolled her eyes at the thought, saying Piper’s romantic notion of a father didn’t mesh with the reality. But the man didn’t seem to have anybody, and she could be there for him. “I don’t even know why you became a soldier.” It seemed to define him. Hell. It was him.
    He rubbed his strong jaw. “My father was a soldier.”
    She stilled and then took a deep breath. Carefully, like a scientist approaching a grizzly, she spoke slowly. Finally, some answers. She had a grandfather. “Is he still alive?”
    “No. Died when I was eight.” No expression crossed the commander’s face. “The official reason was something about Agent Orange and cancer, but in truth? He wasn’t strong enough. If he’d been stronger, he would’ve beat the poison dropped by our enemies. Soldiers need to be invincible.”
    She swallowed. Nobody was invincible, and how odd to demand it. “What about your mother?”
    He shrugged a massive shoulder. “She died giving birth—also not strong enough. But she was a woman, so—”
    Piper sat up and tilted her head to the side. Her paternal grandmother had died so young and without knowing her child, and something ached in Piper’s chest. But he couldn’t be saying—“So?”
    He shook his head. “Nothing. Is that enough information for you?”
    “No.” For once, she held her ground. Did he think women were weak? Her eyebrows drew down, while stubborn will welled up. “Women can be just as strong as men.”
    His face smoothed into a smile. “Perhaps, but women shouldn’t be soldiers.”
    Her breath caught. “Sure they should.”
    “No.” He shook his head. “War is for men.”
    She sighed. Ah ha. So he didn’t understand women at all. Interesting. That was probably a debate for another day, and she would get through to him. He never asked about her, but maybe that was because he didn’t know how to communicate with anybody not in the military. “Without parents, who raised you?” She tried to squint and see the lost little boy he must’ve been, but only the larger than life leader took form.
    “My uncle. Great soldier.” The commander nearly grinned. “Taught me to shoot with an expert’s aim.” He rubbed his right shoulder. “Made sure I learned not to miss.”
    Heat uncoiled down Piper’s throat into her stomach, her instincts flaring. “How?” she whispered.
    “Any way he needed to. Once I missed two