Wade’s War E-Book

Mayer Dale

• Herausgeber: Valley Publishing Ltd.
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Sophia met Wade a few years back, and the last she heard from him was he’d be back to take her out to dinner—and never saw him again. Having spent several years in the meantime working with Merk and his team in Texas, when Terk called for her help, Sophia jumped at the opportunity to go. Even if Wade didn’t get it, she knew a connection worth trying for when she felt it.

Wade is weak, helpless, his abilities damaged, after the attack on Terk’s team. Seeing Sophia, the woman he fell in love with at first sight, is a sock to his gut. His defenses are already down, and he knows it will be impossible to keep her at arm’s length a second time.

Wade must bring her closer, protect her, especially after their team was shattered from the initial attack, and subsequent attacks haven’t eased—not with the world slowly realizing that not just Terk survived the attack but so did a few of his team …

Leseprobe

Books in This Series:

Damon’s Deal, Book 1

Wade’s War, Book 2

Gage’s Goal, Book 3

Calum’s Contact, Book 4

Rick’s Road, Book 5

Scott’s Summit, Book 6

Brody’s Beast, Book 7

Terkel’s Twist, Book 8

Terkel’s Triumph, Book 9

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

About This Book

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Epilogue

About Gage’s Goal

Sneak Peek from Magnus: Shadow Recon

Author’s Note

Complimentary Download

About the Author

Copyright Page

About This Book

Welcome to a brand-new series from USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer, where dark-ops SEALs have special senses and skills, needed to solve intrigue, betrayal, and … murder. A series with all the elements you’ve come to love, plus so much more, … including psychics!

Sophia met Wade a few years back, and the last she heard from him was he’d be back to take her out to dinner—and never saw him again. Having spent several years in the meantime working with Merk and his team in Texas, when Terk called for her help, Sophia jumped at the opportunity to go. Even if Wade didn’t get it, she knew a connection worth trying for when she felt it.

Wade is weak, helpless, his abilities damaged, after the attack on Terk’s team. Seeing Sophia, the woman he fell in love with at first sight, is a sock to his gut. His defenses are already down, and he knows it will be impossible to keep her at arm’s length a second time.

Wade must bring her closer, protect her, especially after their team was shattered from the initial attack, and subsequent attacks haven’t eased—not with the world slowly realizing that not just Terk survived the attack but so did a few of his team …

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Prologue

Wade Simco wandered the small space. “Why are we in here? The place is empty.” He turned to look at Terk.

“We’re here,” Terk replied, “because this concrete room is reinforced with steel. We need to build a tunnel to get out, but to also stop anybody from coming in.”

“You really think it’s that Iranian group we hunted down who’s attacking us? But we thought we got them all?”

Terk nodded. “Like they thought they got all of us.”

Wade shook his head. “I don’t see how anybody could have survived our attack. Didn’t you have Tasha checking that angle?”

“She’s still working on it, that will take some time. But the Iranian group could have been training a shadow crew for all we knew. And I don’t know anybody else with the same skills,” he stated. “Didn’t your brother train over there?” At Wade’s silent nod, Terk added, “So, considering that, maybe Iran is our best option.”

“I got it,” Wade said, hating to hear his brother even mentioned at this point. Anger warred with grief and the lost future where they could have found a way to bury the hatchet between them. “But damn.”

“I know. I know,” Terk agreed. “And we need more people. Merk is bringing in somebody else to help with communication.”

“What about Tasha?” Wade asked.

“Oh, we definitely need her, but we also need somebody else to help Tasha and us. According to Merk, this person is really good.”

“Have you ever worked with him before?”

“Her. No, I haven’t, but I trust my brother. It’s somebody he has known for a long time, although he did say that she had worked for the team but more as a freelancer.”

“That sounds dodgy.”

“Well, in my experience, hackers tend to be that way,” he noted.

“Yeah, that’s true enough. Look at Tasha,” he murmured. “I can’t believe she and Damon finally got together. I’ve been bugging him about that since she first joined us.”

“Yes, I think we all have. But at least he’s finally getting it right.”

“I’m happy for him,” Wade muttered.

“So am I. They’ll be good together,” he agreed.

“And now that we have them together, the problem is, how to keep them safe.”

“Right.” Terk nodded. “And that’s partly why we’re bringing in another operative.”

“Got it,” Wade replied.

Terk cocked his head. “As matter of fact, they should be here any moment.”

“Great. Do I know her?”

“I don’t think so,” Terk said, “but I could be wrong.” He looked over at Wade and asked, “How are you handling your brother and all?”

“It’s a sad thing,” he replied, “but I always figured my brother would end up dead on a job one day. It’s just some people always want to be on the wrong side of life. They don’t give a shit about anything but themselves, and that was my brother. I loved him. I really did. But, in the end, I couldn’t save him.”

“And that’s good enough for me,” Terk said. “Nothing’s easy about family, particularly if you’re on the wrong side of things when it comes down to the end.”

“No, not easy at all. He’s gone, and—unfortunately or maybe not—maybe I’m grateful that my mom is also gone, so she didn’t see what happened and didn’t have to deal with the fact that we don’t have a body to bury,” he murmured.

“No, and I’m sorry if that’s an issue.”

“It isn’t. My brother probably would have preferred this in a way. As sad as it seems, I think he would like to be a ghost in the world.”

Just then Terk straightened. “We have company.” He walked out into the other room as a click came at the door, and Merk walked in. But Terk’s gaze was drawn to the woman at his brother’s side and how her energy zinged right to Wade. Terk was surprised because he hadn’t seen a foreshadowing of that happening at all.

Merk smiled. “And this is Sophia. Sophia Dermont.”

Sophia stepped forward, looked at the men in front of her, then frowned when she saw Wade. “You, I know,” she snapped.

He stared at her, as a grin crossed his face. “Well now, isn’t that fun.” He looked over at Terk. “We knew each other a while back.”

Terk looked at him. “Knew?”

He shrugged. “Knew in the biblical sense. Not the long-term sense but we were a thing for a while.”

The woman snorted. “I think the last thing out of your mouth was, ‘See you later.’”

“Sure, and here I am. It’s later.”

“Are you?” she asked, and she glared at him. “You were supposed to come for dinner that night.”

“And then I got called to a job,” Wade said easily. He looked at Terk. “She’s your new hire?”

Terk turned to his brother. Merk nodded. “She’s hell-bent for whatever sounds like technology.”

Wade nodded. “And that’s how we hooked up. We were at a seminar.”

“Yeah, they didn’t know anything there.” She shook her head.

“We both had the same opinion.”

Just then another door opened, and Damon came out, walking very slowly, Tasha at his side.

Tasha took one look and said, “Sophia?”

Sophia’s face lit up, and she came running. The two women hugged each other, and Sophia whispered, “Oh my God, there you are. All the others are talking about what you did.”

“I know. I’m very lucky that I survived,” Tasha replied. “We’re hunting those who tried to take us out.”

Sophia looked at Merk and asked, “Is this true?”

Merk nodded. “Terk’s team here was the target. He and Damon have been trying to piece things together. Wade was one of the casualties. He’s only barely back. In fact, he woke up from a coma just a few days ago.”

She turned her concerned gaze to Wade.

He shrugged. “I’m fine.”

She nodded. “Good, then I can kick your ass later.”

He grinned and said, “You can try.”

“Count on it,” she snapped, “and I’ll win too.” She walked over to Terk, reached out a hand, and, when he placed his in hers, she studied Terk for a long moment. Everybody in the room could see the energy rise up ever-so-slightly. “Fine.” She nodded. “I’m in.”

“We can’t have you come in and then walk out,” Terk murmured. “This has to be a 100 percent commitment. We have to know that we can trust you and that you’ll have our backs.”

She looked at Terk and frowned. “It’s only because you don’t know me that I’ll allow you to say that. After this moment, you don’t ever get to misjudge me again. When I say, I’m in, then I’m in. Done deal.” She looked over at Wade, frowned at him. “You and I, however, still have a score to settle.”

He nodded. “Maybe. I’m looking forward to it. And welcome to the team.”

She smiled, looked around at Tasha. “Now I feel better. This is a family I do know, and I’m more than happy to help out.”

And, with that, she looked at the equipment set up in the main outer room and asked, “So, where do I start?”

Chapter 1

Wade collapsed on one of the two beds in his new bedroom. They had moved out of their temporary headquarters in Paris and now were in this massive compound in the outskirts of Manchester, England, and Wade had no idea how Terk had found it. He’d apparently been tipped off by Bullard, somebody who worked closely with Levi.

However Terk found it, Wade was just damn thankful to have some privacy and a safe place to get his mind wrapped around what just happened. Only here, when he was alone, could he completely relax and unwind. Only after he was alone would he let his body shiver and shake with the pain of remaining vertical, trying to stay cognizant of everything going on around him. If his team had any idea how much Wade was still suffering, not a one of them would let him out of bed yet.

No way in hell would Wade get shut out at this point.

To think some of his teammates were still comatose was enough to make a grown man cry. They’d been good together, all of them brothers-in-arms, fighting the good fight the best way they knew how. “None of them deserved this shit,” Wade muttered. He knew full well that nobody else in the industry would give a crap either, due to the kind of work they did and the type of life they led.

It was all fine and dandy, until everything blew up in your face, until you were forced to recover with absolutely no idea what the future would look like when the dust settled. Wade was a lot of things, usually fast on his feet, but these last couple weeks were on a different level. Not just a couple weeks in terms of recovery but things had gotten a little funky before the attack on his team.

He’d mentioned it to Terk once, but they were interrupted, and Wade hadn’t taken the time or the effort to get back to his boss. Wade seriously regretted that right now because, if ever a time should have had clarity, that time was long past. As he lay here, trying to get his body to relax, a knock came at his door. He pretended to be asleep, hoping whomever it was would go away. When the knock persisted, he groaned and called out, “What’s up?”

“Let me in.”

He swore under his breath. That was Sophia, and one thing he knew was that she wouldn’t be pushed around. He called out again, “Stop the damn knocking and come in, even though I need time and space to recuperate.”

She opened the door, poked her head around, and then frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m not okay,” he snapped. “I came in here for a reason.”

She hesitated and then walked in anyway. She was a one-of-a-kind person, full of life, spirited, and she didn’t give a crap about petty shit, always riding on a chariot regardless. As she got closer to the bed, she tried to study his face, but he refused to turn toward her to let her get a better look. He didn’t know if she had any abilities or not, but, as far as he was concerned, she was way too disconcerting on so many levels.

He had a reason for not contacting her again after the night they’d spent together—because he knew he couldn’t get into a relationship with somebody like her. She was too perceptive, and his life was too secretive. Not a good combination. The last thing he needed was more chaos in his life, but he’d also been a coward and had decided that, since they had both arrived at the IT seminar with no commitment, he would leave the same way. That didn’t mean she would accept it though.

“Do you want me to go get anybody?”

“Hell no. I would shoot you if you did,” he replied quietly. She sat down on the side of his bed, making it bounce a bit. Instantly he winced.

She gasped. “Jesus, Wade. You didn’t tell me it was that bad.” A hint of hurt was beneath her concern.

“I haven’t talked to you. Have I?” he asked, trying to hang on to his temper.

“Yeah, I was hoping to speak to you about that,” she replied. “Maybe this isn’t the right time.”

“There’s never a right time,” he muttered.

“No, maybe that’s true. I would like an explanation though.”

“An explanation of what? Why I didn’t call? That’s easy. Because I didn’t want to.” He tried to avoid the snap in his voice, but it was hard. She knew the score as well as he did. They had made no commitments. It was just a dinner date after all, and he stood her up. At least that’s what he kept telling himself.

“You know I was worried about you,” she stated. “Did that not matter?”

“I got called out on a job, and it went to shit. As I recall, I got half blown up at the time,” he muttered. “I don’t even remember the details right now.” He shut his eyes. “And that’s just one of many that I’ve blocked. And I really don’t want to bring them back.” A long moment of silence followed, and he didn’t even open his eyes because the small effort would hurt more.

“Is that really what happened?” she asked tentatively.

“As far as I can say, yes. I don’t even remember anymore. I’m usually not the kind to forget unless there’s a reason.” He added, “And I had a reason, but, at this point, it really doesn’t matter.”

“Okay,” she replied, “and I get that. I also get that you were probably in tough straits at the time. But that doesn’t explain why you didn’t call afterward.”

“Too much time had passed, and it would have been awkward.” Just like the rest of my life, he thought to himself.

“Do you really think that you’re only allowed to have half-ass relationships?” she asked.

“They tend to work the best,” he muttered.

She sighed. “You know what? I knew you would be work. I just didn’t realize how much.”

At that, his eyelids struggled to open up, and he stared at her. “This isn’t about you.”

“Of course it is,” she muttered. “And I knew it at the time. I just had hopes that you would be … easier,” she noted, for lack of any better word.

“Well, I’d laugh at that if I weren’t so exhausted. But why the hell did you ever think I would be easy?”

She gave him a half smile. “Obviously I was drunk.”

“You think?” he muttered, letting his eyelids drop again. “Nothing about me is easy. Trust me on that.”

“No, maybe not,” she agreed, “but, at the same time, I also think you sometimes make things a lot more work than they need to be.”

“Probably.” He shrugged. “Did you have any other reason to bother me? I really could use some sleep.”

“I can see that,” she noted. “This isn’t the first time I’ve seen you like this.”

“Again, you don’t know me,” he muttered. “You don’t know the shit I’ve been through.”

“No, and there’s a reason why I don’t. Because you sure as hell haven’t let anybody in.”

After a long moment of silence, he finally nodded. “You could be right. Again, it’s not the kind of life that works well for partnerships.”

“Interesting that you didn’t say that to me at the time.”

“No, I didn’t,” he stated, “and, again, postmortems aren’t my thing.”

“So you want me to just get up and leave now, I suppose.”

“Yeah, that’d be for the best.” He still didn’t open his eyes.

“Well, I’ll have to think about that. But … I don’t think you’ll get off that easy.” Then she got up and walked out.

He didn’t have a clue what to say. The fact was, she had offered something that he’d never really had before. Maybe it scared him. More than that, he knew just how dangerous his job was and how absolutely uncertain everything in his life would be. So to bring her, or anyone, into that kind of chaos was just not smart. So he had made a decision to walk away, and it troubled him that she wasn’t listening.

He would have to deal with it later because he knew, for a fact, that she was damn good at her job and that they needed her skills in these unprecedented times. It just wouldn’t be easy with her around because she was like a terrier with a bone. He didn’t know why she cared so much, and the fact that he cared was something he’d kept well and truly hidden. She didn’t seem to want to listen to any reason he offered. When a hard knock sounded on his door again, this time the door was pushed open without waiting for an answer.

Wade groaned out loud, exasperated. “I guess there’s no such thing as privacy around here, is there?”

“Not when you’re hurting.”

Terk. Wade opened his eyes and glared at him. “Did she tell you?”

“Of course she did. Not only does she have whatever this ax is to grind with you,” he noted, with a twitch of his lips, “but she cares.” The twitch widened to a grin. “And the fact that she cares makes you a very lucky man, but you’re currently not in a state to appreciate it.”

“Of course I’m not,” he muttered, shutting his eyes again. “Who wants to deal with that?”

“You, apparently.” He smirked.

Wade shook his head. “She’ll be a lot of trouble.”

“Nope, she won’t be,” Terk argued, “but you might.”

Wade opened his eyes and glared at his boss. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that obviously she wants something … and you’re it.”

“Yeah, I know that.” Again his eyelids fluttered closed.

“She doesn’t seem the type to take no for an answer either. I’m surprised you’re even fighting it.”

“Why?” Wade asked in a flat tone. He waited for a moment, and then opened his eyes and glared at his friend.

“You know why,” Terk said quietly. “You know perfectly well what I can and cannot see.”

“Well, for once,” he snapped, “you could just not tell.”

“I can tell if I want to, but you do know that you’re not being the easiest person to deal with right now.”

“So what is this? My punishment?”

“No. It’s hardly that,” Terk stated. “And nobody who had caught Sophia’s interest would ever consider it a punishment.”

“Look. We hit it off. We had fun. Then I realized how deep it was getting and how much danger she would be in if we continued on the same pathway, so I called it quits.” Wade made it sound like it was no big deal.

“Except for the fact that you’re obviously not over her. Not even close. And she has that kind of energy that you could use to heal, and you’re too stubborn to see it. It’ll be a problem if she keeps you off your game.”

“Well, you’re the one who hired her,” Wade snapped. “And don’t go telling me now that you couldn’t see the energy between us because you would have seen it in a heartbeat, if you’d looked.” In frustration, Wade snapped his eyelids shut and tried to turn away from Terk.

“Maybe I didn’t look,” Terk admitted. “We were a little desperate, in case you don’t remember.”

Wade opened his eyes, turned his head, and stared at his boss, his friend. This discussion was getting them nowhere. So he changed the subject. “Anything new?”

“A lot,” Terk muttered, “and none of it good.”

“Speak up,” he said, “and, if I don’t have to move, all the better.”

“I don’t want you to move,” he noted. “As a matter of fact, I might just bring a computer in here for you.”

“I don’t know if that would help or hurt. The noise out there, the energy, it’s making me vibrate pretty badly.”

“How are your senses doing?”

“At about 40 percent,” he replied bitterly. “It’s like walking around three-quarters blind, then getting blindsided in my own corner of the world.”

“I get it. I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought her on board, but, as I said earlier, we are critically short-staffed.” Terk was truly remorseful.

“I know. I know.” Wade groaned. “And, honestly, if I had the time and energy, I might have done things differently.”

“Well, after this, you can do things differently,” Terk replied, “because sometimes it’s good to go with your heart.”

“She doesn’t need to know,” he snapped, and a threat hung in his words. “I really won’t appreciate anybody interfering.” A razor-sharp tone filled his voice.

“Doesn’t matter if you appreciate it or not,” Terk replied, with an equally hard tone. “Anything that interferes with what we have to do becomes a team issue. We are all trying to hold it together with the small working team we have. I don’t want a problem with you, and I need all you can muster,” Terk murmured. “We’re expending a lot of energy, trying to not lose any member of this team, and some are hanging by a thread.”

“Okay.” For the first time, Wade sounded uncertain.

“Take care of yourself,” Terk said, “and I need you to pick up as much as you can—but not to the point that it puts you at risk. Get back on your feet, and let’s see if we can find the asshole doing this.”

“Yeah, sure. What do we have so far? And please tell me that it’s not nothing.” Terk was tired too. Wade saw that. It only made him feel worse.

“No, it’s not nothing. We did find quite a lot, but we just haven’t found enough to nail down this shit.”

“Is your brother still in the area?” Wade asked quietly.

“Yes, and I think he’ll stay for a while. He’s the one who brought Sophia.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t take her on over there. It sounds like your brother and Levi’s team are always looking for more people.” Wade was hoping to push her away.

“I think they asked her,” Terk spilled, “but she declined, saying something about having some old business to settle.”

Wade winced; he knew what that was. “She’ll wage war against me, won’t she?” he murmured.

“Probably. The question is, do you deserve it?” Terk asked. “Or want it?”

“I walked and never went back.” Wade contemplated the situation. “It’s not like we made any promises. We just hit it off, and she was expecting me for dinner, but I got called for a job, and that’s when I got hurt a while back.” He shrugged. “I didn’t call her again. That’s hardly an unusual situation.”

“Yeah, but maybe take a good look at what you want now. Our lives, our priorities, all have changed.”

“And what then? Get her sympathy?” Wade hated uncertainty. Hated being questioned. Even worse, he hated being judged.

“I don’t know about sympathy, but maybe some understanding would resolve this mess between you two.” Terk nodded. “I think she would appreciate it if you just told her the truth.”

“Well, I’m not explaining our particular skill sets to her.”

Wade was being a hard-ass, and Terk had no idea how to get him to see reason. He was working off emotions right now. So Terk just remained quiet, letting Wade stew in his thoughts for a moment.

“I could tell her a little bit, but I think it would just make her angrier that I was trying to hide out and to not get her involved.”

“Yeah, it’s funny how these women all seem to think that trying to protect them is almost a crime in itself.”

“You’re abso-fucking-lutely right there.” Wade sighed and let his eyelids drop closed again.

“These women are tough, smart, and they don’t appreciate being canceled out of the equation, Wade.”

Terk had put a spin on the equation analogy to make his point, and Wade picked it up right away. It was not a bad way to let him know what he already knew—that Sophia was a spitfire.

“Sophia could serve your head on a platter.” Terk chuckled. “She is independent, strong, and knows what she wants.”

“And here I thought all the good women were gone,” Wade mumbled. “That’s what you told me a long time ago.”

“Except now I’m starting to wonder if I was wrong,” Terk muttered.

“What?” Wade jerked open his eyes to study Terk. Wade’s earlier exhaustion had been somewhat diminished at the change of tone in his friend’s voice. “What happened? Maybe you better bring me up to date. What the hell is this about?”

Terk hesitated. “It’s not an easy story.”

“Well, you can start at the beginning.” Wade wouldn’t let this go—not when interruptions had cost them an earlier very important discussion—and Wade had the time.

“The trouble is … I don’t know what the beginning is.”

What came next was not what Wade had expected at all, ending with some poor woman in a coma, now carrying Terk’s child. “Jesus Christ.” Stunned, Wade could only stare at him.

“Considering the fact that I’ve spent all my adult life making sure that I didn’t get a woman pregnant,” he stated, “it’s pretty upsetting.”

“Yeah, that’s one word for it.” What an insane turn of events. “When I was out of it, I was really out, wasn’t I?”

“You weren’t out long enough is the problem, as you are still hurting from coming back too soon.” Terk shook off the effects of the conversation, standing straight. “I really would appreciate it if you would get yourself healed before you jump right back into this craziness.”

“Well, if there wasn’t such craziness,” he replied, “it would be fine. If I can help, I need to help.”

“Just so we’re clear. It’s not just you. I know that she needs to be protected, and everyone else on the team does too. “Trouble is, we needed people. We still need more people.”

“I know. I get it.” Wade added, “And I’m trying to be understanding of everything that’s going on, but it’s hard because I wasn’t there, because I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Remember. Everything has to happen in a certain way, and, unfortunately at this point, it feels very much like things will still blow up.” Terk was clearly exhausted.

“You think?” Wade’s question was interrupted by a series of alarms.

Terk muttered under his breath, then disappeared out the door.

Listening to the chaos going off around him, Wade had no idea if he should get up or not. He knew that they were all capable, but he had no idea what the alarms meant. Then the alarms shut off, leaving everything eerily quiet for a second. He leaned back in bed with a sigh of relief, noting Terk had left the door open. Wade was mustering up the courage to get out of bed and shut it, when she stepped in; Sophia was nothing if not persistent.

She looked at him hazily. “Good thing you stayed where you were. It was a false alarm.”

“I doubt it was a false alarm,” he argued, “more like somebody tripped the wire as a test.”

She nodded. “I wondered about that.”

“Yeah.” Wade sighed. “You pretty well have to assume that, when it comes to the team here. I don’t know what’s going on, but obviously we’ve pissed somebody off pretty badly,” he noted.

“I think you’ve pissed off lots of people,” she stated, “and you know what? Maybe that’s not a bad thing because some of this has to come to a head in order to get it all purged properly.”

“That’s not as easy as it appears,” he muttered.

“Nope, it definitely isn’t. Maybe that’s also why you shouldn’t do it alone,” she noted, and, with that, she turned and walked out again.

It seemed like his bedroom had turned into a highway, with everyone speeding through all day long—not something Wade appreciated. But just when he was about to go back under and finally get a bit of sleep, the alarms went off again. This time something was different to it, and the yells and curses coming from the next room told a completely different story.

Pulling on his reserves, he closed his eyes to send out a trace. His heart squeezed in terror. Maybe they found what they were looking for after all.

*

Sophia was really no good at subterfuge. For her, life was all about living in the moment, stepping in with everything she had. She had determined a long time ago that she wouldn’t mold herself to anybody’s liking, and, in a world with so much abuse and so much negativity, she had her own way of doing things, and she worked hard to be who she was. She had never tried to fool herself into thinking that Wade would be here, yet she’d secretly hoped to see him again. But seeing him injured like this—mentally drained and spiritually low—she wasn’t exactly sure what to do, to say, or even to feel. Predictably she’d come across too strong and too crass and had pissed him off immediately. But, then again, what else was new?