All Due Respect by Vicki Hinze

introduced herself. Her hair was short and spiky, a little on the funky side, yet her clothing was extremely conservative. “Booster systems specialist and secure-file liaison.”
    “Hello, Greta.” Thirty-five, beautiful, brainy, and no wedding ring. Why hadn’t Seth latched onto her?
    The thought came, and an unexpected streak of jealousy came with it. Tight-chested and surprised, Julia banished both. The idea of Seth and Greta—or him and any woman, for that matter—should not make Julia jealous. Ridiculous reaction.
    Ridiculous. It was not personal. She looked on.
    “Mr. Sandlis.” The oldest member of the team, hovering sixty, paused rapping his pen against the tabletop to push his glasses up on his nose. “Trajectory specialist.”
    Julia nodded and her gaze locked on a forty-year-old man with dark, leathery skin and even darker eyes.
    “Marcus.” He slumped in his chair. “Explosives.”
    A shiver prickled up Julia’s spine, and she quickly
    looked away, to the gorgeous African-American woman dressed in red, who could pass for thirty though she was over forty.
    “Linda,” she said in a rich, husky voice. “Interceptor/Tracker specialist and Saudi widow.” She sighed. “Again.”
    “Ouch.” Julia flinched. Seth had told her about Linda being married to Mac, an active-duty Air Force pilot, who had just been deployed for his fourth remote tour in Saudi Arabia. “Sorry to hear it.”
    “Sorry to have to say it.” Linda sighed deeper. “Again.”
    Julia sent her an empathetic look. The long separations during remote tours, when the spouse and family were left behind, were part of the norm for military families, but that didn’t make them, or the readjustments on returning home from them, easier for the service members or their families. In Linda’s case, she was being left behind for the fourth time in just over three years with two rebellious teenage sons who seemed bent on driving her nuts by pushing every boundary possible to see what they could get away with while their dad was away. “If you need a shoulder, mine’s here.”
    Genuine appreciation shone in Linda’s eyes. “Thanks.”
    “Anytime,” Julia said, then addressed the entire team. “I’m looking forward to working with all of you. Right now, the U.S. lacks a missile-defense system and is vulnerable to attack. When we’re done, we’ll have the most advanced system in operation worldwide. We can feel good about the security that system offers and what it means in real terms to Main Street America.” She offered them a smile.
    Marcus and Dempsey Morse didn’t smile back.
    It was an interesting group with impressive credentials. With the exception of Dempsey Morse and Mr. Sandlis, who offered no first name, none of the team offered their surname, and all around they had avoided disclosing their official titles. Seth definitely had compiled another winning team. She glanced over at him and tugged at her right earlobe.
    Understanding lit in his eyes, and he tugged back.
    It was a signal common between them in the old days, and he had remembered. She almost laughed out loud, and she probably would have, but something about him wasn’t… right.
    She scanned him and her gaze stuck at his collar. His ID badge. The overhead light glared on it, so she couldn’t see it clearly, but she could tell the man pictured did not have black hair. She checked, and everyone else had their badges. So whose did Seth have?
    More importantly, who had his?
    Seth took over, spoke a few words about the day’s goals, and then ended the meeting.
    It had been brief. A formality, really. A chance for her to meet the team and officially take over the project.
    They filed out of the conference room and returned to their offices and workstations. Julia lingered, intending to ask Seth about the badge, but he pulled Linda aside and asked her something about her kids. From his tone, it sounded serious and, not wanting to interrupt, Julia decided to wait until