That was also the one thing he couldn’t get no matter how hard he tried, or how much he had.

Money aside, he needed to get a job if only to occupy his mind. All this thinking was going to kill him for sure.

“What if I got you an interview?” Maggie said.

His brows shot high. “An interview where? To do what?”

“Where do you think? DHS, of course. Remember, where I work?” She smirked.

Maybe he was running a little slow from the beer but there were too many reasons why what she said made no sense.

First and foremost, he wasn’t a politician, or a man who was used to riding a desk pushing papers for a living, and that was who mainly filled the ranks of the Department of Homeland Security.

Second, why would the woman who had gone to such great lengths to end their marriage, and get him out of her life, try to get him a job working where she worked?

“That’s crazy.” If his frown didn’t tell her what he thought of her idea, his words hopefully would.

“No, it’s not. Why would you say that?”

“You work as a liaison for the Office of Public Affairs,” he pointed out, not seeing the connection or the point of this whole discussion.

What the hell could he do for them? He could lead a team of warriors. He could follow orders from his superiors, but he wasn’t exactly a people person.

Especially not at the moment while he wallowed in this retirement-induced depression.

“I work as a liaison to the Navy Special Warfare Command for the OPA so don’t act like there is no connection between what you used to do and what I still do. But what I was thinking—if you’d open your mind for a second and consider it—is that my boss has connections with all the agency heads. You could easily be a valuable addition in any number of them. You have experience in a lot of the areas DHS works within.”

“Oh, really? And what areas are those?” he asked.

Close quarters battle? Sharpshooting? Basic underwater demolition? Those were his areas of expertise and they’d have zero value to DHS.

She folded her arms, challenging him. “Do you even know all the different agencies DHS oversees?”

“Yes.”

She cocked a brow high, obviously not believing him.

“I have a basic idea,” he added.

Okay, maybe he didn’t know quite as much about the DHS as he let on, but he wasn’t going to admit that to her. He could Google it later and find out.

Mostly he figured DHS fit in somewhere along with the other government departments. No matter what their official purpose, the end result was usually to make his job in the teams harder.

“You know, you used to come home and complain about how this or that person or this agency or division or whatever didn’t get it. How they couldn’t get it because they’ve never been there where you’ve been or seen the things you saw.” Maggie pinned him with a stare.

He couldn’t deny the truth of her words. “And?”

“Don’t you want an opportunity to change things?”

The dare was clear in her question. She was baiting him. Knowing he usually couldn’t resist a challenge.

He let out a snort. “Is this some kind of ‘the best way to make change is from within’ speech?”

She smiled. “Yes. Is it working?”

His lips twitched. “Maybe.” Silas shook his head. “But is doesn’t matter anyway because there is no way in hell they’d hire me.”

Maggie cocked a brow high. “We’ll see.”

Her confidence stirred something inside him. Something he wished would stay sleeping. A warmth in his cold hard heart. A glow of an ember that with a little encouragement would easily flame up into a full blown inferno.

Fuck.

The dead last thing he needed right now was to feel the warm and fuzzies toward his ex-wife.

Time to go.

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