CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
HOT stole one of the opposition’s trucks in order to race to their extraction point. They’d done a lot of damage at the military outpost, killing or wounding scores of men. No one challenged them when they climbed into the truck and tore into the desert.
The one called Iceman tended to Nick, injecting him with something and inserting an IV drip. He couldn’t do much in the truck other than stabilize his teammate. Another soldier tended to her. He grinned and told jokes while he worked. It didn’t stop the pain, but it kept her distracted until the painkillers kicked in.
Emily stayed as close to her side as possible. She’d retreated into herself, rocking back and forth and shaking her head as if trying to shake out the memories of what had just happened.
She kept repeating “Oh God, oh God, oh God…” as if it would somehow make it better. Her hands had been cleaned, but she still had blood on her burka. There was nothing to be done about it just yet.
Victoria reached for her hand, and Emily clung to it like a lifeline. It broke Victoria’s heart. No matter what she thought of Zaran bin Yusuf, he’d once been good for Emily. That he’d changed and become controlling and abusive didn’t mean that Emily would have an easy time with all that had happened tonight.
She’d stabbed the man who was her husband with his own dagger. And then she’d watched helplessly as he tried to shoot her with his dying breath. How long would it take her to make peace with all that had happened?
For all Victoria knew, she never would. Because Victoria didn’t know what Zaran had done to her over the past three and a half years. He might have started out being good for her, but he certainly hadn’t ended that way.
The ride across the desert was tense, but they soon were racing across a broad expanse of flatland. It took Victoria a few minutes to realize that a plane was waiting for them in the darkness, its lights turned off and engines on low.
The man who’d been tending to her picked her up and carried her onto the plane, running up the ramp as if he were carrying a child instead of a full-grown woman. He settled her on a gurney strapped to the wall, buckled her in, and disappeared. Another man deposited Emily nearby. She’d started crying again.
Victoria twisted her neck, looking for Nick. It took two guys to place him on a bed and strap him down. The plane was already taxiing into the night. Another minute and they’d lifted off the desert floor, the engines whining as they climbed into the dark sky.
She held her breath for long seconds, praying there was no opposition force out there with a rocket launcher just waiting to take down a plane. But they kept climbing, and she finally let out a shaky breath, a little more certain they were going to make it than she had been just a few moments ago.
Whatever she’d been injected with must have made her sleep, because when next she woke, the plane was on the ground and the smiling soldier who’d given her drugs was standing over her and unbuckling the straps that had held her in bed for the trip.
“Where are we?”
“Baq.”
“Baq? We made it?”
“Yeah, we made it.” He winked. “Told you we would, though I don’t think you remember that part.”
She put a hand to her head. “I don’t remember much of anything. What the hell was in that shot anyway?”
“Something to make you relax. Worked, didn’t it?”
She turned her head. “How’s Nick?”
His smile slipped a fraction, but she didn’t think she was meant to see it. “He’s been better. But we’ll fix him up, don’t worry.”
She did worry, but before she could ask more questions, she was lifted, placed on another gurney, and rolled off the plane. They put her in an ambulance and drove her the short distance to the base hospital. It wasn’t a big structure, more of a field hospital really, but they were equipped to deal with gunshot wounds.
A doctor in surgical scrubs appeared, and then another joined him. She realized it was a surgical team, not just a doctor, when someone came over and spoke softly to her while someone else inserted a needle and set up an IV.
“Wait… what’s happening…?”
Victoria never knew if she completed that sentence. The next thing she knew, she woke up in a white room. She was lying in a bed, and machines beeped nearby. There was an IV and an oxygen tube.
Her leg was suspended in a sling and covered in thick white padding. She groped for a call button, finally finding it threaded through the bedside rail, and pushed it repeatedly.
An Army nurse appeared, her face both serious and warm at the same time.
“Welcome back, Miss Royal,” she said briskly. “Are you in pain? Do you need anything?”
“I… Where’s my sister? Where’s Nick?”
The nurse fiddled with the tubes and dials on the IV. “Your sister is in the next room. We’ve given her something to help her sleep. She’s under psychiatric care, never fear, so we’ll be monitoring her closely. Sergeant Brandon is out of surgery. He hasn’t awakened yet, but the doctor says he’ll be fine.”
Relief flooded her even as fresh anxiety took up residence in her belly over her sister’s condition.
The nurse smiled. Then she picked up a tube and put it in Victoria’s hand. That’s when she realized there was a button on it.
“Morphine,” the nurse said. “When you need it, press the button. It will only give you so much per hour, but it will help. Don’t wait until it hurts too much.”
* * *
Nick felt like he was fighting his way out of a forest. He kept tilting headlong into trees. His head hurt. His body hurt. He was hot, and then he was cold. He was also alone. No one was in the forest with him. He searched for faces—Shelly, his mom and dad. Victoria.
They weren’t with him.
He didn’t know how long he fought, how long he searched, but suddenly he broke free. Everything was white and bright…
He blinked, confused. A white ceiling. The beeping of machines. The odor of alcohol and antiseptic.
Images dripped into his head one by one. He’d been shot, and he’d been captured—
And Victoria had been captured with him. He tried to shove himself up as panic took root in his soul.
A hand smoothed over his forehead, and a voice whispered to him. He stilled, searching for the source of the voice. It kept speaking, soothing him, and he realized who it belonged to.
“Victoria?”
His own voice was a croak. She appeared in his vision then, leaning over him, her hair dropping over her shoulder and tickling his face before she pushed it behind an ear. It smelled good.
“It’s me. Nice of you to decide to come back to us.”
“Thirsty.”
She lifted a cup and put the straw to his mouth. He took a long drink.
“How long have I been out?”
“A couple of days.”
He processed that information. And then he let his gaze slip over her. She looked good, her red hair long and full, her gray eyes filled with concern. But she was sitting in a wheelchair, and that’s when he remembered she’d been shot too.
“How’s the leg?” he asked.
She smiled softly. “Hurts, but it’s getting better. You?”
“Fuck,” he said, closing his eyes for a second. “I think I got run over by a truck.”
“I know the feeling.”
“Where’s your sister?”
Her smile slipped. “She couldn’t stay in the hospital, but thanks to your colonel, she has a room at the Visiting Officers’ Quarters. She’s not hurt, but she’s still a bit in shock, I think.”
“She stabbed bin Yusuf.”
Victoria’s lips pressed together. “Yep, she did. I’m not sure she’ll ever recover from it, quite honestly. But the psychiatrist seems to think she will.”
Nick reached for her hand. Squeezed. “Takes time, Vic. You know that.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
But she didn’t say anything else, and he wondered what she was thinking. He remembered those few terrifying minutes with Zaran bin Yusuf, Emily, Victoria, and Ahmed. He hadn’t been certain any of them would survive it.
“You were going to sacrifice yourself,” he said, remembering, and her eyes widened just a fraction. But then they were solemn again.
“I couldn’t let him kill her.”
“And I couldn’t let the bodyguard kill you.”
The silence was heavy. And then she lifted his hand to her mouth and pressed her lips to his skin.
“I don’t know how you did it, but you saved me.” Her laugh had an edge of hysteria. “Again, I should say. You saved me again.”
“Had to.”
She licked her lips. “Why, Nick? Why did you have to?”
He felt his brows drawing together. Why? He still wasn’t sure how he’d found the strength to launch himself at Ahmed, or why he’d done so other than he would have done it for anyone.
“It’s what I’m trained to do. No choice.”
But that wasn’t the whole answer and he knew it.
Her expression clouded for a second. Then she smiled. “Of course you are.” She let his hand go and sat back in the chair.
He wanted to call her back, wanted to reach through the bars and take her hand in his. But she was sitting with her head bowed and not looking at him.
Then she lifted her head and folded her arms over her middle, her eyes bright and her smile firmly in place.
He didn’t know what to say to her. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, or why his heart thumped so hard he thought it might pound out of his chest, or why his eyes felt so gritty. She was here and he wanted to hold her tight, but that wasn’t the right answer either.
He wanted her, but Emily needed her. Emily had been her entire focus for years. Now that she had her sister back, she didn’t need anything distracting her from the life she wanted to have.
Except he wanted to distract her. Badly. “I’m fucking this up.”
“It’s fine. You don’t owe me anything. We’ve had sex a couple of times. No big deal.”
No big deal?
“Victoria.”
She huffed and turned her head to look toward the door. There were people moving around out there, nurses and staff, but he wanted her to look at him. She wouldn’t.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?” She waved a hand. “Already told you it’s no big deal.”
“I care about you,” he began, and she whipped her head around to look at him. That got her attention. He swallowed. “I care. We’ve had, uh, some fun… and not so fun.”
When he’d thought he might lose her out there… God, it had killed him. It was better if she went home with Emily. That way she’d be safe. Always.
She shook her head, laughing. “Yes, we’ve had fun. Great fun. And not so fun. You, my friend, are a wizard with the words.”
A body appeared in the door, blocking the light, and Nick looked over to see that it wasn’t just one body, but several.
“Not interrupting anything, are we?” Richie said.
Victoria motioned them in. “You aren’t interrupting a thing. Come on in.”
Flash walked over and gave Victoria a peck on the cheek. “How you doing, angel?”
Nick would’ve asked when the two of them had managed to get so friendly, but he was too stunned to speak when Victoria gave Flash a dazzling—and real—smile. His heart felt like someone had stomped on it.
Mine. The word echoed in his brain over and over. Mine, mine, mine.
“Doing just great, Ryan. Thanks for taking care of me.”
“Anytime, angel. Anytime.”
Victoria pulled the wheels of the chair backward, rolling away from the bed. “I should go.”
“No, sweetheart,” someone else said. “Stick around for a while.”
“You don’t have to leave because of us.”
“Plenty of room for all of us here.”
Victoria laughed. “No, really, it’s fine. We were done anyway.”
He wanted to say there was no fucking way they were done, but how the hell was he going to do that with all these guys here and him as weak as a newborn kitten?
Flash rolled Victoria to the door. Then he bent and said something that made her giggle right before she disappeared around the corner.
Nick saw red as Flash came back over. The rest of the guys shuffled their feet or stared at the monitors. Someone turned on the television.
Nick sucked in a breath. If anyone said anything to him about how hot she was, Nick was going to pull himself out of this bed and clock them.
But then Iceman whistled. “What the fuck did you do to her, dude?”
* * *
Two days after Victoria left Nick’s hospital room, there was a knock on her door. She’d moved to the VOQ to be near Emily since she wasn’t in need of hourly monitoring anymore. Her leg hurt like a son of a bitch, but it was healing. She’d been lucky that it was a clean shot through the outer fleshy part.
The bullet hadn’t hit bone or major blood vessels, so while it hurt and she had to take it easy—and use crutches now—she’d be good as new in a few weeks.
Thank God.
Her heart, however, wouldn’t fare as well. Stupid her wanting to know if Nick had launched himself at Ahmed for a different reason than just because he’d been trained to do it. Stupid her for pushing him for an answer when he clearly didn’t have one she’d want to hear.
“Come in,” she called, figuring her visitor was Emily. Her sister was quiet and intense lately, but she was doing remarkably well considering the circumstances. There was still a lot that Emily wasn’t telling her, but she thought with time it would come out.
Time and distance. She needed to get Emily away from Qu’rim for her healing to continue, but she didn’t know when that was going to happen.
The door opened, but it wasn’t Emily. It was Nick.
Her heart thumped at the sight of him looking so big and well. She wanted to get up and fling her arms around him, but what good would that do? It would only embarrass her further. Pitiful little virgin girl, falling for the first man to show her how good sex could be. It was like a silly romance novel or something. Since when did that happen in real life?
Nick frowned. “You didn’t come back.”
She told herself to stay calm. “No, I didn’t.”
He walked inside and shut the door. His arm was in a sling, but he didn’t have to hobble the way she did. He looked remarkably fit for a man who’d seemed to be at death’s door only a few days ago.
“Why not?”
“I, uh, wasn’t sure I should.”
He walked over and stood above her, looking formidable and irritated. “I thought we were friends, Victoria.”
Oh God, could he torture her any worse? She clasped her hands in her lap and looked away. “We are friends.”
He reached down and gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him. “You’re pissed at me.”
She worked to keep her expression blank. “Why do you say that? I’m not pissed. I’m fine.”
“Fine? Yeah, you act fucking fine—why won’t you talk to me? Tell me the truth?”
Anger built inside her, billowing and rolling until it had to break free. She slapped his hand away.
“You’re a complete dickhead, Nick Brandon, and you don’t even fucking know why!” She pushed herself upright, grabbed her crutches, fumbling with them and nearly falling in the process, then put some distance between them. Then she turned and shot him a glare.
He was looking at her like she’d grown an extra head. “Why is it I never understand what the hell is going on with you? You’re the one person I can’t figure out no matter how much I try.”
Oh, that did it. “My God, you must be one of the densest men on the planet! And I am most certainly one of the stupidest women. You swagger into my life with your badass attitude, your”—she waved her hands around—“ridiculously muscular body, and your complete and total decency as a human being, and then you talk and talk, and I fall for all your bullshit charm. Next thing I know, I’m all over you, wanting you like I’ve never wanted any man before, and you’re rocking my world and making me feel amazing—”
He was looking at her with big eyes, and she suddenly felt so stupid and so defeated, like she was utterly pitiful and he was just now learning it. No, she wasn’t cool. She wasn’t in control, and she damn sure wasn’t getting out of this with her heart intact.
She sighed and plopped down on the bed. “The problem, Preacher Boy, is that I like you. Really like you. As in I want more of you, and I want it pretty much all the time. When I thought you might die out there, I prayed that you wouldn’t. I told God I’d rather he take me than you because at least I wouldn’t have to know what it was like to live in a world without you in it.”
She looked up, found him watching her intently. She laughed. “How fucked up is that, right?”
He looked shell-shocked. “Jesus, Victoria.”
“I know. It’s absolutely crazy, but I fell for you. And maybe it’s good you don’t feel that way about me, because look at what happened to Emily when she went chasing after a man. I can’t—I won’t—be that incomplete without you. I’ll figure it out, so you just turn around and walk out that door and congratulate yourself on a lucky escape.”