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“Move, Inara. Or your boyfriend here pays the price.”
I step out from between the train cars, and a set of bright lights comes on, blinding me. Still, I advance four paces, then freeze with my hands at my sides.
“Weapons. All of them. And the earbud.” Coop knows what I usually carry. The pistol strapped to my thigh. The knife lying against my calf. The backup piece in a holster on my left ankle. He orders me to lift up my shirt, and I hope to all that’s holy that he’ll stop at the bottom of my bra. At that point, I might be able to keep the blades. “Now turn around in a circle. Slowly.”
“I’m not your goddamned trained monkey. Let Royce go. I’m here. Unarmed.” Still, I spin slowly until I’m facing the harsh lights again.
“Start walking. I’ll tell you when to stop.”
Unable to see where I’m going, cut off from my team, I take slow, careful steps. Until fifty feet away, the edges of another train car start to coalesce. A fainter light shines from inside, and I speed up as I think I can make out Royce’s silhouette.
When I’m sure it’s him—damn, he’s half hanging by his arms now—I start to run, just as three pops sound from the west side of the rail yard. I can’t stop. There’s no cover between me and the car Royce is in, and I have to get him out of there.
“I thought you’d like to know, Inara,” Coop rasps over the call. “Ryker’s down.”
“You motherfucking piece of shit,” I yell as I leap into the train car. Royce shakes his head wildly, and I know why—a second too late. My foot catches on a tripwire I couldn’t see with the lights blinding me, and I go down, hard. On a metal plate that clicks. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I scream as the rail car doors slam shut, sealing me and Royce inside.
“That’s right, sweetheart. You just activated the bomb. Open the doors, it’ll go off. Move, it’ll go off. Oh, and in case you’re counting on Sampson rescuing you—” Four more shots, rapid fire, “—I’ve got him pinned. And you have four minutes…well, more like three minutes and fifty seconds left to live.”
Continue reading The Ultimate Steamy Military Bundle if you like:
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~BREAKING HIS CODE~
I brush a kiss to her bare shoulder. “I’m falling for you, angel. Might be halfway to loving you.”
She stirs at my whisper, but settles again without opening her eyes. With the hours she’s been working lately, she needs the sleep, so I grab my pillow and settle on the floor next to the bed. I’ve half a mind to sleep on the couch, but the less comfortable I am, the less likely I am to have nightmares. Survivor’s guilt, my therapist says.
One quick stretch to flick off the lamp, and darkness blankets the room, broken only by the single shaft of moonlight illuminating my angel.
WAVES OF PAIN race up my legs, my ankle shattering as I fall through the floor to the hard-packed dirt below. I grunt, ignoring the agony. If you can’t hoof it a mile on a broken leg, you’re not cut out to be a SEAL. At least that’s what my CO always said.
Something rattles next to me, and I’m instantly on alert, coming to a crouch, only then realizing I’m naked. In my bedroom. Prepared to defend myself against the nightstand.
“West?” Cam’s sleepy voice penetrates the thick smoke that threatens to choke me. “Where are—?“
Shaking my head, I clear the last vestiges of the nightmare. Smitty isn’t really dead two feet away, the room isn’t burning around me, and the primary scent in the room isn’t blood, but
Cam. My ass hits the floor, and when my head slams into the nightstand, the lamp rattles.
“Down here.”
Sheets rustle, followed by a muffled curse, and then she’s looking down at me, her mussed curls tangled around her face.
“Are you sleeping on the floor?”
Thick strands of carpet dig into my knees as I stretch to flip on the light. “Yeah.” The lump in my throat strangles my reply, and I clear my throat. “Just...easier.”
“Easier?” Her voice lowers, her slight accent thickens. With a groan, she eases herself off the bed and starts limping around for her clothes. “We don’t have to sleep together. I can go home.”
“No.” My plea sounds rougher than I intend, and she stops with her panties clutched in her hand. “I get nightmares, Cam. All the time. Hell, I haven’t had a woman in my bed overnight for two years. I didn’t want to hurt you.” I can’t look at her, but warm fingers wrap around my wrist and tug me up to the mattress.
“Look at me,” she says. “I didn’t get a solid night’s sleep for three years after the bombs.
Between the pain and the night- mares, I resembled a zombie—all the shuffling, groaning, and inability to form coherent sentences. A few more months, and I probably would have developed a taste for brains.”
After a pause, she jabs me in the arm with her elbow. “Oh, come on. That was a little funny.”
When I meet her worried gaze with a weak grin, she reaches over to cup my cheek. “I know
nightmares. The meds help with the arthritis and the nerve pain, but nothing erases the terror of being unable to move while fire eats through your protective gear. Nightmares don’t frighten me.”
She’d never explained how she’d been hurt—just “blown up trying to diffuse a bomb.” The ghosts of fear play in her eyes, and I wrap my arms around her naked body, relishing in the feel of her soft, warm curves against my chilled skin.
“I could hurt you. I’ve woken at the foot of the bed, even across the room. When I have a serious attack, I find the sheets and pillows on the floor. What if I kick you?” Barely able to manage a whisper, I grit my teeth to stop myself from shivering.
“Then you’ll have to drive me home and carry me into my condo, where you’ll wait on me hand and foot for the few hours it takes my meds to kick in.”
She’s grinning now, but I can’t help flinching, and her smile fades. “West, there are a lot of things I can’t do.” She ticks them off on her fingers. “Dancing, running, mountain climbing, snow- boarding... But I’m not fragile. I have pain. With all of the titanium, staples, and plastic in my body, I’m almost indestructible.
Trust me.”
I know she’s not a china doll. Not a broken bird who needs protecting. Doesn’t stop me from wanting to try. I nod, then snag my pillow off the floor. Once I’ve turned off the light, I stretch out on my back, as far from Cam as the king bed will allow.
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