by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne
“Rayne.” Tex’s voice was deep and commanding now, as if he knew how on edge she was.
“Yeah?” Rayne stood stock-still in the middle of her hallway, gripping her phone and pressing it hard to her ear.
“Don’t let Ghost give you shit. He gives it to you, you give it right back. You’re the best damn thing that’s ever happened to him, and if you let him push you away, you’ll both suffer for it. Got me?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“I mean it, Princess. I’ve never seen Ghost so…settled as I have since you came back into his life.”
It was his use of her nickname that made it sink in that the man was most likely telling her the truth. He knew Ghost and he was back from the mission…and hurt. “You’ve seen him?”
“Well, no, that’s a figure of speech. But I keep tabs on all my brothers…and sisters. I know you met Tiger a few weeks ago.”
“Tiger?” Rayne couldn’t think.
“Sorry, Penelope. But now’s not the time. Go to Ghost, Rayne. He’s going to be fine. Swear.”
“Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”
“You’re welcome. Now go call Mary. I’ll talk to you later.”
Rayne took the phone from her ear when she heard nothing but silence on the other end. That was extremely weird, but she didn’t have time to really think about it. She quickly dialed Mary as she hurried into her room.
They were on their way within twenty minutes. Mary had answered on the first ring and had rushed over to Rayne’s condo, even though it was the middle of the night. She’d helped Rayne pack, throwing way more clothes into Rayne’s suitcase than she would’ve thought to herself, and they’d jumped in Mary’s car and were on the road.
Luckily, this early in the morning, traffic around the Metroplex was light to nonexistent, so they were able to get on I-35 and head south with no issues.
When Rayne finally had some time to think, she told Mary apologetically, “I’m so sorry, you were supposed to be working today, right?”
Mary shrugged. “I called and left a message for David and told him I’d been up all night with diarrhea and I wouldn’t be in.”
Rayne wasn’t in the mood to laugh, but Mary could always say just the right thing. “You did not!”
“Oh yeah, I did. That man has no idea how to deal with all us women who work for him. All we have to do is hint that we’re having some womanly problem or something else that he doesn’t want to even think about, and he’s shoving us out the door. It’s pretty humorous really.”
“Will he be short-handed today if you’re not there?”
Mary looked over at Rayne, who, while she sounded okay, looked as though she was at the end of her rope. “Raynie, I work at a bank. Remember? It’s fine. If someone has to wait an extra five minutes to get a cashier’s check or to deposit money, it’s not the end of the world.”
“Yeah, all right. I just don’t want you to get in trouble.”
“I wouldn’t care if I did get fired. If you need me, I’m there for you.”
That was it. That was all it took for Rayne to lose it. She’d been holding in her tears and hearing her best friend’s words broke the dam. Dammit, she’d never been the weepy type and it seemed as if all she’d done lately was cry.
Mary didn’t stop the car, knowing Rayne wanted and needed to get to the hospital down at Fort Hood, but she patted her friend on the shoulder and kept her hand on her in support. Finally, after ten minutes, Rayne composed herself enough to stop her tears.
“What do you think happened? Why didn’t he call me?”
That was the big question floating around in Rayne’s brain. Why did this Tex person have to call her and let her know Ghost was back in the country? Why didn’t one of his teammates contact her? Why didn’t Ghost himself? Was he sorry he’d hooked up with her again? Was he trying to end it with her? All Rayne had were questions, and no answers.
“Hey, stop it,” Mary ordered as she calmly drove south. “Beating yourself up with all those questions I know you have flitting around that brain of yours isn’t going to solve anything, because I sure as hell don’t know the answers. We’ll get there and you can ask Ghost himself. If he won’t answer, I’ll corner Trucker and get him to tell me what the fuck is going on. Okay?”
Rayne nodded. “Yeah, okay. Truck likes you, so that should work.”
“What? Truck doesn’t like me.”
Rayne looked over at her friend, sorry she couldn’t see her that well in the dim early-morning light trying to peek over the horizon. “Uh, yeah, Mare, he does. And I think you like him back.”
“You’re wrong. He’s a big ol’ ugly jerk. I’m looking for Tom Cruise, not Quasimodo.”
“Mary Michelle Weston! That was a horrible thing to say,” Rayne scolded, honestly shocked. Mary was known for telling it like she saw it, but Rayne hadn’t ever heard her be so cruel before.
“I’m sorry,” Mary apologized immediately. “I didn’t mean that, but he drives me crazy. He’s just so…I don’t know.”
“Strong? Virile? Commanding?” Rayne suggested coyly.
“Annoying,” Mary decided.
“You only spent one day together, I don’t understand how you can feel so annoyed with him. You don’t really even know him that well,” Rayne mused, more to herself than Mary.
“I know,” Mary sighed in frustration. “I don’t either. But I swear he said things he knew I’d get riled up about, just to see me get pissed. Guys don’t usually do that around me, and it confused me.”
“You guys are cute together. Just don’t…don’t do anything that would mean you wouldn’t want to see each other. He’s on Ghost’s team and you’re my best friend. You’ll most likely be seeing a lot of each other…if this works out.”
“If this works out? Rayne!”
“Well? I would’ve thought Ghost would’ve called me the second he was back. And even more so if he was hurt. And if he couldn’t do it because of his injuries, he’d have one of his friends call. So until I know what’s going on, I just…” Her words trailed off.
Even Mary didn’t have a comeback for that one. The miles flew by as Mary confidently drove her best friend to see her lover. The man Mary knew Rayne had come to love more than life itself. If the man thought he’d scrape her friend off like goo he’d gotten on the bottom of his shoe, he had another thing coming.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Mary and Rayne burst through the hospital doors, making it from Fort Worth to the Army base in record time. Rayne had no idea what room Ghost was in, surprisingly Tex hadn’t felt the need to impart that information to her, so she stalked up to the reception desk.
“I’m here to see Ghost…um…Keane Bryson.”
“Visiting hours don’t start for another hour,” the woman informed Rayne, seeming not to notice the frazzled state of the woman standing in front of her…or not caring. “You can wait in the waiting room over there,” she pointed vaguely down the hall, “with all the others.”
Wanting to argue, but knowing it’d be futile, Rayne started down the corridor with Mary. She figured “all the others” the woman had mentioned meant all the other relatives and friends of other people in the hospital, but when she walked through the door of the little waiting area, she realized she’d meant all the others who were waiting to see Ghost.
They were all there. Fletch, Coach, Hollywood, Beatle, Blade and Truck, and even Wolf and Penelope were there. Seeing all Ghost’s friends looking worried put the fear of God into her. Was Ghost hurt more than Tex had let on? Was that why no one had gotten ahold of her? She was so confused, and worried, and stressed out, she couldn’t think straight.
Fletch came over to them. He took Rayne by the elbow and led her to a chair. “What are you doing here, Rayne?”
Before Rayne could open her mouth to answer, Mary had done it for her. “What’s she doing here? Are you high? She’s here because her boyfriend, who she hasn’t seen for over two weeks because he was off to who-knows-where doi
ng who-knows-what, was injured and she just found out about it even though he’s apparently been here for a couple of days.”
“How did you find out?”
That question didn’t go over well with Mary at all, either.
“Oh, this is rich,” she hissed. “You’re all here to support your guy, but not one of you had the balls to call and let Rayne know he was here? That you were back?”
Rayne decided she’d better cut in, otherwise Mary would probably get them all kicked out. Her voice had risen and was way too loud for a hospital at this time of the morning—hell, for any time.
“Are you guys all okay?” Her small voice cut through the tension in the room, and successfully brought Mary’s tirade to a halt.
Hollywood answered, “Yeah, we’re all okay.”
“And Ghost?”
“He’s going to be fine too,” Hollywood said vaguely.
Rayne sat awkwardly, looking around at Ghost’s teammates, not knowing what to say. She had a pit in her stomach that wouldn’t go away.
Mary harrumphed, and announced she was going to go find some coffee. Rayne sat quietly watching the clock, waiting for time to go by so she could see for herself that Ghost was “fine” and to get some answers as to what was making his teammates act as though she’d seen the Watergate burglar or something.
Finally, after an hour, Rayne stood up without a word and headed to the door. Turning, she asked quietly, “What room is he in?” to nobody in particular.
Fletch stood up. “I’ll come with you.”
“Me too,” Mary declared, but was stopped short by Truck’s hand on her shoulder.
“Let her go.”
The last thing Rayne heard was Mary pitching a fit over Truck not letting her leave the room. It would’ve made Rayne smile, but she was beyond that at the moment. Fletch led the way to room 227 without a word. Knocking once, he opened the door.
“Hey man, you have a visitor.”
A visitor? She would’ve preferred being called “your girlfriend,” but didn’t hold it against Fletch too much. Rayne stepped inside the room, noticing that Fletch came in too, but he stood by the door rather than nearing the bed.
Ghost was sitting up with three pillows behind his back. His left arm was resting on a fourth in his lap and was covered from his wrist to his upper arm with bandages. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, or one of those hospital gowns, and his muscular chest was bare in the warm room.
His brown hair had been singed off on one side of his head and it made him look lopsided. His lips were mashed together in a straight line, and if he’d had the ability, fire would’ve been shooting out of his eyes.
Rayne had seen Ghost many ways. Laughing, worried, concentrating, lost in his release, content, but she’d never seen him as angry as he was right this moment.
Knowing she’d come too far to back out now, she said tentatively, “Hey, Ghost.”
He didn’t even look at her. His eyes were trained on Fletch. “What the ever-loving fuck?”
Fletch didn’t look perturbed in the least. He lounged against the door and shrugged. “She showed up here this morning with Mary.”
Rayne refused to step back, but the look Ghost leveled on her made her quake a little bit in her shoes. “How did you find out I was here?”
“Tex called me.” Rayne didn’t even think about lying. He was that pissed.
“Fucking Tex,” Ghost said under his breath, looking back at Fletch. “Get her out of here.”
“Wait a second,” Rayne protested, but she felt Fletch’s hand on her arm. She tried to wrench out of his grasp, but all that did was hurt her. She yelped and ordered, “Ow! Let go!”
“Fletch…” Ghost’s voice was low and hard—and full of warning for his friend.
Rayne had no idea if he was warning Fletch to get her out of the room, or not to hurt her. Either way, Ghost had already hurt her himself. She straightened and glared at him. “I don’t understand. Ghost, talk to me.”
But he’d already turned his head to look out the window in the room, dismissing her.
Fletch led her out of the room and back down the hallway to the waiting area, not letting go of her arm until they were inside.
Rayne didn’t know what he thought she’d do. Make a break for it and go running back to Ghost’s side? As if. The man had made it very clear what he thought of her showing up to see him. Crystal clear, in fact.
Mary came up to her and the other guys all stood when they entered. Rayne saw Fletch shake his head at his teammates in some sort of silent communication.
“What happened? Is he okay? What’s going on?” Mary demanded.
“He didn’t want to see her,” Fletch remarked calmly.
“What?” Mary screeched, looking ready to go head-to-head with Fletch.
“Sit down, Mary,” Rayne ordered, settling herself on a chair and crossing her arms in front of her belligerently.
“Rayne?” Mary drew out her name as if she were asking four questions with just that one word.
“If Ghost thinks he’s done with me, he’s smoking crack. What an asshole. I can’t believe he just did that.” Rayne was on a roll, and didn’t see the worried looks change to smirks on the faces of Ghost’s friends. “I don’t know what his problem is, but I’m not going anywhere.”
“But Rayne, he kicked you out,” Mary said in confusion.
“Yeah, he did. But I’m assuming he also kicked all of these jerks out too, otherwise they’d be in the room with him, or at least taking turns,” Rayne complained, motioning to the men in the room with her head. “He’s too stubborn. I might not have been with him long, but I do know that about him. He’s probably got some fucked-up idea that he doesn’t want to hurt me or some such bullshit and thinks he’s protecting me or something. Screw that. Asshole.” Rayne looked up for the first time at the men in the room.
Fletch could see the devastation in her eyes, but was proud as he could be that she was sticking to her guns and not letting Ghost run her off.
“How—”
“You know we can’t talk about the mission,” Beatle said, cutting off her question.
The muscle in Rayne’s jaw ticked as she clenched her teeth. “I. Know. That,” she clipped out evenly, obviously leaving the word “asshole” out of her sentence. “I was going to ask, how is he doing?”
Fletch answered for the group. “He’s fine.”
“Fine,” muttered Rayne. “It’s like getting blood from a stone.” Raising her voice, she asked the question again a different way. “It looks like he’s been burned. How badly?”
It was Coach who took pity on her and gave her what she wanted. “Mostly second-degree. Some third-degree on his arm. The explosion came a bit too close for comfort, but he calmly stopped-dropped-and-rolled and got us the fuck out of there.”
“Skin grafts?”
“Yeah, they took some skin from his leg and patched up his arm from there.”
“His leg?” Rayne asked, panic sounding in her voice for the first time.
“His inner thigh. Not his calf,” Fletch reassured her, knowing exactly what she’d been worried about. Doctors don’t use tattooed skin for grafts.
Rayne sighed in relief. If they’d had to mess up his tattoo, that would’ve been bad. “Okay, so what? You guys are rotating going in to piss him off? Is that the plan?”
Penelope smiled at her from across the room and piped up for the first time. “Pretty much. Did Tex call you too?”
Rayne nodded.
“Yeah, same here. I swear that man loves to meddle.”
“Was it bad, Rayne?” Blade asked from his position leaning against the wall.
Rayne knew what he meant. “It certainly wasn’t the welcome home I was expecting, I can tell you that.”
“Thank fuck you didn’t run off crying,” Beatle said. “Seriously. He ordered us not to call you, and as much as it sucked, we obey orders. But that man needs you. The first thing he bitched about when we were…safe, was how this
was going to kill you.”
“This isn’t going to kill me,” Rayne protested. “What was he thinking?”
“Not sure, but seriously, we’ll do what we can to help you, though he’s not happy you’re here,” Fletch told her.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Rayne mumbled. Then said in a stronger voice, “And I’m not happy he’s here, but it’s not going to kill me. And I’ll tell you one thing, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be heading out to London tomorrow morning?” Mary asked, always the voice of reason.
Rayne slumped in her chair. “Oh. Yeah. I forgot. Damn.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Truck assured her, heading for the door.
“What? How?” Rayne protested as he disappeared without another word. She looked at the other men. “What’s he gonna do?”
Hollywood shrugged. “No clue. But if Truck says he’ll take care of it, he’ll take care of it.”
Rayne knew she should probably protest a bit more, but honestly, it was really, really nice not to have to worry about that at the moment. She’d been shocked and hurt by Ghost’s words and actions, but she kept remembering what Penelope had said to her and what she’d thought all those months ago when Ghost was trying to tell her he would never be a romantic kind of man.
These men would never be romantic in the fairy-tale sense. Ghost would never shower her with presents and sweet words. Oh, he could be sweet, but it was more in a rough, tough sort of way. Ghost was protective of her and would rather cause himself pain than her.
So with all that rattling around in her brain, his words and actions made a sick sort of sense. She didn’t like it, and she’d be telling him later that he needed to take more care with her, but deep inside, she knew he was protecting her.
He hadn’t called her because he didn’t want her to see him like he was. Hurt and wounded. Their relationship was still new, and Rayne figured he didn’t want her to worry about him. He was protecting himself as much as he was her. At least she hoped that was it.
While it pissed her off, she got it. When she’d been in the hospital, there were times she’d wanted to shove Ghost out. She wasn’t at her best, felt like shit, and she hadn’t wanted him to see her that way. It had to be twenty times worse for a man like Ghost. Feeling helpless and defenseless wasn’t in his psyche.
