by J. M. Madden
Tiredness washed over him, making his limbs feel leaden. There were so many issues he needed to deal with, but his mind was foggy. He needed to let everything go and sleep. “Think I may take a nap,” he mumbled.
Cat stroked a hand down his arm and his body soaked in the attention. “You do that, Harper.”
“Will you stay?”
He held his breath as he waited for her answer.
“I will,” she whispered. “I would never leave you at a time like this. You know that.”
Yes, he did. He let the darkness pull him down.
Cat held onto Harper’s arm until the tension eased from his body. Almost immediately she felt her own tension ease. God, taking care of him was like walking a knife-edge sometimes. She knew he appreciated the companionship but he did things that compromised his health all the more. What the hell was that, ripping the tube out of his throat? Stupid man.
She lifted her hand from his hot skin and moved to the chair behind her, sinking down as her legs gave out. She’d been here two days and she was already wrung out. Pulling her phone from her pocket she sent off a quick text message to Dillon, then leaned forward to prop her head on her hands. Tiredness made her eyelids heavy, but she kept them open as long as she could just to watch Harper.
Chapter Two
Harper came alert when he heard the door to his room hiss open, but he didn’t move. He didn’t know if it was friend or foe until Chad whispered, “Preston?”
The fight-or-flight panic in him eased. “Yeah,” he croaked. “I’m awake.”
Though he didn’t normally do it he held his hand out. Chad moved around the bed to his side and clasped his hand in an iron grip. Harper may have held it a bit longer than expected too, but he didn’t give himself grief over the fact.
“Dude, you scared the hell out of us. We thought you were a goner.”
Harper rocked his head on the pillow. “Nah. Takes more than a couple bullets to take me out.”
Chad laughed. “I remember you saying you were an iron man when we hired you, but I didn’t think you were telling the truth.”
Harper reached out for the bed rail. “Crank me up, boss man.”
He felt Chad lean forward and fumble at the buttons, then the head of the bed began to rise. The change in elevation made his head swim, but he breathed through the dizziness. “There’s good. Damn.”
“Duncan’s here too, but he went to the hotel to shower and lay down for a bit. He’ll be back in a while. I think being in the hospital stresses him out.”
Harper felt bad for putting everybody off their routines. “You don’t have to be here at all.”
Chad snorted. “How could I not be? You saved all of our lives.”
Inwardly he cringed. “No, I didn’t. I barely keyed up the mic when I got tagged.”
“Fuck, Harper, that one second of sound was enough to get Lora and Mercy out of the house and up the mountain.”
Relief eased through him. He hadn’t known if they were alive or dead and he’d been leery of thinking about it too long. Knowing that they had made it out of there alive clarified his own situation. The thought of Mercy’s bright green eyes looking up at him, full of trust and sweetness, made his throat tight. He’d do anything for that little angel. He coughed and shook his head a little. “Tell me everything.”
Chad recapped the wild night, from fighting the hired mercenaries on the porch to chasing after Lora and her daughter up the mountain and seeing her kill her ex. When he got to the end Harper knew his mouth had to be open. “Lora laid him out like that?”
Chad laughed lightly. “Yup. Damn proud of her too.”
He nodded. “I would be too. That’s really something.”
“Speaking of really something, why didn’t you tell us you were married? And had kids?”
Harper cringed, knowing that the question was coming but unable to formulate an answer. “Cat and I have had some issues.”
Chad didn’t say anything but Harper could hear the question in the silence. He made a motion with his hand. “Not something I want to talk about, boss man.”
“Okay,” Chad murmured. “It’s a little strange though. We’re not sure what to say to her.”
Sighing, Harper could see his point, but it pissed him off that he had to explain himself. “I left. It wasn’t anything that she did. I left because the ghosts were dogging me and I was about to tip over the edge. I needed distance.”
“Ah, I get it.”
And Harper knew he probably did. Chad was his boss, but also a man he considered a true friend. He’d been through his own ordeals.
Tiredness was once again dragging at him. “Did we get them all? Malone and all his hired guns?”
“I believe we did, yes.”
“Good,” Harper sighed.
Chad squeezed his arm. “I’ll be back to see you in a bit. I think Cat went down to the cafeteria. Food’s not too bad here so I may join her.”
Harper gave him a thumbs up, energy fading fast. “Tell her she’s beautiful for me.”
Chad laughed as he walked out the door. “I will.”
Cat was picking at a chicken salad when Harper’s boss stopped beside her at the table. “Mind if I join you?”
She waved a hand at the empty booth across from her. “Not at all.”
Chad set his tray down first, then shimmied into the open bench. Cat lifted her eyebrows at the food piled on his tray. “Are you really going to eat all that?”
Grinning, he shook his head. “Probably not. Thought I might take one of the sandwiches up to Harper when I was done.”
She smiled, appreciating that her husband had considerate friends. “I’m sure he’ll eat it. The man will eat anything.”
Chad nodded, biting into a chicken sandwich. He chewed thoughtfully for a couple of minutes, then met her eyes. “He said to tell you you looked beautiful today.”
Cat looked down at the table, sudden tears blurring her vision. When they’d been living together like a real family he had told her all the time that he loved her. And every day, without fail, he told her how beautiful she was. She could be scrubbing toilets or landscaping, anything, and he would walk up to her, cup her face in his huge hands and tell her how beautiful she was.
As the wife of a Navy SEAL she’d gotten used to the long absences and doing things for herself. But when Harper came home he’d made the most of every day, telling her everything she’d missed hearing while he was gone.
Was this some kind of subtle message that he wanted to be with her again? Or was she looking for rainbows on a rainy day?
She sent Chad a sad smile. “That’s one of those couple things that you miss when you’re separated, you know. All the little ways he paid attention.”
Chad frowned. “Yeah. I’m going to have to head back to Denver soon. My soon-to-be wife is waiting patiently for me. I felt like I had to be here for Harper though, because he didn’t have any family. If you’re going to stick around…”
He trailed off and she knew what he was asking.
“I’ll be here for a while. Till he kicks me out. Or tries to,” she grinned.
Chad laughed, nodding appreciatively. “I think you may be able to give our man a run for his money. I’ll plan on leaving tomorrow, then. Not sure what Duncan will do.”
Cat nodded, a little worried about being left alone with her own husband. When she was the only support he had would he resent her for that fact?
Duncan hadn’t returned by the time they entered the room. Harper appeared to still be asleep. His jaw was as relaxed as she’d seen it since she’d been here. When he woke, everything would get hard again.
She huffed at the thought, her eyes scanning down his body. It would be a while before he’d be thinking about that again.
Chad sat in the chair at the back of the room and allowed her the one beside the bed.
Cat’s eyes scanned the IV. He’d need fluid again soon. There was a tray on the bedside table. She lifted the lid. Nothing had
been touched.
“They wanted to feed me like a baby,” Harper growled.
She should have known he wouldn’t allow that. And she should have known he wasn’t asleep. Picking up the coffee mug of clear broth she placed it in his free hand. “If you can keep this down for a little while we’ll give you something more substantial. Chad brought you a sandwich, but we have to make sure your stomach is solid. You just had surgery. You’re probably going to be passing gas, too.”
For the first time he grinned. Oh, she’d missed that reckless, irreverent, fleeting flash of teeth. “Check.”
Cat couldn’t help but grin as well. She squeezed his arm and sat in the chair, content to wait while he worked on the broth. The first sip made him scowl.
“What the hell is this?”
“Just clear broth.”
“Of what?”
She shrugged, then remembered that he would not be able to see that. “Not sure. I think just chicken. It’s more about getting the fluid in you than anything.”
Harper drank reluctantly. Cat knew the food was minimal but he really needed to start with something easy.
Once he emptied the mug and dropped it to the tray he turned his head toward her expectantly.
“Let’s wait and see how that settles.”
It seemed to settle fine so she allowed him to have the chicken breast off the sandwich. He ate it in three huge bites and sat back against the bed. “That’s better. I could do with about three more though.”
Chad laughed. “Dude, you better make sure you can keep that down.”
There was a knock on the door and Duncan’s too-chipper voice greeted him. “Preston. You’re looking better this evening.”
Duncan tapped him on the closest leg.
Harper nodded. “Hey, boss.”
Chad moved out of the chair and allowed Duncan to sit down. Cat watched him lower himself into the chair and forced herself to keep the cringe of sympathy internal. Every movement he made looked like it hurt. The brackets around his mouth had been there a long time. And in spite of his jovial voice it didn’t look like he’d been sleeping very much either.
“I called the office. Palmer said to tell you to do what you need to do then get back to work. The other guys said to tell you hi, too.”
Harper nodded. “I’d be out of here now if I could.”
“I think you may be here a while,” Cat told him. “At least a couple more days. You just had surgery. Or until the surgeon checks your eyes and tells us otherwise.”
He started to fold his arms over his heavy chest, then stopped in the middle and let them rest back on the mattress.
Cat watched the skin of his jaw pale. He’d forgotten about the gunshot wound.
Rubbing her forehead Cat forced back a yawn, suddenly struck by tiredness. She’d been here twenty-four seven for the past couple days.
“Why don’t you go back to your hotel and chill for a while?”
Cat looked at him in surprise. Even unsighted he had the sharpest senses she’d ever seen. “I think I may. I’ll be back in the morning.”
Then came the awkward point when she didn’t know how to say goodbye. Did she kiss him? Squeeze his hand? Fuck it. Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to a clear spot on his cheek. “If you need anything the nurses have my number.”
He nodded and clutched her hand. For a moment it felt like he wasn’t going to let her go, then, abruptly, he did. “I’ll be fine.”
And she knew he would be. It was just so natural for her to worry about him.
“I’ll stick around for a few hours.”
Cat gave Duncan an appreciative look. “Thank you. I thought you might.”
Chad stepped forward to take her hand. “I have to go back to Denver for a while, but I’ll be back in a few days if he’s still here.”
“You people are talking about me as if I’m not even here. I don’t need babysitters.”
Cat shared a wince with the other men.
“Quit it,” Harper snapped.
Cat laughed and turned to leave the room. “I’ll be back tomorrow, big guy.”
Harper mumbled a goodbye.
She paused for just a moment, wanting to cross and give him a kiss like she used to. Then she forced the urge away and left. They weren’t in a place to do that yet.
Cat didn’t blame him for being pissed. If she were in his position she’d be aggravated too. Unable to see anything or anyone would be beyond frustrating.
Rather than take a cab to the hotel, she made herself walk the few blocks to the Marriot. Sitting in the hospital room for so long hadn’t done her body any good. By the time she got back to the hotel room she was feeling whipped. She’d reached her limit. Plugging her cell phone into the charger and setting the alarm, she dropped to the bed face down, exhausted.
Harper wanted to get up and pace. Sitting in the fucking bed was making him insane. Yes, there was pain, but he could block that out. It was early morning so the hospital was quiet too, which made it all the worse. One of the nurses had turned the TV on for him, but he’d gotten pissed when he couldn’t figure out how to change the channel. Now he was listening to an infomercial on hair removal. And gritting his teeth in frustrated fury.
Chad and Duncan had left last night a couple hours after Cat and for the first time in a long time he’d felt completely alone. As a sniper you got used to your own company. If you had a spotter with you, great, but for the past year working at LNF he’d been without. Now that he was injured, with no vision, he felt at the mercy of the world. An afterthought.
He heard the hiss of the door as it slid open.
“You’re awake already? I kind of figured you would be.”
Harper could have wept at the sound of Cat’s morning-husky voice. She was the only one who knew he loved to be up at the ass-crack of dawn. Many, many times over the years he’d been in the military she’d gotten up with him, made him breakfast and coffee and sent him on his way. Sometimes she’d been the one to wake him up because she was a natural early riser as well.
“I need you to get me the fuck out of here,” he rasped.
She must have heard the desperation in his voice because he heard her drop her things to the chair beside the bed. “Let me talk to a nurse.”
“I don’t care what the nurse says,” he grumbled. “I need to walk and I can’t do that without bumbling around like an idiot.”
“I know that,” she said patiently, cranking his ire. “But you can’t walk around with your ass hanging in the air. That johnny barely fits you.”
Oh. That did make sense. Shit.
So he set his jaw and waited as she went out and sweet-talked somebody into bringing him a pair of scrubs pants. The nurse that brought them also took the irritating IV out of his arm. They’d taken his catheter out the night before, to his never-ending relief. “Now,” she told him sternly, “no bending over, no running and until you’re more steady, no stairs. We would prefer you stay on this floor, but as long as your wife is with you you can go down to the cafeteria. The doctor should be here later this morning to take a look at you, so don’t get lost.”
He almost saluted the crotchety old woman. Turning in the bed, he let his feet drop to the floor. He’d fumbled his way to the bathroom once already, dragging the IV pole, so he knew he could hold his weight. The disorientation was what got him.
The nurse seemed satisfied that he wasn’t going to keel over so she fitted him with a sling for his left arm. “I know it’s not comfortable but if you’re out of bed you need to wear this, otherwise you’re going to rip something open.” He grimaced but she patted him on the cheek like a child and left him alone with Cat. He heard her whisper something to her on the way out the door.
“What did she say?” he demanded.
Cat snorted. “That you’ve got a nice ass.”
“No, she didn’t,” he snapped.
She laughed. “No, she said you were stubborn.”
That he could believe, but he didn’t ca
re. Stubborn had served him well all his life.
Harper patted around on the bed beside him, then held the scrubs out toward Cat. “She said I’m not allowed to bend over.”
Silence met his statement and it was several long seconds before she took the pants from his hand. Harper shrugged the gown off and threw it toward the bed, then waited to see what her response would be now that he was standing in front of her naked. Fuck, he wished he could see.
“Looks like you’ve been bulking up,” she murmured.
He grinned when he heard the huskiness in her voice and incredibly, even with all the nasty shit going on, the aches and pain and vulnerability, his body began to respond. “Yeah, I have.”
He felt her body heat as she moved in front of him and knelt down. Blood surged and he knew she was getting an eyeful, but the proximity was totally his undoing. Even without his sight Cat was the sexiest woman he’d ever been near. Just the sound of her voice, so dear after not hearing it for so long, made him ache.
Her fingers pressed on his right ankle and he lifted his foot, then his left. As she began to draw the pants up his legs, then his hips, he wondered how far she would go. All the way apparently. The elastic scraped over his erection as she settled the waistband at his hips and tightened the drawstring. Before she pulled away though, she shocked the hell out of him by cupping him in her hand. “It’s very nice to touch you again, Harper.”
He wanted to pull her into his arms and find her mouth, but her warmth moved away. And that was probably the smartest thing she could do. Guilt turned his stomach as he thought about his situation. What business did he have encouraging anything between them? Nothing had really changed.
She took his right hand and placed it on her shoulder. “I’m going to lead you out of the room, okay? You are on my left shoulder. I’ll make sure I walk wide around things. There’s a nice patio just outside the cafeteria. We’ll head there. Sound good?”
“Yes.”
Anything sounded good compared to staying in this freaking room.
