The man was wobbly at best.
Most of the kids were still at school so it was only the couple who were home that they had to distract.
Wyler was there, and he looked concerned the second he saw her.
It was clear no one had told him.
Crap!
“Jesus! What happened to her?”
Chris told him as he carried her upstairs to the master bedroom. Wyler followed behind, making sure that the bedroom door was open.
“I’ll make her some soup and get more ice,” he stated. “She’s going to be a mess tomorrow.”
Chris was aware.
There wasn’t enough makeup to cover what the Secret Service had done to her.
“I’m going to get her into a bath. Her body is going to feel it once all of the adrenaline is gone. She’ll need rest so she can face tomorrow.”
“She should stay home.”
He didn’t disagree. In fact, he thought so, too, but this was Elizabeth. She wasn’t going to stay down for long. She’d crash, rest, and be back at it before they knew it.
She was tenacious.
She was also stubborn.
It was just who she was, and no one could change her. If they loved her, they’d let her be herself.
Wyler headed off, and Chris placed her on the bed. Immediately, her eyes opened.
“Hey, sweetness. We’re home.”
“Just let me sleep.”
“Yeah, well, no. You may have a concussion. I know I don’t, so I’m going to be watching you. Besides, I have to check you out.”
“Perv.”
He laughed.
It was the first real one in hours.
“Yeah, well, I have to have some fun in my life. Why not patch my girl back up after she’s beaten by idiots?”
Elizabeth sat up.
“I feel like I was run over by a truck.”
She hated admitting it, but she felt every single strike she’d taken.
God!
She was getting old.
This sucked.
“I have bad news, sweetness.”
“What?”
“You look like you were run over by a truck too.”
Yeah, she wasn’t shocked.
“I want to do a cursory check of your shoulder, make sure your ribs aren’t busted, and then get you into the tub. I know that doctor looked you over, but I don’t trust them. I know your body. It’s best I check to make sure you’re not seriously injured.”
She was good with that.
“Then, some Epsom salts will keep the swelling at bay, and might help you not to feel like the truck’s victim.”
She didn’t fight him.
Instead, when he held out his hand, she took it. That bath sounded…so damn good.
Yeah, she was getting old.
In the bathroom, Chris filled the large claw foot tub with hot water. Then he dumped in a whole bag of Epsom salts. She’d bought them for him so he could relax, but she needed them more than he did.
Who would have thought?
“Can you roll your shoulder?” he asked, watching her. “Does it hurt?”
“No, it’s fine. I took most of the hits to my torso. They didn’t know my shoulder was my weakness.”
Thank.
Freaking.
God.
“You took most of the hits to your face. You’re going to have more concussions than a football player if you keep this up. That worries me.”
Yeah, her too.
Chris grabbed his medical kit and opened it. Inside, he pulled out a little penlight.
“Let me check your head.”
“Said every person ever when they wondered why I do this job…”
Chris heard it.
That wasn’t the normal sarcasm. He knew her so well, especially after being with her for ten years. That was her panicked and freaked-out tone.
“Are you okay?”
Her eyes filled, and tears fell.
Yeah, here it came.
“I was so scared.”
He hugged her.
“Oh, honey, I know. You get vicious when you’re afraid. You were an animal in there.”
She laughed.
“I needed that.”
He was aware.
“Let’s get you checked out, and then we’ll talk it out. I know how to make you feel better. Put yourself in Newton’s hands.”
Oh, she would.
Chris knelt and helped her pull off her boots. Then he unbuckled her belt, before pulling her shirt out of her jeans.
Elizabeth laughed.
“What?”
“Remember that case where I got the hell beaten out of me, and you patched me back up?”
“Oh, there have been so many of them. I’ve done more emergency care on you than your real doctor.”
He wasn’t lying.
“If I didn’t think to thank you, Christopher, let me do it now. Thank you for always being there. I was so damn lucky to have you.”
He smiled up at her.
“I was glad to be there for you,” Chris admitted, knowing it was the truth. “All those years of worrying, but I still was glad when you would come home, battered, bruised, but alive.”
He’d always been gentle.
Always.
Chris had been that sweet soul who offered comfort when she was a mess.
He’d saved her so many times.
“All those times, they proved one thing to me, Christopher,” she stated.
“What?”
“That I knew then that I’d love you for the rest of my life,” she admitted. “I knew each time that you were meant to be mine. I was crazy in love with you.”
He stood and stared into her eyes.
“I always knew. With us, I could see it. I saw it in how you left me notes before a case if I wasn’t going out with you. I knew when you made sure there was candy tucked away in my medical bag. I knew when you’d call me every night we were apart. You were meant to be mine too. I’m just sorry for the pain I caused you, Bethe,” he whispered.
It touched her heart.
Chris didn’t call her that often, and never in front of anyone but her. That had been his nickname for her, not Lyzee. It had been their own secret, and to this day, he was careful with it. When he named his daughter that, she’d known why.
He’d loved her so much.
Carefully, he finished her shirt.
“Don’t apologize for it, Christopher,” she said, knowing he still felt horrible about how they ended. “We were good together.”
He was aware.
They rarely fought. They fit like two puzzle pieces, and now that was back.
“I won’t apologize, Elizabeth. I’ve beaten it to death. I’m just glad I have you now. You’ve always been my best friend,” he said, slipping off her bloodied blazer.
He dropped it, and her layers of clothing onto the floor.
“You always will be. No matter what, I can trust you to be honest with me.”
He ran his hands over her ribs when she was shirtless. There was nothing broken.
Thankfully.
“I know you. This is going somewhere,” he said, standing in front of her.
Elizabeth went against him, and he held her.
“You’ll always be that one person who knows everything about me. Before them, there was you.”
“What’s bothering you, sweetness?” he asked, holding her against his body. They had always fit like two opposite halves.
They were the same height, and the same build.
They were a matched set.
“Do you think I’m too old to do this?” she asked softly. “Do you think I’m past my prime?”
She needed to know, and Chris…he wouldn’t lie. Callen would laugh it off, and Ethan would tell her no to protect her.
Chris protected her by being honest.
“Do you think I should stick with a desk job and just run the division on my ass?”
Honestly, he was surprised.
Chris hadn’t expected this.
“No, but that’s not the issue. It’s what you think. Do you believe that it’s time to retire?”
“I don’t get up as fast as I used to,” she stated. “Today, I was running on adrenaline.”
He held her, and all of the memories came back to him. The feel of her against him, in his arms…it was cathartic.
“Honey, we are all in our forties. None of us get up as fast as we used to anymore. At our age, we have to work a little harder at it. If you’re asking if I think you can do the job, yes, I do. You’re in excellent shape. You work out, you eat well, and you fight like a hellcat. Had I not been scared shitless, it would have been so damn hot.”
She laughed.
His hands felt so nice on her body. That familiar touch brought her back.
There was peace.
There was love.
There was protection.
When she’d head home, she knew she’d be safe. Chris would be there, and he would cocoon around her and offer her that one thing that wasn’t in her life.
Calm.
“Truth be told, you handled all of those men. I feel horrible that I couldn’t keep up. In that parking lot, I tried. I got knocked out fast.”
“You’re a doctor. You heal. I’m a…”
“Beautiful soul who loves deeply and protects the ones she loves with all she has,” he said, interrupting her so she couldn’t put herself down.
“Thank you for being honest with me.”
“Had I said quit, would you have?”
“Yes, I trust you.”
He gave her a kiss on the cheek since they both had split lips. He wouldn’t risk her. Still, it was gentle, sweet, and what she needed.
“You have this.”
She touched his cheek with so much love and gentleness. In that moment, she hurt a little less.
Well, emotionally.
Physically?
Hell, no.
She wanted some pain meds and a nap.
“Thank you for being mine.”
Oh, he was the lucky one.
“Let’s get you naked, and then I’ll help you into the tub,” he said, moving to turn it off. When he turned, and she was completely naked, he gasped.
“Jesus!”
“Hot, I know,” she teased.
He laughed.
“Bruised is more like it. The doctor in me sees that first,” he stated. “The male is second.”
He took her hand and helped her into the water. Had he noticed her body?
Of course.
Would he act on that attraction?
No.
Chris had to protect the woman he loved at all costs. The sex train had left. All that was left was the love train, and it was more valuable to him.
“Thank you,” she stated.
Chris knelt beside the tub.
“Go under. I’ll wash your hair. That always made you feel so much better, and me too.”
“We had the best sex like this,” she teased.
“Oh, I know. I miss it,” he stated. “I won’t lie. I miss that intimacy with you, but I can’t go there. One, Callen and Ethan would kill me, and two, I could kill you. One ticking time bomb is enough for our family.”
“Chris.”
“I need you to live in case I don’t,” he admitted. “Bethe…she needs you too. This has to be about her before me. If I lose this battle, Elizabeth, I need to know she has you and that you’ll do the job I can no longer do.”
She was aware.
“Besides, I wouldn’t trade this right here for sex. This intimacy is so much more. I see that now. I used to take for granted what we had. Now I won’t take this for granted.”
She closed her eyes as he washed her hair.
She listened as his voice soothed her.
“You’re the toughest, scariest woman I know. This is my way of loving you. Today, I was so worried about you.”
She understood that.
“Go under. You need to rinse,” he said, watching her slide beneath the water. When she surfaced, he grabbed the conditioner and got to work. He’d loved washing her hair. It ran through his fingers like wet silk.
“I was so afraid you were hurt,” she admitted. “When I woke up without you there…”
Chris understood.
He’d shouted for her the entire time.
It had been a nightmare.
Gently, Chris massaged her scalp and gave her a kiss on the forehead to connect them.
“I didn’t put up the fight you did. I’m non-combative. You’re a bull with a stick of dynamite wedged in its ass.”
She snorted.
“That’s a picture when it blows.”
Oh, he was well aware.
“That fear...I live it all of the time when it comes to you. With me, don’t worry. I’m good. I managed to only be punched in the face once,” he teased.
She laughed.
“Yeah, you’re lucky.”
Chris wanted to share his love with her.
“That day you came home battered and bruised, Elizabeth, I knew too. I knew I’d love you forever. You were my slice of Heaven. You still are.”
She was so glad.
His hand slid into the water, and he searched for what he was looking for, and it made her laugh.
“That is my hand. Head right.”
He laughed outrageously. She’d said that once before to him, and it still tickled him.
“I was, indeed, looking for your hand.”
Elizabeth made it appear.
Gently, he kissed her busted knuckles. It was a bond between them that would always be there. His ring was on her finger. It sat beside Ethan and Callen’s, and it was right.
All of this was right.
There were three loves in her life, and he was fortunate to be allowed into that circle.
“Go under,” he said as emotion swamped him. When she did, he wiped his eyes. He was so happy to have her in his life, and he was beginning the crash too.
When she came up, he was holding a towel.
“I’ll help dry you off and get you into bed. Then I’ll shower. We could both use a nap. It’s been one hell of a day, and downtime is what the doctor orders.”
She wasn’t going to argue.
No.
Freaking.
Way.
Elizabeth stood, he wrapped the giant towel around her, and then gave her a smile.
“Even beaten down, you’re still so very beautiful, my first Bethe.”
She rested her forehead against his.
“You always made me feel that way. When I was gangly, and awkward, you made me feel sexy. Thank you for making me this woman for them, for our kids, and for you.”
Anything for her.
“Come on, sweetness. It’s medicine time.”
He stopped her at the medicine cabinet and took his meds before handing her two aspirin and a bottle of water.
“Bottoms up to both of us.”
“Kinky, Doctor.”
He laughed.
She always said that to him when they were younger and he’d tried to medicate her.
“He still is. I learned from the best,” he teased back.
Reaching into the tub, he pulled the plug and then began drying her off. With gentle hands, those of a doctor and a past lover, he offered peace.
It wasn’t awkward.
It wasn’t sexual.
It was calming.
When she was dry, he helped her to bed, tucked her in, and gave her another kiss on the forehead.
“Sleep. I’m going to shower and then join you.”
Elizabeth didn’t argue.
Instead, she did what the doctor ordered.
And she slept.
Chris watched her go under, and he began stripping. He’d join her, and they’d escape today’s nightmare. They did that, too, when they were younger.
They’d hide in sleep and wake feeling better.
In five
minutes, he’d be able to forget today and what nearly happened.
God knew they’d both deserved it.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Fort Whitefox-Blackhawk
When Callen arrived at home, he didn’t even stop to say hello to his small son or his father. Christopher Anthony called after him, but he needed to see her. Normally, the kids always came first, but despite his brother’s reassurance, he needed to see her with his own eyes.
Callen desperately needed to make sure she was fine and that his nightmare was truly over.
Running up the stairs to the master suite, he found the lights off in their room, but on in the bathroom. It gave him just enough light to see her.
Elizabeth was in bed, sleeping and safe. Her face was a mess, and that filled Callen with an unquenchable rage toward the people who put their hands on their woman. It pissed him off to no end to think someone had punched her in the face.
What kind of man laid their hands on a woman like that? What kind of human being?
Callen felt his temper slipping, and he forced himself to breathe to get it under control.
What really mattered was that they still had her in their lives. She was home, and she was now safe.
That was all that mattered.
Bruises would heal.
Cuts would disappear.
Their lives would go on, and he’d have her back so this didn’t happen again.
Honestly, it did his heart good to see her at peace in sleep. Elizabeth deserved it. Overall, she didn’t look too worse for the wear.
In fact, she was freshly bathed, her hair was washed, and she was cuddled up in their bed.
That, to him, was worth everything.
Placing the flowers on the nightstand closest to where she was sleeping, Callen gently pulled back the blankets to check out her naked body.
The horror was back.
She was a bruised mess.
God!
He hated the people who hurt her, and he regretted leaving her to promote his book. He should have been there getting down and dirty in that street fight.
And he’d failed her.
It made him want to go on a rampage and end them all. His precious wife was hurt, and that broke his heart. Again, he forced himself to take a deep breath and center himself.
She was fine.
She was good.
He wouldn’t kill anyone today.
Tucking her back into the confines of the comforter, he headed toward the sound of water in the bathroom to check on Chris.
All the King's Henchmen Page 18
