Show of Force

by A. J. Quinn

  “Kinky.” Alex raised both brows, then continued to stare at Evan’s face, where the bruises spread across her hollowed cheeks. “Our girl really does look like hell, though, doesn’t she?”

  The truth was between the blackened eyes, the swollen mouth, and the cuts and bruises, Evan looked nothing like she should. But his remark had Tate’s tension cracking open so a smile could slip through. “I don’t think your sister would appreciate your comment. And she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”

  “Ah, Tate.” Alex chuckled. “It must be love, because well, hell, the last time I saw Evan looking anywhere near this awful”—he paused and grinned wickedly—“was just after the first time I got her drunk and then dared her to go bungee jumping while we were in Australia.”

  His comment surprised a muffled laugh out of Tate. “I don’t think I’ve heard that story. When were you in Australia?”

  “If I remember correctly, it was the summer we turned sixteen. I didn’t believe it was actually possible for a person to turn such an ungodly shade of green.”

  He grinned again and Tate couldn’t help but grin back. “I can always count on you, can’t I?”

  Another much-needed laugh slipped free. It felt good to laugh, and it was exactly what they were doing when Althea and Robert Kane arrived and found them a short time later.

  Chapter Twelve

  A quick glance at Althea—face pale, eyes red rimmed and shadowed, mouth drawn into a thin, grim line—was all it took. Tate felt a flash of anxiety and unconsciously took a step back from Evan’s bed, coming up hard against Alex’s chest. His hands immediately moved to steady her, and she could feel the reassuring beat of his heart, strong against her back.

  With a conscious effort, she tried to regroup. She slowly released a long, silent breath and rubbed her arms to chase away an unexpected chill. At least her hands weren’t shaking and she was remembering to breathe. Most of the time.

  Althea regarded her silently and gave her a brief nod before turning her gaze to rest on Evan. She didn’t weep. But as she looked at her daughter, Tate saw a spate of tears willed away and wondered what that level of control cost her.

  “Oh God, what did they do to her.” Althea reached out and caressed the side of Evan’s face before pulling back and covering her mouth with her trembling hand. But as she continued to stare at Evan, it seemed to Tate as if Althea had been waiting for this moment and this chance to beg, to promise, to do whatever it took to set things right again with her daughter. To put Evan squarely back in her life.

  Robert looked as exhausted as his wife, his expression shuttered. Tate watched as he lowered his head and pressed a kiss to Evan’s forehead. “I’ve missed you, baby,” he said, his voice barely audible. When he straightened, he reached for Althea’s hand, drawing her near to him.

  “Thank you, Tate,” he said. “For bringing Evan back to us. I’ll not forget.”

  His words caught her off guard, and Tate remained silent while a wave of conflicting emotions crashed through her. From somewhere deep inside she pulled the last of her resources, and though the world beneath her shifted, she squared her shoulders, raised her head and looked at him. “I would have done anything.” Her voice was only slightly breathless. “But as it turned out, I didn’t have to do much.”

  Robert raised a brow, and his eyes—so like Evan’s—reflected the smile that graced his lips. “Somehow I doubt that.”

  “I’m just glad I was able to help in some way.”

  After a moment, he nodded. “Has she woken up at all?”

  “No.” Tate shook her head and gripped her hands together. “Not since we flew out of Afghanistan. She was in a fair bit of pain, so the doctor kept her sedated during the flight. And then they took her into surgery almost immediately after we arrived.”

  “What have the doctors said?”

  Tate allowed her frustration to briefly come to the forefront. “I’ve not actually seen or talked to anyone since they brought Evan up to the room post-op. I’d also like to find out how Lieutenant Walker is doing—I’m sure one of the first things Evan will want to know when she wakes up is how he’s doing. But I haven’t had any luck in that regard, either.”

  Further conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Turning, Tate saw a tall, thin woman wearing a white lab coat over pale green surgical scrubs.

  “You must be Commander Kane’s family. Perhaps I can answer some of your questions for you. I’m Commander Kelsey Grant, and I’ll be Evan’s doctor for as long as she’s here with us,” she said with a slight smile.

  The doctor had short dark hair framing an attractive, intelligent face and a no-nonsense air Tate found appealing. She also appeared remarkably calm.

  “How is she? What can you tell us about Evan’s medical condition? What’s being done—” Robert and Althea began firing questions in unison.

  Alex quickly stepped in to quell the situation before it got out of hand. “I’m sorry, Commander Grant, my parents are both litigators.” He offered an apologetic smile. “But you’re right, we’re Evan’s family. These are my parents—Althea and Robert. I’m Alex, and this,” he added, without missing a beat, “is Tate. And we’d all like to know how Evan’s doing.”

  The doctor smiled wearily before pushing her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. “Well, I’m happy to report Evan is doing much better than anyone could have expected given the circumstances she’s been living in for the past few months.”

  “What can you tell us about the extent of her injuries?” Robert asked, all trace of his earlier weariness disappearing.

  The doctor picked up Evan’s medical chart and glanced at it briefly. “We operated on Evan shortly after she arrived,” she began softly. “The most serious of her injuries were to her right leg—a penetrating wound to her thigh and blunt force trauma to her knee. We were able to repair the muscle damage caused by the bullet wound, but her knee required extensive reconstructive surgery.”

  “But she’ll recover?”

  The doctor nodded. “Her long-term prognosis is really very good. We’ll have her out of bed on crutches ASAP, and it’ll probably take about three weeks for her knee to resume weight bearing. But it’s too soon to predict when she’ll be cleared for active duty.”

  Before anyone else could respond, Tate spoke up. “Actually, Evan had completed her service commitment before she was shot down. She was scheduled to go home.”

  “Her deployment was extended?”

  “Yes, stop-loss.”

  “In that case, once she finishes physiotherapy, Evan’s greatest challenge will likely be clearing airport security systems. We used titanium staples and a number of screws to hold everything in her knee together.”

  The doctor’s comment brought momentary smiles to tired faces.

  “Having said that, our more immediate concern is Evan is severely undernourished and has a number of infected lacerations—on her right side, on one arm, and on her back—which have left her in a weakened condition.”

  The frown on Robert’s angular face deepened as he stared at the doctor. “What does that mean?”

  “In short, she’s going to need time to recover. But Evan is young and I’ve been told she was remarkably fit prior to her ordeal. It’s clearly what enabled her to endure what she’s been through and makes her prognosis excellent. Still, there is only so much we can do. The rest will be up to her.”

  As she listened to the conversation, Tate felt her throat tighten. Lowering her head, she stared at Evan, willing her to open her eyes. “How soon before she wakes up?”

  “Actually, she came around briefly while we had her in recovery. She became a little distraught and asked for you and Lieutenant Walker. Once I assured her everyone was safe, she slipped back under. So rest assured this is nothing that should concern you. Her body simply needs time to heal. Now, if you have no other questions—”

  “Did they hurt her?” Althea asked quietly.

  To her credit
, Commander Grant didn’t flinch, and Tate thought the doctor’s gaze reflected considerable compassion. “Are you asking me if Evan was sexually abused? If she was raped?”

  Althea lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. “Yes.”

  The room became pin-drop quiet and Tate’s heart sank as she watched the doctor’s features tighten. Oh, Evan.

  “Before I answer, you should be aware that most women in the military, but particularly women in higher risk roles such as pilots, fully recognize they’re engaged in a high-risk, no-margin occupation. They accept there is a small but very real threat of capture, physical and psychological torture, and even death.” Commander Grant exhaled softly. “Having said that, I can tell you we found no evidence of any recent sexual trauma. But as you’re aware, Evan was in captivity a number of months, and it’s impossible to say what she may have endured early on. Only she will be able to answer that particular question. And you have to be prepared that she won’t.”

  Althea flushed, straightened, blinked. But if the doctor’s response had not been enough, she clearly had the grace to accept it was all she would get.

  “When can we take Evan home?” The question came almost simultaneously from Tate and Alex and earned an encouraging smile from the doctor.

  “We’ll need to clear up the infection and get her feeling better first,” Commander Grant said as her smile widened. “She’ll also need to gain some weight. She’ll probably be ready to go home in a couple of weeks, possibly sooner. It really all depends on her recuperative powers.”

  “If that’s the case, you’d best start filling out her discharge papers because she’ll be out of here in less than a week,” Alex said with a grin.

  The doctor spread her hands, palm up. “Anything is possible, but you must also be prepared. The effect of captivity is unique to each individual and this isn’t going to be easy. Evan will need to come to terms with what happened to her, and to do that she’ll need your patience and understanding.”

  *

  “I’m really not hungry,” Tate grumbled, as temper and assorted other emotions hummed equally in her blood. Stiff, sore, and feeling every minute of what had been a very long week, she leaned back in the chair, pushed aside the bag Alex was holding, and stared up at him. She wasn’t in the mood to eat, and it didn’t really matter that she’d barely eaten in two days. Nor had she slept more than a few hours in the last seventy-two. But that was not the point.

  Alex was looking at her with a clearly troubled expression. “How are you going to remain strong for Evan if you don’t eat anything? You need to eat something, and then get about twelve hours of solid sleep.” Not waiting for an answer, he continued to speak as he opened the bag. “Now, I’ve brought you a sandwich from one of those machines in the cafeteria. Mystery meat, by the look of it, and it was going begging, but still, it’s all there was, it’s better than nothing, and you need to eat. So you’ll eat at least half of it for me, okay? I also got you a coffee.”

  After a long, silent minute, Tate gave him a bland look, allowing humor to ghost around her mouth. “Mystery meat? Fine, as long as you eat the other half. Do we have a deal?”

  Alex grinned and nodded. “You’re worse than my sister, you know that? That’s why you’re so good together. By the way, I managed to discover Deacon Walker is just down the hall and doing rather well. I popped in to see him, and once sleeping beauty here decides to wake up and rejoin the living, I’ve promised Lieutenant Walker I would arrange a reunion.”

  Twenty minutes later, the remains of Tate’s half of the sandwich lay abandoned on the bedside table, while she sat by Evan’s bed, her half-drunk coffee in her hand. Nick was stretched out in a chair with his feet on the end of the bed. And Alex was once again regaling them with humorous stories about Evan from when they were growing up.

  Some of the stories Tate had heard before, from Alex or from Evan herself. Still others were new. Mostly, they kept her interested and entertained and stopped her from dwelling on the fact Evan was still unconscious.

  Althea and Robert had graciously declined Alex’s offer to share the food he’d gotten and had left to find something more substantial on their own. With Althea’s connections, Tate was certain they would be well taken care of.

  She took another swallow of the lethal coffee and sat quietly, impatiently waiting for Evan to come back to her. She smiled and listened as Alex recounted yet another tale—of Evan taking a math exam for him. One he needed to ace so as not to get tossed off his high school basketball team. Even in the room’s dim light she could see his smile.

  “How old were you?”

  “Fifteen. For some reason, Evan understood numbers, while I just wanted to paint and play basketball,” Alex said, a wry grin on his face. “And really, all we needed was for her to wear a pair of old ripped jeans, a hoodie, and a baseball cap. No one looked twice. Certainly not close enough to notice the differences, not that there really were many.”

  “He was older…but I was smarter…and taller.”

  Tate froze at the sound of Evan’s voice, then turned abruptly toward the bed to find a pair of smoke-gray eyes looking back at her. Glassy, bloodshot, and faintly confused. But they were the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen.

  “Evan?” The tremor in her voice betrayed her as her breath caught in her throat. Tears stung her eyes and her heart hammered hard in her chest. “Oh my God, Evan.”

  Alex’s whoop of joy echoed in her ears as he grabbed Nick and hugged him in celebration.

  Evan looked from Nick and her brother to Tate and tried to smile, but her movements were stiff and sluggish, quite clearly slowed by pain. She blinked slowly, but as she let her vision adjust to the light, Tate could feel the apprehension brewing behind her eyes.

  “I thought I saw you…with Khalid. Knew that wasn’t right. Couldn’t be right,” Evan said hoarsely, a thread of wonder in her voice. “I was so afraid I’d dreamed you…you came and went in my head like a damned ghost…so many times. But you’re really here. Please…tell me you’re really here.”

  “Oh God, yes, I’m really here. So are Alex and Nick.” Tate’s gaze locked on Evan’s as she tried to reassure her. She feathered her fingers over the abrasions on Evan’s face and noticed despite the warmth, she was shivering again. “And your parents. The medical people said you’d sleep straight through until morning. But they’ll be back in a few hours.”

  “My parents?” Dazed, Evan didn’t seem capable of registering what Tate was saying, and as she fought to understand, Tate could see her anxiety level increase. “Tate, you shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe. What are you doing here? Where’s Deacon?”

  “Take it easy, Evan. You’re safe, I promise. You’re in the hospital.” Tate took Evan’s right hand in hers and for several long seconds she sat there holding it. Staring at the scraped knuckles, the bruised and swollen fingers, the rope burns on her wrist. Finally, she brought Evan’s hand up to her lips and gently pressed a soft kiss against her open palm.

  “Let’s try this again. You’re in an American military hospital in Germany. Lieutenant Walker’s here too, in a room just down the hall. He’s going to be fine. You’ll probably be able to see him as soon as you’re feeling better. Maybe later today. And I’m here because you’re here, which makes it where I need to be. The same goes for Alex and Nick. And your parents.”

  Evan drew in a deep breath and nodded. A groan worked its way from somewhere deep in her chest.

  “You doing okay?” Tate asked softly.

  “I probably look worse than I feel…and I feel like hell.” It came out in barely a whisper. Evan licked her lips, then swallowed and winced. “My throat hurts. And my leg. Actually, everything hurts.”

  Tate gazed tenderly down at her. She could see Evan was already starting to fade and was fighting to stay with them. It was also clear she was in pain as her eyes drifted closed. “How about we get a nurse to give you something for the pain? And see if we’re allowed to give you something to dri
nk or some ice chips. In the meantime, you need to rest and heal, so the best thing you can do now is sleep. We’ll be here when you wake up.”

  “I’ll go get a nurse,” Nick volunteered and slipped from the room.

  Evan visibly struggled to open her eyes one more time. “I heard you talking to me earlier. That’s how I knew I was still alive…I’ve missed you.”

  Tate smiled. “I’ve missed you too, love. Now all you need to do is get well. Don’t fight it. You’re safe here—with us.”

  “Don’t go,” she murmured. She was clearly too foggy to stop the needy words that were so out of character before they slipped from her mouth. “Please.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, Evan,” Tate assured her, leaning close to her ear. “I promise.”

  “I dreamed you so many times that I’m scared. I’d see you when you weren’t really there, but it seemed so damned real I swear I could hear you breathing,” Evan whispered. There was a world of pain in her words—words that threatened to break Tate’s heart. “And now…now I’m afraid I’m going to wake up. I’ll wake up and you’ll be gone again. You’ll be gone and I’ll be back with Khalid in his little corner of hell.”

  Tate’s smile faded. “Never,” she breathed in reply. She pushed Evan’s hair off her temple and watched the dark strands sift through her fingers. Felt an irresistible urge to gather her up and hold her until every horrid memory disappeared. “Go back to sleep, love. You need the rest. And I’ll still be here when you wake up. I promise.”

  Evan started to murmur something, then gave up, sliding into sleep.

  Tate watched her drift off with the comfort of that promise echoing in her mind, until she knew nothing at all. She leaned down and kissed her mouth softly while she slept. And then kept watch over her.