His Soldier Under Siege

by Regan Black

  “Take your time.” He stroked her back with his palm, soothing, willing her to be okay. “Did you recognize him?”

  Still doubled over, she shook her head. “The name on the uniform was Smith. The rank was PFC—private first class. That’s all I got.” She coughed, the rough sound making him wince.

  “He had a tattoo on one wrist.” Straightening, she arched an eyebrow. “I only caught the ink,” he explained. “Not enough to identify an image.”

  “So he might as well be invisible,” she said, then fell into another spate of coughing.

  “We need to call security,” he repeated. He patted his pockets, couldn’t find his cell phone. “They can pull more information from video feed.” He’d spotted surveillance cameras above the stairwell door and high in the corner. “And you need a doctor.”

  “I’m fine.” She handed him her cell phone and rasped out the code for security. “I should have known this kind of thing was coming,” she muttered.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked while he waited for someone at the security desk to pick up. If someone was harassing her, the hospital, with all of the protective measures, identity checks and people coming and going, seemed like an audacious place to launch an attack.

  She reached for the door, held it for him. “It’s a long story.”

  “Good thing I have plenty of time on my hands,” he said. “Which way to the base security office?” he asked as the phone kept ringing.

  Her reply was interrupted by the person who’d finally answered his call. In low tones, he gave an explanation of the incident and promised they would both head straight over to give a full report.

  “You need to stay with Kevin,” she said when he returned her phone. “I’ll go over and handle the report. If they have questions for you, I can share your cell number with them. Assuming that’s all right.”

  Let her out of his sight after that? Not a chance. “You’re not going anywhere alone,” he told her. His heart hadn’t yet returned to a normal rhythm.

  “But—”

  He cut her off with a look. “Wait here. Please,” he added as he ducked into the room. Returning after grabbing his cell phone and jacket, he was glad to see she hadn’t left without him.

  “This is silly. You know I can handle myself.” Her chin lifted in defiance, making the red marks on the delicate skin of her throat stand out in stark relief.

  “You can,” he admitted. She probably would have hog-tied the assailant with her stethoscope and dragged him down to security by his bootlaces if Derek hadn’t interfered. Instead, he’d jumped in and the guy escaped. “You can,” he repeated. “But you don’t need to.”

  “Derek.” Clearly exasperated, she made his name sound like an oath.

  “You’ve said it yourself,” he pressed. “Kevin just needs time to recover. No one’s attacking him.” He leaned close. “From where I’m standing, it looks like you need me more than he does right now.”

  “Fine.”

  Relieved it hadn’t required more of an argument, he followed her to the employee area for her floor, waiting outside the door. She returned within a minute or two, a tote over her shoulder and a jacket zipped up to cover the marks on her neck. It only sent more questions rolling through his mind, but he held them all back for a later time. She was clearly irritable and he didn’t want to stress her voice any more than necessary.

  “I wish you’d let a doctor look you over.”

  She glared at him and shook her head. Her phone chimed with an alert and she checked the smartwatch on her wrist. The glare turned into a fierce scowl.

  Whatever the message was didn’t improve her mood. “Problem?”

  “My brother,” she replied with a dismissive shrug. “He’s mad I refused a formal protective detail.”

  “More of that long story?”

  “Yes,” she replied with a grimace.

  At the security desk, a base police officer took their detailed statements of the incident in the stairwell. Though she refused medical evaluation, they swabbed her throat for any possible DNA from her attacker and took several pictures of the marks left behind. Before they left, the officer assisting them pulled up the video from the nearest cameras and promised to try to track down the soldier who had attacked her.

  On the surface Grace Ann appeared satisfied, but Derek’s gut instinct told him there was something more going on. On their private trips, he’d learned to read her pretty well. The tension was there in the way she kept nipping at her lip and working her thumb over her index finger. Those little habits would fade during their time together, only to resurface when she had to head home.

  Maybe the two of them should have been sharing more than superficial, steamy outdoor getaways these last couple of years. He’d kept secrets for both of them. Didn’t she know she could trust him with anything?

  “What next?” he asked.

  “I’m going home,” she said. “Hot tea and an ice pack.”

  Whether he blamed it on the traumas past or present, he couldn’t bear the idea of her heading home alone. What happened if the anonymous soldier returned? “Let me help. At least until you’re settled.” He intended to stick close until he got the whole story out of her.

  She shook her head. “That’s overkill.”

  “Maybe I could use a friend,” he suggested. He’d been running on fumes before witnessing her attack. Time outside the hospital with her would be a welcome change of scenery.

  “Uh-huh.” She rolled those big brown eyes and he could tell she was close to giving in. “You’d do better with a friend who isn’t in trouble.”

  What kind of trouble? He’d been around the unit long enough to know that time and again she put others ahead of herself. It had been obvious from their first introduction when she’d left her meal unfinished to take over in the serving line so another soldier could eat with his parents. “Probably,” he said. “But you’re right here.”

  “Convenient.” Her lips twitched into a shadow of a smile. “For both of us.”

  Pouncing on the opportunity, he convinced her to let him drive her home. They took the base shuttle to his car and she programmed her address into his navigation app. During the short drive to her house, she sipped on a water bottle she’d pulled from her tote, staring at the neighborhood passing by.

  He appreciated the silence as his thoughts were swirling with doubts and nerves about this move. Since agreeing to explore the potential of their first kiss, they’d deliberately avoided crossing the line between neutral-territory casual hookups and personal space.

  Living in separate cities, about an hour away from each other, helped. Although they’d agreed dating other people was okay and that either one of them could bow out gracefully if a date took a serious turn, here they were. He hadn’t dated anyone else in over a year. So he kept circling back to her, and her to him, every few months for a long weekend of hiking or rafting or some other outdoor adventure. It was the perfect solution.

  No one else captivated him the way Grace Ann did and few had shared his interests with the same intensity. Unique, confident and strong, she was practical with an unexpected side of whimsy that cropped up at the oddest times. Despite the inherent risks of her career choice, she lived life large. He admired that, though he couldn’t cope with it day-to-day over the long-term. On the rare occasions when he pictured his future wife, she didn’t wear camouflage or follow orders to assist in a crisis overseas.

  Pulling into the last driveway on her block, he studied the clean lines of the redbrick house on the corner lot with a one-car garage and a cherry tree in the front yard. He wondered if she had help with the well-kept lawn. As long as they had been together, he should know if she enjoyed yard work.

  “Nice place,” he said.

  “Thanks. I’ll get the garage door so you can pull in.” She opened the door and slid out of
the passenger seat, tote slung over her shoulder.

  She punched a code into a keypad beside the door and a moment later the garage door rolled up. He put the car in Drive, but she didn’t move. He couldn’t pull in without hitting her and the garage interior was too dim for him to see beyond her. Turning off the engine, he climbed out of the car and walked up to stand beside her.

  Shards of glass were scattered across the cement floor. His gaze followed the glinting trail to a broken window in the back corner. He reached for his cell phone, but he’d left it in the car. “Call the police,” he said quietly.

  “No.” She swallowed. “It was just wind.” She dropped her tote bag to the floor. “I didn’t get the tree branches trimmed back when I should have.”

  He hadn’t heard anything about damaging winds, having been indoors for the majority of the past two days. “You sure?”

  “What else?” Moving forward with stilted motions that bore no resemblance to what he remembered as the fluid, energetic woman he’d gone kayaking with a few weeks ago, she walked over to the wall-mounted pegboard and pulled down a broom.

  “Hold up.” Derek stepped into her path, noticed her eyes had glazed over and her knuckles were white where she gripped the broom handle. With a gentle shake of her shoulders, he broke through the strange haze. “Grace Ann, you need to call the police. Now, honey.”

  A shiver rippled through her and her big brown eyes brimmed with tears. She blinked rapidly before they could spill over. “Why? I can’t tell them anything.”

  Derek had never before felt this drive, this need to rescue a woman. Being there for Kevin had been his primary focus and he studiously avoided drama and troubling entanglements. Whatever Grace Ann was facing, he was determined to help.

  “I’ll make the call,” he said. “We’ll report this as a possible break-in.” Thank goodness he’d insisted on bringing her home. “Take a look around,” he said, using her phone to look up the nonemergency number for the local police department. “Is anything missing?”

  She was so obviously overwhelmed he wanted to cuddle her close and assure her it was just another lousy moment in a bad day. His mind on the attacker who’d escaped, he couldn’t help wondering if both instances were related. Briefly, he considered closing the garage door and taking her to a hotel. Preferably a hotel on the other side of the country.

  Instead, he called the police department, gave her address and explained what they’d found. While she looked around, Derek took stock as well. There were a few items of value, but nothing other than the window seemed to be disturbed or vandalized. He glanced to the steps leading to the house, wondering if someone might be hiding inside. Although the hole in the window wasn’t big enough for a person to fit though, he wasn’t taking any more chances.

  “Come on, we’ll wait in the car.”

  She aimed a watery smile at him. “You should go. To your hotel or back to the hospital. I’ll be fine.”

  Like hell he’d leave her to handle this alone. “Sure, I’ll go. Is there a neighbor you’d like to come over to wait with you?” he asked innocently.

  “Just go.” Temper flared in her eyes. “I’m a big girl, Derek.” She paused to clear her throat. “This isn’t the first bad day I’ve had.”

  He’d bet good money it was among the worst she’d had in a long time. At least he hoped days like this weren’t the norm. He moved her tote aside and tugged her down to sit on the steps with him.

  “You might not have heard, but I’m coming off a pretty bad day myself,” he said, keeping his voice light. “The experts promised that my worst nightmare isn’t going to strike this time. Which gives me time to help you out.”

  “What’s your worst nightmare?” she asked, pressing her hands together between her knees.

  “Being alone.” It wasn’t a fear he’d ever confessed or tackled head-on. When had he come to trust Grace Ann so much? “I don’t dwell on it,” he added. He lived his life, managed his career and kept himself distracted with hobbies.

  “Ah.”

  “Ah?” he echoed. “Meaning?”

  She exhaled, her breath fluffing her bangs away from her forehead. “You know I’m second of five kids,” she reminded him. “An army brat. My family seems to grow a little more every year through military connections alone. I’m not sure I have a grasp of the kind of loneliness you’re afraid of.”

  Her answer painted a clear picture of how little he knew about her and filled him with a strange urgency to learn more. “Do you have a roommate?”

  “No. I enjoy living by myself.” A wry smile curved her lips. “Of course there’s always a sibling or friend I can call, to vent or lean on when needed.”

  He supposed that’s where he fit into her life. Someone she called when she needed a break from solitude or work. “Why don’t you call your family now?”

  “I should.” Elbows propped on her knees, she rested her head on her hands. “I will once the police are done. No sense worrying everyone until we have more facts.”

  “You’ll tell them about the attack in the stairwell, too?”

  She rubbed her temples. “I hate to worry the family but I will tell them all of it,” she muttered.

  “What else are you dealing with?” He smoothed a hand across the bunched muscles of her shoulders.

  “Stupidity.” She picked up her cell phone, turning it around in her hands, lips pursed. “I got suspended today,” she said. “Someone reported me for misuse of Defense Department supplies and my security clearance is suspended while they investigate.”

  Whoa. Work was everything for Grace Ann. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  She picked at the knees of her scrubs. “Some guy was strangling me.”

  “Your family can help with this, right?” She was the daughter of a highly decorated general. Surely he still had connections.

  “They shouldn’t.”

  He draped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her close. “You have to tell them.”

  “I will.” She leaned into him. “Again, better to have all the facts,” she said.

  “Do you need an attorney?” He didn’t have the right legal expertise, but he had friends in all areas of law practice.

  She frowned. “I didn’t think you took private clients.”

  “I can help you find someone,” he replied. He didn’t even have to think about it, though it meant calling in a favor with a friend or two with more experience in military law.

  She pushed up from the stairs, arms folded over her middle as she paced the width of the garage. “You’re too generous,” she said.

  It didn’t sound like a compliment. “You’d change your mind if I sent you a bill.”

  In the glare of the overhead light, he saw that her rusty laugh didn’t quite reach her eyes. He really should have a ready solution—other than sex—to help ease her distress.

  What began on a whim at his first family picnic with Kevin’s unit could have been a sturdy foundation. In that soft evening light, away from the noise of so many happy, reunited families, he’d found contentment. Her wide, accepting smile and her doe eyes framed by long dark eyelashes drew things out of him too easily. With her, on that secluded path, all of his wishes and dreams were possible.

  That one kiss had led to...nothing. Not right away. They’d exchanged numbers and after some careful planning, they’d spent a weekend hiking the gorgeous trails in the Shenandoah National Park. There, they’d developed a no-strings, friends-with-benefits arrangement that was the best of both worlds.

  Now he felt as if they’d shortchanged all that early potential.

  “I appreciate the offer,” she was saying. “The accusation is bogus and the investigation will bear that out soon enough. I won’t be out of work long.”

  He heard the faintly hopeful note in her statement and kept his opinion to himself. Waiting out bogus
accusations was one thing, but adding in the attack at work and now the vandalism to her home, his uneasiness cranked up. “You think these are all just unrelated, unfortunate incidents?”

  “Yes.”

  Her fierce, whispered reply wasn’t convincing. He couldn’t challenge her or ask for more details because the police cruiser pulled up, parking on the street.

  “You can leave,” she said as the officers approached. “I’ll be fine.”

  “In a minute.” He stood with her, not close enough to touch, unless she reached out. As much as he wanted to console her, it would be better if it was her idea.

  The two officers introduced themselves as Willet and Radcliff. Willet, hair going gray at the temples, carried a bit more weight than the wiry, youthful Radcliff. Together they patiently listened to Grace Ann’s account of finding the broken window, Willet taking notes. They asked about her security system and nodded in resigned acceptance as she explained there was only a motion-detecting floodlight at the back corner of the garage.

  “Not much help in daylight,” Officer Willet remarked.

  “Any signs of trouble inside?” Radcliff queried.

  “We haven’t gone in yet.” Grace Ann tugged at the high collar of her jacket. “It seemed prudent to wait for you.”

  “The door doesn’t show any sign of damage,” Derek said.

  “I never lock this one,” she admitted glumly.

  “Understandable,” Willet said. “It’s the same at my house. Radcliff will take a look around outside to check for any evidence or concerns.” With a nod, the younger man strolled off. “Once I clear the house, the three of us can walk through.”

  “I appreciate your time,” Grace Ann said.

  Officer Willet examined the doorjamb closely before entering the house, one hand on his holstered gun. “Just give me a few minutes,” he said.

  They stepped back to wait in the center of the garage. Officer Radcliff returned before Willet. He reported that other than a small, narrow footprint, there wasn’t any other evidence to be found.