She nods.
“I mean it. Don’t move from here.”
She nods again.
“I have a thermos in my bag. We’ll have some coffee and cookies when I return.” I force myself to smile. Given that we didn’t know how long we were going to be out, packing hot coffee was a must. We’ve all got some. It’s not that the rain is cold, but it is wearing, and we’ve been up for a full day already, and some of us didn’t sleep much the night before.
I leave her and make a wide sweep of the area. There is no sign of Colton and Hargrave’s footprints. The storm has swallowed them.
I hope it spits them out along with Reed.
I could have sent her with someone else yesterday, then the four of us would be searching for her. Would she be alive if she’d been with another guard? I can second guess myself all night and it won’t do a damn thing. Losing Reed will tear a hole through our unit.
I’ve lost people before, and it’s never gotten any easier. This is worse because it wasn’t supposed to happen. We’re security, not soldier.
When I return to the shelter, I’m glad she’s still there. She has her arms wrapped around her knees as though she’s cold, but it could be shock as the adrenaline wears off.
I join her under the tarp and remove my night vision goggles. Water drips off the end of my nose, off my clothes and onto the leaves. I wipe my hands over my face, clearing off some of the water and for the first time in hours, there’s nothing to take its place. The air’s too humid to think for even a moment I’ll dry out, but at least I’m not standing in it. It’s not drumming on my skin and skull as if it’s trying to break in.
“You want that coffee?” Even though I doubt there is anyone nearby searching for her, I’m keeping my voice low. Someone would need to be standing next to the shelter to hear me over the noise of rain on leaves and the water running off the mountain.
“Yes.” She shivers and moves closer to me.
I crack a light stick and partially hide it under my leg so that there is even less of a glow. Then I pull out the coffee and cookies and pour her a cup. Her hands shake as she takes it. While she’s drinking the sweet brew, I take the time to check her over.
There are marks around her wrists where she was tied and bruises on her arms from where she was grabbed. Now she’s out of the rain blood has filled the little scratches on her arms from where the leaves cut her as she ran. I could offer her antiseptic cream, but they’ve already been washed clean.
My gaze drifts over the swell of her breasts and the water trickling off her hair and disappearing beneath the singlet clinging to her skin. Realizing what I’m doing, I jerk my gaze up, hoping she didn’t notice. She didn’t as her eyes are closed as she sips the coffee.
In the faint glow, her skin is pale and dark shadows bloom under her eyes. There’s another bruise on her head where her skin was split open. I shouldn’t be thinking of her as sexy. She shot me down once. And yet, something about her sitting there, bruised, and determined, enjoying the coffee in the storm, is appealing.
There’s an edge and a resilience I’m drawn to, even though I know it’s going nowhere.
I eat a cookie and take a drink straight from the thermos, shoving all thoughts of what it might be like to hold her aside. “Cookie?”
They’re choc-chip, which is my favorite. I buy them when I go into the city on leave. There’s nothing else I want to spend my money on.
Ashley opens her eyes and smiles. “Thank you.”
I watch with horror as she dunks the cookie in the coffee.
“Now it’s soggy. What is the point of cookies if you’re going to do that?”
“Because the chocolate melts and they taste better.” She pops the soggy cookie in her mouth all at once. Her gaze never leaving me, as though daring me to argue.
I don’t even know what to say.
She puts her hand out. “Can I have another?”
“Are you going to dunk it?”
“Don’t watch if you don’t like it.” She keeps her hand out.
I hand her another one, but I watch because her mouth is mesmerizing. Especially when she licks a little chocolate off her lower lip.
“You should try it.” She finishes the cup of coffee and hands it back to me.
For a little while, we sit in silence as I eat a few more cookies and drink a little more coffee. I don’t want to drink it all now as I might need it later.
