Caroline cupped his cheek, and her finger traced beneath his eye. Gazing down at the moisture, Reaper realized he was crying. He never cried. Not when his first foster parent had kicked him out on the streets. Not when he found out his mentor had betrayed him. Not even when he lost his best friend in Afghanistan.
Caroline had a hold on his soul. He would never be the same. He knew it, knew it just like he knew the sun would set.
“You can never lose me. Not even if you try,” she said gazing up at him with so much emotion that his heart nearly stopped beating in his chest.
“How could you say that after what I did?”
“Because ever since I first laid eyes on you I knew the truth.”
“And what’s that?” He said softly.
“That you were my saving angel and that I would never be the same again.”
His throat closed off and before he did something completely stupid, like cry like a baby, Reaper took her lips in a fierce, yet gentle kiss. For that brief moment, everything around them ceased to exist. She made him complete.
A long, loud groan penetrated the haze of pleasure cocooned around them and Reaper lifted his head to scan their surroundings. It was then he spotted Melissa, half her torso covered in huge rocks.
Caroline saw her too and pushed against Reaper’s shoulder. “You’ve got to help her. She’s good, I feel it.”
Although Reaper had begun to suspect the same thing when they’d been trapped in the stairwell he asked, “And how do you know that?”
“Because I felt the goodness in you, too.”
It took all of Reaper’s willpower not to take her mouth in a fierce kiss of possession. No one had ever said he was good. Not even his best friend.
“Help her. I’m fine. Just a headache, no broken bones.”
Not willing to abandon Caroline just yet, Reaper carefully got to a standing position, balancing on his left foot and pulled her to her feet. Dragging Caroline along behind him, he hopped over to Melissa and then dropped back to his knees.
“Reaper! Your foot!”
“Just a sprained ankle. Come on, you can help.” He knew from experience that distraction was better than arguing; and giving a nurturer like Caroline something to do, especially in aid of someone she obviously had come to care about, would keep her busy.
Caroline began pulling the smaller rocks from Melissa as Reaper balanced on his knees and lifted the heavy ones.
Blood and bruises covered her body, but she was coming awake.
Her eyes snapped open in an instant, but her startlingly quick jerk back to consciousness wasn’t what held her attention. Melissa’s arm lay at an angle far too unnatural to be anything but broken.
And from the way she was panting and staring straight up at the sky overhead, she was in a lot of pain too. “Your arm is broken. I need to check you over to make sure that is the extent of your injuries.”
Melissa bit her lip and nodded, tight white lines forming around her mouth.
Caroline scooped up her good hand and clutched it to her chest. “I’ve got you. It’s okay.”
Reaper checked Melissa from head to toe. When he brushed over her rib cage on the same side as her broken arm, she gasped and tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t cry.
The girl had grit.
“I need to lift your shirt, to make sure you haven’t punctured a lung.”
Again, she nodded, abstaining from a verbal response. When he lifted her shirt and saw the huge dark bruise on her side, he knew why the scientist hadn’t spoken. It hurt too much.
He’d fractured his ribs once in a training exercise going into the 75th Ranger Regiment, it had been all he could do to breathe, let alone refrain from passing out.
But from what he could tell, she more than likely just fractured them, no bones protruded or dug into her side.
Melissa turned her head in his direction, her dark brown eyes bright. “How bad is it?”
