“Diggs, you’re asking me to do something that goes against my very nature. But,” she turned back to him, her expression filled with open resolve, “I do. I trustyou.”
“So, you’ll come back with me?” He wanted to hear her say the words, just for his own selfishreasons.
“Yes, I’ll stay withyou.”
Diggs resisted the insane urge to draw her into his arms and instead gave her a nod, letting her know without words how proud he was of her courage and bravery. “You okay to walk a littlefarther?”
“If it means getting out of the woods and taking a hot shower to wash all this mud off, I will walk a hundredmiles.”
Diggs grinned at her. “I’ll have my shower ready andwaiting.”
* * *
Audra wasglad when he moved to pick up Trigger and went back into military mode; she was fast losing herself in his soft caring and lightteasing.
As she had earlier, she followed his lead, listening to the steady fall of his footsteps on the ground, focusing on the immovable strength in his shoulders. He was so steady. When gunshots hit so close to their heads, he hadn’t flinched. Not once. And even now when they weren’t under any threat, she couldn’t help but notice the way he moved. Like stalking through the woods in the middle of the night, running from terrorists, was as natural as breathing. Nothing seemed to knock him off his rock. The only time she’d seen a change in his expression had been when he was comfortingher.
He hadn’t tried to hide any part of himself from her, as if he could sense the raw pain and vulnerability that nearly broke her in two. Thinking about the intensity in his gaze sent heat scorching through her belly. She coughed reflexively, surprised at the intensespike.
Diggs shot a quick look over his shoulder, his questioning gaze landing on her. “You okay? Am I going toofast?”
Thankful for the cover of darkness and thick layer of mud on her cheeks covering up the blood she felt heating them, Audra shook her head. “I’m fine. So, tell me about your team.” She’d do anything to distract herself from his incredibly muscular back and predatory rollingmuscles.
“We’re family. We used to be special forces. Now we’re more like an independent securityforce.”
Audra wrinkled her nose; mud cracked and fell to her feet. “Like mercenaries or something?” She didn’t know anything about that stuff. She hadn’t even known anything about the military until Jeremy had completely ignored her pleading and joined up. Then she made it her life’s mission to research every single angle of training and deployments that her brother could possibly undergo. She’d admittedly gone a little overboard with the research then, but she still didn’t knowmuch.
Diggs grunted and kept walking. “I think mercenary sounds a bitharsh.”
She heard the shade of hurt in his voice and realized she might have offended him. Feeling ashamed, Audra treaded more carefully. “Maybe you could explain it to me? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not very familiar with this kind ofstuff.”
Diggs laughed this time, and some of the tension in her shoulders eased. The man seemed to let everything roll off his shoulders. “I prefer to think of it as hostage rescue, things like that. We’ve been toying around with the idea of making it formal, you know, becoming a true independent security team. There are so many people in need of help around the world, and we have special skills that most peopledon’t.”
Oh, she’d seen his skills all right. The man moved like a lethal weapon honed to precision. She couldn’t think of any other man she’d want on her side. “I think that sounds like a greatidea.”
He wanted to help others. It was the same reason Jeremy had joined the Marines. No matter how much she’d tried to convince him he could help plenty of people at home, he’d been hardheaded and stubborn to a point that nearly drove her insane. But after the events tonight, after she’d been put in such an awful, terrifyingly helpless position, Audra came to the stark realization that sometimes people neededsaving.
Maybe the world did need men like Diggs and histeam.
