“I didn’t faint.” King frowned, his expression turning awfullyfierce.
Faith immediately mimicked his expression, pulling her lips down into an exaggerated frown. King pulled back as if shocked. Laura chuckled. “I think she likesyou.”
King’s frown eased, but he was still cautious. Laura decided to take pity on him, and she needed an excuse to get up. “I think it’s time for breakfast.” She asked Faith and the girl respondedyes.
She climbed to her feet. Faith pulled free of her grip and stepped closer to King, since he was pressed back against the wall. Curious now, Faith reached out and touched his beard. And then she giggled, her eyes laughing up at Laura. “He’shairy.”
King cut her a questioning look. Laura told him, “She likes yourbeard.”
His expression turned half wary, half amused, as if he were dealing with a foreign being he’d never encountered. He was unsure how to act. Laura’s heart squeezed. “I kind of like it too.” She gave him awink.
He smiled, so suddenly that both she and Faith were taken aback. “And I was thinking of shavingit.”
Those little butterflies set up in her stomach again, tickling the inside of her ribs. He’d been so serious since the moment she’d seen him, but the grin gracing his face completely transformed him. In that moment, she got a glimpse of what she figured King was like before his tragedy. Swallowing, trying to keep it light, she said, “You would have two very upset ladies on your hands if youdid.”
King slowly climbed to his feet, forcing both of them to crane their heads back. “My mama always told me never to make a woman mad.” His words took on a slight accent, something Southern. Something she hadn’t detected before. Something that made her insidesmelt.
She had to get out of this bathroom with this man and clear her mind. Laura grabbed Faith and backed from the room, suddenly remembering her state of attire, or lack thereof, halfway there. King had gone tense, his smile locked as he watched her move away. She couldn’t help her body’s response to his intense stare any more than she could help breathing. She practically skated around the bed, needing to put something solid between them. “If you’ll give us a few minutes to change we could meet you in thehallway.”
His dark gaze raked up from her body. “Want me to ask Melissa for a fresh set ofclothes?”
Just from the way he asked that question she knew exactly what kind of clothes he was thinking about. “Not now. We’ll just put on our clothes fromyesterday.”
King reached up and scratched his rugged jaw. “If you’ll give me your sizes, and a list of supplies that you need, I’ll send out forthem.”
Laura opened her mouth to tell them that they didn’t need anything, but just as quickly shut her mouth. They needed everything. All their clothes, belongings, everything had been destroyed in the explosion. She still couldn’t believe that it had happened; she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the loss of her home any more than she could wrap her mind around John and King in combat. “Thankyou.”
With a nod, King left the room, and for the first time Laura felt like she could actually draw in a breath. A strong, steadying breath. King’s confession had flipped all of her judgments about him upside down. He wasn’t mean, he was hard, and now she knew why. The fact that he’d survived such an awful tragedy spoke to his strength. It also made her understand just a little bit why he was so angry at the thought of her brother’s betrayal. John had once told her that his unit, as he called his team, were like hisfamily.
And having already lost one family, King would value his team above all else. Just as John had. There was something going on here, something she had to figure out. King was wrong, even if he felt he was right. And she would figure out a way to convince him John wasn’t the man heassumed.
How exactly, she had no idea. But for now, she needed food and so did Faith. They dressed quickly in their slightly wrinkled clothes and met King in the hall. Thankfully he’d put on a shirt, although part of her wished he hadn’t. Once more he was clad in black. Black shirt. Black pants. Black boots. The dark colors only accentuated the hard planes of his face. Laura cleared her throat. “Lead the way.” Hoping her voice sounded not breathless like shefelt.
As he walked down the long hallway, Laura tried to keep pace with him, tugging Faith behind until the child finally forced her to let go. She gestured for Faith to keep up and the little girl nodded enthusiastically, her stuffed cat clutched to her chest once more. As they turned the corner, a loud thumping bass vibrated down the hall. “What’sthat?”
“Diggs. He has no taste inmusic.”
As she kept walking, the bass thumped louder actually vibrating the floor beneath her feet. She knew when they reached Digg’s room because the closed door actually rattled a little on its hinges. Laura shook her head. “He’s damaging his hearing.” After all her sessions with Faith and her audiologist she’d learned all about the damage loud noises could do to yourears.
“He’s damaging my hearing too,” King said in an absent-mindedtone.
His disgruntled response brought a smile to her lips. “I take it you don’t like gangsta rap then?” She could very clearly hear the classic Tupac booming in thehallway.
“No, chère, I prefer real music. Give me blues, Southern rock, and you got me.” A very profane string of rap came from the door. King said a silent curse under his breath. “Hold on, that’s not for a kid tohear.”
Before Laura could argue the point that Faith couldn’t hear, King had the door pushed open. Faith darted past him and Laura came to his side to peer around. Diggs sat in the middle of his floor, a long sheet spread out beneath him and what Laura could only guess was at least ten different types of weapons disassembled and lined up in perfect order. He was currently polishing the pistol barrel. “Hey, you guys are finallyup.”
“Cut the music. We’ve got a kid,” King saidabruptly.
Diggs didn’t seem the least bit worried about King’s gruff tone. “She seems to likeit.”
Faith had managed to make her way all the way across the bedroom without Laura noticing and now stood next to the large black bass speaker in the corner. She put her free hand on top of it, grinninghugely.
King took a step forward. “The kid’sseven—”
Laura put a hand on his forearm. “She can’t hear the words, but look, she can feel thevibrations.”
King followed to where she was pointing and everyone watched as Faith began to sway side to side, eyes closed keeping one hand on the speaker at alltimes.
