“I don’t know.” He flung his rifle around, letting it hang against his back to give him more room to work.
Almost immediately, he found the spot where the bullet had struck. A clear hole had been ripped through the vest’s outer layer, but he couldn’t see whether it had gone all the way through.
Not waiting for direction from his team’s leader and medic, Jagger tore at the Velcro straps holding the tactical vest in place. Letting the rough straps fall loosely to the sides, he lifted thevest’s front panel up high enough to reach a hand in to check the bottom of the protective plate.
The material from her shirt felt slightly damp but not soaked as he would expect with a bullet wound. Hope blooming when he flipped his palm up and his fingertips brushed against a small protrusion in the otherwise smooth, Kevlar plate.
“I need a light!” he hollered to no one in particular, leaning his head to the side in an attempt to see.
Christian was already on it.
The former corpsman crouched down beside him. The beam from his small, tactical flashlight cut through the darkness to the area they needed to inspect.
Jagger knew he should probably step back and let the other man take over, given Christian’s extensive medical background. But this was Talia. She washispartner.
One op or a hundred, it didn’t matter.
My partner, my responsibility.
And he’d just failed her in the worst possible way.
“I don’t see any blood, either.” Christian motioned toward the area where the metal plate had warped.
Warped, not punctured. The protective vest had done its job.
Thank God!
The sense of relief Jagger felt in that moment was damn near overwhelming. But it was the soft, low moan coming from the woman lying before him that left him feeling dizzy and weak.
“She’s coming around.”
The comment came from Cade, who was now standing over Jagger’s shoulder. By now, both teams had gathered around to check on their fallen colleague.
“She’s going to be okay, right?” Jimmy asked. “Probably just got the wind knocked out of her, is all.”
You’d better damn well pray that’s all this is.
If not, he and Jimmy Boy were going to have a little chat. Because from where Jagger had been standing, the young sniper was the catalyst that had set the unexpected chain of events into motion.
Talia opened her eyes half-a-beat later. It took a few flutters for her lids to opened wide enough to see his face. When they did, when he caught sight of the golden browns of her hazy stare, Jagger nearly fell back on his ass with relief.
“Hey, darlin’.” He smiled down at her. “Welcome back.”
His words came out perfectly calm and unworried. Pretty much the exactoppositeof what he was feeling.
“J-Jagger?” she stuttered his name with a frown. A few more quick, confused blinks followed, along with a stuttering, “W-What are you…d-doing?”
“Well, Iwasabout thirty seconds away from giving you mouth-to-mouth,” he half-teased. “Lucky for you, it doesn’t look like that’s gonna be necessary after all.”
Talia’s cloudy gaze fell to his lips. Jagger knew better than to screw with someone who almost definitely had—at the very least—a mild concussion. But the need to make sure she wasn’t injured beyond that overrode any concern about social improprieties.
He leaned down close to her ear so only she could hear. His voice dropped low, growing thick with a purposeful drawl. Then, even knowing his plan could very well backfire on him in a spectacular way, Jagger whispered softly, “You keep lookin’ at my lips like that, I’ll have no other choice but to kiss you.”
5
Natalia staredup at Jagger’s painted face and blinked. She’d seen his delectable mouth move. She’d heard the deep timbre of his masculine voice as it feathered past her ear.
But for the life of her, as she lay there feeling as though she were floating on some sort of weird, uncomfortable cloud, she couldn’t seem to process the man’s actual words.
