Page 64 of Her Ruthless Protector

Python nodded.

A.J. looked longingly at her trailer. She desperately needed a nervous breakdown after hearing about the life and death situation Kane had been in, but first things first. She took two steps away from the man and then thought better of it. She turned around.

“You’re coming with me,” she growled.

* * *

Kane was exhausted,but he had too much adrenaline flowing through his veins to sleep. He looked over at Leo who was sleeping. They were back where they’d started with damn near all the same players. Hell, if Kane had to guess, they were even being driven in the same vehicle that had originally taken them to the building near the embassy. His hand touched the slashes that had been cut into the vinyl of the dash. Yep, same damn car.

When they pulled through the gates, they were stopped and the guards got out the mirrors on a pole to check under the car for bombs. They weren’t taking anything for granted. At least that finally woke up Perez.

“Any news on Zed?” Leo asked.

“Just got a text from the surgeon on his case. He’s stable. They think they’ll be flying him over to Germany in two or three days.”

“Did Max get ahold of Marcia?”

“He talked to her after Captain Hale went to her house.”

That wasn’t the normal way of things, a captain didn’t normally go over to a spouse’s house, no matter how gravely the man might have been injured. But that was Josiah Hale for you.

“So, is she flying over to Landstuhl?”

“She and LuLu. She’ll be waiting for Zed there by the time he arrives.”

“That’s good,” Leo said as the car stopped in front of the building. They both opened their doors. “That’s real good.”

Kane agreed. Marcia was one in a million. He’d seen a lot of shitty marriages during his time in the Navy, but somehow his friends in Black Dawn, and now Zed, well, they seemed to have found the right women.

An image of A.J. flashed before his eyes. Was it possible that she was one of the good ones? How did you know? How could you figure out if someone was going to make it with you for the long haul? He’d watched his parents’ marriage implode. Granted, his dad seemed happy now, but his mom was on her third marriage, and if he had to guess, this one wasn’t going to work out either.

“Kane, whatcha waiting for, an engraved invitation? The meeting’s probably already started.” Leo was at the top of the stairs and had the glass door open, waiting for him.

God, I really need to get my head in the game.

When they got to the conference room, Kane found out he was right, everybody was there waiting for them.

“Saved you a seat,” Raiden said as he waved at two chairs next to him. Kane did a quick double-check. The man was moving his arm just fine. Good to see something was going right.

Leo sat down next to Raiden, then Kane and Cullen sat on the other side of him. Cullen leaned in. “What, they didn’t have a shower on board the ship?”

“Shove it, Lyons. I’m not in the mood,” Kane said tiredly. He looked to the front of the room and Max and Gray were standing at the whiteboard.

“I’ve got news on Zed,” Max said.

Kane sat up straighter, as did every man in the room.

“The doc said he doesn’t see any sign of permanent damage, but the recovery is going to take a bit of time. I tried to pin him down on how long that was, but he wouldn’t commit. Zed’s going to be going to Germany in two to three days.”

Kane slumped back in his chair. He’d been worried that there might have been some permanent muscle damage and that Zed would be pushing pencils for the rest of his career. He’d hate that. This was definitely good news.

“Now it’s my turn,” Gray said. “It wasn’t all bubkis in Afghanistan. We might not have tracked down the old guys al Fadi and al Libi, but we did pinpoint a new terrorist cell that Midnight Delta will now be working to flesh out.”

“They’ll get the job done,” Aiden O’Malley said with confidence.

“Gray, Lieutenant Commander McAllister, and I, have been telling Captain Hale about our situation here in Oman.” Oh shit, this was going to be bad Kane thought. Whenever Max started referring to higher ranking officers by their titles, it meant that things weren’t going their way. “Captain Hale is very impressed with the work we are doing here in Oman. He thinks that our intelligence is sound, and the threats are real.”

Okay, that sounded good.