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“All good. I’ve had way worse from these guys,” he assured me as he nodded to the others. “You’ve got some skills though, for such a little thing. Who taught you to fight?”
“My brothers and my dad,” I replied as I refused to let images of them all into my thoughts. It hurt too much.
“They’d have been damned proud of you right then. You kicked the ass of a SEAL and a marine,” Aleks chuckled.
“Please Ev, just come and sit down. None of us want you to leave. We understand what happened. We all have nightmares too. Nick and I have lashed out more than once at these guys during ours. We get it,” Harris explained.
“How’s your head feeling? It must hurt,” Kailan asked.
“I’m okay. I really am so sorry,” I told him.
“I already told you, it’s all good. I’m more worried about you. Are you sure you’re not hurt? Can’t feel good having that giant asshole wrestle you to the ground.” Kailan nodded to Harris, who still looked guilty about that.
I took the few steps needed to get to Harris and looked up at him with a sad smile.
“You didn’t hurt me,” I assured him, then I placed my hand on his forearm and he finally met my eyes. “Thank you for stopping me. Who knows where I’d be right now if you didn’t.”
“Halfway to Denver is my bet,” Aleks laughed.
“Further than that, I reckon,” Harris said as he smiled down at me. “She used to run track in high school, and even with her tiny legs, she was damned fast.”
“I do not have tiny legs!” I cried as I hit out at him softly, unable to keep the smile from my face as his joke took me back to simpler times.
“They weren’t so tiny when they were kicking your ass into the coffee table,” Nick cut in as he walked back into the living room with a bottle of liquor and a tower of stacked glasses.
“Fuck you!” Harris threw back lightheartedly as he turned to Nick with a grin. “I wasn’t expecting it. She took me off balance.”
“Whatever, man. We all saw the tiny girl kick your ass, and yours Kailan,” Nick snarked as he sat on the sofa and started laying out the glasses on the floor beneath him.
“Tiny girl?” I gasped, the old me snapping right back into place in that moment of levity. “You want me to show you how tiny I am? Two of my brothers are bigger than Kailan and I can get them on the ground,” I warned. I glared at him with my hands on my hips, but he just smirked at me.
“Another time maybe. I don’t think our furniture can take anymore tonight,” he told me, as he held out a glass of what looked like scotch.
For the first time in so long I felt a spark within me, of the real me. It was barely there before it was gone again, and all of the worry and insecurity crept back in, but it was a start. It was proof that I was still in there somewhere, buried beneath the darkness.
I took the drink from Nick and threw it back quickly. I definitely wasn’t a scotch drinker, but I could also definitely use a drink. Or maybe a few bottles.
CHAPTER 10
KAILAN
“Boss? Boss! Wake the fuck up!” I yelled as I tapped at Harris’s face, desperate for him to open his fucking eyes. We had been on a surveillance mission in the mountains when an attack came from nowhere. We found ourselves surrounded, and with only four in the team, we were fucked.
We had been trying to shoot our way to a better position when an explosion went off right in front of us. I still didn’t know what the fuck had happened. Maybe an I.E.D was my best guess but I didn’t have time to worry about it. I had shrapnel in my leg, halfway up my thigh and blood was pouring from it, but Harris – our boss - and Holden had taken the brunt of the impact. Harris was out cold, blood pouring from the shrapnel buried in his chest, shoulder, and neck.
“Grab him and move to higher ground!” Tripp, one of our other teammates, yelled as he threw Holden, who was also unconscious, over his shoulder and started running while firing blindly with his side arm.
“You dare fucking die on me, you asshole!” I growled at Harris as I picked him up, and threw his huge ass over my shoulder.
Harris and I had met in training. We were both the same age and even though he was completely different to me, we had just clicked. Our friendship shouldn’t work. He was from a wealthy family, while I most definitely was not. Where Harris was reserved and a little on the quiet side, I was loud, and in your face. We had very little in common other than both being Navy SEALs, but somehow it just worked and I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t lose any of my team. They were my brothers.
Tripp and I got to higher ground, and lay Hunter and the boss down on the ground behind us so we could pick up our weapons and hold back the insurgents.
“Just hold them back. Drone’s on the way!” Tripp told me.
“Sure. No problem,” I called sarcastically over the incessant sound of gunfire, firing back and praying to fuck help was on the way quickly.
“Here comes the cavalry!” Tripp yelled moments later. I looked up to see the drone coming, and turned to grin at Tripp. I opened my mouth to say something but before the words left my mouth a bullet went right through the center of his forehead just below his helmet, so close to me his blood sprayed all over my face.
