“Thank you, Warren,” Colton said. “Tell us what you know.”
“Penelope called me. Both he and Gunner were hit. Gunner’s in stable condition with a gunshot wound to the chest that punctured his lung. It would have been fatal if he hadn’t been wearing his vest.” Warren cleared his throat. “From what she explained—though I kinda blanked out—they’d gotten the hostages out. Gunner was down. When Ashton returned to get him, he got sprayed with gunfire.”
“Oh, no,” Carly whispered.
Colton shook his head. “Jesus, no.”
Pausing, Warren’s lip quivered and he stared out the window.
Carly shifted her attention to Sinclair. With raised eyebrows, she pleaded with him to step in and say something—anything —but he shook his head and remained silent.
After a moment, Warren continued. “Penelope flew the copter out of enemy space and landed. Both men were triaged on site, then flown to a hospital in Frankfurt. Emergency surgery for both. Like I said, Gunner is in stable condition. She said Ash is in and out of consciousness. Shrapnel was removed from his leg, but the Flak jacket couldn’t stop a bullet from entering his back. If he makes it, the doctors aren’t sure if he’ll be able to walk.”
And that’s when Carly lost it. On a gasp, she pushed out of the seat and rushed toward the restroom tucked in the back of the plane. Ducking inside, she sobbed. He can’t die. He just can’t.
When she’d been in second grade, her family had moved to Northern Virginia. That first week she felt lost and alone, but when Ashton plunked down beside her at lunch, he made her laugh. At recess, she challenged him to a race. Back then, she’d been fast enough to beat him. The day he stepped forward to be her friend was one of the best days of her life.
Determined to stay strong for his sake, Carly wiped her eyes and returned to her seat.
“You okay?” Sinclair asked.
She nodded.
“This is tough.” Warren offered a sad smile before addressing Sinclair. “When we bring Desiree and Hudson, I’ll need you with me, son.”
“I’ll be with you every step of the way, Dad.”
The eight-hour flight featured two movies, neither of which Carly watched. She sat in numbed silence, rearranging her stackable rings. At one point, she dropped one, but couldn’t find it. Colton plucked it from under his seat and handed it to her.
“He’s a fighter,” he said, though his eyes were tight with worry. “He’ll pull through.”
“He has to,” she whispered.
Colton and Sinclair spoke quietly for over an hour. And then, Colton and Warren slept. In the darkened cabin, Sinclair retreated to the back. Thirty minutes later, he returned, a smile hovering on the corners of his mouth.
Her smirk elicited a wink from him. Though never attracted to him, she could see how women would be. He was handsome, wicked smart, and powerful. In addition to their bad-boy reputations, he and Ashton were emotionally unavailable, so women flocked to them.
Sinclair had helped her navigate through a time in her life when her sexual fetish had reached a crossroads. Not only had he pointed her in the right direction, he had given his heartfelt guidance when she’d needed it most.
Though she never told him how she really felt about Ashton, she had every confidence he knew that, too. Nothing got past Sinclair Develin.
Nothing.
Lucky for her, Sinclair kept all her secrets.
“Is he going to die?” she whispered.
“He fucking better not,” Sinclair replied.
3
M A V E R I C K ’ S V I S I T O R S
M averick could manage through the pain. But the meds they pumped into him kept him bathed in a murky fog. When the morphine wore off, he’d open his eyes and have a brief moment of confusion, then clarity. Then, pain. He’d no idea if he could move his legs because he couldn’t fucking feel them.
He wanted to speak, shout. But he couldn’t make his mouth move. His vision was blurry and his thoughts jumbled.
He remembered going into ground zero. He remembered carrying out one of the hostages. All of them had been deposited into the copters. After that, things got wonky. Gunner was down. Maverick bolted to him and high-tailed it back to the bird. That’s where his memory cut off.
