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“Can you tell us what you saw, Alexia?” Rafe stood at her hospital bedside like a forbidding sentry. When she woke to find herself surrounded by these big, tough guys, she thought she was still in dreamland. Every single one looked more badass than the next. But the one thing they had in common was the way they formed a circle around her like a special ops protection detail.
“I know we keep asking, but you were under anesthesia and now that it’s worn off, we want to see if you can tell us about the build of the guy who kidnapped you.” Rafe’s stare centered on her in quiet patience.
Suddenly it popped into her head that he’d make a terrific father. She knew he was with a beautiful and talented Olympic gold medalist, but his file stated nothing about plans for a family in the future.
Alexia shook her head both to dispel the strange thought and to answer. “Average height, brown eyes, brown hair. Nothing about him stuck out to me. I saw military boots. That’s all I managed to see with tape over my eyes.”
Bryson issued a low noise that brought her attention to him. Lifting his free hand, he scrubbed at his eyes as though trying to gouge out the image he saw behind them.
She squeezed his hand. “You okay?”
When he dropped his hand, torment stood plain in his eyes. “We found that tape, Alexia. Full of your eyelashes.”
Her jaw dropped and she yanked her hand free to touch her eyes. “My lashes? Oh my god! Am I bald?”
“No, princess. You’ve still got some. But they’re a little patchier than before.” He gazed at her like she was the most stunning woman in the world.
She gulped down a sob.
“Let’s give her some space, guys.” Rafe turned for the exit first, and one by one they all filed out.
Guns stopped to rest a hand on her shoulder. “You’re doing great, Alexia. We don’t mean to push so hard for answers, but we want to find this guy, and I know you do too.”
Sniffling, she nodded.
“And if you want, I sometimes hook up with a woman who does lash extensions.”
For some reason, the gesture, however genuine, turned her next sob into a giggle. She burst out laughing and took one of the tissues from the box that Bryson held out to her.
“Thank you. I might ask for her name next time I see you.”
“You got it, sugar. You’re family now.”
Guns grinned and bumped fists with Bryson on his way out.
While mopping her tears, Alexia watched him go. Meeting Bryson’s gaze, she gave a slow shake of her head. “Your teammates are truly a family. I’ve heard tales about special forces units and the brotherhood in platoons but…it’s real.”
“It is, princess.” He gently eased onto the mattress beside her, careful not to jostle her too much after the surgery to repair the damage that knife had done.
“I just had a thought,” she said.
“Don’t let it get out of control now.”
Jaw dropping at the audacity of this man, she gave him a light punch in the arm. “Don’t you think you should treat your girlfriend better when she’s lying in a hospital bed?”
His humored expression sobered and his stare intensified. “Did you say girlfriend?”
“Well, yes. I don’t have another term for us, though I admit it seems juvenile at our ages.”
“What if I call you my salvation? Or big, big helper…” He brushed his lips over her temple.
“Why don’t we add queen to that and call it done?”
His deep, rumbling laugh rolled through her senses and bound her to him even more. “Deal. But only because you’re lying in a hospital bed.”
He rested against the inclined head of the bed next to her and gently took her in his arms.
With her cheek pillowed on his shoulder, she contemplated all that happened to her in such a short time.
