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“I know you are. Are you in pain?”
A careless half-smile cut across her lips. “Only if I try to inhale.”
“Broken ribs do that,” Alex reassured her. Leaning down, he kissed her fragrant, clean skin. Two nurses had washed her hair and gently cleaned her up. Now, her skin smelled of life, not death. “Rest,” he whispered against her lips. “I will not leave you alone, Lauren. If I have to go somewhere, Nik will sit in for me and be at your side.”
His promise made her relax. It was so easy to close her eyes because she had no strength left to keep them open. Sleep claimed her immediately.
Alex quietly closedthe door. Nik was right there outside, now in civilian clothes, thanks to Mace Killmer, who was also back at the hospital after a run over to his Lima apartment to gather them. Morozov’s arm was in a new, white sling. If Alex had never seen him before, he’d never have guessed that his friend had lost nearly three pints of blood out in that jungle.
“How is she?” Nik asked, turning and walking toward him, worry in his dark blue eyes.
“She just regained consciousness for the first time,” Alex told him, more emotional about that than he’d realized. “She is going to make it…”
Nik gripped his shoulder, grinning. “That IS the BEST of news, my friend.”
Tiredly, Alex rubbed his face. “She is going to make it.” He took a deep, serrated breath and exhaled, emotion clearly written across his face. “I need to get cleaned up. Where is the men’s shower and locker room in this hospital?”
Nik told him where they were located. “I’ll stay with Lauren. Take a shower, get something to eat. I’ll have you paged if anything happens, but I don’t think it will. Sleep is the best healer for her right now.”
Nodding, Alex gave him a warm look and gripped his hand. “Thank you… for everything, Nik. You saved her life and I will never be able to repay you for that.”
Snorting, Morozov shook his hand and released it. “No, Brother, it’s the other way around. We haven’t had time to talk yet but, if your woman hadn’t been there when I was jumped from behind by Burak, I’d be dead. We wouldn’t be talking to one another right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Petrov’s team spotted us. I’m sure it was through an infrared scope. Burak was sent to come up behind us. You know how he loves knives? If he can use one to kill with, he’d rather do that than use a rifle.” Nik gave him a grim look. “Lauren heard him first. She whirled around. Burak charged me. I evaded, but he cut my upper-arm open,” and he gestured to his arm in its sling. “He sliced open an artery. I fought with him. I was losing because I was weak due to loss of blood. Lauren timed it right, and she struck Burak in the skull with the butt of her AK-47. She cracked his skull. I heard it.” He took a deep breath, his voice low with feeling. “If she hadn’t stepped in when she did, I would be dead. Burak would have gotten the upper hand, gutted me from neck to hips. That’s what he likes to do: gut someone and then… watch them die. She had a blowout kit on her and she swiftly placed a tourniquet around my upper arm, above where the artery was spurting blood. She saved my life.”
A coldness swept through Alex. “I… didn’t know…,” he whispered, looking to one side, his mouth working to halt the deluge of more emotions. Finally, he looked at Nik. “Burak was a monster.”
“Well,” Nik laughed a little, “your brave woman warrior killed him. She had the presence of mind to pull a tourniquet from her medical kit and stopped the bleeding from my upper arm. She’s a lot stronger than I gave her credit for.”
“Strong?” Alex said, a weary half-smile coming to his mouth. “She has a spine of titanium. Has anyone told you what she did after you made it to that boulder?”
Nik shook his head. “No, but you need to get cleaned up, Kazak. You smell like swamp,” and he grinned tiredly, clapping him gently on his sagging shoulder. “tell me about it when you return. She is truly a heroine.”
Alex took the suggestion. He rode the elevator down to the basement of the hospital. Getting off, he looked down the highly-polished hall and saw Captain Curtis, the Night Stalker pilot, ambling his way along with his long, rolling Texas gait. Alex walked down the hall toward him.
“How’s your lady doin’,” Jake asked, halting at the center of the hall with him.
Alex noticed the US Army pilot wore a single piece dark olive-green uniform but it had absolutely no indication of his name, rank, or any sign of what country he was from. It was typical black ops. Curtis was nearly six foot tall, lanky, and holding that lazy, boyish grin of his across his oval face. It was his hawk-like gray eyes, gleaming with intelligence, that made Alex smile a little back.
“She is doing okay. She just woke up a few minutes ago for the first time. All her numbers are going the right direction.”
“Good to hear. Your team really rode a jaguar on that mission. The lockers and showers are that way,” and Curtis pointed toward them. “You got any clean clothes?” and he looked at Alex’s muddy camouflaged pants and mud-clumped boots.
Alex shook his head. “No.”
“My copilot, Randy Henson, is about your height. A giant in the cockpit. Literally,” and Curtis laughed at his own joke. “Come on, I know his locker number and I can open it up. He usually has three pairs of civvies in there. I’m sure you’ll find something in there that will fit you… He won’t mind loaning them to you.”
Alex was struck by the camaraderie between all the operators. It didn’t matter what branch of the service they came from. They were team players and thought nothing of helping out another one of their kind. “Thanks,” he murmured, “I could use a shower and some clean clothes.”
“If I had a clothespin,” Curtis drawled, a quirky grin tugging at one corner of his mouth, walking beside Alex down the hall, “I’d be wearin’ it on my nose right now…”
Nik jerked upright,awakened by movement. Blinking away the fog of exhaustion, his gaze instantly snapped to Lauren. He hadn’t meant to doze off, but he had. Getting up, he quietly walked to her bedside. She was in pain. He could see it in her face. Looking over at the morphine pump at her bedside, he allowed the drip to increase just a little. If he hadn’t been so well-versed in the use and application of morphine out on the battlefield, he’d have needed to call a nurse.
Almost instantly, the tightness in her face lessened as the drip flowed into her vein. She wore a white cotton gown, covered over warmly with several blue alpaca blankets. Unfortunately, there was nothing anyone could do about the fractured ribs on both sides of her chest. They were above her breasts. If she had been a man, Nik knew they could use supportive tape to help ease the pain that would be felt for a good three weeks afterward. A woman’s breasts prohibited such a treatment. Lauren would be on a low dose of morphine for three to four weeks, to dull the pain. And she would require enforced bed rest. He didn’t envy Alex because Lauren, from his experience with her, was tough, always on the move, and wouldn’t be housebound.At all.That his friend had chosen a woman who was his equal, there was no question.
The door quietly opened.
