“Definitely not.” He dropped what looked like a small piece of metal into a glass container and then reached for a bottle of brown liquid. “And don’t ask me again.”
“What’s that stuff?”
“Betadine.”
“Because there are signs of infection?”
“No, but I’m taking no chances.”
“What was that other thing you were holding?” Miki asked quietly. “The small piece of metal.”
“Just an old bit of shrapnel. I’m almost done here. If you wait outside, I’ll come get you. Then you can talk to Max.”
Miki looked mutinous. “I want to stay. You won’t shock me. I’ve spent plenty of time in hospitals,” she said tightly. “My mother had cancer. She lived at home as long as she could, but…”
“I’m sorry to hear about your mother.” Izzy glanced at Dakota. “Why don’t you two go tell Wolfe that he can see the patient in about fifteen minutes when Max comes around.”
Miki crossed her arms. “I’m not leaving until—” Suddenly her face went pale, and she grabbed for the wall of the tent.
Izzy caught her as she lost her balance.
“I—I’m fine,” she whispered.
But there was a trail of blood from her nose, and her body was rigid. When he put this together with Max’s conversation with Cruz, Izzy began to be worried. He was reaching for a piece of gauze for her nose when he felt her legs give way. Five seconds later she was out cold, and the nosebleed was coming full force.
“I’ll take care of her,” he told Dakota. “Go tell Houston to find out what happened to that chopper. We may not have a lot of time here.”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I can’t see her? Like hell I’m staying away.” His face hard with determination, Max crossed the beach toward Izzy and Wolfe. “Cruz didn’t just put an old chip in place back in Santa Fe. He also inserted some new kind of implant. She could be in serious danger,” he snapped.
“Take it easy.” Wolfe blocked his path. “Izzy’s handling this just fine.”
“Handling what? We don’t know what Cruz did. By the time we figure it out, it may be too late to help her.”
“I’ve got a handheld x-ray,” Izzy said calmly. “I’ve made a thorough scan of her arm. There was a chip in there and I removed it.”
Max waited, his face strained. “What else?”
“One in her carotid vein, but I can’t touch it. That kind of surgery is way beyond what we’re set up for here.”
A muscle moved at Max’s jaw. “How long until that chopper gets here?”
“Any minute. There’s a sub ready for us about twenty minutes away, and they’ll take her right into surgery.”
Max stared at Miki, her eyes closed as she appeared to sleep peacefully. “What’s going to happen to her?”
Izzy rubbed his neck tiredly. “You want the bullshit line or the truth?”
Max started to answer, but sighed. “The truth. I think.”
“The truth is, if we’re fast and if she’s strong and if we’re lucky, she’s going to be fine.”
“That’s three big ifs you’re juggling there, Teague.”
“Tell me about it.”
Max ran a hand through his hair and frowned. “So what can I do to help? There must be something.”
Wolfe put a hand on his shoulder. “What you need to do now is rest. She went nuts when she heard Izzy was working on you, and you can bet that you’ll be the first person she wants to see afterwards.”
Max prayed there was an afterward. Sitting on the beach with the sun on his back and the sea wind in his face, he prayed for other things, too. Impossible dreams, they whirled through his mind like old newspapers as he watched Miki sleep.
She was difficult, opinionated and quirky.
She was brave, quick-witted and unforgettable.
She had also told him she was getting married. But Max wasn’t giving up so easy. He’d just have to talk her out of settling for anyone else but him.
And what was he going to do if she didn’t feel the same way, not that he had any right to expect she did?
He blew out a breath and nodded at Wolfe. “So we wait. I’ll give it ten minutes. Then I’m getting on the radio and chewing Ryker’s—” His eyes narrowed as he continued to study Miki’s face. “What happened to her hair? It looks as if she—”
“Burned it,” Trace said, ambling up with a big coconut he’d just cut open. He dropped a piece of shaved coconut to Truman, who ate it neatly. “Happened when she used a blowtorch on one of Cruz’s thugs. He went after her while Dakota had his hands full, and the crazy fool let him have it with a blowtorch. Burned off part of her hair in the process, but she got her man.”
Max scowled. “Dakota should have been faster.”
“Yeah, and pigs should fly,” Trace muttered.
Max continued to frown. “Where did she find a blow-torch anyway? I don’t get it.”
Trace grinned. “Set fire to her hairspray and the knitting yarn. Or maybe it was nail polish remover and her shirt. Wolfe knows about that stuff, seeing as he’s hot and heavy with my sister.”
Wolfe’s eyes slitted. “I never said—”
Just then the distant drone of motors had the four men turning to scan the sky. Truman waited expectantly, never moving far from Miki’s side.
Max shot to his feet as the helicopters thundered closer. He ignored a stab of pain at his shoulder. “Let’s get her ready to move.”
Truman was right behind him, watching when he lifted Miki into his arms.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
WHEN MIKI OPENED HER EYES, the first thing she saw was Max, draped over the edge of an armchair beneath a single lamp, sound asleep. She blinked, wondering where the chair and lamp had come from because there was no furniture in the bunker. And how had he gotten electricity for the lamp?
She felt a faint hum beneath her and glanced around the space.
Metal walls. Small metal bed. Low ceilings painted industrial gray. Where was she?
When she tried to sit up, pain stabbed at her back and upper arm, and she was surprised to see heavy white bandages in place, looking fresh. She closed her eyes, feeling a wave of dizziness as she tried to remember what had happened before she fell asleep.
It was something bad, she knew that. Something that had threatened Max. But despite her mental search, she could remember only a plane crash and a white sand beach. Other fragments came to her then.
Max pulling her from the wreckage.
Max introducing her to a big dog that looked more intelligent than most people.
Max pulling her beneath a spray of water while they fought to shove off each other’s clothes in record time. His body had been amazing, his control unforgettable. Miki closed her eyes, her face filling with heat. She’d really done it this time.
She’d fallen hard, the way it felt when you fell forever. The once-in-a-lifetime kind of way that left you thinking of thirty-year mortgages and family insurance plans.
Scary.
She took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair, frowning when she felt tiny strands snap off. The pieces were bumpy and dark, almost as if they’d been burned. What was that about?
None of it made sense, and she was tired, although she had just awakened.
Max would know what was wrong. She started to wake him up, but he looked worn out and the big bandage at his neck and shoulder reminded Miki of something bad, something to do with danger and how close they had both come to dying. There were other images that flashed and then vanished, but the more she tried to reach them, the more blurred they became.
Clearly, someone had treated her arm. She thought maybe they had given her medicine that left her woozy, unable to sort out the recent past. That much made sense.
She yawned, reaching for a glass of water beside the bed, but her muscles seemed slow and she ended up knocking the glass onto the floor.
Max shot upright, instantly alert. “Don’t move,” he said curtly. “You’re s
upposed to stay still. I’ll get whatever you need.”
There was something fiercely protective in his eyes, mixed with a tenderness Miki had never expected to see in a man’s face. She couldn’t speak, overcome by emotion.
“Are you in pain? Tell me, honey. I’ll go get Izzy for some medicine.”
“N-not pain.” Miki swallowed hard, suddenly panicked and uncertain and wanting too many things she had never dared to want before. “Are you hurt? I remember the crash and the island, then something dangerous happened. I was worried for you, and there were other people, but it gets all blurry after that.”
“Don’t worry, that’s normal.” A muscle twitched at Max’s jaw. He sat on the edge of her bed and took her hand into his, locking their fingers. “Whatever you need to remember will come back when the medicine wears off. Try to rest while I go find another glass for water.”
“Forget the water.” Her fingers tightened, holding him. “Stay here and talk to me instead. I was…afraid for you.”
“I’m just fine. See?”
She wanted to touch the hard line of his face and kiss the bruise at his chin. The force of her need to touch him left her breathless.
But she’d lied to him, tried to push him away with her story about a wedding being planned.
Funny, but I love everything about your face. Your mouth, when it curves in that way you have. The little scar above your right cheek.
The way your eyes narrow and darken when you kiss me.
Miki looked away, overwhelmed by the new emotions. She was frightened to feel so much, to want so much. She wasn’t going to call the feeling love, though it sure as heck felt that way.
“Hey.” Max cradled her cheeks and gently turned her back to face him. “It’s me, remember? This is the guy you tried to deck one or twice. The helpless victim nearly asphyxiated by that shrug of yours.”
“I can’t remember what happened. Everything’s still a blur.” She closed her eyes, exhausted by the effort to make sense of things. “Have you seen my shrug? I really want to have it back. It’s just a piece of clothing, but—”
“I told everyone to watch for it, and I gave them a description. It’s bound to turn up, and as soon as it does, I’ll bring it to you.”
He’d done all that?
Something melted in a puddle inside her, and Miki felt herself smiling a loopy smile. “You did that? Wait—who is everybody?”
“The guys I work with. Wolfe Houston, too.”
“I know Wolfe. He’s going to marry Kit.” She frowned, feeling her thoughts blur again. “They must have given me some animal-grade painkillers, because I’m really floating here. Up and down, up and down.” She made a little rocking movement with her hand.
“That’s because you’re aboard a ship.”
Miki felt him lift her hand and kiss her open palm. The brush of his mouth made muscles tighten throughout her body. “Max, whatever we did on that island—” She swallowed hard. “I just want you to know that I don’t hold you to anything. It was isolated, we were alone, and everything was upside down. People say things they don’t mean in a case like that. They do things they don’t usually do.”
She felt his hand tighten. “You’re saying that you don’t remember what we did?” His voice was harsh.
“I mean that it’s not important. I don’t want you to think you need to explain or make excuses. We’re both adults. Things happen, that’s all.”
After a long time he nodded. “Okay. If that’s what you want.”
Miki looked away. It wasn’t what she wanted, but she was determined to play this lightly, to give him all the space he needed to walk away. “Funny, I keep thinking that you were hurt. But you were hurt. I remember now. And there were other people with us. They followed you, and one of them came after me. I think something happened to my hair.”
Max gave a crooked smile. “You burned it, honey. I think everyone on board this ship has heard the story by now. You’re the hero of the hour.”
Miki felt a constriction in her chest. She loved it when he called her honey. It made her bones melt and turn sloppy. “Everybody? What kind of ship is this?”
“A Los Angeles-class U.S. submarine. We’re headed home, ETA noon tomorrow.”
Miki wondered why she didn’t feel more relieved. She was alive and healthy, sans a little blond hair, but that was a good trade-off for still being the first part.
“What’s wrong? You don’t look relieved.”
“No, it’s fine. Great, actually.” It was awful, Miki thought suddenly. She didn’t want to go home until she had this thing—whatever it was—sorted out. Was it love, lust or medical insanity? More important, did he feel the same?
Just ask him, a voice whispered.
“Max, what I told you before—it was a lie. There’s no other man, no wedding.”
“Honey, wait. I want to tell you something.”
She cut him off. “No, let me tell you first. I changed my mind. I don’t want you to forget what happened. Things are still a little spotty, but I know what happened between us was important. It felt important, maybe the most important thing in my life. And I want you to feel that, too. So I’m not releasing you.” She swallowed hard. “I never want to release you. And I’ll make you feel guilty as sin if you try to walk away from me. Now.”
Something came and went in his face. Then his eyes did that little narrowing motion, filling with dark emotion.
And he kissed her, at first gently and then hungrily. “I remember. And I don’t want to be released. You’re still sick, so you’re going to have to take it easy. There will be all kinds of questions and a few government people you need to talk to. That shrug of yours is turning out to be interesting, and they may want you to make another one, just for testing. You’ll have some experimental yarn, all you want and any kind of equipment. I know it’s a chore but—”
“Free yarn? Hey, you can have my house and my car for free yarn. Especially that fiber you had in your pack. So this would have military importance?”
“More or less.”
“Because of the way my shrug affected you?”
“More or less.” He spoke carefully. “There are things I can’t tell you, Miki. I’d rather leave it at that and not have to lie.”
She looked at him a long time and then nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“Okay? No more flurry of questions? No demands for complete disclosure?”
“I figure you’ll tell me if you can.”
“You’ve changed,” Max said quietly. “Hell, I’ve changed, too. I never thought emotions could run so deep. Maybe I couldn’t trust myself to care until now. If you give me some time, I think I can work this out, maybe find a way for us to have time to be together. That is, if you want those things.”
Her only answer was to smile slowly, circle his neck and pull him down while she kissed him, her mouth hungry and hot, holding nothing back.
She couldn’t think of a thing she wanted more.
Paradise felt like this, she thought dizzily. Rocking on a boat, locked in a kiss with a man who could give lessons in flamethrower sex.
She was going to enjoy every minute of it.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-0274-3
CODE NAME: BLONDIE
Copyright © 2006 by Roberta Helmer
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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