by Ranae Rose
There was no question that he was missing something else, though. It’d been 36 hours since he’d been air lifted away from the scene of the explosion, and Rafferty and Addison’s deaths had turned out to be the beginnings of a ripple effect. The mission had gone on without him, and ended without him.
There’d been another fire fight at the compound today. Garrow was a casualty, as were several more Marines from the squad. Back at the base with his flesh wounds, Henry was the only member of his fire team left. His unremarkable injuries had saved him.
He couldn’t define the success of a day based on his own survival anymore. The victory of living to see another day felt hollow, now. Thousands of miles from home, he felt truly alone for the first time. Like he’d abandoned the path that had been meant for him, and now his punishment was to wander uncharted territory alone.
* * * * *
“What the fuck!”
The sounds of an explosion and a descending helicopter roared in Henry’s ears, as real as the earth beneath his feet. He’d been pulled into a riptide current of memory like he’d wished for, and hadn’t heard anyone approach. Now, he felt an impact in his gut as the air was knocked out of him. There was a wrenching in his arm, and the gun slipped from his hand.
He lashed out instinctively, hit his attacker with an elbow to the chest, turned and swung.
He punched Grey square in the jaw.
His friend blinked, stared for half a second and then threw himself at Henry, knocking him to the ground.
They landed on the grass in a tangle, and Henry struggled to breathe. Grey was heavy as hell and the grass was wet from that afternoon’s rain shower, which made it hard to gain traction. For a few seconds they wrestled, and Grey returned the blow Henry had dealt him.
Henry saw stars, and then Grey stood, breathing hard and glaring down at him. “What the hell was that for?”
Blood trickled from Henry’s lip and down his chin, warm and metallic-tasting.
Grey had his gun.
“I’d ask you what the hell you were about to do just now,” Grey continued, “but it seemed pretty fucking obvious! Jesus, what were you thinking?”
Henry stared at where Sasha was lying motionless in the grass, surrounded by her friends and family.
“What are you doing here?” was all Henry could say. This conversation didn’t seem real. Grey didn’t even seem real. Just a mirage that had knocked him to the ground, someone who couldn’t possibly be here, intruding on the worst moments of Henry’s life and somehow fucking them up even worse.
“Alicia invited me and Liam for dinner. She said everyone would be here. I just got here.”
Sirens screamed and lights flashed as emergency vehicles came tearing down Wisteria’s driveway. An ambulance first, then the police, a fire truck and more ambulances. They invaded the lawn, tore up the grass. Soon the place was swarming. Henry felt a million miles away from all the lights and desperate action.
“Randy Levinson is dead,” said Henry, “and so is Sasha.”
CHAPTER 33
A Couple Weeks Ago
Her red bikini lay on the floor. She stood above it, her entire body on display, fair skin dusted with even lighter sand. She’d flaunted herself at him all day at the beach, but there was none of that now: when he reached out to brush the grit from her curves, she threw herself at him, plain and simple.
The hot press of her naked body against his was overwhelming. He responded automatically, reaching out and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her so tight against him it was a wonder either of them could breathe. He’d never held anyone quite like this before.
Then again, he’d never been this hard for anyone before.
She rocked her hips and groaned when his cock slid up her belly, rigid and unyielding, unlike her undulating body. Even through the condom he’d hurried to roll down over his dick, he could feel her heat.
He shuddered, felt the desire – the need – to come moving over him like a dark cloud, charged with electricity and threatening a downpour. He moved fast, gripping her by her hips, pushing her down onto the bed.
She opened her thighs to him, wrapped her legs around his waist as she exhaled sharply.
Desire lay hot in the pit of his belly and spread through his entire body, consuming him. He positioned the head of his cock against her wet pussy lips and thrust hard, burying himself all the way to his balls. One deep stroke and he was lost in her, above and beyond everything else he’d ever known or felt.
She shrieked and drew deep, irregular breaths, like she was drowning in the feeling of him moving inside her, so hard he could barely stand it. Her pussy clenched tight with every other breath, and she dug her nails into his back. He’d lost some feeling there, where his skin was scarred, but he still felt the sting as she raked him.
He relished it, reveled in it. And he fucked her harder, getting as deep as he could inside that perfect body, the woman he’d been aching for all summer. Until now, he’d been afraid of trying to be with someone, so sure it could never work, wasn’t even worth trying. But now he couldn’t remember how he’d managed to hold out, couldn’t imagine resisting for another single second.
He felt close to her. He’d changed the way she breathed, the way her heart beat. He was as far as he could possibly get inside her. And beyond that – beyond the physical, he felt something else when she said his name. It was like his whole world shifted on its axis.
He knew then that this was different than anything he’d ever had with anyone else before. This was something that could consume him, something that had already begun to change him. He wouldn’t be the same after he pulled out of her beautiful body.
She was someone he could love and – holy hell – he wanted to. Wanted that. Wanted her, and not just because of the way she moved beneath him, rocking up and down on his dick, adding her urgency and impact to his.
For once he didn’t question whether something was a good idea, whether he deserved it, or how it could all fall apart. He knew he’d do anything to keep her, and knew he’d never be the same if he failed.
* * * * *
There were so many people in the room that their scents – soap and sweat, aftershave and perfume – clouded out the antiseptic smell of the hospital. Henry was there, and so was Sasha’s mother. Alicia and Kerry, Liam and Grey. And at the moment, a male RN who looked like he spent all his spare time at the gym.
“So,” Sasha said, looking around the room, “you guys really have your work cut out for you if you’re going to convince me I haven’t died and gone to heaven.” Her voice was hoarse, but that had yet to stop her from talking.
She kept making jokes like that, making the nurse blush. He was the only one who laughed. Henry tried sometimes, but couldn’t force the sound past the lump in his throat.
Everyone had shown up ten minutes ago after Sasha had texted Alicia and Kerry telling them she’d been assigned ‘Nurse Beefcake’. Henry had read the text over her shoulder, and she’d laughed.
He knew the jokes were her way of trying to lighten the mood, but he couldn’t reconcile her good humor, her happiness, with the dark place he’d been in the day before. He was still in shock, barely able to accept that she was alive.
When he’d seen the groundskeepers carry her out onto the lawn, when Kerry had broken down… He’d thought for sure that she’d died. Had felt the loss of her in his bones and hadn’t wanted to go on.
Then Grey had literally knocked some sense into him and an ambulance had swept Sasha away. Now, here he was. He’d let them take him away in one too, only because once he’d found out she wasn’t really dead, he’d wanted nothing more than to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.
The bullet that had hit his hip hadn’t done much damage, had only grazed him, really. Once again he’d defied the odds, and in a few weeks all he’d have was a scar. For now, his hip and ass ached from sitting in the vinyl chair beside Sasha’s bed for so long.
“This ice cream is great,�
� Sasha declared, sitting propped up by several pillows. “Thanks Kerry.”
Kerry had brought a small carton with something extremely chocolaty in it, and Alicia had brought her flowers. They brightened the room, but didn’t entirely dispel the tension that wove the crowd of friends and family together. Everyone still looked tense, especially Sasha’s mother, who’d also spent the night in the room. They all had bags under their eyes.
Eventually, Alicia, Liam, and Kerry left. Grey lingered longer than the others, locking Henry in eye contact and giving him a suspicious look.
Henry just shook his head. “Go home, Grey.”
He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. If Grey thought Henry was capable of harming himself now that he knew it’d mean abandoning Sasha, he was crazy.
Yesterday had been a low point, a dark moment. His life was full of light now, even if it was blinding to him as he struggled to adjust after so long in the darkness.
Eventually Grey left, and so did the nurse. Sasha’s mother was still there, but Henry couldn’t let that change the way he looked at Sasha, the way he held one of her hands because he needed to feel her warmth, needed to know this wasn’t all just a dream or a mirage.
“Henry, you can stop making faces like you’ve been sucking on a lemon now,” Sasha said. “I’m fine. Really.”
They’d had this same conversation hours ago, after they’d taken the oxygen tube out of her throat.
All the old arguments avalanched through his mind, burying his need to keep the peace. “Jesus, Sasha, you almost died. I thought you were dead. You can’t expect me to skip circles around your hospital room. I need time for it to settle in.”
She rolled her eyes. “I was afraid for you too. And you can bet your ass I’d be skipping in circles right now if it wasn’t for this IV. Aren’t you glad everything turned out okay?”
“We don’t know that yet. You might’ve inhaled toxins. You might get pneumonia or some kind of infection. More than half of all fire deaths are caused by smoke inhalation, not burns.”
Sasha’s mother stood. Her gaze lingered on her daughter, but she shouldered her purse. “I’m going to run down to the cafeteria for some coffee. Does anyone want anything?”
“I’d appreciate a cup, if you don’t mind.” He’d need it to get through this conversation with Sasha.
“Sure. How do you like it?”
“Black, please.”
She left, and for the first time, Henry was alone with Sasha in the hospital room.
She leaned forward and threw her weight on him, would’ve toppled off the edge of the bed if he hadn’t supported her. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and he didn’t hesitate to embrace her back, drawing her closer than he probably should have.
She still smelled like smoke. The scent filled his nostrils as her hair spilled over his shoulders and brushed his jaw. He was torn between the joy of her touch and his regret over what he’d almost done the day before.
“I guess I can forgive your failure to skip, seeing as how you took a bullet to the ass. How is that, by the way?”
He eased back, going slow so he wouldn’t hurt her. She’d sustained first degree burns on her calves, from where she’d stood on burning boxes. Though it could’ve been a lot worse, he knew they had to sting.
She’d also had two dozen stitches on her forearm to close a long cut. And then there was the fact that she had a huge knot on her head where she’d been hit. He could only assume that the painkillers they’d given her were to credit for her good mood.
“My hip, not my ass. And it barely grazed me. I’m fine.”
“Uh-huh. That’s why you’re sitting like somebody gave you a good paddling. Why don’t you trade me – lie down for a while?”
“Fat chance – don’t even try to get out of that bed. I’ll cuff you to it if I have to.”
She waggled her eyebrows up and down. “Now you’re just tempting me.”
She didn’t actually try to get out of bed – thank God. Henry didn’t like the idea of having to restrain her, but if he had to he would. No doubt Nurse Beefcake could back him up if needed.
“I can’t wait to get out of here,” she said. “Did the doctor say how long it would be?”
“You don’t remember?” It was no surprise, considering the fact that she’d been unconscious when she’d arrived at the hospital. After she’d come to, she’d been tired and confused and had spent a lot of time throwing up. Henry had never been so grateful for the chance to hold someone’s hair while they puked.
“You’re going to be here for at least a few days, so just settle down.”
He expected her to complain, to say something outrageous, but instead she met his eyes. “I don’t remember anything that happened after Kerry tried to pull me through the window, and stuff that happened before then is kind of blurry. I want to know everything – tell me.”
The fact that she couldn’t remember was probably a blessing. There’d been three people left in the basement, and she was the only one who’d been carried out alive. The blaze had been tamed by firefighters before it had had a chance to spread out of the basement and do major damage to the house, but it had been too late for the two exterminators, whose throats had been cut.
Every time Henry thought about it, he broke out in a cold sweat. That could’ve been Sasha. The fact that she was here and talking to him still felt surreal.
“After Randy Levinson abandoned the trailer where he’d been staying, he had to find a new place to hide. He trekked several miles through the woods on my side of town and came out at Wisteria. He hid out in the basement until the exterminators stumbled upon him.”
Sasha frowned. “The basement is always locked. The owner made that a rule after some ghost hunters made a video down there. How’d he get in?”
“The groundskeepers left the basement unlocked for a few days for the exterminators. Apparently the appointment at Wisteria was rescheduled several times that week. Phil and Ernesto didn’t think it would be a big deal, since recent events had scared all the guests away. Randy found the lock inside and used it to trap you inside.”
“Okay.”
“You were on the exterminators’ heels,” he continued. “When you went into the basement…”
The lump in his throat made it hard to tell her what had happened, both to her and to him. He did it anyway, understanding that she needed to know. He gave her every detail he’d been able to glean about her ordeal, and about his confrontation with Randy Levinson, starting with when he’d arrived at Wisteria and ending with how Ernesto and Phil had risked their lives to get her out of the basement, and her subsequent hospitalization.
Every detail except one. He held back the fact that when he’d thought she’d died, he’d nearly done something drastic.
Grey knew. Would he keep Henry’s secret? Probably. Still, maybe there would come a time when it would be appropriate to tell her. Either way, it definitely wasn’t now. He was glad, because the idea of admitting what a low point he’d gotten to – the stupid thing he’d nearly done – wasn’t one he relished.
There was something he wanted – needed – to tell her though.
“Sasha, I love you.” He’d told her before, around the time she’d been throwing up. She probably didn’t remember. “You mean more to me than you can probably imagine.”
She broke out into a big smile. “I love you too. More than you can probably imagine. If I hadn’t been trapped in that basement, I definitely would’ve helped you take down Randy Levinson.”
He grimaced.
“We could’ve been a team, like Bonnie and Clyde.”
“Bonnie and Clyde were thieves.”
“They had guns though, and they were madly in love.”
“If they were alive here today, they’d probably be locked up at Riley.”
“You’re really sucking the fun out of my example.”
“Sorry. I’ll let the fact that you just compared me to a famous convict slide just thi
s once, in light of your injuries.”
She grinned, and looked like she was about to say something else.
Her mother walked back into the room first, talking loudly about the coffee and generally making a lot of noise, like she’d expected to walk into the room and find Sasha and Henry half naked and tumbling through the hospital bed sheets or something.
Henry accepted the coffee and thanked her for it. Maybe it wasn’t that weird that she’d expected to walk in on something a little inappropriate. She’d lost her husband in an accident and had to be reliving all that now. She’d probably expected Sasha and Henry to be celebrating passionately, like she would’ve if her husband had survived, if she’d been handed a miracle like theirs.
“I’m sorry I didn’t take better care of your daughter,” he said to her, acutely aware that Sasha’s mother was one of the people he’d failed by allowing Randy to get his hands on Sasha.
“Don’t you dare say that. Everything turned out wonderfully.” She waved a hand around the room. “It may not seem wonderful now to you, but it could’ve been so much worse… Don’t beat yourself up over what you could’ve done differently when you still have everything that matters.”
He nodded, didn’t say anything else. He still felt like he was in her debt, but he didn’t want to argue. He wanted to get along with her. If he had his way, she’d be his mother-in-law someday.
“Henry?” Sasha’s voice was a little softer than it had been before. The burst of energy provided by the sugary ice cream was probably fading away.
Still, he eyed the button that would summon a nurse, ready to press it if she showed any sign of needing attention. “What?”
“Since mom is staying at least until I get out of the hospital, I thought we could plan something for when I get out. I’d like to make dinner for you both, like I was supposed to do the other day, before all this happened. I’m sure you’ll still be on hiatus from work because of your hip, so how about we shoot for the day I’m discharged?”