Page 46 of Lone Star Showdown

Nearly an hour had passed after that, one horrible, eternity-lasting hour, before Marco had called to say he was on the way back with Jericho.

Rachel hadn’t pressed for a lot of details from Marco or Rayna because she’d wanted them to focus on the trip back. But Rafe had filled her in a little after he’d talked with Ruby. The gist was that Arnez had used a grenade to blow up the van, had then stunned all three operatives, and had fled with Jericho. Marco and Rayna had used the tracker in Jericho’s vest to locate him, but apparently, Jericho had been in the process of fighting off Arnez when they’d arrived.

Arnez was dead.

Jericho had killed him.

Rachel had felt nothing but relief about that. Then, more worry while she waited for Jericho to get home.

She’d had a few more heart stopping moments when she’d first seen him, bloodied and bruised. Beat to hell and back.

But alive.

And not seriously hurt, according to the doctor.

Ruby had sent the doctor, Millicent Talbot, to the house. The no-nonsense doctor had examined Jericho, cleaned him up, and put six stitches in his shoulder. She’d also determined he didn’t have a concussion, just some bumps and several deep bruises on his lower back. After that, Dr. Talbot had casually mentioned he shouldn’t lift anything heavy until the stitches were out, but there’d been no insistence in her tone. Maybe because she had known Jericho wouldn’t obey any orders for bedrest or such.

And he hadn’t.

Instead, he’d had Bree come to the house so he could give his statement of events and had done some verbal reports for not only her but also Ruby. It’d been going on three in the morning when they’d wrapped all of that up, and only then had Rachel coaxed him to bed. And only then, he’d slept with her next to him.

Of course, sleep had been a mixed blessing.

The god-awful nightmares had been relentless. Images of coming so close to losing Jericho, and she’d finally slipped out of bed just before dawn to read any incident reports that either Bree or Ruby had emailed. However, she hadn’t even managed to download the reports before she heard the footsteps.

And saw Jericho in the doorway of the bedroom.

He was naked.

Well, not totally. He was wearing boxers, but even with the shoulder injury, it was far easier for her eyes to focus on the naked parts of it.

“Seriously?” Rachel asked. “How can you look this good after what you’ve been through?”

The corner of his mouth kicked up into a grin. “Well, we both know it’s not good genes, so it must be bad lighting. Or it could be you’re—oh, I don’t know—seeing things through a sort of rose-colored glasses.”

Yes, rose-colored because of this intensity she felt for him.

Maybe it was some kind of warped mechanism for dealing with stress, but instead of ordering him back to bed, she went to him and kissed him.

He made a husky sound of pleasure and deepened the kiss way too much, considering this wasn’t foreplay. Of course, her body was insisting it was.

That’s why she stepped back from him.

“You should be sleeping,” she scolded.

“So should you,” he scolded right back. He gently took hold of her waist, easing her back to him for a second kiss.

She wanted to melt right into it. To melt right into him. But she couldn’t. Heck, she couldn’t even fight back the tears that she felt burning her eyes.

“Hell,” he muttered when he saw those tears. He kissed her again, a soft peck on the cheek this time. “I’m okay, really.”

“I heard Rafe say Arnez tried to bury you alive,” she managed to say though her voice broke. She was surprised she had even gotten out the words. It was like the worst of worst nightmares to think about it, much less say it aloud.

And it had nearly happened.

“Arnez tried. And failed,” Jericho emphasized. With barely a touch, he brushed away the tear that spilled down her cheek. “People cope with this sort of thing in various ways. We could talk it out, but I think that might not be the way to go here.”

“No,” she agreed. She wasn’t sure she could bear to hear the gritty details. The broad strokes of an explanation were bad enough.

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