Page 44 of Holiday Hostage
All three men had a similar haircut.
Not quite militaristic but close, with the sides cut down short and the top long enough to fall into their eyes.
I loved it.
I loved the way it accentuated each of their strong jaws and gorgeous eyes.
Tiny threads of silver ran through Tarron’s hair, right at the temples where it was almost invisible.
His blue eyes sparked with laughter when I blushed and dropped my hands. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I liked it.” He squeezed my gloved hands and turned us around so we faced the unbroken expanse of snow.
I pulled my thoughts back to the conversation I’d started. “He didn’t mention anything else.”
“Typical Reed.” Tarron shook his head. “Figures he’d avoid talking about his dishonorable discharge, even though he got kicked out for one of the most honorable fucking things a guy could do.”
Surprise took away my aches and pains. This sounded like the kind of story I should hear. “Will you tell me about it?”
“It’s not pretty.” Tarron moved a limb from our path, holding it up and motioning for me to duck underneath.
The temperature beneath the trees stole my breath, but I managed to snort a laugh. “I’m not some fragile flower who’s going to wilt at the slightest mention of blood or gore. I want to know about the three of you.” I craved every last detail from their favorite drink to why Tarron occasionally looked at Maverick with that quiet concern I’d come to consider one of his regular expressions.
“Being delicate has nothing to do with it.” Tarron ran his hand across the grip of a pistol strapped to his waist.
He had enough weapons on his body to take on a small army, but he’d still chosen to obey Maverick and take me out of the house.
If any of them came after us, I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to protect me using every weapon and skill he possessed.
“So, tell me.” I gave him a nudge when he stopped and stared into the distance.
His huff of laughter caused a cloud of white to puff between us.
“We were sent on a covert mission behind enemy lines. I can’t tell you more than that, but I can say that it was one of those doomed missions. We all felt it. Reed, Mav, and I worked together long enough to read each other, and we all felt it.”
A muscle leaped in his jaw. “Then our shit commander made an ass of himself with a shit call that put us all in danger. He forfeited Mav’s life to ensure the mission was a success.” His voice went dark and cold. Everything about him held a razor’s edge of dangerous anger.
I swallowed hard. “What happened?” I understood he couldn’t talk about certain details, but he couldn’t leave the story there either. “Mav’s alive, so something happened.”
My heart broke at the way Tarron’s eyes clouded.
It was like he was experiencing the loss all over again, and I mentally kicked myself for making him relive the memory.
“Maverick was lost in the water. He’d been under too long. We all knew it, but our commander kept telling us to leave. He refused to let anyone go after Mav. His body surfaced as Reed and I tried to dive in to search for him.”
He walked on, his strides savage, but his grip on my hand remained controlled. “We dove in anyway. Even as he shouted for us to get our asses back on the boat, we refused to leave Mav behind.”
Heroes. They were all heroes.
If I never learned anything else about their past, I understood this.
“The mission was considered a success, and Mav was declared dead when we hauled him onto the boat. His heart had stopped. No one knew how long he’d been gone.” Pain laced every word.
He shook his head, shoulders drooping. “He wasn’t breathing, and our commander tried to stop me from performing CPR. Reed pulled a gun on him, held him with a gun to his head while I worked.”
Tarron stopped talking, leaving nothing but our steps crunching through snow as the day unwound around us.
“You saved him.” I worked the words into the sudden silence. We ducked beneath another limb burdened with snow, neither of us slowing.
