Page 82 of Rescue Me (Tempting SEALs 6.10)

It was over …

ELEVEN

“HEY, TOUGH GUY. ABOUT time you put in an appearance.”

Elena was surprised to hear her voice sound so easy and casual. So … unconcerned, when inside, she quaked with relief as Seth struggled to open his eyes.

She’d been so afraid for him. Too afraid to leave his side for more than an hour since the park rescue chopper had evaced them into Flagstaff yesterday.

God. Had it really been yesterday? It seemed … well, it seemed that she was still living the nightmare.

But it was over.

Clyde Devine was dead. He’d died as he’d lived. Violently. Brutally. On the wrong side of good.

Jake had two broken legs. Seth’s deadfall trap had done its worst. The careening boulder had rolled over Jake as he’d scrambled in vain to get out of the way. He wasn’t in great shape, but he would survive long enough for trial. Benny Cravets, however, hadn’t been so lucky. A stray rock shot out of the debris of the deadfall trap and had hit him in the temple. Killed him on impact.

Seth, thank God, was alive. And now that he’d opened his eyes, Elena took a life-sustaining breath too.

Hope. Luck. And maybe.

Seemed they were enough to get by on after all.

She studied his beautiful, bruised face. As weak as he was, Seth still looked big and dark and strong against the stark-white hospital sheets. And yet she knew how much blood he’d lost before help had arrived and he’d gotten the medical attention he needed.

She knew and she remembered every soul-testing moment as she’d made bandages out of a dead man’s shirt. Called for help using a dead man’s radio.

She shivered, recalling the lifeless weight and soulless eyes of Clyde Devine as she’d frantically stripped him of his shirt. She’d felt like a ghoul, robbing the dead. But she hadn’t cared. Seth had been bleeding out. She wasn’t going to let that happen. So she’d done what she’d had to do.

That had been close to twenty-four hours ago and this was the first breath of true relief she’d let herself take since.

His eyes were glazed and unfocused, but they were open as he struggled toward lucidity.

Lord, his face was a mess. His left jaw was swollen twice the size of the right, his mouth was wired shut to support the broken bones.

“Easy, buddy. You’re fine. You probably hurt like hell, but you’re fine.”

Elena lifted her gaze to Lieutenant Dan Gates. The relief in his voice was as palpable as the relief she felt. Seth’s superior had been holding vigil by Seth’s bed with her for the past few hours. Hours in which she’d caught Dan staring at her with veiled curiosity, obviously wondering about the part of the story she’d left out.

The part that even she couldn’t believe had happened. The part about making love with Seth. The part about falling in love with him.

The part that now, under the stark, harsh hospital lights and in the same stark harsh face of reality, seemed as remote and as far removed from the real world as the nightmare they’d both lived through in the Canyon.

“He’s awake?”

Elena turned as a nurse walked in. The name tag on the white uniform told them that Lisa, a thirty-something blonde with a big smile and a lot of bounce, was an LPN. She’d slipped into the room to take Seth’s vitals and neither Elena nor Dan had heard her.

“Just.” Dan moved away from the bed so Lisa could take care of business.

“Fantastic,” Lisa said with enough cheer to lead a basketball team to victory. “I’ll let the doc know.”

“Don’t suppose … a man … could get some water?”

Seth. Voice raspy and weak and garbled by the limitation of his broken jaw. And so beautiful, Elena fought tears.

“Not just yet, hero,” Lisa said with a chuckle. “But if you ask real nice, I might be persuaded to get you some ice chips.”

An agitated grunt from the bed. “Pretty please … with pepper on it.”

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