Breaking Through (Book 2 of the SEAL TEAM Heartbreakers) (31 page)

“No. But he was taken to the hospital bleeding badly and his whore mother was taken as well.”

“His mother?” Was Tabarek’s jihad extending to the man’s family?

“The whore attacked me while I was shooting her son.” He laughed.

Sweet Allah save us
. “We did not speak of attacking the families of these men, Tabarek.”

“They have taken our families, why would you not want them to pay for that with their own?”

“We are talking about innocent women and children.”

“No, this woman gave birth to a murderer. Besides the whore can identify me.”

Yasin sank into the chair behind his desk and rested his head in his hand. “I wanted the men who killed Sanjay dead, not their families.”

His tone grew rough with rage. “I want more. I want them all to suffer, as we have suffered. They are infidels. Why would you care about them?”

“I did not say I care about them. But their women and children have done no one harm.”

“They harm me just by living. My own family is dead because of them.” Tabarek’s voice rose, growing so loud Yasin held the phone away from his ear.

Tabarek’s family was dead because they had chosen to follow a different path than those peaceful Muslims who lived the Koran as it had been written.

He was being drawn deeper and deeper into a pit. How had he allowed his own beliefs to become so twisted?

“You are losing focus, Tabarek, and putting yourself and the others in danger. You have allowed your passion to rule your intellect, and it will be your undoing.”

The man remained silent for a moment. “That is easy for you to say, safe in your home with your family.”

“No one is safe. There is no family who has not been scarred by what has happened in our country.”
The Americans have been scarred, too. If only they had not harmed my child.
Tears burned his eyes and fell in large drops to stain his pants. He wiped them away impatiently. “You must stick to the plan, Tabarek. Kill the men you went there to kill and come home.”

“I cannot reach the one. He is protected by his prison walls. So someone else will have to take his place. Perhaps his commanding officer. It was he who ordered the bombing and played a part in your son’s death. What was his name?”

Would this never end?

“What was his name, Yasin?”

He remembered the man reassuring him that his son would be safe with his men. Anger and pain blended together to form an unbearable ache in his chest. “Captain Jackson.”

“Do you know his full name?”

“Stewart Jackson.”

“I will find him and he will pay for what he has done.”

The phone went dead.

CHAPTER 25

Yasin hit the off button, disconnecting the call.

“What have you done?” Levla’s voice came from behind him and he started.

How much had she heard? “What do you mean, Levla?”

Her dark eyes widened with fear. Her hands clawed at her skirt. “You were talking to someone about killing. You told a man to kill someone.”

She’d heard too much. He rose to his feet and faced her. “He is going to kill the men responsible for Sanjay’s disappearance.”

Levla staggered and pressed a hand over her mouth not quite stifling a groan. “No. Blessed Allah, no.” Tears flowed down her face. “This cannot be. This cannot be.”

How could she not want them punished?
“They killed my son, Levla. No one has seen Sanjay since they took him from the base. He is dead by their hand.”

She shook her head hard enough that her hair fell forward over her shoulders. “Nooo—No! He did not die by their hands.” She fell to her knees and rocked in pain. “He died by mine.”

***

“For the second time in your life, you’ve received a miracle, Ensign Weaver,” Dr. Talbert said.

“I know that Doc.”

Dr. Talbert leaned his six-foot frame over the railing of the bed and pointed at Brett’s bandage. “The bullet had to be a low velocity round. It entered here just beneath your ribs and exited just above your hipbone. It skimmed just beneath your skin, ripped open a fissure nine inches long, and tore out the subcutaneous fat layer. Had you sustained a direct hit you would not be sitting here with me right now.”

Jesus. The doc made it sound as though he’d gone out and gotten shot on purpose. “I didn’t do this to myself, Doc.”

Talbert’s brows rose. “I’m sorry if I sounded as though I were blaming you for your injury, Ensign.” He drew a deep breath. “I only meant to point out how very fortunate you are.”

“
Inshallah
, as they say in Afghanistan. God’s will.”

The doctor nodded. “Obviously He was looking out for you. We removed particles of your wetsuit from the wound track and repaired the injury. You’ll have an ugly scar, but in terms of tissue loss, the muscles were spared any major damage. You should recover pretty quickly.”

“How long before I can train again?”

“Six weeks for the tissue to heal completely, maybe a couple of more just to be certain. Two months at least.”

Shit.
More waiting. More fighting his way back. More excuses for Captain Jackson to stall his orders. Or find a way to push him out.

“When can I get out of here?” He needed to get home. He needed to protect his mom, his sister. And that niggling worry about Tess kept tormenting him.

She’d hung around to get the scoop so she could use him as copy. He cared about someone who didn’t give a shit about him. How pathetic was that? Pain like battery acid ate at him.

Dr. Talbert studied the chart for a moment. “The nurse said you’d been up and moving well.”

“Yeah.” It had hurt despite the pain medication, and he’d mentally cussed every step. But he’d done it.

“I can release you late tomorrow, if you’re showing no signs of infection and you have someone responsible who’ll stay with you.”

It wouldn’t be Tess.
“Trust me, I have two responsible somebodies who’ll stay with me. That’s the one good thing about being the only male in the family.”

Talbert smiled for the first time. “Good, I’ll get on that paperwork tomorrow.”

“You’re ex-military aren’t you, Doc?” Brett asked.

“Yes, I was a Naval surgeon. I just retired last year. How did you know?”

“The analysis of the wound. And the anger.”

Talbert frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I got home from a seven-month tour in Iraq four months ago. And I’ve been angry ever since. Angry and restless. I see a psychologist twice a week. You might want to talk to someone.”

Talbert remained silent for a moment. A brief smile crossed his lips though he shook his head. “I’ll think about that, Ensign.”

Brett extended his hand. “Thanks for patching me up.”

“You’re welcome.” Talbert shook his hand. “I’ll want to follow up in a week, just to make sure everything is healing as it should, and then again in six weeks. The nurse will be in with some paperwork for you to sign, an appointment and some instructions.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

As soon as Talbert left the room, Brett swung his legs over the side of the bed. He placed a bracing hand against his hip as he rose to his feet. The more he moved around, the quicker the soreness would abate, but, damn, he felt like he’d been stomped on several times.

The door swung inward behind him and he turned.

Hawk stood in the doorway. A smile broke across Brett’s face.

Hawk’s serious expression didn’t change. “We need to talk.”

***

Russell exited his car and headed up the walk to the house where Clara was staying. He’d called earlier to check on her, but his need to see her, just to be certain she was okay, overwhelmed his usual control. The porch stretched across the front of the house. At one end, a wicker lounge, and two chairs with a table angled before them, were arranged invitingly. The cushions on the furniture, printed with bold flowers, mirrored the hibiscus plants in the two large planters that bracketed the arrangement.

“Sir.” A police officer approached him from a car on the street. “I need to see your identification.”

Russell pulled his wallet from his back pocket and waited while the man looked over his license and military ID.

The door swung inward and Clara stood within its frame. “Thank you, officer. Dr. Connelly is a friend.”

The police officer returned his ID, and Clara motioned for Russell to come in. She shut the door and locked it.

“I wanted to see you just to be sure you are all right,” he said

Clara’s smile eased the taut knot of anxiety, and he drew his first deep breath since he’d rushed to the hospital.

Dressed in lightweight cotton pants and a summer sweater, she looked her normal self except for the brace that hugged her arm. The early morning light picked out the copper highlights in her hair and touched the fine lines at the corner of each eye and around her mouth. He didn’t dwell on those, but homed in on the fragile slope of her jaw where a black bruise and a swollen area marred the oval shape of her face.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m just a little sore.”

The careful way she moved her head told him something more. Tipping her face up, Russell studied the lighter bruise along her cheekbone. Someone had hurt her. Had tried to kill her.

Every time he looked at her injuries, acknowledged them, rage shot through his system, and he wanted to punch the asshole and go on punching him until he was … no more.

Instead, he enveloped Clara into his arms and held her. When she nestled against him, pressing her breasts into his ribs and her head against his chest, he drew a deep breath. He wanted her. He couldn’t hide his response to her, nor did he want to. He’d almost lost her before they’d ever had a chance to truly know what they could have together.

Her arms tightened around him. He smiled at the color in her cheeks when she looked up at him. He bent his head and kissed her. Her lips clung to his, intensifying his need. He drew back before it got harder to stop, but his lips lingered against her cheek, her temple.

“Evan wants me to bring you over so he can see for himself that you’re okay,” he said.

“Maybe later.” Clara drew back, but her hand lingered against the front of his knit shirt. “I’ve always thought when my children were grown and gone I’d have plenty of privacy to do as I pleased.”

“Let me guess,” he interrupted. “When you had the privacy, you didn’t really need it, then when you crave it most, it’s impossible to find.”

Her smile held a wry twist. “Exactly.”

“I’ve been feeling the same way.” His breathing grew labored against the frantic beat of his heart.

She ran a caressing hand over his chest, and his skin heated. 

“I called earlier to check on Brett. He’ll be released later today.” She rested her cheek against his chest, once again stirring his urge to protect and comfort. “Zoe’s left to take Tess to pick up her car. She’s going on to work with the rental car. And Hawk will be coming home later tonight.”

Russell ran his hand down her spine to the small of her back. His pulse leaped to pounding in a matter of a nanosecond. “How’s your arm feeling?”

“I took some medication earlier. It’s fine.”

He touched her chin, and she tilted her head back to look up at him. He searched her features one by one. “You’ve just been through a trauma, Clara. Are you sure?”

“What time do you have to go to the hospital?” she asked.

“Fourteen hundred.” His mouth found hers again. She cupped his face, and her tongue caressed his in a slow sensuous response. He groaned.

She pulled free of his arms to take his hand and tug him down the hall into a bedroom decorated in cool shades of green.

She slipped her feet free of her sandals, and his attention fastened on the graceful shape of her ankles, her feet, and the pale pink polish on her toenails. Had he ever recognized how sexy bare feet could be? Surely not until this moment.

He toed off his own shoes and reached for his belt.

“We’ve had so little time alone together. I’ve wanted more,” she said.

“I have, too.”

She shimmied out of her pants and stood in just her sweater and panties.

The shapeliness of her thighs drew his attention. He slipped his arms around her. “We can take our time, Clara.” He dragged the comforter down to the foot of the bed and urged her to lie down. He was aware of her watching as he shucked his, socks, pants and shirt and stretched out beside her in his boxer briefs. Her head found a place in the hollow of his shoulder and the brush of her bare thigh across his sent instant heat racing upward. He grew painfully hard. It had been too long. He drew her hand to his lips and he brushed a kiss against her fingertips. “I know we’re past the need to worry about conception, but do you have protection? I’m careful at work and with Evan, but just in case … ”

“They’re in the nightstand drawer.” She ran a hand over his chest in a caress he felt all the way to his toes. She raised her head to look down at him and the trust he read in her face triggered a rush of tenderness for her.

“You ought to have seen the look the young girl at the pharmacy gave me when I bought them. I don’t know which of us was the most embarrassed,” she said, and laughed.

He chuckled. “Young people look at us and see the lines on our faces, and the gray in our hair, and nothing else.” He caressed the tender curve of her cheek. Seductive and shy, generous and caring, she drew him in more thoroughly than any other woman ever had. “When did you buy them?” he asked.

“After you took me to the harbor and the Gaslamp Quarter for lunch.”

He smiled. “I bought some then, too. I haven’t been carrying them around with me, but I got them. Just in case.”

Her smile was laced with mischief, though her cheeks grew pink with a blush. “Maybe you should start carrying them. Just in case.”

He caught his breath at the depth of his response to her teasing. He kissed her, pouring into it all the intensity of his passion for her.

***

Clara tried to lose herself in his kiss, but the nervous tremors spread from her hands all the way down her body. For as much as she wanted him, she was terrified of disappointing him. For all the seductive teasing she’d done, she was afraid this first experience would end as disastrously as her last one.