SEALs of Honor: Markus (11 page)

And this time she believed him.

*

He wasn’t sure
how this happened, but he’d come through that just fine. And now he held her close. She was a delight. Apologizing to him. He should have been the one to apologize. The guys were right there. But she had a huge heart and of course did it first. Jumped in where angels feared to tread. He hugged her close, hating the feeling of her bones through her shirt. She needed twenty pounds so it didn’t hurt to lean against a chair. Her arms had lost muscle to the point she looked anorexic.

“Damn. I forgot, you need food.” He cursed himself inwardly. How could he have forgotten?

“I know you said the diner was closed, but I’m hoping to catch a ride back there. I have a key to my room upstairs,” she said, a yawn catching her by surprise. “I’m so tired.”

“We need to get you checked over first.”

“There’s nothing to check over. I need food and rest and if a hot shower was included, then even better.”

She went to disengage herself from his arms, but he held her firm. “Except I’m not sure you can go into the diner after this. We’ll need to check with the police first,” he said.

The look of dismay on her face made him wince. She’d barely held on to her strength, believing she’d be back home soon. Instead, he didn’t think she’d be in there for at least a day or two. If Boomer died, she might not be able to stay there any longer – ever. Who knew what would happen to the estate then?

And she had so few places to go.

She stepped out of his arms, worry settling heavily on her features. As she wrapped her arms around her chest, he realized she’d dumped his jacket in the kitchen as she left.

Another symbol of thinking she’d crossed the line.

“Wait here and I’ll get my coat.”

She nodded mutely and he quickly walked back inside. He grabbed up his jacket and turned to take it back out to her but realized Mason and Hawk were talking quietly in the corner. He walked over. “Any news?”

Hawk shook his head. “No sign of the shooter. Likely he’s crawled back into whatever hole he’d crawled out of.”

“We’re pulling up and going back to town,” Mason said, walking to the front door. “How’s Bree? Does she need medical attention?”

“No, she’s just weak. She’s been living above the diner – can she go back there?”

“I’ll check, but I doubt they are done with the place,” Mason said. “She’s better off at a hotel overnight.” He took another step toward the front door. “The police will want to talk with her, too.”

“She doesn’t have any money for a room.” He knew that, and he wasn’t going to see her on the side of the street. He didn’t have to ask her about that. It was obvious.

“Have her call a family member or a friend,” Hawk urged. “She shouldn’t be alone tonight.”

Markus nodded. He walked back outside and handed her his jacket. She was still standing but barely. He wrapped the coat around her. “Do you have another place to stay? Just for tonight?”

She shook her head. “No, I haven’t really made any friends since being here,” she confessed.

“How about a night in the hotel?”

She winced. “I’d love to, if it’s cheap enough,” she whispered, “but all my clothing is in the diner.” She stared up at him almost to the point of collapsing. “Can’t I go back to my room?” she pleaded. “At least long enough to collect my stuff?”

“I’m sure you can soon, but I doubt you will be able to stay there tonight.”

“If you don’t tell anyone, I could. I have the key on me. I could sneak inside.”

When he started to shake his head, she cried, “What would it hurt? I have so little but need the bit I have.”

“The shooter saw you out there,” he motioned to the vast wilderness around them. “He might try again.”

“Me?” she exclaimed wide-eyed. “Why would he be after me?”

“I don’t know that he is,” he soothed. “But that possibility exists.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m not anyone he cares about. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Give me a ride back to town and I’ll be fine. Maybe I can go to the bed and breakfast and make arrangements for the night. She comes into the diner all the time. I could maybe trade her work for a night’s sleep.”

“That’s a good idea.” He tried to sound jovial but he hated the idea. At least she was thinking, looking for solutions. That was the most important. “I’ll grab a rig and drive you in. See what we can make in arrangements for you.”

She nodded gratefully. He walked inside.

“We’ve been given permission for her to collect her personal belongings,” Mason said, his phone in his hand. “And if you see anything…”

Markus nodded. He knew. “Will do.”

He turned and walked back out, truck keys in hand, to where Bree was waiting. “Come on, let’s get you back into town.”

With an arm around her shoulder, he led her down the driveway to where the vehicles were parked. He kept an eye on her and maintained a slow and steady pace. He didn’t want to automatically pick her up and carry her but he was tempted.

“I don’t suppose…” She looked up at him, but not in defeat – with humor.

Silently, he bent and swung her up into his arms.

She laughed. “I never thought I’d enjoy being carried, but it sure beats walking right now.”

“I’m more afraid of hurting you by carrying you. You’re only a thin layer of skin over bones.”

“It’s not that bad,” she protested. “I’ve regained at least fifteen pounds in the last few months.”

“With a very necessary thirty to go.”

“Twenty,” she corrected. “It would take forever to gain thirty.”

“Need to do some weightlifting and get that muscle back.”

She laughed. “That’s not likely. I can barely lift my own body right now. The thought of adding weights to that, not happening.”

The bantering continued to where the four vehicles were parked. Markus gently deposited her on the front passenger seat of the last one.

With the early morning dawn hitting the horizon, she tilted her face to the sunshine, loving the warmth. She was still so cold. Even with his coat wrapped around her shoulders. “You can have a hot shower and crawl into bed very soon.”

“Sounds wonderful but I think I need food first.”

“That we can do as well.” Markus considered the options. “There’s a little café beside the bed and breakfast place, do you want to go there first? See if it’s open?” He checked his watch. He’d have no problem waking up the owners of the B&B but it would be kinder all around if it was a little later before they arrived on their doorstep. He turned on the engine and turned the truck around.

“Food first,” she said, her voice soft. “But I need to go to Boomer’s Diner as well. My purse is there.”

He gave in. “Mason said the cops okayed going in for personal items only.” He drove slowly over the rough road to avoid jostling her more. “So your place real quick. Then the café for breakfast and over to the bed and breakfast.”

With the truck now facing the right direction, he headed back to town.

T
he rough road –
if that’s what one called this strip of dirt – kept her from falling asleep. Barely. She didn’t really care what happened to her as long as she could rest soon.

“We’re almost there,” Markus said as the steering wheel wrenched out of his hand to the left.

She gave a short chuckle. “Really, I wouldn’t have guessed. It seems like we’re going anywhere but forward.”

“It’s rough. The frost heaves were heavy this spring. Doesn’t look like anyone does much road maintenance on these back roads either.”

“Or it’s like this all the time.”

He grinned. “True. Are you going to stay around and find out?”

She felt his glance on her face before he returned his attention to the rough road. “No,” she said quietly. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do. But I won’t stay here for a winter. Not sure I’m going to stay here for the next week,” she admitted. “This hasn’t been the easiest place to live. I was lost when I arrived. I feel immature for having run away.”

“But it’s not – not if you needed to reaffirm your reason for living.”

She turned to look at his profile. “That’s exactly what I was doing. But why then does it feel like I don’t need to do any of that anymore?”

“Maybe you just needed a rest. Time out so to speak. Why not go see your father and spend time with him.”

“And my brothers,” she said softly, a smile on her face. “They’d like that.”

“How many brothers?”

“Three. I’m the baby.”

He shook his head. “I’ve got a kid sister too. If I found out she had kept an illness from me, I’d be pissed.”

“I told them, but later on. I haven’t told them about my money situation. They all have families and are struggling too. It’s not fair that they’d be put into greater difficulty because of me.”

“Couldn’t you have moved in with them until you found another job?”

“I might have, but they have noisy households and one of the side effects of the medicine was that all sound is amplified. I needed peace and a household of little kids wasn’t going to give me that. Plus I wasn’t much fun to be around. There were always adults shushing up the kids as if I must have silence all the time.” She sighed. “That just accentuated the situation when I was desperate to find ‘normal’ again.”

“Right.”

She smiled. “It’s okay, you know. We all love and care for each other. I could go back and find another job in no time.”

“So why haven’t you?”

“I’m not sure I want to go back to that rat race,” she admitted. “The investment world is deadly. I worked long hours trying to prove myself in a world of bigger, older, better, or at least more mature males, that I could do their job, too.”

She stared out the window. “Looking back I liked the challenge but not the constant competitiveness. The edge kept me sharp and you have to be on your toes all the time. But in reality the shit that goes on in the office was tough. Ugly. I wasn’t into it. I’m a nice person and no one gives a shit what nice girls do – except the nice girl.”

“Can you take that skillset and do something less stressful? They do say stress contributes to disease and slows healing.”

“I agree on the healing part. It’s one of the reasons I was okay to go home and rest while my body underwent the treatment.”

He nodded. “So find something that is within your field but not as painful.”

She laughed. “I could do all kinds of things. But what I really want to do is…” she stopped and shrugged her shoulders.

“What?”

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“If it mattered once, then it matters still.”

“I wanted to become a mom. Work part-time from home to raise the children. With a job where I could work from home, that would be possible, but like everything, things change.”

“You can still have a family,” he said. “You’re young. You have years of childbearing ahead of you.”

“And no uterus left to do it with.” She gave him a small smile. “That’s one of the reasons I don’t talk about it very often, it’s personal. Private and painful. Just in case you missed that message.”

“I got it.” He sighed. “Sorry, I imagine that’s very difficult for you.”

“Yeah. Hence the need to get away for a while.”

“Sounds like the trip worked.”

“It did. I’m alive. And even though there are no babies in my personal future, that doesn’t mean there can’t be other babies.”

“Yes, adoption is always an option. And a good one.” He grinned. “I’m adopted. I couldn’t imagine being where I am today without my adoptive parents. They’ve been super supportive of me and what I wanted to do.”

“Are they still alive?” she asked curiously.

“No, my father was older and he had a heart attack about seven years ago now. Mom was so close to him that she just lost the will to live afterwards. She was a mom through and through. It was all she wanted but couldn’t have children either, so she took in Seth, my oldest brother, after a fire left his family from her church in bad straits. After Seth, she added me, and my kid sister came from Russia. We all loved them very much.”

“Are you close to your brother and sister?”

“We are. Not as close as we were growing up, but it’s to be expected as we all have jobs that take us traveling. Finding time to see each other is hard.”