Authors: Cindy Gerard
Running Blind (27 page)
He jerked his attention back to her bandaged leg. “Roll over.”
She considered balking, but finally muttered under her breath and rolled onto her stomach. He slowly undid the gauze wrap, schooling his gaze away from one of the finest asses he'd ever seen. Then he closed his eyes on a hiss when he saw her injury.
That pretty olive skin had a jagged three-inch wound. Clumsy stitches bit into the angry red flesh.
“What the hell happened? And what quack stitched you up?” He sat down on the bed, helping her get more comfortable, then lay his hand over the wound. It didn't appear to be infected. The flesh was cool to the touch but clearly sore, because she winced as he continued his examination.
“I told you, I had a close call today. A corpsman stitched it and field dressed it for me.”
He lay on the bed beside her, crossed his hands behind his head, and stared at the ceiling. “You were there? At the school?”
He'd heard about the ambush. A dozen Taliban bastards had opened fire on a group of children. Specifically, girls who dared to go to school. The death toll was staggering.
He felt her body shift beside him, sensed her gaze on his face. And he knew before he turned to look at her what he'd see.
“They killed them,” she whispered through her tears. “They killed those beautiful children.”
Without a second thought, he gathered her in his arms, replaying their words in his mind.
Because today, I need human contact.
To remind you that you're human?
To remind me that humanity isn't dead . . . even in the midst of this inhumane war.
And what had his response been?
My room or yours?
He was a calloused, cynical bastard.
Was she who she said she was? Hell, he didn't know. And at this moment, he didn't care. He just cared about holding her as she wept, her body shaking, her grief as real as it gets.
And when he woke up in the middle of the night, he was still holding her. Him in his dusty fatigues, her half-dressed, his shoulder damp with her tears.
About the Author
Cindy Gerard has won the RITA Award for Best Romantic Suspense novel.
She is the
New York Times
bestselling author of the Black Ops, Inc. series;
the bestselling Bodyguards series; and more than thirty contemporary romance novels.
She lives in the Midwest with her husband.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
authors.simonandschuster.com/Cindy-Gerard
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
Also by Cindy Gerard
The Way Home
Killing Time
Last Man Standing
With No Remorse
Risk No Secrets
Feel the Heat
Whisper No Lies
Take No Prisoners
Show No Mercy
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Cindy Gerard
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First Pocket Books paperback edition March 2015
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ISBN 978-1-4767-3935-9
ISBN 978-1-4767-3952-6 (ebook)