Page 12

Georgie involuntarily stepped back as her eyes traveled to his face, and then she stopped dead in her tracks. Eyes as dark as obsidian sat beneath dark, thick brows in a face carved of hard angles. It was the face of a warrior, of someone to be feared. It rolled off him like energy and filled the space around him.
"Ma'am," he put a finger to the bill of his cap in a move that had something niggle at her memory. She nodded at him and watched him walk past her, then hurried to get into the elevator.
She thought about the man until the elevator reached the ground floor where the cafeteria was located. There was something about him, almost like he was someone she'd seen before. But for the life of her, she couldn't remember, and he wasn't the kind of man you'd forget.
Then it hit her. This guy had been in the hallway outside of Riggs's room when she and the doctor arrived. She'd been caught up in discussing the patient when they entered the room, so she paid little attention to the man.
The elevator doors opened, and she pushed thoughts of the intense man aside and hurried to find Naomie and Russell Walker. Georgie was eager to get started working with Riggs and Naomie and hoped he would be as lucky as she and would soon not see himself as a cripple because one of his limbs was stronger than flesh and bone.
Chapter Four
Only the doctor was in Riggs' room when Gunner returned. "Am I intruding?" Gunner stopped just inside the door.
"Actually, I was just going to step out and make a call," the doctor said and looked at Riggs. "Please tell Dr. Williams to text me when your family is back, and I'll answer any questions you or they have."
"Thank you," Riggs replied, and then remained silent until he and Gunner were alone. "And while we have time and I'm not screaming in pain, thank you. You saved my life and I owe you."
"You've already paid."
"Yeah? How?"
"Shared your family."
"They're yours too, Gun."
"Which means you don't have to say thank you. You'd have done the same for me."
"Still. I am grateful."
"Even if you lose part of that leg?"
"Damn, Gun, you don't pull a fucking punch, do you?"
"Would you want me to?"
"No, and the answer is yes. I'm going to lose my foot and ankle, but from what they've said, I'm gonna end up the bionic man, so to speak, with a smart limb that learns and adapts thanks to an implant in the muscle tissue of my leg that translates impulses from my brain to the prosthesis."
"And how do you feel about that?"
"Scared shitless."
Gunner nodded. "I would be if it were me."
"I know how to do a lot of shit, Gun. I can cowboy, I can do what we do, and you know what that means – but I don't know how to do this. I don’t know how to face letting someone cut my foot off and replace it with something–mechanical."
Gunner was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke, he cut straight to the heart of the matter. "You're scared your days of being a SEAL are over."
Riggs nodded. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Go home, be a cowboy or a rancher, help run the biggest goddamn ranch in the country, and be happy to be alive. Find a woman or a dozen. Screw yourself silly, fall in love. Have a kid or a dozen. Fucking live, Riggs. You’re here, alive, and if you let losing a foot keep you from being grateful for that, then shame on you. We lost two men that day. You weren't one of them."
"Hold on. We lost two of our squad?"
"Jeff and Dinky."
"Jesus," Riggs felt his chest tighten. "Jesus, Gun. I didn't know."
"Of course, you didn't. You've barely been conscious since it happened."