Page 28 of Deadly Strain

“Looks like something here. Where else?”

She sat down and he checked her arm.

“Blood here too.”

She was an idiot. “I can’t believe I got hurt and didn’t know it.”

“Adrenaline is a marvelous thing,” Sharp said as he urged her to take off her body armor. “I’ve seen guys keep running, fighting or firing after getting hit with a fatal strike. Your brain can keep going for a surprisingly long time before it realizes you’re dead.”

Her mouth twisted into a grimace. “If you’re trying to cheer me up, it’s not working.”

“Just keeping it real, Doc.” Sharp turned away to open his pack and pull out one of the first-aid kits. “Let’s start with your leg.” He gave her left leg a moment’s consideration, then lifted a hand toward her fly.

She stepped back before she could stop herself and he froze.

He dropped his hand, wiggled his eyebrows at her and said, “Take off your pants.”

Chapter Seven

Grace bit her lips. No. She wasn’t going to laugh. It wasn’t funny.Hewasn’t funny. “Are you trying to make me want to kill you?”

“No. Not really.” He seemed to think about it for another second or two. “Okay, maybe a little.”

She hovered between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry. Her best buddy was trying his hardest to help her, but she wasn’t entirely sure his flirting was all fun and games. There was a serious glint in his eye she’d never seen before.

“You’re nuts, you know that?” she asked as she began removing the gun holster strapped to her right leg, then moving on to the belt with forty-two different things hanging off it. “You’ve been cracking jokes since the crash, and none of this isfunny.” Oh God, her face was wet. “Why aren’t you angry?”

“I’m angry, but not at you.” The smile on his face lost its razor edge. “Never at you.”

Tears clouded her vision and her chest stuttered with silent sobs she refused to let out.

One escaped.

Grace slapped her hands over her mouth and fell to her knees onto the dirt.

Strong hands and hard arms grabbed her up, and she found herself drawn onto Sharp’s lap, her head buried in the hollow of his shoulder. She shook both of them with the force of her restrained cries.