Page 88 of Into the Storm

“You aren’t up to this hike,” Xavier said. “We’ll send someone else.”

“No. I can do it. I haven’t eaten in hours. Add to that an adrenaline crash. I was assaulted not too long ago. All the stress… I think my body’s saying it’s safe to take a break, so I should get to it.”

Truly, this had been the first moment she wasn’t on edge or needed to be vigilant since she woke in the tent with Xavier in the late afternoon. And even then, they’d had to be alert for an attack on their hideaway.

It was all catching up with her.

“Take her to one of the guest rooms.” Flyte turned to face her—as if remembering she wasn’t in his chain of command. “I want you to eat, take a shower if you think it would help, then sleep. We’ll have a guard patrol the hall to make sure you’re safe.”

“You don’t need to—”

“We’re going to move the wounded to one of the rooms as well. Third floor, so pick one of those rooms. A few SEALs will take sleeping shifts too, so you aren’t the only reason we’ll have a guard posted.” He turned to Xavier. “You’re off too. Rest up so you’re ready to leave with Dr. Kendrick before dawn.”

“We need to go over—”

“You need to sleep, Rivera.”

Audrey sensed the two men needed to talk, and Flyte wasn’t wrong. She needed to eat and get off her feet. She crossed back to where the rest of the team was gathered and grabbed her pack, which contained protein bars, then headed for the stairs.

She didn’t even think about which room to take. She was drawn there like a magnet after her slow climb of two flights of stairs.

She reached for the knob, expecting it to be locked, but the door swung wide, and she stepped into the honeymoon suite and faced the four-poster log bed she’d shared with Xavier in early November.

“Go to sleep, Rivera,” Chris said. The guy looked like death warmed over, his face ashen with pain that Chris could only guess meant his shoulder had been hurt during the assault on the lodge, or when he’d saved Audrey from being taken by one of the mercs. “But before you go, have Smith give you some painkillers.”

“I’m fine.”

“Bullshit.” He placed a hand on Rivera’s arm. They were alone in the corner of the room, having retreated from the others after Audrey made her exhausted ascent of the curved staircase to the left of the great room. “Listen, man. Go to her. She’s not trained for this and won’t be able to sleep unless you’re by her side.”

“I should be helping the team.”

Chris knew guilt had to be eating the man from the inside. “You are helping the team by getting rested up for the mission.” He smiled as he gazed at the banister where he’d last seen Dr. Kendrick. “I like her. She’s strong. Brave. Smart as hell.”

A shadow of a smile crossed Xavier’s face. “Tough as hell too.”

“Did you know about the baby? Before this?”

He shook his head. “No. That’s why she wrote the letter. In case something happened to her. She wanted me to know how much she wants our baby, how elated she was to find out she was pregnant, even though it was an accident.”

“Go to her, man.” Chris thought about his soon-to-be ex-wife and the mistakes he’d made in the months following the op that shattered their team. His situation was nothing like Xavier’s. Hell, his marriage had probably never been solid for reasons that could be laid at both their feet. But Xavier could have something real come out of this nightmare.

“Go to her,” he repeated. “And don’t forget, tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, so if you love her, don’t fuck around with euphemisms. Tell her how you feel. What you want.”

“We’re in the middle of an op—”

“That never should have been an op in the first place. Hell, you aren’t active duty with the teams anymore. I will see you at six hundred hours and not a moment before.”